Mind Contamination

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."

2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

The mind. The fragile, gentle mind. It's a storage bin of years upon years of experiences, emotions, thoughts, memories, love, pain, sufferings, happiness, loss, successes, failures, interactions, family, friends and the list goes on. The mind. It can elicit an immediate reaction and feelings from just a simple thought. A thought planted or or a thought experienced. A thought or memory that is real or imagined. The mind can easily be regenerated or contaminated. It's been a few months since this subject was laid on my heart but I just wasn't able to compose it properly. Maybe due to my own hardships, turmoil and loss, I don't know. Maybe it wasn't the right timing. That's been the case before. It's been a very tumultuous time for me, as I'm sure it has been for many of you all around the world! As the past few months have come and gone, and as I looked around at the ways of the world flipping upside down in a rapid decline like I've never known before, I started to see something so troubling stirring in the hearts and minds of people that I just couldn't ignore it any longer. Fear, control, manipulation and a greater reliance of the "truths" of the "media" and the "world's view" than of the Ultimate Truth of our Creator God who gave us everything we need to know and armed us with all the weapons to battle in times such as these. But the mind! That's where the arrows are aimed. It's been tried and true in years gone by how repetition, constant rumination, and manipulation of facts can create control, thought control and mind control, in order to bring the masses into compliance with whatever agenda is at hand. The majority of the time, those in power of the control use the ultimate weapon. The weapon of Satan, FEAR! A paralyzing, unrealistic, unfounded, and in some cases, debilitating fear that has overtaken so many people around the globe. My heart breaks for what I've seen transpire amongst people since this "crisis" overtook the world. This is not how our Lord and Savior designed us to be nor is it how He would want us living the lives He blessed us with! 

Fear. It is an all-encompassing emotion but left unchecked, is one of the most destructive, damaging and toxic tools of Satan there is right now. Fear is a liar and so is Satan! All it produces is mistrust, anger, anxiety, depression, hate, manipulation, less affection, less compassion and greater division. Mind pollution ultimately leads to an unnecessary fear of things perceived and pushed in an agenda. Remember that as you listen to the media inundating you with baseless "facts." With this "crisis" that has clearly gone on way too long, directed by the workers of Satan, and by those who are part of the agenda, has come a ton of lies and deceptions and alot more manipulation in order to get their desired "outcome" to control everyone to do what they want them to do. By the looks of it, it appears it's working. Sadly, however, is the fact that we are now facing a world that has been "conditioned" to not interact with eachother as God intended; a world that's "forbidden" to visit friends and family in hospital settings or nursing facilities or gather for functions outside of family households. We're living in a world that has become faceless, emotionless, eerily compliant without question, beaten down spiritually and worn down emotionally, and in some ways, complicit. I think about the scripture in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." If all that is seen between people are eyes, well....do the math! Seeing just the eyes is not being "unveiled" because as we all know, a veil, as in the context that this scripture relates, is covering everything BUT the eyes. Our FACE is a mirror of the glory of the Lord and our face is the way we are to shine and share that glory with a hurting, frightened, and unsaved world! Remember, this is All for something that has a SURVIVAL rate of 98%! The survival rate is way more important than what they are reporting but then again, they don't want the masses to know the truth. This "crisis" will be ongoing because they will continue to find more and more "variants" that are going to be used to really drop people to their knees, to implement other forms of control, to implement other forms of fear tactics. Just wait. You'll see. This is not just about the "virus" or the "inoculation" or the "passport." It's about control leading into the tribulation period where the worship of the Anti-Christ Beast will be upon those who remain and the mark of the beast will be the "ultimate" form of control. Be alert and be forewarned.  

