Winning the Battle in the Mind

1 Peter 5:8 KJV 1900

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

1 Peter 5:9 KJV 1900

Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

1 Peter 5:10 KJV 1900

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Introduction.

There are only two powers in the universe.

Good and Evil. God and the Devil.

Of all of our differences between nations, and differences between each other, and everything, it all mounts up to two powers.

All the rest, the little minor things, are connected with either one of those powers. And those powers is God’s power and Satan’s power.

Every war, every disorder, everything that comes along, it’s either controlled by God’s power or Satan’s power, ’cause that’s the only two powers there is.

And that is the power of life and the power of death. 62-0311 - The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

Satan’s Power is a perversion of God’s Power.

54 And we are, today, setting here, and one or the other power is going to control us.

So let’s cast out the evil one. Let’s take our position like the stars of the heavens.    62-0311 - The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

The war between Good and Evil is fought in the mind.

Mind battles.

There had to be a place selected for the battle to begin, and for the battle to rage. And that battlegrounds begin in the human mind. There is where the battle starts.

The human mind was chosen for the place of the battle, where it was begin,

and that is because that decisions are made from the mind, the head.    62-0311 - The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

That means you are the deciding factor.

75 If this church, right now could be put together, and knitted together with such that every person would be in one accord,

with not one shadow of doubt anywhere, there would not be a feeble person in our midst, in another five minutes.

There would not be nobody here desiring the Holy Ghost but what would receive It, if you could just get that certain thing fixed.

Now, there is where the battle begins, right in your mind, whether you will.    62-0311 - The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

There are five senses of the body and five senses of the spirit, but only one avenue to the soul, and that is the will.

81 And there’s only one avenue that that can come down, and that’s by the way of free moral agency, come into the soul, by your thoughts.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  62-0311 - The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

Mark 11:23 KJV 1900

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

You have to want to be saved.

83 So many people, lots of times, has misconstrued the Word. And I’ve been misunderstood by this, by making altar calls.

I said, “I wasn’t much on an altar call,” not meaning that you shouldn’t make an altar call.

84 But somebody get somebody by the arm, say, “Oh, Brother John, you know what? Me and you been neighbors all this time. Come up here at the altar, get down.”

What’s he doing? Wish I had a blackboard here, I could show you what he’s doing. He is trying to work through his soul, on affections. That don’t work. That’s not the avenue. Certainly, it isn’t.

85 Maybe he’s working in (the what?) a memory, through the sense of his soul. “Oh, Brother John, you had a wonderful mother. She died a long time ago.” A memory! See? You can’t do that.

86 It’s got to come down the line of free moral agency. You, yourself, let the Word of God…You don’t come because your mother was a good woman.

You don’t come because you’re a good neighbor. You come because that God calls you to come, and you accept Him on the basis of His Word. That Word is what means everything. That Word!

If you can get everything out of the way, all conscience, all senses, and just let the Word come in, that Word will produce just exactly. 62-0311 - The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

If the Word comes in and you try to cover it with imaginations, conscience, memory, reasons and affections, it’ll be a deformed Word.

We don’t add anything to the Word.

107 If you’ve got your senses, see, taste, feel, smell, and hear, they’re all right, but don’t trust them unless they agree with the Word.

They’re all right, but, if they disagree with the Word, don’t you listen to them. Now, imaginations, conscience, memories, reasons, and affections, they’re all right if they agree with the Word.

But if your affection doesn’t agree with the Word, get rid of it. You’d blow a flue, right quick. See? If your reason disagrees with the Word, get away from it. That’s right.

The engine…If your memory, if your imaginations, if your conscience, anything, disagrees with That what’s on the inside, get rid of it.    62-0311 - The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

Imagination

Your imagination could deform the Word by imagining a different outcome than God said would be.

This is how man fell into the antediluvian condition.

Romans 1:21 KJV 1900

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Genesis 6:5 KJV 1900

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

47 When God walked with just man alone, by himself, he had favor with God. But when man begin to multiply, and begin to get others and others and others, then they begin to…Satan having a more of a range to work in.

This man might believe a little bit, leaning that way; and the other one, a little bit this way; then when Satan comes in, he just fires it on.

