Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle of Your Mind

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Additionally, Meyer explains that by heeding the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will not only be able to follow God’s unique path for us, but we will find peace and fulfillment along the way. What is God’s perspective on temptation? What is God’s perspective on evil? What is God’s perspective on our past, our present, and our future? What is God’s perspective on sin? What is God’s perspective on Satan? Once we start getting perspective, we begin developing convictions.

If your mood begins to sink or you have a bad attitude, take an inventory of your current thoughts and you will very likely find the culprit. I enjoy knowing that I can do something about my problems… that I can do my own thinking. People living in the vanity of their own mind not only destroy themselves, but far too often, they bring destruction to others around them.” Nothing] . . . will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39). That’s conviction. It’s not an opinion; it’s a conviction. The next time you notice yourself thinking the same old negative things, choose to replace them thoughts with truth from God’s Word.Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh [in other words, we don’t fight with armor, we don’t fight with politics, we don’t fight with money, we don’t fight with all the humanistic ways]. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Once we begin to develop convictions, we start developing habits — and the sum total of our habits is what we can call “character.” We cannot say that we have the character of honesty unless we are habitually honest. We cannot say we have the character of kindness unless we are habitually kind. Character is the sum total of our habits. God has given us the appropriate weapons because this war in which we’re engaged is not in the physical realm. Our weapons are not physical, but spiritual. God has given us spiritual weapons that will destroy strongholds. In this war there are strongholds that oppose us and oppose God. And Paul goes on to describe these strongholds in verse five: “...casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ...” You develop character by developing the habits of love and joy and peace and patience — those nine qualities from Galatians 5 — kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (verses 22–23). What are these fruit of the Spirit? They are a perfect picture of the character of Christ. If we want to become like Jesus, then we must seek the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. The goal is to become more like God in our character, not to become gods. We never will become God — no matter how much fruit we produce. We will never be mini-gods. We are not God. That’s the oldest lie in the book, that we “will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). We need to learn character. 5) Skill

Let each of you esteem and look upon and be concerned for not [merely] his own interests, but also each for the interests of others. Philippians 2:4” When you look at yourself through God's eyes, you'll be able to accept who you are and who you were made to be.I learned firsthand how to use those weapons. From 1949 onwards (for about nine years) I was pastor of a congregation in London, England. I achieved a certain measure of success in my ministry. We regularly saw people saved and healed and baptized in the Holy Spirit at our church. Yet, I had personal problems for which I did not have any answer. In particular, I had a problem of recurrent fits of depression that would come over me like a dark, heavy cloud. The cloud seemed to press me down and cut me off from normal communication with other people—even with my family. When I talk about dreaming great dreams, I am not talking about changing doctrine. The Bible says in Jude 3 that the biblical faith was “once for all delivered to the saints.” The gospel is there, and we don’t change it. To do so is heresy. But for those of us who are leaders, whether in the church or simply in our homes, what we don’t see with our physical eyes is far more important than what we do see. I can attest to that after nearly forty years of leading. We can only do the impossible if we see the invisible. Think about what a rebuke that was to the Pharisees who had memorized the Pentateuch — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They had memorized it, yet Jesus says that their problem is that they don’t know the Scripture. They needed to teach others their knowledge, teach others to love knowledge, and get rid of anti-intellectualism. (By the way, we need great Christian intellectuals today more than ever before — people a lot brighter than I! — who battle on the intellectual level against the many competing worldviews.) 2) Perspective (Wisdom) As a teenager I heard, “The impact on your life will be largely from the people you meet and the books you read.” So I decided to get very intentional about both of those — whom I would meet and what I would read. And when you begin to build a library of godly, Christian books, you are leaving a legacy for the next generation. Twice in the book of Proverbs we are told to “store up my commands within you” (Proverbs 2:1; 7:1 NIV). If you are going into eternity, you are going to take that with you.

The text of this Bible is easy to read and use. Scattered throughout the book are book introductions, “winning the battles of the mind” articles, “keys to a victorious life” articles, PowerPoints (brief powerful comments for a specific Bible verse), “speak God’s Word” entries, “a prayer to renew your mind” entries, highlighted Scriptures on thoughts and words, and finally For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the” I’m always going to have a second-class life because I was abused by my father and I’m damaged goods.” I prayed, “God, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—according to Your Word—I’m asking You to deliver me from this spirit of heaviness.” And when I prayed that specific, scriptural prayer, I was delivered. The pressure was lifted. We like everything instantaneous. We have the fruit of patience inside, but it is being worked to the outside. Sometimes God takes His time about bringing us our full deliverance. He uses the difficult period of waiting to stretch our faith and to let patience have her perfect work (see James 1:4 KJV). God’s timing is perfect. He is never late.”In conviction we want the heart of God. We don’t want only to see what God sees but also to feel what God feels — about the world, about the lost, about his Word, about his church. We need to learn knowledge. Then we need to add to that God’s perspective. But then we need to add to the convictions that come out of knowing the mind of God. 4) Character The central tenet of Meyer’s book is that the state of our lives mirrors the state of our minds. A negative mindset produces a negative life, while a positive mindset produces a positive life. According to Meyer, a “positive mindset” is one that is focused on God. She argues that when we put God at the center of our minds and spirits, we're happier, more successful, more fulfilled, and we positively impact those around us. Paul says in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” — more than we can imagine. More than we can dream. Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. I think I’m a pretty big dreamer, but God says, “Think of the biggest thing you can think of, and I can top that. I can outdo that.” A Challenge to Thinkers and to Doers