The goal of this series is to encourage you on the path of total prosperity of the mind, so that everything in your life can be prosperous. This isn’t just about finances, but about a prosperous prayer life to a prosperous body to a prosperous bank account, and everything around and in-between. Can you imagine what a crazy person would do with a free $500,000 bag of cash? Exactly. While we aren’t crazy, prosperity in all areas of our life depends on our mind.
3 John 2 NKJV
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
Let’s jump right into this study, after a quick recap.
God is a Spirit. He speaks to your spirit. God is not a body. God is not a mind. If you have given your life to Christ, your spirit is full of God. The enemy comes and speaks to your mind, which is your soul, your central command center. Evil spirits don’t speak to your physical body. While they are spirits, they do not contact your spirit.
Romans 12:2
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.
Everyone’s mind is subject to the thinking of this world, such as the things we feel and sense, unless your mind is renewed by the Word of God. This is how Christians can be Christians for 30+ years and still never change. Their mind was never renewed with the Word, and until they renew their mind with the Word, it will continue this way. Yes, some of them can quote large portions of the Word, but until they choose it over every thought contrary to the Word, nothing will ever change. The Bible is how God thinks, and we must begin to think like God to have His prosperity in our lives.
Isaiah 55:8-9
8“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
If we don’t renew our mind to the Word, we won’t be able to think like God thinks and learn to do things His way. Often times His kingdom operates the opposite way of the world. For example, how does the world destress? Alcohol, pills, exercise, television, videos, massages, and other distractions. How do we destress God’s way? We pass the problem to the Lord in faith and then express thankfulness through praise, worship, and refusing to worry.
We need to know God’s thoughts and ways to break wrong mindsets. We’ll go over this more later, but for a quick example, if you have a poverty mentality, you’ll always be in poverty. You can’t pray your way out of poverty mentality. You have to think God’s thoughts, scripture, and think on His blessings, scripture. Then when you pray, you can receive His financial blessings. There was a poor mother and daughter in a store about to check out. A minister was standing behind them and offered to buy the little girl a dress. The mother answered the minister, “Thank you, but we can’t accept that.” The little girl spoke up and said, “Oh yes we can!” The little girl wasn’t taught the poverty mentality. Our mind can prevent us from looking to be blessed by God, day by day, and take us to the place where we think some people are just dirt-poor and that’s us. With a poverty mentality, even when you do get money, people either spend it all immediately, often times foolishly, or hoard it. Don’t buck up against people having money to live comfortably. God doesn’t mean for us to have little food, in debt, holes in our clothes and shoes, and not able to give anything to the local church or the poor. If every Christian needed a handout, the wicked of the world would own us. Think about that before you let anyone teach you God wants you poor.
When you don’t renew your mind, you judge according to your thoughts and your ways, that’s how your thought life can start to produce death, because Paul said,
Romans 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
“How does that work?” you might be thinking. If you’re sick, and you think God is punishing you, you won’t be well. You’ll just comfort yourself until you die. If you think you’re “dirt-poor” and always will be “dirt-poor,” like my mother used to tell me, then you’ll never expect or seek God for better. That’s exactly why we need to know God’s thoughts and God’s way, so we cannot be fooled or trapped by our own thought life. Some people have been abused for so long, they actually believe it’s normal or think they’re trapped with no way out. That’s the carnal mind producing death in life.
Minds can be influenced by demons. I know that’s a touchy subject that people don’t care to talk about, or want to put their head in the sand, but we have to study this to “prosper in all things.” Just because we have a thought, doesn’t mean we sinned, or we aren’t prospering. What you do with that thought determines the outcome. When a demon comes and plants a wrong thought into your mind, which is your soul, it stays there. If you leave it there, he knows he doesn’t have to do anything else to you, because you’re thinking it over and over. It’s now hanging out in your head. If you keep thinking on it, it can confuse you, oppress you, make you feel crazy, or even control you.
You might think I’m being a little dramatic, but I’m not. Wrong thoughts are nothing to play around with and can downright ruin people. Here are some examples:
– I deserve a promotion
– The doctor says I have 6 months to live
– She hates me
– I can’t stand my spouse
– He/She left me, my life is over
– I’m 45 with a family, I’ll quit my job and follow my music dream
– They owe me!
