Battle for Your Thoughts

 

    Everyone has battles that go on in their mind.  There are battles of desire over following Jesus.  There are battles of doing what is right when we want it our way.  There are purely spiritual battles.  There are many different battles that happen in the mind, but everyone has battles.

    When the fleshly desires win the mental battle then it can lead to unpleasant things like angry outburst.  Things that are rooted deep in you will come to the surface.  You may not have even been aware that it was inside you.  God will use these moments to reveal sin in your life.  You can beat yourself up about it or you can repent and work on destroying the roots.

    Vigilantly hold onto your faith and allow it to help you become mentally and spiritually stronger.  Satan wants your mind in chaos, but the Holy Spirit wants to help you be still.  Satan will get your emotions flared up in hopes that they will control you, but Jesus taught you self-control.  You can listen to Satan's lies or you can choose to listen to God's truth.

    When Satan wins the battle of your thoughts you will find yourself angry, bitter, self-centered, prideful, and more negative attributes are likely to present themselves.  Your thoughts will be accusatory, critical, selfish, self-defeating, and emotionally triggering.  When you see this happening inside you, you have the chance to repent and seek thoughts that come from God.  Satan is real.  You need God to help you fight the battles of your mind.

    How you talk to yourself matters.  Your mind will believe what you say.  If you speak unwisely, then your thoughts will become negative.  If you speak love and truth, then you will find joyful thoughts.  Choose not to speak to people when you have nothing nice to say.  Choose not to talk about people in a negative light.  It doesn't matter if they talk about you.  That is something that they have to work out with God.  You are only responsible for yourself.  If you do, then you are only hurting your own soul.

    Speak peace into your life.  It will help to settle your feelings.  You will find the proper perspective to look at things because you are feeding your mind truth, love, grace, discretion, and mercy.  The truth is refreshing and helps safeguard your mind from Satan's lies.  Your mind will grow in wisdom and discernment to be able to find the truth in almost all situations.  

    Ask God to make you aware of the battles for your thoughts.  You can't start fighting them if you are not aware that you are having them.  It starts with one battle at a time.  Allow God to do most of the battling for you, but work on what you can do to change your thinking today.  Do not be harsh with yourself.  The world is harsh enough.  You need to be kind to yourself, so that you can be kind to other people too.

2 Kings 5:13-14, Psalms 29:10-11, Proverbs 15:1-4, Matthew 26:40-41, Philippians 4:6-7, James 4:1-3, & 1 Peter 5:8-9

Still Your Mind

 

    Your mind finds peace when it is able to be still.  Life is chaotic and always moving, but there are ways to calm down your mind: soothing music, singing worship, cleaning, exercise, prayer, and quality time with God.  I personally enjoy reading to find time to be still, but that does not necessarily mean that my mind will slow down at all.  

    Turn to God if you struggle with getting your mind to quiet down.  The Holy Spirit will guide you.  He will teach you what you need to get through today.  Get through today and allow tomorrows problems wait until tomorrow.  

    How you talk to yourself will have a big impact on how your day will go.  Make a vow to God that you will be kind to yourself to glorify Him.  Stilling your mind calms your soul.  It is not something that happens naturally.  It takes practice, so be patient with yourself.  Do not rip yourself apart when you are not perfect.  You know what you are working toward.

    You are capable.  It starts with cutting off selfish behaviors and conditioning your mind to be a servant like Jesus.  Fight the urge to get proud when things are going well.  Stilling your mind brings you to a place of acceptance (of good things and purpose for bad things).  It fights anger and defiance by accepting that God 's knowledge and rule is better than your own.  You do this by choosing to trust Him.

    Tell your soul to be open to God, accepting of His reign over you, and be willing to go where He leads.  This can be exciting, but it does take being intentional.  It will not happen by accident.  How you speak to your soul matters.  Do not speak depression, rage, legalism, or insults to yourself.  Your mind will believe it and it will hurt your soul.  

    Let go of your defensiveness, distrust, and wall.  God will fight with you and for you.  Let Him.  Accept what you allows to happen in your life.  You will waste a lot of energy fighting it, but it is okay to go to Him when it is just too much.  That could be His goal.  

    Allow His righteousness to cover your sins.  Control your anger, so you do not act foolishly.  Pray truth into your life.  Admit when you are angry and allow the Holy Spirit to work in you to remove it.  Righteous anger will resolve itself.  The anger of rebellion, selfishness, and fighting God needs to be removed for your mind to find peace.  That anger only allow Satan into your mind to reek havoc.

Psalm 46:8-11, 131, Proverbs 16:32-33, Ecclesiastes 7:1-14, Ephesians 4:25-27, & James 1:19-21

Strengthen Your Mind

 

    You can make your mental closet strong to keep the lies out.  It starts with faith and prayer.  You have to believe that God is stronger.  You have to believe that He is the source of truth and will keep His promises.  You have to believe that He hears your prayers and will answer them.  If you believe that, then you are well on your way to fortifying your mind.