Then it becomes this and that, and imaginations begin to come great, and then corruption sets in. And when Noah…    55-0522 - The Ark

Satan uses both sides against the middle.

He’ll encourage the legalist and the calvinist until one is a hypocrite and the other has no standard.

Satan will work on your imagination to believe that everyone is against you, when they aren’t even thinking about you.

Call his bluff. Cut him off at that entrance, don’t even let him into the battlefield.

2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV 1900

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

2. Conscience

Your conscience could tell you that you’re a sinner, even though you’ve been washed by the blood.

1 John 3:20 KJV 1900

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

4 I’m fixing to pray for you. I’m not worthy of that. I think, “What would I do if Jesus Christ was sitting here now? And what would He do if He was sitting here?”

He’d lay His hands upon you, and with His great faith, see, you’d get well. “Well,” I think, “well, I’m a sinner. I’m not Him.” But I come to represent Him.

But, remember, me being a sinner; and before God, I’m not a sinner, neither are you. We got a Blood Sacrifice laying There. God don’t even see us. He hears our voice, but He sees the Blood of Christ.

That’s it. See? He sees the Blood of His Own Son. It’s our voice; Christ’s Blood; then it’s Christ that’s talking through us, to God, so therefore we’re not sinners no more. We are Christian.     64-0705X - Private Interview

20 Oh, them little fellows. It’s that innocence. I’ve often thought how innocent a child is. And yet, if we could only be as innocent as one of those children…But, come to find out, we’re more innocent, when the Blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed us from all sin.     63-0428 - Look

The Pharisees were good at making people feel guilty, Jesus was good at setting people free from guilt.

Matthew 23:4 KJV 1900

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

Everything you add to the written Word is an unnecessary burden.

Paul comes down very hard on the Galatians who had followed false teachers back to the works of the law, and added the burden of circumcision to the Gospel.

Galatians 3:1 KJV 1900

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

Galatians 3:2 KJV 1900

This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Galatians 3:3 KJV 1900

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Galatians 3:4 KJV 1900

Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

Galatians 3:5 KJV 1900

He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

3. Memory.

Numbers 11:5 KJV 1900

We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:

Their memories lied to them.

When scientists showed two groups of people a video of a car crash the question “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” elicited reports of 20% greater traveling speeds than the question “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”, despite the fact that participants in both conditions viewed the same footage.

Memory distortions can also occur simply with the passage of time and with repeated recounting of events. Although it might not be surprising that mundane memories become weaker and more susceptible to distortion over time, emotional and traumatic ‘flashbulb memories’ are also susceptible to these automatic distortions.

(9-11 memories)

They were asked to recall this episode approximately one to two weeks after 9/11, one year later, and three years later. Memories of the details had changed in 37% of the people after one year and in 43% after three years. (US HHS)

It is not the memory of being changed that you put a stake down in, but in the fact that you changed, and remained that way.

30 No man has a right to preach the Gospel; no person has the right to call themselves a Christian, until they can go back to a certain time in their life,

where they could come on that sacred sands at the backside of the desert, where they know that they have met God.

All the infidels in the world, and these intellectuals giants taking the Bible and explaining away all the days of miracles. “They’re past.

There’s no such a thing as Divine healing, all this stuff, like speaking with tongues, interpretation of tongues, and gifts of healing, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.”

They can slip in, take your mind and twist you in such a way until they can take that away from your memory. They can explain it away.

I want you to get this, and don’t you never let it pass from you. But if a man’s ever stood on that sacred sands at the backside of the desert,

when he meets God face to face, there’s not enough devils in all hell could take that away from him.

He knows he met God. He knows he had an experience; he talked to God. Regardless, of what the opposition is, he can say, “From that time, something changed in me.”

31 How well I can call the time. In a little old saloon that had been used as a church where some colored people was preaching the Gospel,

I was a southerner and didn’t like colored people, and a vision came and told me where to go find it.

And all the white girls that I’d went with, oh, not all of them, four or five standing there said, “Billy, you’re not going in there?”

I said, “Yes, I’ve got to go.” Said, “Don’t never ask me for another date.”

