Battlefield of the Mind (14 page)

Dave persisted with God's help, and now he is not passive at all. He is the administrator for Life In The Word, oversees all of our radio and television outreach and has responsibility for all the financial aspects of the ministry. He travels full time with me and makes the decisions concerning our travel schedule. He is also an excellent family man. He prays and spends time regularly in God's Word. In short, he is a man to be respected and admired.

He still plays golf and watches sports, but he also does the other things he is supposed to do. Knowing him now and seeing all that he accomplishes, no one would think that he was ever as passive as he once was.

The condition of passivity can be overcome. But the first step to overcoming passivity in actions is to overcome passivity in the mind.

Dave could not make progress until he made a decision and changed his way of thinking.

RIGHT ACTION FOLLOWS RI HT THINKING

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and
adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed
(changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and
its new attitude].... Romans 12:2

There is a dynamic principle shown throughout God's Word, and no person will ever walk in victory unless he understands and operates in it:
right action follows right thinking.

Let me put it another way:
you will not change your behavior until you
change your thoughts.

In God's order of things, right thinking comes first, and right action follows. I believe that right action or correct behavior is a "fruit" of right thinking. Most believers struggle trying to do right, but fruit is not the product of struggle. Fruit comes as a result of abiding in the vine. (John 15:4 KJV.) And abiding in the vine involves being obedient. (John 15:10 KJV.) I always use Ephesians 4:22-24 when teaching on this principle. Verse 22 says, Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion.

Verse 24 continues the thought by saying, And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [God-like] in true righteousness and holiness.

So we see that verse 22 basically tells us to stop acting improperly, and verse 24 tells us to begin acting properly. But verse 23 is what I call "the bridge Scripture." It tells us how to get from verse 22 (acting improperly) to verse 24 (acting properly): And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude].

It is impossible to get from wrong behavior to right behavior without
first
changing thoughts. A passive person may want to do the right thing, but he never will do so unless he purposely activates his mind and lines it up with God's Word and will.

An example that comes to mind involves a man who once got into the prayer line at one of my seminars. He had a problem with lust. He really loved his wife and did not want their marriage to be destroyed, but his problem needed to be solved or he would surely ruin his marriage.

"Joyce, I have a problem with lust," he said. "I just cannot seem to stay away from other women. Will you pray for my deliverance? I have been prayed for many times, but I never seem to make any progress."

This is what the Holy Spirit prompted me to tell him, "Yes, I will pray for you, but you must be accountable for what you are allowing to show on the picture screen of your mind. You cannot visualize pornographic pictures in your thinking, or imagine yourself with these other women, if you ever want to enjoy freedom."

Like this man, others have come to realize, on the spot, why they are not experiencing a breakthrough even though they want to be free:
they
want to change their behavior - but not their thinking.

The mind is often an area where people "play around with sin." Jesus said in Matthew 5:27,28, You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who so much as looks at a woman with evil desire for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. The way for sinful action is paved through sinful thinking.

A woman who attended my first home Bible study had committed her life to the Lord and wanted her home and marriage to be straightened out. Everything in her life was a mess—home, children, marriage, finances, physical condition, etc. She openly said that she did not love her husband; in fact, she actually despised him. Knowing that her attitude was not godly, she was willing to love him, but she just could not seem to tolerate being around him.

We prayed, she prayed, everyone prayed! We shared Scripture with her and gave her tapes to listen to. We did everything we knew to do and even though she was seemingly following our advice, she made no progress.
What was wrong?
During a counseling session, it was revealed that she had been a day dreamer all of her life. She was always imagining a fairy tale existence in which she was the princess and Prince Charming came home from work with flowers and candy, sweeping her off her feet with his devotion to her.

She spent her days thinking like this, and when her tired, overweight, sweaty, dirty husband came home from work (with one tooth missing), she despised him.

Think about this situation for a moment. The woman was born again, and yet her life was a mess. She wanted to obey God and live for Him, and she also wanted to love her husband because she knew it was God's will. She was willing to have victory in her life and marriage, but her mind was defeating her. There was no way she could overcome her disgust for her husband until she began to operate out of a "sound mind."

She was mentally living in a world that did not exist and never would. Therefore, she was totally unprepared to deal with reality. She had a passive mind, and since she was not choosing her own thinking according to the Word of God, the evil spirits injected thoughts into her mind.

As long as she thought they were her own thoughts and enjoyed them, she would never experience victory. She changed her thinking, and her life began to change. She changed her mental attitude toward her husband, and he began to change his appearance and his behavior toward her.

SET YOUR MIND ON WHAT IS ABOVE

If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus
sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich,
eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right
hand of God.

And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the
higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. Colossians 3:1,2

Once again we see the same principle: if you want to live the resurrection life that Jesus has provided, then seek that new, powerful life by setting your mind and keeping it set on things above, not on things on the earth.

The Apostle Paul is simply saying that if you and I want the good life, then we must keep our mind on good things.