    Pray over your spiritual warfare.  This means you pray over every aspect of your life.  You pray in the good time, bad time, for yourself, for other.  You pray specifically.  You ask for guidance and are willing to change direction to follow wise counsel of t he Holy Spirit.  You have to be vigilant to what is happening around you and in the world to stay spiritually alert.  

    For a strong mind you have to be honest with yourself and your battles with sin.  You have to know what your temptations are to flee from them.  Satan and his following are aware of your weaknesses.  You never want them to know more about what is going on with you than you do yourself or you are on the defense instead of the offense.  You need a strong prayer life to stay on the offense.

    Jesus taught or will teach you how to pray.  Once you have that relationship in the works, you need to focus on putting on the armor of God every day.  After prayer comes accountability.  That means we need prayer partners.  These are people that are safe and love you for who you are.  They will not tell you it is okay that you sinned, but will walk with you to help you not sin again.  

    The solitary and silent are the most vulnerable to Satan.  You don't have people in your life telling you that you are listening to Satan's lies.  You don't have the support when you are weak.  You are less likely to confess your sins.  This give Satan a foothold to control aspects of your life.  You need God and friends to stay spiritually strong, honest, and accountable.  Isolation is not safe.

    Faith is the final step to strengthening your mind.  You need spiritual weapons to fight spiritual battles hence the armor of God.  You walk in faith not feelings.  Faith will reveal strongholds that were created by believing Satan's lies.  Then the Holy Spirit will help you free yourself from strongholds or hereditary sin.  

    Lies hurt and cause a lot of damage.  You have to fight the lies with the truth and use the shield of faith.  If you don't then Satan will destroy your mind.  No matter of good self-talk, good vibes, or hopefully thinking will save you.  Only the full armor of God.  God listens to your heart and prayers.  He has given you value and purpose.  Your problems are not permanent, but God is.  He will never abandon you.  He loves you.  He forgives the repentant.  He gives your strength.

Psalm 145:8-20, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Mark 5:32-34, Luke 22:31-32, Romans 8:31-39, 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, Ephesians 6:18, & 2 Timothy 1:5-7

Turn on the Light

 

    You need your light in your mental closet.  You need to be able to see what is before you, so that you can recognize when evil is trying to enter your mind.  If you can't control your mind, then your heart will believe lies and your tongue will start to speak evil.  It is important to work with the Holy Spirit to take control of what is uniquely yours: your body, mind, and soul.

    Self-control is a skill that has to be learned and developed.  It starts with lessons on how to act from your parents and teachers.  Once you get saved, it is the Holy Spirit that directs you.  Once He is involved then it becomes more personal.  It becomes internalized giving it more meaning to life.  

    Satan is sneaky.  He wants to get past all your guards to show God that He could.  You are only a pawn in Satan's game, but you mean a lot to God.  That is why God provided the Bible to help you know how to resist and remove Satan from your mental closet.  

    It takes time to learn God's voice from all other voices you hear.  It take discernment to learn your inner voice from Satan's voice because he mimics yours.  You knew Satan's voice before you really learned God's voice.  Once you can tell what is your voice, God's voice, and Satan's voice you are able to do what you need to tune into God's voice.

    When you do listen to Satan, he will steal your confidence, peace, truth, joy, and so much more.  He always takes more than you are willing to give.  It is better to resist and pay a small price (momentary happiness) than to give into his schemes and lose yourself in the process.  Satan's voice may feel familiar, but is only brings chaos, misery, and trouble into your life.  

    Satan's voice is loud and chaotic, but it only leaves confusion and distress. Stop listening to lies.   Forcibly remove them from your mental closet.  Be alert to the voice of the Holy Spirit that brings peace and stillness to your mental closet.  Embrace the truth that His is telling you.  The truth will empower you to get rid of words like idiot, worthless, ugly, useless, and more toxic words from your mental closet.

    Your can't control the thoughts that come to you, but you can control feeding them.  You can acknowledge and identify them as lies, then move on.  Or you can accept them and put them into your mental closet to mess up your life.  Lies will assault your mind pushing you further from the truth until you finally embrace them to the point of sinning.  It is dangerous not to learn self-control.  

    

Psalm 119:105-112, John 10:6-10, 14:23-26, Romans 15:14-19, 2 Corinthians 4:5-6, & 1 Peter 5:8-9

Guarding Your Thoughts

 

    How do you know if you are talking life into yourself or feeding your mind toxic words?  Compare your thoughts to God's Word.  Do they match up to how Jesus speaks?  Do you believe the compliments that other people give you?    This is why you have to guard your mind.  If you heard your mind, you guard your heart and the words that come out of your mouth will produce life, not death.

    Your mental closet needs a good walk through everyday to keep it clean and make sure nothing unwanted has gotten in unexpectedly.  When you become a Christian everything that was not from God had been removed.  If you find it in your mental closet again, then that means you put it there.  To keep your mental closet protected read God's Word, sing praises, pray with compassion, love faithfully, servant's heart, and practice righteousness and holiness.

    You are loved by God.  It is time to act like it.  Believe in your heart and mind that God wants good things for you.  Now you can expect to see good things.  Only speak truth to yourself about who you are and who you belong.  

