A stronghold is exactly what is described as its written, it derives from Greek and its meaning is fortress describing a fortified structure well grounded with deep foundations and strong walls some strong enough to bear the impact of cannon fire.

So as a Christian a Stronghold in your life is something which holds on to you and doesn’t let go something that cannot be broken down easily, in this case we will discuss the stronghold of sexual lust. as a Christian, people would assume that you posses a godly and holy character that nothing evil has a place in you, unfortunately for most self professed Christians in our generation this is far from true, although the greater number of young Christians do not openly or physically fulfill these lusts you would be greatly astonished, if you could only see what life is really like inside the mind of a modern day Christian, you would really question whether they deserve this title at all (that is to be a Christian).

How does sexual immorality become a stronghold in the life of a Christian?

Kaye Johns in the article praying down strongholds describes a stronghold, as a situation when “Satan becomes entrenched in an area of a person’s life where there is a character flaw or an emotional or psychological predisposition to selfish, "me first" attitude and behavior. Though we are speaking of spiritual conflict, Satan’s strongholds often capitalize on physical needs or weaknesses. Physical appetites--for food, sex, or any physical gratification--when not yielded to God, open a door for Satan to build a stronghold.”

Just as in the physical world a strong hold is not easy to build as it requires time, materials and plenty of labor this same principle is applied to the spiritual world a stronghold does not rise up overnight, rather it is built up in a period of time it all starts by simply letting your guard down and losing sight of your enemy, therefore opening the door for him to enter into your land and build strongholds and then when you realize that the enemy is advancing in your life you want to fight back but its almost to late because he has already began to build in your very back yard.

2 Samuel 11

1 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

We see here something very out of the normal to begin with; David was in the castle at the time when the Kings go to battle my question is why? But not what I want to concentrate on, I want you to see that the King gets up in the middle of the night when he should be asleep so we can see that he is uneasy unable to sleep, I believe this is because the King had too much time on his hands he was relaxed staying back in the safety of his home whilst the army was out conquering the Ammonites.
Young men are we always where we’re supposed to be? Are we making sure that we join the battle rather than watch others fight it for us? Do we have a nature of consistently making the sacrifice needed to get the best results in our war? Or do we have a nature of fighting only when it’s relevant to us? Is it not relevant that we fight always, for the Bible says “pray without ceasing” and our very Lord commanded His Disciples that they pray lest they fall into temptation?

2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.

3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

Here we see the king of Israel casting his eyes at what he ought not, was he not the man known to be as a man after God’s heart? Young man if you think you can overcome temptation on your own your kidding yourself here we see one of the most powerful, smart, talented and Godly man in history falling into the devils trap, some would ask why he even dared to look at the woman? My question is where did the desire come from?
We can see that a stronghold was already under construction in David’s life, beginning with a casual spirit in regards to war growing into a spirit of curiosity later developing into one of adultery and unfortunately also murder.

4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.

This verse shows us how David eventually gave in and actually called for sin to come and be a part of him, as he sent messengers to call for Bathsheba knowing what he would do with her.

David was overtaken by a stronghold of the enemy; he was overtaken by selfishness and lust, this man knew God’s word he knew His commandments he had memorized them and meditated on them continually he had no excuse of ignorance rather he lost sight of God’s word and Devine guidance, only he could really describe to us the pain and the great destruction that this one sin caused in his life, not to mention the guilt which would follow him every day then on.

Young people we must be aware that we are in the greatest battle of mankind, though there is wars and rumors of wars overseas and though we are confronted with news everyday which speak of financial Doom and Gloom bringing darkness and insecurity about our future, although mankind is attempting to fix all of these problems and attempting to bring peace to the world, we forget to fight against what really matters whilst we are all distracted with the current issues of the world the devil is without rest warring and destroying the lives of people as he catches them off guard, he is out to build strongholds in peoples lives  to separate mankind further and further away from God, he is not one who rests for he knows his time is short.

Brother/Sister Young person God is tugging at your heart and calling you to get up to recognize your situation, to assess your life! Picture yourself as a king and you have been made aware that your enemy has been building strongholds in your territory, what would you do? Would you not recognize your fault in letting the enemy get so close, would you not call for all your mighty men of war, would you not assemble your nation to fight and tear down these strongholds to take back what has been stolen and to utterly destroy the army which penetrated your land?

Maybe you are asking yourself, how can I tear down the strongholds in my life?

In Samuel 12:13 David has been confronted with his sin, his reply is plain “I have sinned against the Lord” this is the first step you must take, acknowledge you have sinned against God that you need Him to forgive you and to bring you back to Him.

What you got to do from here is get real with God and get desperate to please Him ask Him to show you the strongholds in your life, and by prayer and practice tear them down.

Look at Nehemiah, In Nehemiah 13:25 in his zeal and anger he did everything he could to restore the Nation to a state which pleased God without respect for sin.

5 So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves.

Will you contend?