The Battle in Our Minds

The battle in our minds has two distinctive kinds of spiritual warfare.....offensive and defensive. The Bible makes it crystal clear that this is not a battle being fought on a physical plane at all, but rather a spiritual one as stated in Ephesians 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." This entry will be a continuance of my previous article called, "The Soldier and the Whole Armor of God" due in part to the fallen world in which we live in is becoming exceedingly evil and we need to understand what spiritual warfare is and the ways in which it creeps into our lives, sometimes silently inching it's way into our minds while other times it comes at us as fast as lightning! The Bible teaches us that when you and I were born on this earth we were born into and under the dominion of the kingdom of darkness. That's why we have to be born again into the kingdom of God.

So, who are those principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and such anyway? Well, firstly, they all stem from Satan's kingdom, (remember Satan is the god of this world) but since Satan isn't omnipresent (the ability to be everywhere at once like God is), so he has to work through an army of demon spirits. When a person says, "The devil is on my trail!" it's highly unlikely that Satan himself has been assigned to the job, but rather one, or more, of the troops in his army, which would be better known as a demonic spirit. But why the mind? Why is our minds the target of his nasty attacks? Well because it's where it all begins.....temptations and deceptions and accusations......his three favorite "fiery darts." 

Let's take a look at the defensive warfare first...... in defensive spiritual warfare, demonic spirits (under Satan's command) launch what is known as fiery darts, as Ephesians 6:16 tells us: "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." These fiery darts come in one of three forms; temptations, deceptions and accusations. 

Dart #1 is Temptation. Satan couldn't freely play havoc on Eve's life because he had no rights to her. God had those rights. So what did he do to conjure up a scheme to sway her his way? He went about trying to get her to give him those rights by tempting her to sin. Why sin? Because sin gives the devil a foothold in our lives. Ephesians 4 tells us to put off, or turn from, our old sinful nature and in verse Ephesians 4:27, it tells us that we can give the devil a foothold in our lives through sin: "Neither give place to the devil." Because Satan wanted a "place" in Eve's life but didn't have one, he tempted Eve in the garden! Since Satan always wants more legal grounds in our lives, being the greedy, vile creature that he is, we can expect some temptations to come our way. 

Satan wants to tempt us with what he knows works in getting us to fall because once we fail and fall, we've given him place in our lives to operate! What tempts me won't tempt you and vice-versa, however, we all have temptations and since the enemy can't do anything new, he uses what he knows worked in the past! That's why it's SO important to quickly turn from those sins and repent immediately when we do fail and sin so that we can be forgiven and remove the legal ground that we foolishly gave to him and his minions. Where does temptation start? IN THE MIND! Remember, though, just because he tempts us and we may fall from time to time, does not mean we've lost our salvation, or that we have become his.....it means simply that we need the Lord God MORE than ever before! 

Dart #2 is Deception! Ah, deception. How many of us have been deceived and lived temporarily in defeat by believing the lies of Satan? Countless! All the negative words in our heads, all the failures, all the defeat come from the enemy. If we sin, he tries to tell us how can God love us. If we fall, he tries to remind us how many other times we've fallen and how could God forgive us AGAIN. The list is endless. Sometimes when those lies are believed over and over, they become a reality and people begin to live the lies out. Strongholds can be formed in our minds when we allow deception to take hold of our minds. What are strongholds? They're incorrect thinking patterns based on falsehood. Those little demonic spirits love to use these strongholds to their advantage against a child of God because they have tremendous power in how they affect our feelings and emotions. And feelings and emotions lie anyway....we are never to rely on our "feelings or emotions" because they harbor sin. 

Sadly, many blood-bought children of God Almighty feel guilt-ridden and worthless because they don't see themselves they way they ought to....blood bought, sin-debt paid in full and a child of God Almighty! They are full of guilt because they feel they are perfect, they don't understand why they still sin and they see themselves as the enemy wants them to see themselves as....worthless. That could be further from the truth though! A child of God is covered in the blood of His Son Jesus Christ and his/her sins are remembered no more. Isaiah 43:25 reminds each of us of this magnificent TRUTH, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins." Many Christians, and many more unbelievers, feel unloved and not good enough to be accepted by God because their perception of Him is skewered. It's been damaged and causes them to see Him as a distant and cruel judge instead of a close, loving Father who longs to have an intimate loving relationship with them! This is evidenced in 2 Corinthians 11:3, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled (deceived) Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 

Dart #3 is Accusations! Satan is the ultimate accuser of the brethren and that is told to us in Revelations 12:10, "...the accuser of our brethren..."! He doesn't accuse the sinner or the unbeliever because there is no need to accuse them. He's already got them on his team. He only accuses the children of our Lord God Almighty because he could care less about his own kind in his kingdom. He loves using "remember when you did...." or "since you did ___ surely God won't forgive THAT...." or "remember when you said...." He accuses us by reminding us of our past sins, failures and falls. Anything from our past he loves to bring up to us so it gets stuck inside of our minds. When we keep thinking about those sins and failures and our past, we begin to doubt and believe his lies. And we then sit at the accuser's feet where we really don't want to be!!! If we keep listening to the accusations we begin to get guilt ridden, then we begin to BELIEVE we ARE failures. Not just that we failed, but that we ARE failures. That's the accusations he wants us to grab onto because we ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God! Guilt and our sin have been dealt with on the cross! The blood of Jesus washed away our sins! Lest I remind you that a child of God has been washed clean in the blood of Jesus and is without spot nor blemish! And because we are washed in the blood of Jesus, Satan loves to pick fights with us, causing us to feel dirty, worthless and see ourselves as a failure. If we pay attention to the devil's accusations, though, they too can form strongholds in our minds that need to be torn back down before we can experience freedom once again. 

