HOW LONG MUST I WRESTLE WITH MY THOUGHTS AND EVERY DAY HAVE SORROW IN MY HEART? HOW LONG WILL MY ENEMY TRIUMPH OVER ME? Psalm 13:2
THE OCCUPATION OF OUR MINDS
Prior to becoming Christians our minds were enemy territory, blinded and bound by Satan. He set up ’strongholds of arguments’ and ’strongholds of pretensions’ so as to defend his stolen territory and also to keep God out. Satan knows that if he can control or influence our thought patterns or dictate our mind set he can prejudice our whole outlook on life.
STRONGHOLDS (ochuroma) this term is only found once in the New Testament {see 2Cor 10:4}, it is a military term used when building or declaring a fortress to be impregnable when under attack. A military stronghold was used as a vantage point to keep a lookout for the enemy, also as a control tower. Leaders or commanding officers would station themselves at strategic points to control a counter-attack. A stronghold gives the RIGHT to RULE and REIGN and is used to keep one’s authority secure. Paul uses this military imagery to show the strength of the evils one’s occupation of our minds and to what lengths he will go to keep them as his territory.
Satan’s stronghold are built in our minds in the shape of ’arguments’ and ’pretension.’ They are used to control our thinking in relation to the things of God. {see 2Cor 10:5}
ARGUMENTS these are intellectual and emotional towers raised in objection to the Gospel or the truth that sets us free from Satan’s bondage. Many people today repeat the same arguments that bring doubt and deception to their thinking concerning the things of God. Arguments follow these line; " If there is a God then why does He allow war and famines?" "God has never done any thing for me!" "I don’t need God" "Church is full of hypocrites" or "Nobody in that Church ever loved me"
Arguments in our mind can lead us to say what we may one day regret. If we take the advice of James and think before we speak we may realise we do not have the Mind of Christ.
What you say!
What you say in a hurry, May cause you much worry;
So weight your words well - What you’d say.
Ill-chosen expressions, Oft give wrong impressions
So think first, then speak, It will pay.
PRETENSIONS these are ’lofty things’ pretensions of the truth rather than arguments against the truth. Pretensions are anything that claims a higher place than God - that sets itself up as of more importance than the things of God in our minds. Pretensions even seek to make us proud, believing we don’t need God or anyone else.
Stronghold are build up in our minds with REASONABLE LIES which become RUTS OF THINKING or a mind set you cannot seem to break free from. Satan attacks our thinking with lies that sound plausible and acceptable {see the story of Eve in the Garden, Gen 3}. They maybe reasonable lies about God, about others, even yourself. However, they will be contrary to Scripture and will be used to bring us into a rut of thinking, so that we follow the same route of thinking and are held in that rut that leads us away from God.
THE BATTLEGROUND OF OUR MINDS
{see Rom 7:21ff, Rom 8:5ff Col 1:21}
Something had to be done to set our minds free, to destroy these strongholds of the enemy. Paul says "our weapons" (it is important to note Paul does not say "arguments") have divine power to demolish strongholds. Paul repeatedly says that when the Gospel is preached, a divine power is released that sets us free. {see 1Cor 1:17-25, 2:1-5, 2Cor 4:16)
Satan’s strongholds were demolished and the Spirit of God began to occupy our minds. Our minds have now become the territory of the Holy Spirit. Satan did not give up our minds without a fight and he is not going to let us go on in God without a struggle. Thoughts sent from Satan are going to run through the Holy Spirit’s territory of our minds, thoughts that are evil and that will bring discouragement, darkness, disunity, doubt and a distance between us and God. Together with the holy Spirit we need to take captive those thoughts and make them obedient to Christ. {see 2Cor 10:5)
TAKING PRISONERS IN YOUR MIND
When we find ourselves under attack from the enemy, there is pressure to surrender and to return to our old way of thinking, believing the reasonable lies and falling back into ruts of thinking. (see Eph 2:3)
Evil thoughts do not just run through our minds and never return, they keep coming back again until the ’room’ or ’foothold’ we give them becomes a stronghold (or a rut of thinking).
Evil thoughts want to be entertained, they are like the uninvited guest who does not want to leave and who wants to be continually fed and pampered. (Matt 9:4) In the ’power of the Spirit’ with the ’sword of the Spirit’ we need to take evil thoughts as our prisoners (Eph 6:17, Heb 4:12). We shall only experience the Holy Spirit’s power as we follow His command, and we can only use the ’sword’s’ authority as we apply it to our lives in our counter-attack upon the evil thoughts of the enemy. Therefore, we must never give evil thoughts ROOM to RUN or to REST in our minds but we must seek to RESIST them ROOTING them out and RIDDING our minds of them.
TRANSFORMING THE PRISONERS
When prisoners have been taken captive you can lock them away and try to forget about them, however, the problem is they may break out, or you may release them and they will attack you once more. The most effective way to deal with evil prisoners is to execute them, and we have to deal with evil thoughts in the same way.
Prisons today seek to reform their prisoners, so that when they are released they will obey the law. In the same way we need to transform our minds so that our thoughts are obedient to Christ and in line with the Word of God (Rom 12:2).
We must discipline our minds to have a thought pattern that is programmed according to the Word of God, not the reasonable lies of Satan, nor the old ruts of thinking we once followed.
To reform or transform our thoughts, we must fill our minds with the Word of God, agree with what the Word of God says about us and others. We must judge our thoughts according to the Word of God, encourage ourselves with the Word of God, and then we shall soon find that our thought patterns have changed (Phil 4:8)
The Word of God when applied by faith to our hearts, sets us free, sanctifies us, and strengths us (Jh 8:32-36, Ps 119:28, Jh 17:17).
"The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear. The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid." Psalm 27:1
