Have you as a Christian recognized the battle in your mind?

Every person and also faithful believers have a thought life. The thoughts of our mind have a great bearing upon our well-being and our way of living – whether in turmoil or in rest and peace.

As a believer who wants so very much to walk with and serve the Lord, I still sometimes find myself thinking thoughts I know I ought not to be thinking. I know this because my heart is sometimes convicted. I also then realize I am not enjoying the benefits of living with a proper Christian mindset in the light of my new identity in union with Christ in my spirit.

My mind sometimes becomes somewhat darkened, no longer saturated with the brightness of the light of His life. Its then apparent that I’ve been thinking thoughts that I know are contrary to “the truth.”

John 5:35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand (being near to Him) there are pleasures for evermore. 

I’ve also learned over the years that if I persist in entertaining illegitimate fearful or sinful thoughts, I will bear the weight of my wrong thinking in my troubled soul. If I persist in entertaining these thoughts, it means I’ve chosen to turn away from the Lord as the truth within my spirit. I then become weighed down, heavy and in darkness. The light and buoyancy of the Lord in my life is then diminished or lost for a time, even though Christ will never leave me and He irrevocably forever dwells within my spirit.

Thankfully, the Lord even then will never fail us or leave us helpless (cf. 1Cor 10:13). He is ever-present and faithful to support us as believers as we turn our heart to Him, again and again. Note that even “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:13)

We have a lying enemy whose immediate purpose is to obstruct our union with the Lord in which we enjoy rest and peace in our souls. The fact is that we can become deceived at least for as time, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices (Gk., noema, his thoughts, mental effort)” (2Cor. 2:11, see. 2Cor 10:5).

Paul writes of the Sin-spirit (cf. Eph 2:2-3) with its Sin-nature being in every human as “Sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:3b). Paul here below describes the nature of our “warfare” as being not of “the flesh,” but of the spirit.

“though we walk in the flesh (body), we do NOT WAR after (in the manner of) the flesh: ⁴(for the weapons of our WARFARE are NOT carnal (fleshly), ⁴BUT (our weapons are) mighty through God (His “Spirit”) to the Pulling Down (Gk., kathairesis, destruction) of STRONG HOLDS; ⁵CASTING DOWN (pulling down) IMAGINATIONS, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the KNOWLEDGE of God, and Bringing Into Captivity Every THOUGHT to the obedience of (attentively harkening to) Christ.” (2Cor. 10:3-5).

The words ‘Imaginations, Thought, and Knowledge’ (above) tell us the battleground of our “war” is located within “the spirit of our mind” (Eph 4:23), where we think and imagine. Every sinful tempting thought is a ‘vain imagination,’ an attack upon what we as believers ought to know of our righteous Lord and our new identify as His regenerated offspring. We live in the love of God and under His pure grace.

The Devil is able to impart “thoughts” into our minds. He uses these to place a wedge between us and the Lord. Often that wedge is the self-condemnation that usually comes to us when he tempts us, causing believers to fail in faith.

This war is in our mind and cannot be avoided, it will be with us until our Rapture to heaven. The enemy of our soul is the “spirit that worketh (his thoughts) in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:1). The Devil is the Sin-spirit that tempts us by shooting his thoughts as “fiery darts” (Eph. 6:16) of temptation into our minds in the form of unbelieving, self-interested, fearful, and otherwise sinful thoughts.

Thus, Paul wrote; “Above all, taking the Shield of Faith, wherewith ye shall be able to Quench All The Fiery Darts Of The Wicked [One]. (Ephesians 6:16 (KJV). If unrecognized, Satan may also have established a seeming a “strong hold” in our mind. Our minds ever need to be renewed to ‘the truth’ by immersing ourselves in the truth of His written word for us as grace-age believers. We’ll discuss this further as we go on in this series.

“And be not conformed to this world [Gk. kosmos, age]: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2 (KJV)

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

Oftentimes we as Christians might still find themselves occupied by wrong thinking, about things that are unseemly and we know these thoughts are contrary to our desire for living a righteous life. It is not just the thoughts of the obviously gross acts of sin such as murder and adultery that are sins; sometimes we may conjure up or resurrect thoughts of past happenings or fears of our future life on earth. Some thoughts are sinful even though they may seem innocuous or harmless, such as dwelling on the real but unpleasant happenings of our past life events. These thoughts are sinful because they draw us away from the truth of ‘the NOW’ in which we live, in our present secure position with the Lord. Such thinking is harmful to our peace and rest in the Lord. We should note that Paul defines “sin” as “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom 14:23b).

So, any manifestation of a lack of faith and trust in the Lord as one’s all sufficiency is an act of “sin.”

Hebrews 13:5 (Amplified Bible) Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself Has Said, I Will Not In Any Way Fail You Nor Give You Up Nor Leave You Without Support. [I Will] Not, [I Will] Not, [I Will] Not In Any Degree Leave You Helpless Nor Forsake Nor Let [You] Down (Relax My Hold On You)! [Assuredly Not!]

Sin often includes dwelling on fearful, anxious, grossly sinful, or self-seeking thoughts. And towards others there are thoughts of gossip, hate, covetousness, unforgiveness, resentfulness, retaliation, selfishness, and jealousy. Why are all these considered sins? It’s because these thoughts are evidence of one not really trusting the Lord and His ways, not being satisfied with Him as our life, not trusting His sufficiency.

Being one myself who has been prone to anxiety, I know that anxious thoughts are temptations in the “imagination” that I call “awfulizing.” To dwell on such thoughts is to conjure up thoughts about what ‘might go wrong’ or happen. We consider what ‘might get out of our control’ so we become anxious. In running my business in 1994, I did this often and it led to a stress induced heart attack at age 49. Such thoughts can become what Paul calls a “strong hold” that must be recognized and “pulled down.”

I’ve learned that my foolish fears of losing control were really only an illusion of control that I thought would make me secure. Of course, I never really had such control, but that’s another subject. Matt. 6:27 (AMP) And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life?

We are all prone to being tempted with such thoughts. These thoughts are contrary to what we know to be true for one in union with the Lord. Yet these thoughts come, trying to elevate themselves above what we know is the truth of our secure eternal relationship with the Lord. We’re often plagued in these or similar ways until we do as Paul commends us (below).

“For though we walk in the flesh (body), we do not war after the flesh: ⁴ (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God (by His Spirit) to the pulling down of strong holds;) ⁵ 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; ⁶ And having in a readiness to revenge (correct) all disobedience, when your obedience (to the truth) is fulfilled.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6)

Paul says we need to be those who are “casting down imaginations” and taking “every thought captive.” We must recognize, isolate, and set these thoughts (firey darts) aside as lies of the Evil one. We must recognize these thoughts for what they are – they are not our thoughts, but they are of the tempter, the Evil One.

Then of course there are thoughts of our sexual imaginations that sometimes just seem to appear in our mind, without any seeming provocation. Perhaps you’ve had the experience of simply been going about your daily business, perhaps at the super market or the office and all of a sudden, a most-foul, unprovoked, thought may come into your mind? We were created as sexual beings for procreation, so it’s easy for the Devil to tempt us. He tries to make us think these thoughts are our thoughts, that “There’s something wrong with me, I’m failing as a Christian.” But, as we will see in the next installment, this is not true.