Renew Your Mind Always

There's a commonality in all three darts...feelings and emotions. Once those feelings and emotions stray to the worldly things, to the sinful things of this world, it slips down about 16-18 inches into our hearts and out of our hearts come who we ARE. Those feelings and emotions eventually become actions......so it's wise to be mindful of what you watch, what you look at, what you listen to, where you go, and what you speak! If we become distracted by an ideal of perfection, which we can never attain while in this life, we're going to find ourselves lost in a revolving door that takes us further away from the pure path that God has set before us. While drifting further away, we can become entangled with the works of the flesh and condemnation. The Christian life is not about a million do's and don'ts, its more about do unto others what you would have them do unto you. Galatians 5:14, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 

Now to the offensive warfare!  This consists of tearing down strongholds that we have allowed to be formed in our minds when we've taken the bait and accepted the deceptions and lies of the devil. Since strongholds are incorrect thinking patterns based on ERROR, then the correct weapon to be used in order to tear down those strongholds is reading and meditating on the truth, applying it and that is only found in the Word of God. The best offense and defense out there! He gave it to us....all we have to do is RECEIVE it! Ephesians 6 tells us about the weapons that we are supposed to use in spiritual warfare, and in verse 17 we are told to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the offensive piece of weaponry: "...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." A sword is an offensive weapon designed to tear down and destroy the enemy in war and battle. This is exactly what happens to the strongholds through meditating on the truth in God's Word, it tears them down! For example, strongholds are based on lies and deception and they are built up in our minds that way. The TRUTH in God's Word, the Sword of the Spirit, tears them down. Satan tells us, "You've sinned! Take a look at your PAST! You failure!" But, on the offensive, there's God's Word, as He so lovingly reminds us, "WHAT past? What sins? They have all been washed away clean with the blood of my Son, Jesus Christ!" 

Our mind houses our thoughts (imagination, reasoning, and intellect), as well as our emotions and our free will. These aspects are the very heart of an individual. Through our thoughts and feelings we determine our will and purpose for our lives, which is why it's so extremely important to seek to live by the truth and power of God! To be mindful of what we allow into our minds and thoughts and feelings because so too we become! The Truth and Power of God are our assurance of the victory that God promised in each and every situation in our life! We can't be ignorant of the reality of evil, and the destruction that surrounds our world on a daily basis. It surrounds us as well. That doesn't mean we have to choose to LIVE it and become it! It's just in this process that we'll inevitably encounter a very real spiritual struggle in our thoughts, emotions and will, because the adversary knows these areas are directly related to the power of our faith, and means to receiving the promises of God.  The adversary's goal is to weaken the faith of every Christian. The righteous will continue to acknowledge their mistakes, repenting and changing their direction in life. A true believer is in a continual state of repentance by putting off the works of the flesh and continuing in the things and ways of God. A Christian may suffer from his or her errors, but to remain in a state of condemnation and slowed or stunted growth because of them, doesn't work because of the grace or righteousness of God. God looks at the INTENT of the heart and NOT our weaknesses and failures. God doesn't judge us according to the standards of men, but He always looks on the heart. The apostle Paul says, 1Co 2:5, "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 

When a believer starts gaining ground and in the process of progress for Christ in any of the 3 realms, whether we are winning souls for Christ, or overcoming obstacles in our personal walk with God, we'll experience resistance in the world, the flesh, and the devil. But don't be afraid of this process, because this resistance will come and is a sure mark of your progress in the Kingdom of God! Remember, whatever kingdom controls your thoughts, CONTROLS YOU! Our weapons are mighty in God. They are powerless in and of themselves, but in God they are mighty, powerful and are able to bring every thought under control. These weapons include the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17) and prayer (Ephesians 6:18).   In all of this, Christ won the victory for us, but we have to continue to grow and trust God in our daily fight against evil. In our decision to give our whole heart to the Lord, we take hold of "the ground of Christ" then we take back the ground that the devil has stolen from us. But when a believer in Christ is committed to live for Christ, and to be God’s light in a dark world, he or she will experience, to varying, different degrees, the “agony and the ecstasy.” Jesus sweat drops of blood during His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. He endured extreme cruelty, both psychological and physical persecution that culminated in His death on the cross. The Lord's ecstasy was His inherited prize, the Church, known as the body of Christ. 

We have that inheritance of royalty in Heaven awaiting us! While we are here in the world of darkness, we must continue to fight the good fight and continue to shine our Light that is Jesus into this world! That may mean a battle will ensue, but remember, Satan has already been defeated! 

best religion blogs