16/04/2022
How to win spiritual battles
Help me with my thoughts!!
At Precept™, I want you to know God deeply so you can live differently. One of the ways you can live differently is by understanding the power of God’s Word to transform your mind and the way you live. In this article, we help you find answers in scripture to common questions about spiritual warfare, the battle for your mind, and how to win these battles.
What does the Bible say about the mind?
In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus tells opponents that evil thoughts come from the heart, meaning the mind. Their problem was that their thinking was controlled by the “god of this world,” because they did not believe in the gospel:
…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
(2 Corinthians 4:4)
The “god of this world” is Satan,
…the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
(Ephesians 2:2)
And the thinking of those controlled by him is hostile toward God:
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds…
(Colossians 1:21)
But there’s hope!! There’s a solution to a mind whose thoughts are hostile to God, whose thoughts are like everyone else’s thoughts in the “world” with the society’s morals and attitudes. Faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ reconciles us to God.
Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—
(Colossians 1:22)
You don’t have to stay trapped by thoughts that drag you down in despair, without hope in this world. When you believe the gospel and are set apart from God, the Holy Spirit dwells in you to give you the power to change.
The mind can be transformed by renewing the way we think. Romans 12:2 lets us know that our minds can be transformed to live in a deep relationship with God.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
(Romans 12:2)
But I’ve believed the Gospel? Why do I still think the way I do? I’m so frustrated!
The problem is that now there’s a struggle for your mind, called spiritual warfare. It is a battle in which the enemy knows that if he can influence your mind, he can affect your actions. In this spiritual warfare, he seeks to get your focus off of God’s truth so he can sidetrack and destroy your life. Satan wants you to think thoughts contrary to God’s
So how do I protect my mind in spiritual warfare?
You can protect your mind from spiritual warfare when you,
recognize the enemy’s goals.
understand that the battle will come in personal attacks.
know that you have protection from God with “spiritual armor.”
remember you have a weapon, the sword of the spirit, the Word of God.
What are the enemy’s goals?
Satan’s number one goal is to keep non-Christians from accepting the truth of Jesus Christ. He wants to make Christians ineffective; he wants to cause doubt about the love of God, the deity of Christ, and the power of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. He is relentless and always on the prowl for those he can destroy.
First Peter 5:8 says “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The verb “prowls” here is in the Greek present tense, which means continuous action. The enemy is always prowling, always seeking to defeat us in battle. He seeks to bring dishonor to God’s name; he also wants us to turn and dishonor God.
