Breaking Strongholds – Standing on Business

Hey family, these are the final notes I’ll be sharing on the journey of breaking strongholds. My prayer is that they have blessed you and your community, and that they’ve given you language and tools for the battles you face. Thank you for walking this road with me.

As we gather in prayer, my desire is that you will taste the supernatural hope and love of God, a hope that anchors you in turbulence and a love that holds you when nothing else makes sense (Hebrews 6:19). Recently, I’ve experienced some unusual patterns that I can’t yet share publicly. But if you too are going through a season that feels weird and wonderful at the same time, I need you to hear this: you are not alone (1 Peter 4:12-13).

Tonight, I want to stand on business and release some fighting talk. Over the past eight weeks we’ve studied what it means to tear down strongholds, set healthy patterns, and expect the best from God. To close this series, I adjure you: STAND.

Standing is only possible when what carries you is stronger than the weight you bring. Standing requires confidence in the foundation beneath your feet. And in Christ, that foundation is ready (Ephesians 6:13).

Faulty Foundations vs. The Cross

If you hang around Afro-Christian spaces long enough, you’ll hear teaching about “faulty foundations.” That’s why this Bible study was once called Relaying the Foundations. This teaching often emphasizes breaking generational curses and bloodline deliverance, seeking to free believers from inherited battles.

I appreciate that teaching because it gave me language for things I’d faced. But it can also feed fear, making us suspicious of our very roots and anxious about whether we’re truly free. (I’ll soon share a spoken-word piece exploring this tension.)

But hear me clearly: your ability to stand is only as good as your foundation. Have you ever tried running in mud, or pulling yourself through a swimming pool? Strength doesn’t matter if the ground beneath you is weak.

This is why the good news of Jesus is everything: you are not standing on a faulty foundation. Your foundation, your altar, your security is the cross of Calvary (1 Corinthians 3:11). It is the perfect sacrifice, a one-time event that resolved every human and spiritual need for all time (Hebrews 10:14). It never needs repeating. The cross is the one cosmic supernova that shook heaven and earth in a single moment, strong enough to carry the weight of the universe and your problems!

Why Do People Get Different Results?

We’ve all asked it: Why does Christianity seem to work differently for different people?

Is it their race?Their gender?Their prayer routine?Their background?

Why does one person’s life change while another seems stuck?

I believe this: the cross works, and will always work, for those who lean on it. The difference is in whether we fully rest on that foundation or whether we hedge our bets elsewhere (Galatians 2:16).

“For someone to stand, they must understand.” Just like you examine the frame of a chair before sitting, you must understand what undergirds your faith. What gives you confidence to put your full weight on Jesus?

Let’s revisit some basics.

Core Tenets of Our Faith

1. There is God

Some believers live as what I call “functional atheists.” They say they believe in God but they live their lives as if he doesn’t exist. Now I am not just talking about people living sinfully or without accountability, I am talking about the mindset that says that I must do it on my own. Our image of God is reduced to what we can do and what we cannot do. Romans 1 warns about this kind of mindset, that ‘ doesn’t like to retain God in it’s memory... and worships the created thing rather than the creator who is forever to be praised Amen’ 

And maybe you’re not bowing down to idols of wood or stone, but many of us deify systems. We treat government, the economy, or education as ultimate powers that determine our future.

When I moved to Manchester, I believed God could only prosper me if someone gave me money or if I won the lottery. My background, race, and gender made me certain the system would never let me rise. But God tugged at my heart to dismantle that lie. Eventually, I surrendered it to Him, and in that very year my income doubled. Not through the lottery. Not by escaping the system. But with a job, within the system. God proved He is not bound by the powers of this world (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

2. Jesus Came as a Man

The incarnation—God becoming flesh through the virgin birth (Luke 1:35)—is the basis of all our faith in the supernatural. If He could bend the laws of biology, then nothing is impossible.

This belief gives us courage not to bow to the weak elements of this world: time, place, and person. Most of us live under these constraints and measure our Christian performance and limit our godly ambition according to these metrics. Who we are, where we were born and live and how far along in life’s journey we are. Destiny doesn't come by time, it comes by encounter! A Arome Osayi. God chooses the weak to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27).

When I started ministry, I burned with ambition. But God spoke to me: “I died young so you wouldn’t have to." I now know that my true impact will come in later years.That word killed my need for comparison. It freed me from competing with young ministers. For six years I have been hidden, transformed, sharpened. And if you wait long enough, you’ll see—God brings greatness from the most unlikely vessels.

3. Jesus Died for Our Sin

This is the power of substitution (Isaiah 53:5). Too many believers picture God as an angry taskmaster requiring endless self-punishment. But Scripture says Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

The approach I have when speaking to him should not be marked with self flagellation and humiliation, like the children of darkness, but in an awareness that any personal sacrifice I enter is not to appease him but to heal me and heal the people around me. God is so committed to us that he says he doesn’t do anything unless he tells his prophets (Amos 3:7)

Self-denial in the Christian life isn’t about appeasing an angry God; it’s about healing ourselves and those around us.

Also, and very importantly, our belief that God is a good God, defines our understanding that we can be good. In tough times, the temptation to blame ourselves and beat ourselves up is overwhelming but the book of Job taught me what it means to be a person who understands the power of their sacrifice (now Jesus) and the nature of our GOD. Bad things can happen to good people. Not everything in this world can be defined by KARMA.

Job’s story shows us: God is not the author of confusion or affliction (Job 1–2). Hardship does not mean God is against you.

So when trials come, don’t beat yourself up. You are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). You are beloved, seen, and cherished - even in the storm.

4. Jesus Rose Again

The resurrection is the core of our hope (1 Corinthians 15:17-20). Without it, death would still reign. But because Jesus rose, He broke the power of the oldest, most feared stronghold—death itself.

Without that hope, our imaginations are perverted and the direction that our life goes in will forever be hindered. Please review the previous posts on imagination, I don’t have time to review it here but the Bible says as a man thinks, so is he (Pro 23:7)

If your imagination is darkened and limited to an 80, 50, 30-year life span what you can conceive becomes remarkably different. Many of the things we do now will not benefit from until we get to heaven (Revelation 22:12). We need to reset our emotional compensation system from just craving earthly results and begin believing for heavenl y rewards. Results are the output to what we do. Rewards are totally relient on the benevolance of the giver. Rewards are the gifts that God chooses to bestow upon us, totally separate from our actions.

This victory over death resets our imagination because we are believing for heavenly rewards. Without resurrection, we’d live only for the here and now, scrambling for earthly rewards. But resurrection orients us toward eternity. Eternity then, eternity now.

Results are what we see now; rewards are what God gives later. Don’t just chase results. Live for rewards.

The Call to Stand

All of this comes back to one truth: you cannot walk unless your foundation is sure.

Ecclesiastes 10:10 says a dull blade requires more strength, but sharpening it brings success. Your “sharpening” is to trust the solid ground of the cross, not the shifting sands of fear or systems.

So I urge you: STAND. Do not cower. Put your full weight on the foundation of Christ.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 15:58