Before I move on, I wrote a "thought" early on in the birthing of this blog that I am going to borrow a few paragraphs from and expound upon a little further. Ironically, some of the things I wrote then, applies to our current situation.  This past year leading to the current day has truly been the year of darkness and evil. I know there's many people out there who still believe everything will once again return to "normal" and life will resume as usual or as it once was before the "invisible enemy" took a death grip on the people of the world. There's still so many people who believe if they just listen and follow the leaders of their respective countries/cities/villages, then everything will be fine. The way, psychologically, to beat down someone and to wear them down emotionally in order to control their actions and in many cases, their thoughts, is to repeatedly inflict fear, believable lies, great deceptions and repetitions from strategically picked "reliable" sources. This tactic is used in mind control and domestic abuse victims, and in other "ritualistic" abuse situations. If you do just a little research on the atrocities of the Holocaust, you will see these same tactics being used. There's an old saying, "history repeats itself." Well, that saying is haunting once you glaze over some of the atrocities of historic events, the Holocaust being one of them. The way to controlling the masses is manipulating minds, to play on the emotions of people and to find their weaknesses. So it is here that one should take note of the progression of lies that's being used to manipulate and condition everyone. First it was shut down the countries and quarantine for 2 weeks to flatten the curve. Then it was social distancing. It was separation from loved ones in nursing/assisted living centers. It was then hospitals. Then it was wear masks until we flattened the curve for at least another month. These things turned into weeks, months and not over a year! Then it was being pushed for small children to wear them. Schools shut down. Businesses and jobs closing. Then after much of the world was sick and tired of all the "orders" and "mandates" and missing family and friends, the leaders all over the world began the talk about getting the world's population to accept the "inoculations" to return to "normal" and gain "herd immunity." A side note here, is after this amount of time, herd immunity is not possible. It's already happened early on in this "planned-emic." The "inoculation" ironically does NOT stop the “spread nor contraction” of this “virus” and by definition is NOT even a “vaccine.” It's gene therapy that has NEVER been performed on human subjects until now. Experimental. It's STILL an experimental "therapy." Research this for yourself and don't just take my word for it! I've exhaustively read up on all of this from many different sources including the CDC from the beginning and the onset of this.  

And now? Well, none of it is good enough and none of it ended, nor slowed down, but rather, it's moving at a rapid pace on to passports and tracking and other nefarious things yet to still be revealed. The "truths" about the virus, inoculations, and the "control measures" keep changing on a daily basis. Why do you think that is? The enemy is the author of CONFUSION! That's what he does and that's what he orders his "minions" to do. Create chaos, confusion, and repetition. But life will never be normal ever again. It can't be. There's still many who believe that "man" can "save" this country, or world, from further decay. The Bible tells us differently! In fact, it tells us it must decay further for prophecy to be fulfilled. "Man" can't or won't be able to stop it. Only ONE can do that and that's Jesus Christ! God remains in control and He already WON! The "pandemic" that has been thrust upon us all is the precursor to the mark of the beast that will be revealed during the tribulation. This was and is the way to get everyone who will be left behind to get comfortable with it. You see, those in control are power hungry and they don't care about any of us. They are their own "gods" and they are so narcissistic that they believe they have the same powers AS our Creator GOD! Their master is NOT King Jesus Christ, but rather Satan himself. Do not be fooled. Those in control want to BE "gods" and are trying to play God. This is a dangerous path they have chosen to travel down and one day, maybe sooner than they know, they will learn just how deadly their free choice to follow the devil actually IS to their eternal lives! They twist the truth. John 8:44 tells us, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." They mock the Bible. They mock and blaspheme the Lord. They are evil to the core and they love their sin above all else. Satan knows his time is short and he's been gathering up so many followers along his journey that my heart is grieving for those who just don't have a clue. Many DO, however, have a clue and know exactly what they have chosen. The technology we have currently and what they have been working on behind closed doors is ripe for the implementation of the mark of the beast. Make no mistake. To imagine that this "simple flu" virus closed down countries, businesses, and lives, is an indicator of just how Satan works. Control by fear. Manipulate by deception. More about this later.....