– People die in 3s, wonder who is next
We can’t allow wrong thoughts to run around in our head. They will control us! Thinking on each of these, and not casting them down, could eventually ruin your income, your family, friendships, and even have caused people’s lives to end early. God gave us the ability to overcome all bad thoughts! There are scriptures to counteract all of these thoughts, but we have to be in the Word to know them. Let’s look at what Jesus did when satan planted thoughts in Peter’s mind and he spoke them out loud…
Matthew 16:21
21From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. 22Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” 23But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Sometimes bad thoughts about you come to other people, and without thinking it through, they blurt them out. This didn’t just happen to Peter. We must recognize why this happened. Satan used Peter to attack authority. Peter is under Jesus, and he rebuked Him without thinking it through. In our modern day, this is like someone getting hired to a new company. The company trains them, they do their job for a little while, they feel like they know everything, and then go to the boss and say, “I can tell you what changes this company needs to make.”
This is a huge tactic of demons to rebel against authority. We’ve seen it a lot in teenagers through the past few decades, “Rebel against the system.” Doesn’t matter if they say it or not, rebelling against authority is an ancient tactic of the devil. But, instead of rebelling, we’re taught to pray for all who are in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
Why is this such a big tactic? Because that’s how he was kicked out of Heaven, rebelling against God’s system. We studied that in the Power of Instrument’s series.
Satan wasn’t trying to BE God, he was trying to be LIKE God, which is a man. His plan was to rule the Earth, and the angels to rule the Earth with him. Something very important that we need to remember, fallen angels aren’t completely stupid, God didn’t make them stupid. They didn’t think Satan could overthrown God, they were rebelling against God’s order, and thought they would take Earth for themselves. That’s one reason why Jesus’ prayer “Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,” was powerful. It was order restored. Moving on from my side journey.
Back to rebelling… Did you ever notice when people plan a rebellion, they gather people, just like satan did? When they’re mad at their pastor, boss, or whomever is in authority they get others in strife and on their side. They get excited as the numbers grow, but satan took 1/3 of the Heavenly angels. We shouldn’t ever be in awe with how many people are siding in with a person, because it’s generally the same tactic, “We have a right… our rights are violated.” We must always recognize that the devil is trying to break something up, while God is into gathering in love.
Did you ever hear someone say something wild and then they say, “That made more sense in my head?” Yes, because it made sense when the enemy told them and touched their emotions, but when they tried to explain it, they heard how wild it sounds. Here’s another one, “You wouldn’t understand if I told you.” That’s another tactic of the enemy. “No one gets me!” The person is well aware when it comes out, it’s going to sound absolutely wild and they’re not open to rational thinking. I’m not saying this is 100% every time, but just some red flags that someone is being attacked. Demons are crazy and they have no problem making other people feel or seem crazy.
Let’s go back to Jesus and Peter to see how Jesus handled thoughts from Satan out of Peter’s mouth…
Matthew 16:22-23 NKJV
22Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” 23But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Jesus was not into name calling as I have been taught in church. Satan was there watching Jesus! He probably told Peter something like, “He’s wrong! That’s never going to happen, because God will save Him!” If someone openly speaks from the enemy to you, and you know it, please use wisdom in a public rebuke. Notice the scripture says, “Peter took Him aside.” Peter was NOT publicly rebuked! Though, as upset as we feel, we should make it a habit to rebuke the words on the inside, especially if we don’t know if they need Jesus. Most of us have family that gets upset and starts spouting off things they shouldn’t say, inside we need to answer it like Jesus:
“I cast that down.”
“That will never happen in this family.”
“Those words are under my feet.”
“I refuse to allow those words to produce fruit.”
If you think an evil spirit is present, “Get behind me. I’m not going to listen to you.”
