Mind Control 4 Series

Romans 6:16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

In this study of "Mind Control", we will see many things, but most will fall under one of five categories:

(1) The mind will be under the control of someone and/or something

(2) It takes very little to come under the control of others and other information

(3) It is not just the bad or uninformed people that succumb to mind control by others and false information

(4) Many people (even Christians) are not willing to have a disciplined life. Therefore, they are wide open to mind control by others and false information

(5) Under such mind control pseudo-Biblical actions can easily be produced

The passage of Romans 6:16-19 clearly brings out the truth of #1 & #4. Generally speaking, our minds will be controlled by: "sin to (Spiritual) death" OR "obedience to righteousness". This passage is not a reference to our salvation. By its structure and context, it is speaking to those who have already placed their trust in Christ as personal Savior.

The Holy Spirit through Paul tells Believers that we will be controlled by sin or obedience. In verse 17, these at Rome obeyed FROM THE HEART that form of doctrine they already had. Then in the last part of verse 19, we are to "present" our members as SLAVES to righteousness FOR holiness. We know from this and other passages that the process of "presenting of our members" involves extreme discipline.

There are four major sources of mind control:

(1) Self

(2) World

(3) Demonic

(4) Holy Spirit

Each of these areas have their own philosophy or teaching to instruct a person how to surrender the mind to their control. Obviously, Believers who are sincerely desirous to live the life of holiness choose #4.

However, when a Believer sets out on this "road" of surrendering their mind to the control of the Holy Spirit, they find this "road" of surrender to God is difficult!!

One thing about the Bible I like, among MANY others, is the honesty of its declarations concerning the Christian life. Far too often, preachers give an invitation to come to Christ using an "advertising" method that is as false as any other lie on TV or the printed news.

Some preachers say something like, "Come to Jesus with all your cares and God will solve every problem."

OR they may say something like, "Are you hard pressed? Come to Jesus, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and Christ will give you rest."

Those statements have a measure of truth in them and one is a quote from Christ, BUT they are not the full picture of the truth. They must be put in the context of the rest of Scripture. Therefore standing by themselves, they are an untruth. Far too often, our appeal to people to come to Christ is not to have their sin problem solved, BUT to have their physical discomfort removed. That is a totally false premise as to why Christ came through the incarnation.

Yes, Christ did say…

Matthew 11:28 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Please note the last phrase of both verse 28 and 29. Both have to do with this promised "rest". In verse 28 Christ said "I will give you rest". Then in verse 29 Christ tells us how we get that rest.

Christ says that we will find our "rest" by doing two things

(1) Taking His YOKE

(2) Learning from Me (Christ)

These facts should be a complete study in themselves, but for this lesson, it is needful to see that this rest is not a blank check, simply because we come to Christ for salvation.

I’ve dabbled in farming for a good part of my life, and never did I find that putting on a yoke was the same as taking a nap. No! When the yoke is put on, it is for the purpose of doing something and usually that something is hard work. It is not until the yoke is taken off that it’s time for a nap.