This post is not about the "crisis" or the "pandemic" or the "inoculations." That topic is a great example, and a current situation, to use for this particular intro into the rest of the post. This particular event has all the earmarks of mind contamination and I felt it pertinent to use this as a prime example since everyone is currently in it, dealing with it, questioning it, struggling with it and many are tired of it. Looking at this event and how it progressed, how the same phrases were/are being used in every single country by all the leaders, how the same measures were/are being used to get people to comply, etc., should give you thought to all the other ways that have been implemented slowly to condition everyone, to desensitize everyone, to manipulate.....this isn't new. But the magnitude to which it has been taken IS. This tells me the prophecies in the Bible are jumping off the pages right in front of our eyes! Matthew 24:33, "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." There is nothing to fear for those who are born again believers in Jesus Christ because we are not appointed to God's wrath and will be "caught up" in the rapture. 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10) who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him." And we're clearly told in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17) Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18) Therefore comfort one another with these words." So the believers need not fear. However, those left behind who are not believers in our Savior and have chosen to reject His free gift of salvation, have plenty to be fearful of because the tribulation period is a time of God's judgment and He is a just God! There will be horrific pain and suffering like nobody on this earth has ever experienced before. This is why I write these things because I don't want anyone to perish. Ultimately, it's your choice but know that Jesus loves you and is waiting for you to call upon His name! There's no time like the present! 

Power of God Almighty!

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 the 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, 1Corinthians 2:5, "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." You see, out of our hearts, will come the thoughts that we think! That's why I've constantly advised all to be careful what they allow into their minds through social media, television, music, etc.! Our hearts are full of all kinds of desires. Our desires are oftentimes expressed through our thoughts. The thoughts that linger. The thoughts that take up residence. They become who we are so it's important to know what thoughts are residing in our home of thoughts because our home of thoughts is a part of the temple (body) of God! While intricately connected, we need to understand how the condition of our hearts directly impacts the nature of our thought life. If we are dominated by our sinful nature and heart, then our thoughts will ultimately seek out to destroy us, but more so, all that God loves. Isn't that what's happening right this very moment in time!? Look around you. It's not hard to see. However, if we're controlled by the Holy Spirit, our thoughts will bring life, peace and joy into our existence, into our beings, and even to the lives of those around us! So what does this actually mean?

Well, it simply means that no amount of OUR humanly efforts or thought control will EVER be enough when it comes to the problems that we face in our lives. And we face a multitude of them ranging from the small and mundane to the over the top overwhelming ones! Controlling our thought life is important, yes. But, we must get first things first. We must love God FIRST above ALL things, above ALL people in our lives, and yes that means from your children, to your blood relatives, to your spouses. When we love God, we will OBEY God. When we run to Jesus, our thought life will soon follow because the more we run to Him, the more we learn His ways, His thoughts and His love. The more we become Christ-like. It's all about what we focus on. It's about where we allow our thoughts to wonder, then reside. In John 15, Jesus warns us that apart from Him "we can do nothing." So it's ONLY through an intimate relationship with Jesus that our hearts, minds and lives can be transformed. The transformation doesn't happen overnight and as long as we are alive in this fallen world, it will be a DAILY sanctification and we'll always be a work in progress. But without daily intimacy with Jesus Christ, without running to Him anew every moment daily, our thought lives remain in a precarious and vulnerable position. They become so vulnerable that Satan is just waiting in the shadows to attack that very precious part of our bodies! That's his portal to enter and he knows this about us. I've said many times that Satan is not permitted to read our minds or know our thoughts. He does, however, plant thoughts in our minds by means of the news, music, television, social media and a slew of other forms of "information." The thoughts he plants are never good, wholesome or edifying. To use this pandemic as another example, it's exactly how he's used the media to gain access to people's thoughts, to create in them a fear and to manipulate their emotions which ultimately they will act upon. That's why controlling what you put inside your mind is integral to your mental health and spiritual health! The more negativity you surround yourself with, whether it's the pandemic or other sinful matters, the harder it will become to live the fullest, happiest life the Lord has called you to live! These things are nothing more than choices that we must make on a day to day basis. Do we listen to all the lies of the enemy? Do we watch all of the "hate-filled" news that is bent specifically to divide? Do we focus on all that is wrong? You see? It's a choice. Choosing where to set our focus on, choosing what to allow to reside inside, choosing what stays and takes up space, or what is worthless and kicked out. Choice. Choice. Choice.