Many believers want the good life, but they are passively sitting around wishing that something good would happen to them. Often, they are jealous of others who are living in victory and are resentful that their own lives are so difficult.

If you desire victory over your problems, if you truly want to live the resurrection life,
you must have backbone and not just wishbone!
You must be active—not passive. Right action begins with right thinking. Don't be passive in your mind. Start today choosing right thoughts.

Chapter 15

The Mind of Christ

For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.

1 CORINTHIANS 2:16

I believe that you have now made a firm decision to choose right thoughts, so let's look at the types of thinking that would be considered right according to the Lord. There are certainly many types of thoughts that would have been considered unthinkable to Jesus when He was on the earth. If we want to follow in His footsteps, then we must begin to think as He did.

Right away you're probably thinking, "That's impossible, Joyce, Jesus was perfect. I may be able to improve my thinking, but I will never be able to think as He did."

Well, the Bible tells us that we have the mind of Christ a new heart and spirit.

A NEW HEART AND SPIRIT

A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you,
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a
heart of flesh.

And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My
statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them. Ezekiel 36:26,27

As Christians, you and I have a new nature, which is actually the nature of God deposited in us at the New Birth.

We can see from this Scripture that God knew if we were to heed His ordinances and walk in His statutes that He would have to give us His Spirit and a new heart (and mind). Romans 8:6 speaks of the mind of the flesh and the mind of the Spirit and tells us that death is the result of following the mind of the flesh, and life is the result of following the mind of the Spirit.

We would make tremendous progress simply by learning how to discern life and death.

If something is ministering death to you, don't do it any longer. When certain lines of thought fill you full of death, you know immediately that it is not the mind of the Spirit.

To illustrate, let's say I'm thinking about an injustice I suffered because of another person, and I begin to get angry. I start thinking about how much I dislike that individual. If I am discerning, I will notice that I am being filled with death. I am getting upset, tense, stressed out—I may even be experiencing physical discomfort. Headache, stomach pain or undue fatigue may be the fruit of my wrong thinking. On the other hand, if I am thinking how blessed I am and how good God has been to me, I will also discern that I am being filled with life.

It is very helpful to a believer to learn to discern life and death within himself. Jesus has made arrangements for us to be filled with life by putting His own mind in us. We can choose to flow in the mind of Christ.

In the following pages of this chapter is a list of things to do in order to flow in the mind of Christ.

1.
Think positive thoughts.

Do two walk together except they make an appointment and have
agreed? Amos 3:3

If a person is thinking according to the mind of Christ, what will his thoughts be like? They will be positive, that's for sure. In an earlier chapter we have already discussed the absolute necessity of positive thinking. You may even want to go back to Chapter 5 at this point and refresh your memory on the importance of being positive. I just went back and read it and got blessed myself even though I wrote it.

Enough can never be said about the power of being positive. God is positive, and if you and I want to flow with Him, we must get on the same wave length and begin to think positively. I am not talking about exercising mind control, but simply about being an all-around, positive person.

Have a positive outlook and attitude. Maintain positive thoughts and expectations. Engage in positive conversation.

Jesus certainly displayed a positive outlook and attitude. He endured many difficulties including personal attacks—being lied about, being deserted by His disciples when He needed them most, being made fun of, being lonely, misunderstood, and a host of other discouraging things. Yet in the midst of all these negatives He remained positive. He always had an uplifting comment, an encouraging word; He always gave hope to all those He came near.

The mind of Christ in us is positive; therefore, any time we get negative, we are not operating with the mind of Christ. Millions of people suffer from depression, and I do not think it is possible to be depressed without being negative—unless the cause is medical. Even in that case, being negative will only increase the problem and its symptoms.

According to Psalm 3:3, God is our glory and the lifter of our heads.

He wants to lift everything: our hopes, our attitudes, our moods, our head, hands and heart—our whole life. He is our divine Lifter!

God wants to lift us up, and the devil wants to press us down. Satan uses the negative events and situations of our life to depress us. The dictionary definition of the word
depress
is "to lower in spirits:
SADDEN
."1

According to Webster, something that is
depressed
is "sunk below the surrounding region:
HOLLOW."2
Depress
means to sink, to press down or to hold below ground level. We regularly have the opportunity to think negative thoughts, but they will only press us down further. Being negative won't solve our problems; it will only add to them.

OVERCOME DEPRESSION

Psalm 143:3-10 gives a description of depression and how to overcome it. Let's look at this passage in detail to see the steps we can take to overcome this attack of the enemy:

1. Identify the nature and cause of the problem.

For the enemy has pursued and persecuted my soul, he has
crushed my life down to the ground; he has made me to dwell in dark
places as those who have been long dead. Psalm 143:3

"Dwelling in dark places as one who is long dead," certainly sounds to me like a description of someone who is depressed.

Notice that the cause or source of this depression, this attack upon the soul, is Satan.

2. Recognize that depression steals life and light.

Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed and faints within me [wrapped in gloom]; my heart within my bosom grows numb. Psalm 143:4