Garrison: A state of mind

Steve Lyston, Contributor

The word garrison has been heavily used in this nation in the past month.

But it is an issue that has been talked about by persons in every sector of Jamaica for years.

In some circles, the idea of dismantling garrisons is said to be the answer to many of our social problems, such as crime and violence.

But dismantling the so-called garrisons goes beyond remodelling a community.

A garrison is a stronghold and it is not confined to one sector of the society, such as the inner city.

Garrisons were created by the intellectuals of the society to control the masses - conquer, divide and rule.

Let us look at the term garrison. A garrison is a body of troops stationed in a fortified place.

One meaning for the term troops is an assemblage of persons. Any community is an assemblage of persons.

That being so, every community has its inhabitants and every member of the community has the responsibility of ensuring the safety of that community.

In this respect, every community is then fortified through its inhabitants and is, therefore, a garrison.

Further to this, beyond every fortified place, there are riches, wealth, power and spoils.

Additionally, a fortified place is a place that is secured. So, such places are not easily penetrated.

Therefore, every gated community is a garrison; every social club or civic organisation is a garrison. Every 'Heights', 'Hills' or 'Meadows', as well as certain churches, can be deemed garrisons.

Strongholds

Strongholds are areas of predominance of a particular belief or fortress. Hence, a garrison, at any level, is a stronghold.

In order to deal with strongholds, you first have to deal with the mind - views, analytical mindsets, logic, philosophies and social theories.

Established strongholds are of the mind and a place of personal bondage and beliefs - unscriptural beliefs that are held to be true.

Behind every stronghold is a fear, a lie and idols. An idol is established wherever there exists a failure to trust in the provision of God.

Contrary to popular belief, strongholds cannot be dismantled with bullets, more laws and ideologies, nor are they dismantled by researches for further research .

In addition to this, more jobs and increases in pay will not dismantle garrisons. If jobs increase, but the mind is not renewed, then we are back to square one.

Think on this: every time we build one section of the society, something else comes up and tears down what was built. So we remain stagnant.

Though members of the society are educated, education without God cannot dismantle garrisons.

There are three weapons that can be used to destroy garrisons:

• The name of Jesus (Mark 16:17).
• The blood of Jesus shed on the cross.
• God's word, His principles and His precepts (Hebrews 4: 12-13).
• What do we say about a community that gives a landslide victory to a politician who only shows up during election season and after that does nothing for the community?
• Do we need to rethink how we vote going forward?

Exposure

When exposure takes place, of an individual, or even within a nation, persons don't do it because they want to see integrity or justice, many do it because they seek power, promotion or revenge.

So the idea is, 'I will cover for my friend, but I will expose who I perceive as my enemy'.

What exposure will take place going forward?

We need to take note of Matthew 7: 1-5. We quote it often, but we need to understand it well.

It starts by saying, "Judge not, that you be not judged ... first remove the plank from your eye."

What this Scripture says is that God does not forbid criticism, opinion, or the condemnation of wrongdoing.

What He forbids is censoriousness, the spirit of fault-finding that overlooks one's own shortcomings while assuming the role of supreme judge in regard to the mistakes of others.

The bottom line is that each person has to look into him/herself, renew his/her mind and make positive changes to self, then our eyes will open.

This renewal needs to start with the media, politicians, business owners and church leaders, and we the people must also do this for our own development and for the benefit of the nation.

We need to ask ourselves, "What happens after the election? Am I building or tearing down?"

Steve Lyston is a biblical economics consultant and author of several books, including 'End Time Finance' and 'The New Millionaire'.