    Be honest about the sin in your life.  Dig them up by the roots of negative attitudes, believing lies, bitterness, and neglecting time with God.  Confess your sins with a repentant heart and you will be forgiven.  See your sin and let it trouble your heart, so that you will want to repent.  Guard your words, so they will not lead you to sin.  Fight the lies with the truth.

    The guard at your mental closet is the Holy Spirit.  He will not allow anything to enter that you do not bring or allow in yourself.  It would be wise to ask Him if you should allow things in.  He will not be shy to answer.  It is about being spiritually alert and sensitive to the truth about sin.  He will make sure that your closet stays clean and well lit.         

Psalm40:1-3, Lamentations 3:22-24, Ezekiel 11:18-21, Matthew 26:40-41, Romans 7:4-6, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, Ephesians 4:20-24, & 1 John 1:8-10

Spiritual Mind Frame

 

    The Holy Spirit is with every true Christian to remind them of the truth throughout the day.  You have the Bible to stamp out any ignorance.  You have no excuse to not have a real relationship with God.  He is giving you everything you need.  Knowledge and wisdom is at your finger tips.  The Holy Spirit is with you to guide you through the journey.  God has made it easy to know how to follow Jesus.

    Pray for discernment and the Holy Spirit will remove cobwebs from your mental closet.  All the hidden places will be reveals and become visible.  You just have to learn how to use it.  It starts with trusting in God's truth, the only real universal truth.  When you understand the truth, then you can learn His will, statues, and how to have a heart like Jesus.

    The Holy Spirit is your mentor in deciphering the truths of the Bible.  He helps you remove your faulty assumptions and perspectives.  He will help you remember scriptures to use as you need to be able stay close to God.  He gave your a mind to think, so you have all you need to learn, accept, and embrace.  There is not a better teacher than the Holy Spirit.

    The Holy Spirit will expose the ugly hidden things in your mental closet.  If your want to get rid of them for good, then you have to focus on what is good.  Meditate on God's promises.  Look for what is good in your life this moment.  Do not give any room for the negative.  Soon enough you will see it and find your joy in the midst of problems and disruptions that are inevitable.  It is your choice to be praiseworthy or doom and gloom.

    The Holy Spirit will guide your thoughts and emotions if you allow him.  He will never take over or stop you from doing what you are determined to do, but He is there if you allow Him.  God is your ultimate leader.  Will you humble your heart to follow Him?  Will you listen to wise counsel?  Will you embrace the truth?  

Numbers 15:37-41, Psalms 86:8-13, 90:10-12, 119: 65-72, Malachi 4:2-3, Romans 8:5-8, Philippians 4:8-9, & Colossians 3:1-4

Holy Spirit filled Mental Closet

 

    When you become a real Christian, you receive the Holy Spirit to reside in you at that moment.  It is a gift that becomes a part of you for the rest of your human life.  At the same time, it also requires change.  You have to make room for the Holy Spirit.   

    The Holy Spirit was given to you to be your helper in this world.  This means he is your advocate, defender, teacher, comforter, and counselor.  He is Jesus in your life today.  He speaks the truth into your soul.  The more time you spend in God's Word and prayer, the more clearly you will hear that truth.  He guides you in your perspective, values, morals, and overall aspects of dealing with everyday life.

    When you pray for the truth, be prepared.  God gives you what you pray for.  The Holy Spirit will start cleaning out your mental closet.  He will ask you to get rid of things you may not feel ready to get rid of at this time.  However, it is time.  He will counsel you as you start learning and seeing things in new perspective.

    The truth requires change.  Change is hard.  If you persevere and are committed, then you will become stronger.  You will find joy and become happier in life.  You will gain wisdom and objectivity.  Trust the Holy Spirit's counsel.  It is wisdom.  It will keep you safe.  It is ultimately good.  

    The Holy Spirit will challenge you to really listen, embrace the truth, admit where you are wrong, and change.  The truth is He will push you, but never leave your side and fight some battles for you so they never make it to your orbit of thinking.  You are not alone and he will not silence you when you need to speak.  

    If you trust God, then you will trust the Holy Spirit.  He has a soft voice that works in your thoughts and intuition.  Your gut feeling is Him.  If it is telling your something is wrong, but everything looks good, believe it is wrong for your.  Same goes if it looks wrong, but He says proceed, then proceed.  You do not have to feel uncertain.  You can walk in confidence.

    If your vision is still a little unfocused, then that is okay.  Pray to God to make it more clear.  Ask Him to reveal the Holy Spirit's work in your life.  If you don't understand what God is doing in your and through you, then how are you going to be able to use it as a testimony to the world.  You are God's ambassador, so you need your message to be clear.  

    Before you act on what you think is true ask yourself: does it align with the Bible?  The Holy Spirit will never lead you away from the truths of the Bible.  This is how you can clean out your mental closet.  If it does not align with God's Word, then remove it, burn it, destroy it so it never can infect your mental closet again.  

John 15:26-16:11, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Ephesians 1:12-14, & 1 John 5:6-11