Fighting the Battle of the Mind-Part One
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Fighting the Battle of the Mind-Part One
by Jean Bradley
Our thoughts seem to run amok in our minds at times, and we don’t seem to know how to get them under control. Thoughts of fear say, “What will happen if ….” (insert your own example). This puts us in a state of anxiety, fear, and may even cause depression. We try to block these thoughts out, but they seem to have a life of their own, which makes us captive to them.
Does anyone recognize this scenario? Surely this cannot be the best life that God promised us! When God created man in the beginning, ‘God said, Let us make man in Our image’ (Genesis 1:26). We know that God is a Trinity. Therefore, that would mean that we are created as a triune being also, composed of spirit, soul and body. Let’s take a look at the following scriptures. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says:
‘I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’
This is the Apostle Paul speaking. Hebrews 4:12 says:
‘For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow (body), and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart’.
By reading and meditating on these two scriptures, we can clearly see that we are made up of spirit, soul and body. If we look at how an egg is designed, we can illustrate it like this: the shell of the egg or outer part is the body; the white of the egg is the soul, made up of mind, will and emotions, and the inner yolk or yellow part is the spirit.
Born Again
When a person becomes born again, the Life and Light-giving power of the Holy Spirit floods the person’s spirit with new life in Jesus Christ. Our spirit is the sphere of God–consciousness, and it is here where the work of regeneration takes place. In other words it is here, in our spirit, where the Holy Spirit resides and works within us to bring about the changes so needed to the whole man.
The Apostle Paul speaks about this in 1 Corinthians 2:9-11, which says:
‘However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God’.
Verse 14 of the same chapter says:
‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (KJV).
The natural man would be the soul (mind, will and emotions). F.W. Grant said that the soul is the seat of the affections, right or wrong, of love, hate, lusts and even the appetites of the body. These verses tell us that even though we are a born-again Child of God and our spirit is renewed, our soul can still present us with troubling thoughts, and even contradicting thoughts in our minds and our old way of thinking remains.
So how do we change that situation and have the peace in our hearts that the Bible promises us? Romans 12:2 says:
‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, His good, pleasing and perfect will’.
I have learned in my walk with God that the Holy Spirit works in partnership with us. He gives us an instruction or a solution to a situation and then we need to obey what He told us to do. He will help us with that if we ask, but there is a part for us to play, so renewing our mind is our part, together with the Holy Spirit.
Fighting the Battle of the Mind-Part Two
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