The War Over Your Mind

The War Over Your Mind

If we hope to move forward in complete victory, we must transform our minds to think the way God thinks. We must adopt His thoughts for today rather than our own. I am convinced that one of the greatest coming wars will take place on the battlefield of the mind. We must declare His reign on the earth through our personal renewal, starting with our minds.

As you might expect, this renewal always meets opposition. Satan would like nothing more than to keep you in old thought patterns, stale mindsets and worn-out mentalities.

In his book Authority in Prayer: Praying with Power and Purpose, Dutch Sheets shares the nature of this confrontation: Our war is not physical.

Though Satan uses people to advance his causes, the New Testament makes clear that we are not warring against flesh and blood. Unbelievers, atheists and those who disagree theologically are not our enemies. They are all loved by God, and He wants each of them to be saved. Our real enemies are the powers of darkness waging war against God’s kingdom, trying to hinder His purposes on the earth. Make no mistake: Our war with these forces is a war for the soul of a nation and the destinies of millions of people.

The real war is over the transformation of our thought processes. We are all on the battlefield each day when it comes to winning the war over our minds. How exactly, then, does the enemy continue to influence us? What are his tactics?

His most powerful means of influence and attack are through strongholds. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle reveals this potent device of Satan, while also mapping out the spiritual warfare that is just as relevant today as it was during his time:

Sermon Text:

(ESV)

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Prayer

Paul gives us keys to victory in our own battles of the mind. When we capture a thought and make it obedient to Christ, we are simply transforming that thought into the way Christ would think. Paul goes on to tell the Corinthians that if they do not bring their thoughts into captivity, their minds will be affected by wrong philosophies and a stronghold will be developed. Simply stated, a stronghold is a thought process that has been constructed and allowed to take up residence.

1. Preventing Strongholds In Our Life!

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul’s statement to the church in Rome is just as valid today as it was nearly 2,000 years ago. We can become conformed to the world in a heartbeat.

In our sinful nature, we are instinctively wired to take on the blueprint of the world’s plans, methods and philosophies.

says, “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

Our mind inherently wars against the knowledge and thinking processes of God. The sad truth is that we are more likely to come into agreement with anti-God thoughts and antichrist systems than we are to choose God’s way. This is a battle, this is a war!

However, the Lord offers a solution via Paul’s words to the Romans. We are called to be transformed. The word “transformation” essentially means to break out of that confined plan and blueprint and enter into a metamorphosis of thinking the same way God thinks.

The Greek word for Transform is the word metamorphoo which literally means to change, to transfigure, to transform.

So, the question this morning is How do we transform?

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocWgSgMGxOc

Begin at 1:51 end at 2:22

Much like a caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly we do the same when we become more like Him, thinking His thoughts and following His strategies, by the “renewing of your mind.”

2. God Can Change Your Mind!

‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

It’s usually at this point we find ourselves in a fight! It’s a fight with ourselves. It’s one thing for you to tell God that there is nothing too hard for Him—it’s another thing for God to ask if you really believe it! Our thought processes can deceive us, but they cannot escape the reality of God. This is how critical thinking works: It causes us to become responsive to a purpose or goal. If we align our thoughts with God’s thoughts, we are assured success in the future.

CLOSING

3. It’s Time to Align!

That leads us to the obvious question: Just how do we align our thoughts with God’s?

There are plenty of opponents who would rather not see us walking in union with God’s thoughts and plans—Satan and his earthly accomplices, for starters.

Yet there is another force at work against us, one that comes from within each of us: our own emotions.

To think differently we must realign our desires and allow the Holy Spirit to rule our emotions. A desire is a function of our emotions. In other words, our desires are birthed out of our emotions. Remember that desire, fueled by emotion, is what caused Eve to stray from the mind of God. Satan convinced her that God was holding out on her by not offering her the fruit of every tree in the garden. She was not content with having access to 99.9 percent of the trees in Eden—she wanted them all. This shifted her desire from God to something that God had forbidden.

Desire causes you to seek what is most precious to you, often without regard to the cost. This can be both good and bad. All prayer and communion is a result of desire. Desire is linked with passion—we all burn to embrace something.

Desire is also linked with praise and delight. When you feel spiritually dry and are unable to praise, most likely your emotions have been blocked in some way and your desire function is not in operation. If we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to overtake our desires, our minds will not function right.

On the negative side, unrestrained desire leads to covetousness, presumption, dwindling vision and overall decay. When desire is not functioning healthily, we enter into hope deferred.

And as says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

When the heart is sick, the mind becomes infected. And if we lose our expectation for God to move in our lives, which is a function of desire, we begin to think with a mindset contrary to the way God thinks.

Altar Time - HEALING is here for you. Healing of your hurts, habits, hang-ups is here right now. Come and receive the healing your mind needs right now. It is only found at the cross in the name of Jesus. Come right now.

The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace