Every battle you win or lose is won or lost in your thought life. All of us, as Christians, face a battlefield in our mind. The battlefield is full of worry, fear, doubt, unbelief, your past, anger and other negativity. This series is about how to win in your thought life, so you can experience total prosperity. Today we’re going to take a look at how the Word of God affects your mind. If you aren’t doing something with your mind concerning the Word, your mind will be doing something with you.
3 John 2 NKJV
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
This scripture is often used to say prosperity isn’t just financial. Yes! But we must not forget to mediate on what soul prosperity is and realize that prospering in all things and being in health is directly connected to your soul. Which tells us that winning in your thought life will bring you the victory, because soul (or mind) prosperity is the key to answered prayer. Your soul is where your mind, will, and emotions are located. It’s the control center of your being.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul, the author of Thessalonians or Sassaloopians for the old Veggie Tale fans, revealed to us the 3 parts of our “whole being” which is spirit, soul, and body. To fully understand the mind, we have to understand that we are a 3-part being. The mind isn’t something we can really pray over to fix. Jesus fought the battle, and won the victory for us, but it’s our job to enforce this in our own life. If someone is in desperate need of help, we can pray over them for temporary relief, but they must strengthen themselves or they’ll be back where they started. We can’t let our mind run around and do whatever it wants. An unrenewed mind will say things like, “I’ll be the only one here that doesn’t get healed. The Word works for everyone except me. God won’t do anything for me.”
John 4:24 NKJV
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
God is a spirit. This scripture is telling us that we must contact God with our spirit, not our natural being. When you mumble along with the songs at church and your soul and spirit isn’t involved, it’s dead flesh-like worship. Let me explain, if you’re mumbling along with the music and inside your saying, “How long until this is over… Oh, great, they’re going to sing an extra song. I’m hungry!” Your spirit knows God and wants to worship, but your soul and your flesh gang up on your spirit and they will lead you into being annoyed instead of being blessed.
2 Corinthians 5:16 NKJV
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. ….
Paul is telling us to think of people as spirit beings. We see each other’s flesh and think of them as flesh, but God sees us as spirit and wants us to think of others as spirits. Why? Because when someone, especially a Christian, does something like stealing from you, you say, “I can’t believe they stole from me.” Believe it! The flesh did it with the unfed soul, or unrenewed mind, ganged up on their spirit, and told them it was ok to steal. That’s why Paul is saying, “We regard no one according to the flesh.” He knows minds can be crazy. The flesh doesn’t want to go to work and wants everything easy. Thinking of people as spirits makes it easier to forgive someone.
The 3-part being explained
Spirit: God is a Spirit. God contacts your spirit. You are to contact God with your spirit.
Mind: God doesn’t contact your mind, ever! He’s not in your thought life. You should have His Word in your thought life, but He will never contact your mind, which is your soul. That means if He did contact your mind, then He would also be contacting your emotions, which are part of your soul. Likewise, if you try to contact Him with your mind or emotions, it will be unfruitful. You can’t think or reason your prayers to get to God.
Body: God will rarely contact your flesh. Never seek this! This means there is a desperate or bad situation, He must get through to you, and you basically clogged up your spiritual ears. I can happily say there only has been one time I’ve heard an audible voice from Heaven. We should never seek this, because some people have sought this voice and demons have accommodated them. There is always safety when we do things God’s way. But likewise, you shouldn’t be contacting God with your flesh. You don’t have to scream so loud it reaches the heavens or get a flashlight and do morse code into the sky. We’re supposed to be contacting Him with our spirit.