How we end up coming to our decisions and choosing our positions is largely based upon the WAY that we've programmed our minds to think. We program our minds to think ONE way.....by what we put IN them! Simple right? Not so much. Satan attacks all of us in many different, consistent ways, but the most vigorous assault he comes at us with is on our thought lives. Satan knows that what we think,  will eventually make us what we are. He knows all the little tricks of the trade. He knows that our thoughts can, and will, oftentimes lead to our actions, so he works hard and diligently on our thought lives to gain access. We are each responsible for what we welcome, allow or INVITE into our minds! It's a pretty big responsibility. Sometimes the enemy is just so darn persistent, and menacing, that it wears us out, and down, and we weaken our ability to resist. Then there's that thought, that daunting thought....slipping inside to take up residence. We recognize that thought isn't from the Lord, and we begin a new battle.....of the mind! It is a vicious cycle that we tend to repeat over and over and of course, our adversary is right on it! This type of mind battle happened in my own life. I received a blessing, a wonderful blessing. I praised the Lord and thanked Him and was full of joy. Then out of nowhere, the enemy just didn't like seeing me get this blessing so he threw in a little "hiccup" and suddenly, even though I KNEW this blessing was from the Lord, a thought crept in, not a good thought, but a curious one, one with doubt. Doubt is what the devil and his minions work tirelessly to plant! This doubt, this thought, hadn't been bad enough at THAT time, to worry me TOO much, but I admit, it worried me a little at first. Then that little "hiccup" began to grow steadily throughout the day, off and on, until it was a full blown disaster in my head! Yep! A full blown disaster IN MY MIND! Fear is NOT of the Lord and I KNOW this! I've experienced peace from the Lord from the moment when the blessing was presented to me, but this fear wasn't from Him so I knew the thoughts I was beginning to have wasn't from Him either! Satan get thee behind me! In the name of Jesus! Satan is slick and sneaky! As I've said before, he knows our weaknesses because he's had thousands of years of practice! Once I snapped back to reality, I grabbed onto, and held tightly, all the promises of my God! 

Our minds have the capacity for evil....to think evil thoughts, to think bad thoughts, to think less than holy thoughts, to think unpleasant thoughts and to think anxious thoughts. It also has the capacity to doubt, unrealistically. The Apostle Paul was intensely aware of the mind's capacity for evil thoughts. Someone can dwell upon lustful thoughts, wrong thoughts about some member of the opposite sex. Another person may seethe with jealousy and envy in his mind toward other people that they may be comparing themselves to. Another person may be consumed with coveting another's possessions. Another may be mindlessly plotting revenge against a perceived wrong. While others still are so desperately consumed with pride and with overly high thoughts about themselves. The "works of the flesh" in Galatians 5 is a long list of sins, many of which are sins of the mind. Let's see what Galatians 5:19-21 has to say, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20) idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21) envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." So if you really look long and hard at those "works" you will easily find that the sins begin in the mind, with thoughts that begin to take up residence. The mind is a fragile organ because it can easily be manipulated, scarred, controlled, and ultimately covered up (for a little while, at least), thereby making the mind difficult to capture for Christ. We can often retreat deep within the walls of our own minds, thinking about things that we only let be known to ourselves and God. By doing so, it becomes difficult for others to detect and know what we're really thinking inside our heads. However, we really need to remember that God DOES know our thoughts, He is concerned about them, He cares what thoughts take us captive and hold us captive, and oftentimes they will eventually come out into the open. They will eventually come out into the open because we become what we think.....