What if you hear a thought and you don’t know if it’s God, you, or an enemy? The first voice every Christian needs to hear is the Word of God. If they can’t hear the Word, they can’t discern. If it’s not something in the Word, “Buy this car,” then you can ask for discernment from God. Some people say, “It’s crazy to think you can hear God.” He lives inside of you; you are His temple. I think it’s crazy when people say to me that they can’t hear Him (John 10:27). If we’re left without His voice, then we’re left to discern in the flesh, which is carnal thinking and death. That includes the Word and His voice. Staying full of the Word helps you discern like Him, think like Him, love like Him, but also will keep satan from filling your heart (actually your soul) with his words and will.
Acts 5
We read about Ananias and his wife Sapphira who sell their own property, hold money back from the church, and lie about it. It was their money all along, it was just a pointless lie. This is the part we’re looking at, after Ananias lies to Peter,
Verse 3
But “Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…?’”
The word heart in Greek is kardia, meaning center, will, inner self, and mind. These two are actual believers in Christ. Some say that they were not really saved, just sent by satan. That’s not true, or else Peter would have discerned that information, and the Bible would have told us. We can tell they were Christians, because Peter says, “WHY…?” If they weren’t saved, Peter and the rest of us, would know exactly why. After Ananias drops dead and they carry him off, let’s see what Peter says when his wife shows up 3 hours later.
Verse 9
Then Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?
Peter is asking a question again, which indicates he still doesn’t understand WHY, “How is it…” Satan shows up to two believers and fills their heart to tell lies. You don’t wonder about an unbeliever being filled with satan’s lies and testing the Holy Spirit.
Christians can be influenced in their heart by the devil. The big question is, how do we keep him out of our mind, inner self, and center? With the Word, renewing your mind to the Word gives satan and demons no place in your soul, which is your mind, will, and emotions. If they kept full of the Word, when satan told them to lie, they could have answered Leviticus 19:11, “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.” They knew lying was wrong before Jesus taught about it, Psalm 101:7 “He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.”
Let’s quickly take a look at another person, perfect in the sight of God, act out on the devil’s thoughts. We all know the story of Adam and Eve. The serpent told her to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She ate some, gave it to Adam, and the Lord comes down looking for them. Picking up in…
Genesis 3:13 NKJV
And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Eve, perfect and sinless, was deceived by the whispers of the devil. The word of satan came to her through the snake, and she acted on it. If she would have cast the thought down or talked to the Lord about it, we would be talking about a very different story right now.
We have ALL been fooled, deceived, and lead astray by the devil at one time or another. Sometimes Christians do it without even thinking!
“I claim my back room as an office. I write off my cell phone, Wi-Fi connection, paper, pens, staples, and whatever else can be in an office. You should do it too!”
It doesn’t matter how bad the government is behaving, we can’t act on the thoughts of satan and expect the blessing of God. We stop this temptation with the Word, like Jesus did to the devil. What does the Word say? Matthew 4
v4 But He answered and said, “It is written
v7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again
v10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written
Another quick example is Job. Satan gains access to cause chaos in Job’s life, and then goes to his friends to sit around, for the majority of the book, and say crazy things to him about why. The real answer to why is at the beginning of the book, but we get to hear a lot on what they think. I will say for sure that none of them were Italian. They took turns speaking!
What do we do when crazy thoughts come to you? Rebuke the thoughts against the Word, or words people are speaking against you like Jesus did to Peter, but on the inside. You can also answer them back with the Word, like Jesus did when He was tempted by Satan, “Away with you! The Word says…”
If you are feeling tormented by thoughts, after you say, “Away with you! The Word says…” Start to praise and worship the Lord. You are fully equipped by God to handle every thought and be in complete control of your mind, even over those songs that are “stuck” in your head.
Thank you for reading to the end. It went a little longer than I had planned. Remember that God is for you. He loves you, and He fights for you! Next week’s lesson will be on freedom for people who feel oppressed in the mind. You don’t want to miss that, especially if you know someone who is taking mood altering medication. It can certainly help you minister to them.
Holy Spirit I ask that You please remind us how to handle thoughts that come from the enemy. Please set a guard over our heart and our mouth so that we don’t listen to and speak the word of the enemy. Lord help us be filled to overflowing with your love and your presence. Blessings in Christ.
Christi
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