It didn’t make any difference. I met God, and from that time I’ve been changed. Can point back to that time, I was changed. 60-0302 - From That Time

4. Reason

The Word of God is true, even if something else is more reasonable.

There are lots of good theories, but only God’s Word comes to pass.

26 The devil won the battle over the human race by reasoning with the human race.

Just reason, “Why, it stands to reason this would be? It stands to reason.” If the reasoning is contrary to the Word, then the reason is wrong!

The Word is right, just the way It’s written! Don’t put any private interpretation. Just say It the way It’s written, and believe It like that. See?

God has took care of It. It’s just exactly the way It’s supposed to be, so let’s just believe It that way.

27 Now, it’s the Word, every Word! Every…The Holy Spirit in a man; every sentence of the Bible, the Holy Spirit in you will punctuate with “amen,” because the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible.

And if He’s in you, how can He say, “Well, That was for another age, That was for this, or That was for that”?

How can He say that and be the Holy Spirit in you? Can’t do it. He has to say “amen” to It! 62-0705 - Jehovah-Jireh #1

5. Affections.

Galatians 5:24 KJV 1900

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Colossians 3:2 KJV 1900

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Affections are feelings and emotions.

All of us have them.

Even the deadest person in church can get their feelings hurt.

I’m not saved tonight because I feel like it. I’m not saved by feelings. I’m saved, because I have believed it and met the conditions the Bible required. The devil can beat you around the stump.

Tomorrow morning you may get up with a headache and feel like you’s a million miles away, but God’s grace holds tight. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, not what you feel but what you believe.

Jesus never did say, “Did you feeled it?” He said, “Did you believe it?” And that’s right. There’s difference, quite a difference: Not by feelings but by faith. 56-0427 - Faith

Conclusion.

Ephesians 6:13 KJV 1900

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

(See Slide)

419 What you want to do then? Take the Word. What is the Word? The Bible said here. We just read it. For the Spirit, and of God, is the Word.

See? Look here. “And take the helmet of salvation, and the Sword, the Sword of the Spirit.” The Sword of the Spirit! What?

The Spirit that comes in through your mind and enters into you, and the Sword of that Spirit is the Word of God.

420 What does that Spirit fight with? What does the Holy Spirit fight with? Sensations? Feelings? The Word; heart! Whew! Glory!

What does It fight with? Feelings? Word! Word! Let’s say it, Word! Word! Word of God is what the Spirit fights with.

421 The Spirit of God walks right up to the devil, and said, “It is written!” Amen! “It is written!” And the devil gives way.

(Let the Spirit come in by opening the avenue to the Soul.)

425 “All right, I open up my heart and my mind. Come in, Lord Jesus.”

426 And grab the Faith, that Sword of the Spirit, THUS SAITH THE LORD. Scream, “Hallelujah!” Amen.

Then cut down every enemy in front of you. Amen. There it is. Cut every enemy. If a old spooky spirit making you feel all…Cut that thing away, with the Word of the Lord.

But our strength, is, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”

427 “Get away from me.” Whack! You cut him with the Word. Whether it be demon, whether it be enemy, whether it be sickness, whether it be disease, whatever it is, take that Word and pull It with the Sword.

And if you whack it the first time, it don’t seem to move, whack it again, and whack it again, and whack it again.

And whack it until you chipped a hole through, like a little chicken peeping itself out; or an eagle, what you are. Peep yourself right on through that old shell of sickness.

Cut your way out, and say, “Hallelujah! Where’s the next one?” Amen. That’s the battle. That’s a soldier. That’s the soldier of the cross. Yes, sir. Knock every enemy out.

428 Why? Why? We, a predestinated, royal Seed of Abraham. When Abraham denied everything that was against God’s Word, he chopped his way right through every obstacle that come in front of him.

They said, “Your wife is too old.” He just chopped the thing out of the way. The devil said, “You can’t do this. You can’t do that.”

Abraham chopped it out of the way. He whacked at it, and whacked at it, until it cut itself through. 62-0311 - The Greatest Battle Ever Fought

Riding in Caesar’s chariot. “I fought with Beasts at Ephesus”.