The greatest area of sin in the believer's life isn't typically in the arena of our actions, but rather in the arena of our thought life. Take pride, for example. It's a sin of the mind. So is lust and suspicion and discouragement. So is a haughty spirit and envy and selfishness. These are all sins of the mind. Even after we've been saved by Faith in Jesus Christ and have become born again believers, we all still have to contend with the old nature, all of us still have trouble with undesirable thoughts that keep popping into our heads. Some of these thoughts can be quite surprising, sometimes confusing, and sometimes even condemning. Condemnation is NOT of God, it is of the "father of lies" our enemy! But they are all undesirable. Most of us wouldn't want those kinds of thoughts that have gone through our minds during the past few months or so to be rolled out on a large screen in front of a room full of people at a theater for all to see. That  could, and likely would, be somewhat embarrassing, downright uncomfortable and perhaps even frightening! I don't know about you, but I don't want to think about THAT scenario so I would rather focus my thoughts on the thoughts of our Lord and Savior to combat those negative thoughts and keep them all between Him and me! Our minds get contaminated and full of toxicity by our surroundings, what we listen to, what we focus on, by our thoughts that we ruminate on, by social media. Mind contamination is a divider, not a conqueror. It will keep you in shackles and chained to darkness. This is not what our Lord wants for us to experience in the life He has blessed us with! Contamination can be equated to pollution. Think about everything that pollutes this world and we automatically think of "trash." Same for our minds. Try to clean up the contamination by limiting the amount of trash so start "picking" it up and throwing it away! A great place to start is to limit your consumption of daily news. 

2 Corinthians 4:16, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day." Notice that Paul says in this verse that our inner man is being renewed day by day. This means that God wants both our minds and our inner man to be renewed on a daily and progressive basis. It's a sanctification process on a daily basis. When God says that our inner spiritual transformation is done by getting our minds properly renewed in Him, He is giving all of us an amazing, incredible, powerful, spiritual secret. Again, this is all part of the sanctification process that the Lord wants to start with each and everyone of us. He also wants to continue this sanctification process with each of us who have already begun the daily renewal of the mind! So part of the transformation-sanctification process with the Lord involves getting your MIND properly renewed through His Word and by His Spirit. Sanctification is defined as the following, found at here "The Greek word translated "sanctification" (hagiasmos [aJgiasmov"]) means "holiness." To sanctify, therefore, means "to make holy." In one sense only God is holy (Isaiah 6:3). God is separate, distinct, other. No human being or thing shares the holiness of God's essential nature. There is one God. Yet Scripture also speaks about holy things. Moreover, God calls human beings to be holyas holy as he is holy (Leviticus 11:44 ; Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:15-16). Another word for a holy person is "saint" (hagios [a&gio"]), meaning a sanctified one." The Bible tells us that we can actually take "captive" what we think about. Isn't that powerful to know that WE can take and hold captive what we choose to think?! It's actually our responsibility! The verse that gives us this revelation says we have to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4) For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5) casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ," We're being told to grab a hold of our thoughts and make certain that our thinking, as well as our thoughts, always line up in the proper ways that He wants us to be thinking about things. These are choices that we have to make and in order to grab a hold of our thoughts and to hold them captive, we need to consciously decide that we WANT and DESIRE to think as Christ does! We also must take control of  what thoughts we allow to enter and influence us. 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." In this verse, God is telling us that not only can we get a sound mind from Him, but we also can obtain a mind that has a spirit of power and love in it. This verse actually starts out by telling us that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but a spirit that is of power, love, and sound mind. Fear! Yes, fear can let the doors open for sure. Timothy 1:7 is a verse that I would highly recommend memorizing because with all of the crazy things that can hit us, and blindside us, in this life, you really have to believe and stay grounded on the powerful promise of this verse!

The bottom line here in changing your thoughts is CHOICE. Before I continue, let it be known that our adversary the devil will also create such chaos in one's thought life that all they will focus on are those dark thoughts and remain in a very dark place. He has a way of doing that which is one of the reasons he goes for the weaknesses. He wants those thoughts to reside inside because he knows how destructive they are and will be to those who already have a propensity for ruminations. If they don't already, they surely can acquire that propensity. Our minds are fragile and we must treat them as such. Handle with care! We are the ones that choose and decide what we want to think about, what we allow to reside in our minds and what we take captive in the privacy of our own thinking. Let's say a negative thought pops in out of nowhere that we know is not of God. We have that momentary choice of focusing on it or dismissing it and moving on. Not easy all the time, I'm fully aware. But it is what we need to strive for when we are faced with those thoughts. We all have the same choices, you know. We can choose to think good thoughts and godly thoughts or we choose the polar opposite and choose to think about the bad thoughts or evil things. It's really up to us. It's our choice. Even though our loving God makes it perfectly clear in His Word and instructions to us about what kinds of thoughts He wants us to dwell on and meditate upon, God Himself won't force His will on us. We are the ones who will decide to make that choice. If you truly desire to enter into a true sanctification process with the Lord, one where He is in control of your thoughts, you really need to expect Him to target your mind first in an attempt to properly renew it according to His Word. He gave us those instructions for a reason, for a purpose. He knows what thoughts can do and how doubt can destroy one's faith. He will then continue to attempt to put right thinking into your thought process daily. Just like all the other areas to be dealt with in the sanctification process, this'll all be done in a gradual, but progressive, manner. God won't overwhelm you and will set the pace that He will work with you in this area, at a pace that HE knows you will be comfortable with.

