1. What issues hold believers captive and hinder the abundant life God intends?
Our very real enemy will use anything to hinder us in our walk with Christ. If he can make something a stumbling block in our life he will, it can be something like pride, deceit, unfaithfulness, getting caught up in something to the point that it becomes an idol...the list goes on. The point is if it is not helping you grow in your relationship with Christ, it probably should not be a part of your life.
2. Do you believe Christians can be oppressed by the devil? Why or Why not?
YES! When we accept Christ as our savior, our spirit is reborn or made new...the issue is our soul or flesh is a work in progress. Which means that we still deal with all of the same issues as before, only this time we have the power of the Holy Spirit to help us deal with them. So even though we have accepted Christ into our hearts, we still may be oppressed by the old issues, until we let Christ into every part of our life, and allow Him to cut the old ugliness and sin out.
3. What Kind of shelters do people build to protect themselves?
As Beth states "instead of cooperating with God and going into a place of freedom, we hide in shelters." So a shelter is anything we do to try to feel better about a situation on our own, instead of following after God. If it is not the way God intends for you to deal with the situation, you are building a Shelter.
4. How do shelters turn into strongholds?
So looking at the previous answer, we see that we build shelters when we are not listening or obeying God's Word or Command. So therefore a Shelter is built out of disobedience. When we disobey, we open up a huge door, allowing Satan to turn our shelter into a stronghold. The issue with shelters and strongholds of this nature, is that we have deceived ourselves into thinking the issue is resolved, because we have treated the symptom, when in reality we are even more bogged down with the problem and we do not even realize it.