Example of the 3 in operation: You wake up in the morning and your flesh says, “Cofffeeee…. What’s there to eat?” Your soul is in a daze, wondering if you can go back to bed because you feel like sleeping and having a me day. Your spirit is the happy one! Your spirit wakes up and says, “Lets pray today and read the Word!” The question here is, who are you listening to? Do you get the coffee and food, then listen to your spirit? Do you listen to your spirit before coffee and food? Or do you let your body answer and say, “Read the Bible? I just woke up and you want me to fall back asleep?” Then your soul joins in, “Yeah, I remember how I felt, I was bored and didn’t remember what I was reading anyway.” Maybe you make a compromise, “I’ll do it later…” and then never do! Being spirit-lead isn’t this super-spiritual weird high-up level of bliss, it’s just letting your spirit make the decision and letting your spirit answer. When our responses to life keep coming from the flesh and soul, we learn to tune out our spirit. Your spirit loves God and wants to serve God, but it’s trapped by your body and soul. Your spirit has to dominate, and if you renew your mind (soul) with the Word, it will easily dominate the flesh. When some Christians walk in the grocery store they see the alcohol, and their flesh says, “There’s the alcohol over there.” Then their soul says, “Yeah, I used to feel good after a couple drinks, and have a lot of fun.” Your spirit is saying, “No, be sober there’s an enemy!” This is how saved people live like unsaved people. Christians look at the flesh and wonder, “Are they really saved?” You might even think that about yourself. But your spirit wants to serve God no matter what, even if you aren’t living right. That’s why God doesn’t condemn us like we think He does. He’s looking at your spirit and contacting your spirit.
When people aren’t living right, we want them to change, “Change them Lord, change them!” We even pray it over ourselves, and I catch myself doing it, “Change me Lord, make me like Jesus.” But that’s never going to happen….
Romans 12:2 NKJV
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
It’s not going to happen any other way than us reading the Word. Sometimes we go to church and hear a good sermon that refreshes us, but that’s not renewing our mind. It might be a little pick-me-up, but that’s not enough to sustain us for any length of time. The reason is because, the Holy Spirit is called alongside your spirit, not your mind or your body. He can and will help your soul (mind, will, emotions) and your body, but He’s called to work with your spirit. Remember the scripture above, “God is Spirit.”
How we win the battle of the mind!
Winning the battle of the mind is a choice. I’ve met some people that are completely lazy, and act like victims of their own soul. When I minister to them, I encourage them to build them up first and then start to teach them a little how to stop being a victim of their head. You’d be surprised how many people don’t want to speak to me after I teach them, or they flat out become angry! Often times I get both. When you try to help someone, don’t take their rejection of your help personal. They’re not rejecting you; they’re rejecting the Bible. This is something that everyone has to do on their own.
2 Philippians 2:12-13 NKJV
12…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. 14Do all things without complaining and disputing,
People say some weird things about this verse. I won’t join them. Hehe! Fear and trembling, as in fear of the Lord, comes from where? Your spirit. James makes a remark to the effect of this, good job you believe in God, so do the demons, but they’re smart enough to tremble! (James 2:19) Trembling and fear of the Lord is from the spirit. Where does God need to work on you for His will above yours and His pleasure above yours? Your spirit is a new creation, perfectly made. Your soul and body need the work. He follows that up with mentioning not complaining and disputing. Where does that come from? Soul and body, in case anyone missed his point. Haha!
Dealing with the mind is daily! We all need to be in the Word daily. It’s our daily dose of prosperity. We read it above in 3 John 2, “you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” To be prosperous, we must make sure these 4 things in our lives are completely transformed with the Word:
1. Change my view of God.
How I view God will determine how my Christian walk with God goes. Do I believe He’s mean? Do I believe He ordains bad things? Do I believe He’ll help everyone except me? The answers are in the Word.
2. Change my view of how God sees me.
How does God see you? We went over that earlier. He sees your spirit, perfectly new created creature that never existed before. He sees you through the blood of Jesus. He sees you as the righteousness given to you by Christ. He sees you as restored to the position Adam had. He sees you as a son. He sees a winner and an overcomer. It doesn’t matter what you see and feel like, because if we approach God for how we feel we’ll talk out of the place of sinner, failure, loser, worthless, and other bad labels we give ourselves.
3. Change how I view myself.
How you see yourself will determine how far in Christ you will go. It’s not a humbling act before God to tell him you’re a worthless failure. That’s religion speaking. How can He have a worthless failure speak to the lost? What are you supposed to say, “Believe me, this worthless failure, has the Holy Spirit on the inside to help, or open your eyes to being a worthless failure and low-down sinner for Christ.” That’s why we need the Word. We call ourselves “Christians,” which means Christ-like, or like Christ. We shouldn’t be attaching failure, loser, no-good, and other negative names, because you’re attaching them to Jesus. When we get in the Word, we see we’re born of God, God is in me, I’m the temple of God, I’m an overcomer, and no matter what in the end I win!