Thoughts and the Heart

Remember, your mind is THE battlefield in spiritual warfare. Demons try to trick you and move in on your from time to time in order to try and get you to think in their dark ways of thinking and live in their dark ways of living in this life. The good news is that God will also move in on you, strongly presenting Himself to try to get you to move and live in HIS pure ways of living and think in HIS good ways of thinking in this life. His ways are more powerful and have a much better outcome! The choice will ultimately always remain with us as to which side of the fence we will choose to live this life on. I choose the side of the fence with God! I've noticed in my own life and walk with the Lord that many years ago, the WAYS of my thinking weren't so controlled as they became later on in my walk. I understood the sanctification process better. I understood the renewing of my mind better. I learned that what Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink!" he says to you,

But his heart is not with you." is way more powerful that just the words themselves! Sure some "ugly" thoughts creep in from time to time, but I don't dwell on them, and I don't allow them to take up residence. By dwell, I mean to hold onto and let them become my fixation like I used to, I admit. I know how damaging it can be, but I also KNOW how cleansing and beautiful it is to know the thoughts of Christ and to be able to replace those other "creepers" because it changes EVERYTHING! The battle in our minds have two distinctive kinds of spiritual warfare.....offensive and defensive. I will write about that at a later date. 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." The fallen world in which we live in is becoming exceedingly evil at an alarming rate 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! Many people are fighting others in the flesh and this is not a physical battle at all! 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, into His kingdom of Light. 

Who are those principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and such anyway that are mentioned in Ephesians 6:12? 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." 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, to the lies and darkness of this world, it slips down about 16-18 inches into our hearts and out of our hearts come who we ARE or become. 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 by the enemy. 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." It's about loving others and having a relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ! One of the darts he uses is a powerful weapon against the mind. Deception. Deception causes all kinds of distractions, many that aren't readily noticed right away. Deception causes chaos, chaos causes distractions. Distractions gets your eyes off of the Most High and His promises and Truths and Light. This fiery dart can be seen throughout our whole world right this moment! You see, deception also causes fear depending on the lies perpetrated. I think you can see the connection pretty clearly now.

Distractions of this world are growing exponentially because the more distracted one becomes, the easier it becomes to let your mind wander. The more your mind is allowed to wander, the more it will begin to seek the dark things. It's a vicious cycle but it's true. One of the things I immediately noticed when this pandemic first hit the world, was the isolation and quarantining. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. This was a clear way that the enemy used to try to get millions of people focused on the darkness and the lies. It was working for some time. It was the biggest distraction up to that point where the entire world was on watch. Interesting, isn't it? The whole world! He has been working on this for a long time in order to have it work. But remember. God is in control and He created Satan/Lucifer. Satan cannot do one little thing without the permission of our Creator God! God isn't surprised at all. All of this will eventually be for His glory! For His purpose. For His will! Over the years, I've realized just how much I refrain from those things that I KNOW are my own distractions that could cause me to stumble and fall away and ultimately take my own eyes off of Jesus! The Lord has worked with me and in me with many of my own distractions, my own weaknesses, but as humans with the sinful human nature that we have, distractions will be definitely present. This is where you and I must gain control over our minds because distractions start there too! You'll never be able to hear God speaking to your spirit when your mind is constantly crowded with all those thoughts, worries, fears, anxieties, plans, and curiosities. You'll never be able to hear God speaking to your spirit if you always have to have the radio or TV on or one the phone or watching a YouTube video or TikTok or checking social media accounts every second. Distractions. I've found over the years that many people can't stand the "silence" and it's a sad thing! Silence is when we can hear the sound of the Lord's voice drowning out the craziness of the day, speaking peace into our spirits, speaking promises to our worries! So if you constantly have your phone against your ear, your eyes focused elsewhere, distracted, when God does call, all He's going to get is a busy signal! I don't know about you, but I don't want to miss His call when He's trying to call ME! When He's trying to speak to me, I sure don't want my mind contaminated with the things of the enemy!

