The Battlefield of the Mind Part III

Many people claim that God speaks to them, and that they are prompted in various ways by the Holy Spirit. I agree with this, and would add that I think that one of the ways that God does this is through our thoughts.

Is it that hard to imagine that perhaps not all of our thoughts come from our own intellect? Could God be blessing us by giving us certain thoughts? Maybe giving us thoughts of encouragement or thoughts that would influence us to act in a given situation. I know personally of times when I have been reasoning out various ideas, and am given insight from a different direction that allows me to continue the idea further. Call me crazy but I attribute that thought to God.

Now if that is true, and some of my thoughts are not my own but given to me by God, could it also possibly be true that Satan could do the same thing? To illustrate this point I think of lust since lust is a sin that takes place in the mind. There are times that I am tempted and an image will cross my mind. At this point I believe that the image is still only a temptation and that I have the choice to dismiss it, or I can take hold of that image and manipulate it with my mind, turning that temptation into sin. I don’t believe that the image just happened to flow through my minds eye by chance. I believe that the devil is able to give us thoughts just as God is able. In fact I would go so far as to say that if Satan doesn’t put these thoughts in our mind, then how exactly is he able to tempt us? I mean, really, we’ve all been tempted probably countless times, but do we ever stop to think about the precise manner in which we are tempted. I think that because of the subtlety of it we don’t think about it, and that is exactly what Satan would want. If we were to realize the venue for which he infiltrates us then we could stop it. This is whole reason why God gave us armor (The Armor of God Eph 6:10-20). This is armor not to protect our body, but our mind. Remember that if the mind is the battlefield; we need to always be wearing our armor.

The Battlefield of the Mind Part II

The mind is so crucial for Satan’s plan because our thoughts are what give way to our emotions. I heard a story about a man who was at work, and at the end of the day on Friday a co-worker came and told him that he heard that he was going to be fired on Monday. The man became bothered by this and went home that weekend constantly in thought about why he would be getting fired. He was agitated and would snap at his wife and children. He thought of all the things that he had done good, and how he excelled over some of his other co-workers. By the time Monday rolled around he was ready to let his boss have it. His boss called him into his office. As he walked to his office all he could think about was going on a tirade about how he was more qualified to manage the business than his boss was. He took a seat and just before he let loose, he was told about the promotion that he was getting. The lie that he was told by the co-worker had been mulled over and over in his mind, and produced a huge amount of anger. Most of us have a situation that we have been in that if we think about it, or replay the circumstances in our mind, we will get ourselves riled up about it. It doesn’t even have to happen to us again. The mere thought of it stirs up those emotions. This is why our thoughts have to be kept in strict check. We need to make sure that our thoughts are true, and that they aren’t going to illicit emotions that will be hard to control.

Phil. 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

Keep in mind that the emotions themselves aren’t wrong or bad, but they can compel us to do things that we shouldn’t.

Eph. 4:26, 27
“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.

We live in a society today that wants us to, “follow your heart”, but I say no, that is the opposite of what we need to do. As in the case of the mad above, our emotions can be based off of a lie. What we should be saying is “follow the truth”