The Battle for Your Mind
“Renewing your mind is absolutely critical for standing strong as a Christian in today’s world. In fact, without a renewed mind, it’s impossible to know the perfect, acceptable will of God.”
Is there any doubt that a battle is going on all around you? It involves your spirit, your soul, and your body, and it affects everything you do.
Romans 12:12 tells us:
- “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
But what does this mean for you, right now? And how do you renew your mind?
Your soul is in the center of this warfare, and wherever it leans—either toward the spirit or the body—controls who you are and what you do.
The Battler
As a believer, you belong to God. Satan, however, has other plans for you. He wants to continue to control your body and soul, in hopes of gaining control of your spirit.
If he can control your spirit, he controls you! The devil even tried to take control over Jesus during our Lord’s earthly life. Satan offered total domination of the world if Jesus would only bow to him once. It didn’t work, yet the deceiver is still trying to do this with believers today. Satan wants to offer things that you desire in order to wound you, take away your innocence, and leave scars.
What makes this such a monumental battle is that you have things stuck in your memory. The flesh likes these things. It enjoys the flashbacks. It can control you through the things you recall so easily.
These memories often become the filters through which we see the world. The problem comes from the fact that we were born in sin. Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” We sin naturally. It requires no effort.
Influenced by Sin
We were shaped in iniquity and have human tendencies. These tendencies are nestled in the soul. And the soul is the seed of memory and intense desire. The soul houses what we were, tend to hold all the scars from what happened to us in the past. Sometimes we don’t even know what is there because there are so many hidden memories. Yet it’s all there, agitating us and impacting who we are.
These memories come up at random times. The influence over your life can be immense. Satan can use these memories to attack you, control you, make you feel worthless, and cause us problems.
You may say; “But I’m a Christian now. I’m a new creature. Those old things are passed away. Everything is new.” After all, weren’t we saved from sin? That’s the starting point for all of us, for “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NKJV).
It’s true that when you get saved, your heart—your spirit—changes immediately. That is what the Word tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
- “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Your spirit changes in an instant! However, your soul, and certainly your body, takes much longer to change. Your soul and your body want to keep going back to the old things, the old friends, the old temptations, and the old environment.
Your spirit is new. But your soul and body lean to the old. That is why you must begin learning from God’s Word, spending time with the Lord Jesus in prayer, getting in fellowship with other believers, learning from godly teachers, and all the things you can do to renew your soul.
A Constant Battle
It is a constant battle to listen to the spirit and be renewed, rather than listening to the body and be destroyed.
What happens to us when our mind is renewed? We come to God as a broken vessel, and we begin to choose to allow Him to begin putting all of those pieces back together. That’s renewal! What used to be an embarrassment becomes a testimony!
The transition from our flesh wanting control to spiritual control of the soul must occur on a daily basis in order for God to put us back together and turn all the scarred, broken pieces into a complete, whole vessel. Sometimes, moving from a soul filled with sin to a life filled with God’s Spirit can be a painful process.
The Bible reveals this process in Romans chapters 1 and 2. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul shows that we are condemned in our sin and without any hope aside from Jesus Christ. By chapter 3, we realize that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. These Chapters in Romans expose us to the fact that Satan will do everything to keep us from seeing the light.
As you continue to read Romans and the entire New Testament, you see that when you turn to God and He switches on the light, you see more and more clearly what the deceiver has tried to do to you. However, you will also discover more and more what Jesus Christ has done for you to free you of the effects of sin. Since you received Jesus Christ into your heart, you begin making the choice every day to live and walk a godly life, or you can choose to remain in the quagmire of past hurts and wounds and death.
God has called you from death unto life. He wants you to respond to what the Holy Spirit desires to do in your life. If you respond to the Spirit by letting the things of God nourish you, you will win the battle for your mind.
The Word of God helps purge those hidden pockets in the mind. It breaks down those strongholds. It removes the footholds that Satan has tried to maintain in your soul. Stay in the Word of God, no matter what happens! Don’t get discouraged when the process becomes painful. Letting go of the past isn’t easy, but it is absolutely necessary!
Continue in the God’s Word. He desires to release and grow the fruit of the Spirit within you—“love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
He desires to sanctify, purify, and bless you through the work of the Holy Spirit Living inside you (Romans 15:16). He wants to release His ability through your life (1 Corinthians 12:7-11), as well as the power to live a holy, transformed, renewed life (1 Peter 1:15-17).
With His help, you can be an overcomer every day, for “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57 NKJV). That is our earnest prayer for you today and always!
Our Request to You
Even as the battle for the mind is waged inside you, so it is for many of those still locked up behind bars who don’t even know Christ as Savior. That should break the heart of every believer. God truly loves them also in ways we can only imagine:
This is how much God loved the world: “He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again” (John 3:16-17 MSG).
We have been given this Great Commission:
“I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me” (Matthew 25:36).
We must go and share what was shown to us. And while salvation is free to all, the cost of spreading the Gospel never ceases; rather, it seems to increase. So it is today, even as we continue to help those incarcerated by any means possible in order to present the Good News to the hurting, the broken, the forgotten, the lost, and the lonely wherever they are housed.
My precious friends, many of you have stood with us with such faithfulness. I am asking all of you from the deepest part of my heart that you give today for this mighty work of God so we can continue to make advance preparations for all that we do for these prisoners.
I need your help to take the Good News of Jesus Christ through the awesome doors that have been opened to us. One of the greatest lessons any believer can learn is the importance of giving to the spread of the Gospel, for only when you give to God’s great cause will the windows of heaven open, and mighty, abundant financial blessings will be poured upon your life. Then you can claim God’s precious promise:
- “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom” (Luke 6:38).
Only then will He multiply the seed that you sow! So I ask you boldly and from the bottom of my heart to prayerfully consider helping me with your sacrificial gift today.
Many prisoners are waiting to hear the Gospel in prisons all over the world. Many are desperately seeking a place of refuge and a home, to feel that they are loved and belong. We cannot delay. We must go now while the doors remain open.
Will you help me obey the command of our Master Jesus to reach out and provide for these prisoners?
Thank you,
Walter Beatty,
Vice-President