Don't Be Dinner

1 Peter 5:8, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." The Devil will seek you out in order to take you off course, and his greatest desire is to distract the people of God in any way that he can, and any way that we allow him to. The passage described him as our adversary, who, as a roaring lion seeks to devour us. Have you ever shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with any person, and then all of a sudden, it seems that there are a hundred different distractions or attacks? It could be that the devil is at work there, trying to shut down the preaching of God’s Word. As born again Christ believers, we are to spread the gospel and be the Light in a darkened world. Our adversary doesn't want us to shine the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ nor does he want us to share the Truth of the Gospel, so he will pursue us in any way that he possibly can, and oftentimes that includes distractions, deception and attacks. We're in a very real battle, a very real spiritual battle, and if you truly know the Lord, then your spirit will bear witness with what I am saying here. Just think for a moment, if you weren't so distracted with whatever it was that was keeping you from hearing the Lord's instructions, directions, or pointing you towards doing something in His Kingdom for Him, how you could be used greatly in His kingdom! But instead, you missed that chance. You missed that moment because the enemy was distracting you to the point that you've become consumed and obsessed. It's not a good thought, is it!? It's a thought I've dealt with and wasn't proud of failing at myself. 1 John 2:15-17, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. v16) For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. v17) And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." So remember this - EVERY SINGLE DISTRACTION IS TAKING YOU AWAY FROM THE FEET OF JESUS. We belong at the feet of Jesus; we belong in His presence, that's where we're designed to be. Our thoughts shouldn't be contaminated or polluted with the thoughts of this world by means of the darkness. We're living in the age of distractions, an age of mass deception, an age that is OVERWHELMINGLY designed to replace your place "at His feet" with something else, anything else - a temporary "good" OR a destructive BAD. Anything BUT what is righteous and holy! This is sometimes the most subtle trap the enemy will place on the road ahead of you that you will be traveling down, to ensnare you. It is quite easy to get "caught up" in these distractions, obsessions and ultimately addictions, (think social media, busyness, etc.) yet we must only focus on being "caught up" in Christ. Make Jesus Lord over your video gaming, computer gaming, social media, talents, hobbies, relationships, money, movies, books, internet, technology or whatever it is that has you distracted! We should be consumed with the Gospel! We should be consumed with knowing Him, and His blueprint must overwhelm us. It must overwhelm our entire life and the lives of others. Satan WILL try to get us off course and sometimes he will try to make it sound "Christian". It could even be an overemphasis on something good but it will NOT include God.

In closing, remember that when a believer starts gaining ground and is in the process of progress for Christ, 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! Whatever kingdom controls your thoughts, CONTROLS YOU! Our weapons are mighty in God. They are powerless in and of themselves alone, 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! And with God's help, in His might and strength, slowly but SURELY, you will bring your thought life into captivity. Obedience to Christ! We will experience a growth in Grace when we meditate upon the things that are lovely, praiseworthy and honest! So this day, if you want to change your LIFE, you need to change your THOUGHTS! I pray that you will begin to replace those dark thoughts with godly, light thoughts. If you are not a born again believer in our Lord Jesus Christ, I invite you right now, right here, to cry out to Him, admit you are a sinner in need of a Savior, repent of your sins, ask for forgiveness of those sins, believe that Jesus died for you and paid your sin debt in full, believe He was born of a virgin, died and rose again three days later, and receive Jesus fully into your life! You don't have to go before the church, you can do it while you are sitting where you're at. He will meet you right where you are. He is waiting for you! You don't have to right yourself before you ask for His forgiveness! If you feel Him tugging, don't turn away because you are not promised tomorrow! And tomorrow might not come.....

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