WINNING the Mind-War! (Understanding the NEW MAN –Part 9)

The battle is already won. Christ won the victory over the devil on the cross. We’re born again in the spirit, but our soul (mind, emotions) and our bodies are not yet redeemed.

However, we know the enemy is a deceiver, a liar and an accuser, and since he couldn’t keep us from making Jesus our Savior, and becoming a child of God, he’s going to try all he can to keep us from growing up in Christ, to keep us weak and ineffective.

The devil knows that if he can control our mind, he can get us to disobey our born-again spirit. The Bible tells us to “keep every thought captive and make it obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). In other words, instead of fighting the temptation, we must REFOCUS our mind on the things of God. Instead of tuning in to the devil’s thoughts, just refocus your thoughts immediately on God. “Give no place to the devil“; –don’t EVEN go there!! 90% of all our battles would be won from the start if we didn’t OPEN the door to them.

The Bible does not tell us to resist temptation, but to resist the Devil. That’s different… to resist the devil means we are resisting him and his kingdom; it means we are at war against the works of the devil on earth. But we won’t be effective warriors if we’re plagued with temptations. Paul said,  “No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer” (2 Tim 2: 3).

Winning the Mind-War is winning the mind of war. It’s winning over the mind tricks of the enemy. Once you know how the enemy’s power lies in lies, you get it and you refuse to tune in. So the key to overcoming temptation is not to push back and get into a tug-of-war game with the devil.. It’s to CHANGE your FOCUS.

We must keep our mind “on guard” at all times. In Rom 6:16, it says, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are SLAVES of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”. Whatever gets your attention gets YOU.

The battle for sin always starts in the mind. That’s why the Bible says in Psalm 119:6, “Thinking about Your Word will keep me from doing some foolish thing” (CEV). Why? Because if you’re thinking about God’s truth, you’re not thinking about whatever else the devil wants you to tune into.

If you focus on Godly things, they’ll pull you in a Godly direction. But if you focus on the bad news you see on television and on social media, they’ll pull you down into the devil’s pit. Remember whatever you focus on gets your attention. And whatever gets your attention gets you. The key is to change your focus.

There’s a pattern to every temptation. First attention, then arousal, and then action. Your mind gets hooked, your feelings kick in, and then you act on it.

Most people aren’t very good at capturing their thoughts and turning them to Christ—because it takes practice, discipline. But that’s just it. “Renewing” your mind means “disciplining” your mind. Rom 12:2 says, “Do not conform yourself to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will”.

We can’t always control our circumstances, nor the way we feel, but we CAN control our thoughts. We can just turn our mind to something else just as easily as we can turn off the TV, or walk away from conversations that don’t edify you. If you see something you’re not supposed to look at, you can decide not to look again. Seeing is not the same as looking. We can’t always control what we see but we can control what we look at. And we control what we think about.

And if we change the way we think, it changes the way we feel, and that will change the way we ACT.

The best way and the quickest way to tune out the devil and tune In God is to start PRAISING. Whenever you’re worrying, whenever you are fearing, whenever you’re feeling incapable, just start thanking God, or praising God or worshipping God. Whatever you do, just love God.

You get EMPOWERED when you PRAISE. Praise breaks the power of the devil.

In our next chapter, we will cover how the Christian life is filled with positiveness, praise, and consequently BLESSINGS….