gmcgrath's Journal

Last night in Church Jelena was talking about the Mind and the battle for it. She said that Christian's thoughts of the past few weeks about Asking, Seeking and Knocking had made her think about this and evaluate how she is living and functioning.

It was very challenging and I know that God wants to deal with me in the area of my mind because this is by far the biggest battleground for me. When things go wrong, when wrong decisions get made they are made because I have allowed myself to think in an undisciplined way. I mean how on EARTH can a grown man operate without any control over his mind.

"As a man thinks in his heart so he is."

Jesus said that what comes OUT of a man will show you what he really is. Funny that eh? Whats spent time in his mind, what he's allowed himself to mull over...taken time to allow those thots to take hold.

2 CORINTHIANS 10:3-5 "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 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."

Our warfare is to be spiritual because we are dealing with spiritual forces. What battles we win, we win in the mind first. What battle we lose, are lost in the mind.

Why is it then that so many Christians think so little about what they allow into their minds. Martin Luther said about this subject that "you cannot stop birds from flying over your head but you can stop them from making nests in your hair."

Very practical thoughts but until you start to make conscious choices, it all remains some nebulous thought, a great principle that someone talked about... and great sermon. If i go away from last night and just think that and dont actually start to make choices then thats all it becomes to me too.

I found this random page when I searched for the word "strongholds" and I thought this part was very good so I'll share it.

ROMANS 6:16"Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey."

JOHN 10:10,11 "The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (Abundant Life). I am the good shepherd ..."


I. EVERYONE HAS STRONGHOLDS(From material by Bruce Wilkinson)

II. CHARACTERISTICS OF STRONGHOLDS:
1. The stronghold exists in the person's MIND (the stronghold is a lie)
2. The stronghold is deceitfully hidden from the person's awareness.
3. The stronghold has existed for considerable time.
4. The stronghold has tempted the person to sin repeatedly.
5. The stronghold repeatedly overpowers the person, creating hopelessness.
6. The stronghold has many intellectual and emotional defenses.
7. The stronghold is actively and aggressively opposed to God and His truth.

Reading through these thoughts I can see so clearly things in my own life that have become strongholds and how they have done their work of controlling and distracting me.

Paul talks in 2 Cor 10:5 about "bringing every thought into captivity." Practically its like training yourself in anything new. If you've not done it before, or you've let something get in the way, starting again can be a bit of a struggle at first. Remember when you learned to ride a bike at first? lol

Last night after I'd had time to think about these things, I had a great chance to put this into practice and while I didn't do that well, (I reacted to things said to me in a selfish way) through it all I was actually conscious of the process and what was happening.

Lord make me aware of the process, as I do deal with people and throughout my day, of what I allow my heart to dwell on, of the thought processes that I allow my mind to enter into.

Every thought must be brought into captivity. Imagine a conquering army. The battle coming to an end but there are skirmishes and each group we come across must be controlled and captured, wrestled to the ground and subdued.