The Battle of the Mind
Now that we’ve seen the sinful attributes that come with Pride, Vanity and Sensuality, We need to understand how the enemy is able to tactfully manipulate our thoughts.
Gal 5:17 “For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the [Holy] Spirit, and the [desires of the] Spirit are opposed to the flesh (godless human nature); for these are antagonistic to each other [continually withstanding and in conflict with each other], so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do” This means every choice we make is either influenced by the Holy Spirit or by our flesh (Godless human nature). We need to understand that the Lord is for our soul whilst the enemy is against it.
The Lord’s intention is that we would be set free from the bondage of sin. The battle of the mind could be understood through military warfare with strategies that enable them to have victory. Here are some quotes to best illustrate my point;
“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” Quotations from: “The Art of War”
So knowing how the enemy works, especially if you’re in battle with him is essential for your victory over sin.
“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.” Quotations from: “The Art of War”
Does this not remind you of someone? The enemy’s strong point is deception. Here is an illustration of how the enemy works in our minds, a quotation from the book “Screwtape letters”. The Screwtape Letters are letters from an expert tempter (follower of Satan) to his nephew Wormwood. They instruct him on how to best help people avoid Christianity. Below is a chilling example of how the tempter works in our minds. Also the “enemy” that is referred to in this text is God.
“Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily ‘true’ or false’, but as ‘academic’ or ‘practical’, ‘outworn’ or ‘contemporary’, ‘conventional’ or ‘ruthless’. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally from keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous — that it is the philosophy of the future.
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I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years’ work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defense by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch.
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Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man’s head when he was shut up alone with books, a healthy dose of ‘real life’ (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that ‘that sort of thing’ just couldn’t be true.”
We have probably all experienced something like that. Once we have an enlightening thought or a yearning to be better, a “Celestial homesickness” as it has been called, how often do we get back into ‘real life’ and dismiss it? Really, all we are doing is turning down the elevated thought that would lead us to live on a higher plane of life. The pull of the ordinary and the life that we’re used to will keep us living the same way we always have. 2Cor 10:5 says “pulling down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ”.
Resisting the enemy is doing the exact opposite of what he suggests to you. James 4:7 says “Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”. Being submitted to God is a continual process of his spirit working in us so that we are transformed from one level of glory to another. . 2Co 3:18 says; “But we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord’s Spirit”. To avoid temptation is to not dwell on it.; To dwell on it would mean that you’re playing on its grounds and submitting to it; To avoid temptations is to turn straight to God and that’s why scripture reads; “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Jehovah of Hosts.” Zech 4:6
(Luke 9:24) For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it
– Joshua Adekeye
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