4. See and view others differently. Often times, this one seems to be the most difficult for people. We read above where Paul said, “we regard no one according to the flesh,” but yet we ALL struggle with focusing on the flesh. We get angry and offended at other people’s flesh and soul, but we have to remember, not even God speaks to flesh and soul! We are to view everyone from a spiritual standpoint, yet this is so difficult. For example, those that disliked President Donald Trump, no matter if he did something good, they still found something horrible to say. Those that disliked Joe Biden, if he did something good, it was of no matter, everything was still horrible in their eyes. That’s our carnal nature taking over. (Please don’t write to me about politics! It was just a very clear example everyone can understand.)
Romans 8:6-8 NKJV
6For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7Because the carnal mind is enmity (hostile or hateful) against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
If you want to please God, keep yourself spiritually ruled. Why? Because you can’t see the soul, which is the mind, will, and emotions of another person. They could have a pure heart but look horrible on the outside. Some people have actually protested how they know exactly what’s in someone else’s heart. No, they don’t! The Bible doesn’t have a gift of discerning hearts listed. God will sometimes on the rare occasion reveal a heart, but no one can discern a heart. I recently shared an example when I was 15 years-old how I corrected a pastor’s son and literally I became a servant of the devil to that pastor. Why? He saw what he wanted to in my flesh. He didn’t see my heart. My heart was that I wanted him to act like a 17-year-old and not offend the friends I brought to youth group to get saved. All the pastor saw was a devil-person that called his precious son names like childish, embarrassing, and cry-baby. I’m not sharing that because I’m still hurt and defending myself, it’s because we sometimes get caught up in passions, whether we’re right or wrong, and we think we completely understand the entire situation!!
Your carnal mind isn’t bigger than your spirit and can be put under your spirit. What if a thought comes to you, “Jump off that bridge!” Are you going to jump? No! Your spirit is stronger. Sadly, some people have been beat down mentally enough that they can’t overcome that thought. When a bad thought comes, the first voice that should speak up is the Word, the Word in your spirit. “Do not temp the Lord your God.” The answer Jesus gave Satan when he said jump off the cliff to prove He was the son of God. Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, He went to the Word.
Romans 12 NKJV
1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Bad thoughts come to everyone’s mind. Love yourself, and just know you have an enemy out there seeking whom he may devour. This ship might take a while to completely turn around. If you had an unrenewed mind for 32 years, it might take a few months to completely restore it to prosperity. This is why some Christians don’t know their call in life from God, their mind isn’t prospering. If my mind wasn’t at peace, I couldn’t write studies or minister to other people, because I would be writing and talking out of a place of crazy or of food, I bake and cook. I don’t mean you, but me. I can’t help to feed someone else what I don’t have. Think of yourself like a butterfly. You’re going into a cocoon to prepare to be completely transformed. If you have been through this process, then please feel free to share your journey to encourage others.
Back to Romans, part of the transformation is presenting your body as a living sacrifice to God. If you think about this…
Old Testament, they offered up a dead sacrifice to a living God so they could keep living.
New Testament, we’re to offer up ourselves a living sacrifice to a living God so we can crucify (kill) our flesh
Pretty awesome thought, right? It’s backwards. In the OT, God burned up the sacrifices with natural and supernatural fire. The NT isn’t much different, when we offer ourselves up, we get consumed with Holy Ghost fire. If this sounds a little weird to you, it shouldn’t. Don’t forget that you are the temple of the Lord. There were daily sacrifices offered up to the Lord in the temple in the OT.
Let’s say a prayer together to dedicate ourselves to the Lord. You can say something like this on your own every day.
God, my Father, I come to You in Jesus name. I thank You that You saved me. I thank You that I have Your life and nature in me. I thank You Father that my body is to be offered to You as a sacrifice. So, right now, I offer my body as a living sacrifice to You. I ask you to consume me and burn out anything that needs to be burned out. I thank You that you’re doing it right now because I am asking You. Starting today, I will offer my body up to You daily, and if I forget, Holy Spirit, please remind me. I love You, and I thank You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Thank you for doing this study with me. This subject transformed my life many many years ago, and I hope you will be blessed by it too. Stay with me for the coming weeks about how to win every battle in your mind. We either need a lot of help, a little help, or we just need reminded how we grew.
Christi
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