Free Power over the Enemy: Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds by John Osteen

her. She was unable to walk. Her equilibrium was gone. She could not feed herself or get up to go to the bathroom. At times, she screamed out in terror and begged to die. The enemy was slowly but steadily dragging her into deeper darkness.
    Finally, she could remember none of the scriptures she had memorized. She felt helpless in the grip of this satanic attack. At this time, she knew practically nothingabout the baptism in the Holy Spirit and healing by the power of Jesus’ Name. We had been taught that these things passed away with the apostles. Suffering, we were told, was from God, and we were to patiently endure it.
    My sister spent years in this state, finally coming to the place where she required nursing care twenty-four hours a day. When I finally saw her, she did not know me, and I would not have recognized her on the streets of Dallas.
    There she lay! What held her there on that bed?
A thought!
She was held captive by a thought the devil had put into her mind. He told her that her loving heavenly Father was the One who sent this sickness and torment. He told her that she must suffer patiently and be faithful, for this was God’s doing, and she must not rebel against God.
    The enemy’s primary approach is to drop a thought into our minds.

    What a lie! Yet this one thought was captivating her mind. It was a stronghold. And God said we are to pull down the strongholds!
    When I was led by the Holy Spirit to go to Dallas and pray for her, I did not realize she had been through all this suffering nor did I know the extent of her illness. When I walked into that dark room and saw my sweet sister in that terrible state, I was shocked and became angry. I said in a stern voice, “Don’t tell me God did this to my sister!” That was the Holy Spirit speaking.
    My sister was in such bad shape that she did not know who I was, but I learned later that she heard those words and, down in her heart, she said, “Well, maybe this sickness did not come from God.”
    This was the beginning of deliverance. She pulled down that stronghold! In her heart, she rejected the thought that Satan had placed in her mind.
    We stood over her bed and commanded the demons to leave her, the room, and the house in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they did!
    Mary arose and, in a matter of minutes, was healed, baptized in the Holy Spirit, and ran—literally ran—through her home, praising God! She was delivered that day! And that day she went to the table and fed herself.
    She rejected a devilish thought that had her in captivity. She pulled down the stronghold.
    To be sure, Satan tried to lie to her again and again in the next few weeks. He tried to place a thousand thoughts in her mind. But she refused to listen! She practiced bringing every thought into the captivity of Christ. That happened many years ago, and she remained free and helped bring deliverance to others.
N O H OPE
    Let me share another amazing story of a dear Christian woman who after eight years of suffering and five painful surgeries recounted her sad situation to me:
    “January 1970, my doctor spoke the worst words anyone could hear. He said, ‘My child, you will have to go to bed and make it your life. You will probably be able to get up once or twice a day without too much pain, but that is only to go to the bathroom. I will prescribe painkillers for you.’
    “I remember the month of March 1970 as being terrible. Not only was I on Darvon compound every four to six hours, I was also taking narcotics and a sleeping pill at night. On April 1, my body refused to accept any more medication!”
    Here was a believer who was not only desperately ill, but who was flooded with the thought there was no remedy. The thought of the doctor’s words, “There is nohope for you,” lingered in her mind continually. This defeating thought and, I am sure, many others flooded her heart and mind as she lay in that state of suffering. These thoughts became strongholds.
    Then she tells