The Mind

The Bible has a great deal to say about the mind.

Romans 12:2 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own UNDERSTANDING [mind]”

Proverbs 3:5  “Casting down IMAGINATIONS [reasonings], and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every THOUGHT [thinking] to the obedience of Christ”

2 Corinthians 10:5  “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your MIND, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”.

We renew our minds by studying the Word of God. The Bible teaches us to have “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). The only way we can have the mind of Christ is to study His Word, believe it in our heart, and act upon it.

The Word of God also teaches us to think on whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, or whatever has virtue or praise (Phil. 4:8).

We need to realize that thoughts can come into our minds from two different sources. In other words, the thoughts that come into our minds do not always originate in our minds. The devil puts many thoughts into our minds from outside ourselves. That’s one source. Then, of course, thoughts from God come from within us. They come through our spirits into our minds.

Have you ever had a battle of thoughts in your mind?

2 Corinthians 10 – ³For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. ⁶And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

Strong holds are, holding strong to knowledge in your mind and your thought life. This depends on the type of knowledge you are feeding your brain with. When we start to hear the word of God, the knowledge of the mind resists the Word because its holding strong to the knowledge it currently has.

What causes bad knowledge, or wrong thinking?

To be blessed is to be empowered to have success – Psalm 1:1 –  ¹ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners  or sit in the seat of mockers.  ² But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

You can’t sit in the counsel of the ungodly, because your mind will hold strong to what you learn from them. This knowledge will fight against the Word of God, and the opposite of this is true also. The knowledge of God will fight against the knowledge of the world. God’s word should be our stronghold. Humans can gather and hold on to the knowledge that comes to it. The brain is designed to hold strong to knowledge, that’s why we need to guard what comes in it. Negative knowledge becomes bad habits.  The stronghold of knowledge you got before Gods will resist what Gods knowledge tells you. Somehow someway, people get convinced they don’t need to participate in Bible Study, Church, Water Baptism, Tithing to prosper,  Etc. Tell me if you know how to stay married, how to pay your bills, how to live in victory, how to expel demons.

Hosea 4:6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children

Have you ever heard the saying, “what they don’t know wont hurt them”. What is wrong with this statement? Do you know of any other quotes or sayings people use?

Are you still stuck in your lion’s den because you did not know what they knew? We will have to give an account one day on what we did with this knowledge. Giving praise and getting excited will not keep the devil out. You need to learn this. Renew your mind. Destroy the negative strongholds. They become the things that hold you back. They keep you from Gods will. There’s something about you that’s going to destroy the devil. He is scared of you because of what you are learning right now.

Genesis 2 ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die. (Separated from the Father)”

Not the tree of demons, immoral behavior, but the tree of knowledge. God provided knowledge, but they decided to go to the tree for knowledge. When you go to another source for your thoughts that go against Gods word, you become separated from God. That is when you decide to rebel.

How do we get lured away from God?

When you go to church, something changes about you because you learn, not just because you go. Your life is on the line! When you rebel against the word of God, you live in a dry land.  The world says sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, drunkenness, abortion, is ok, but its not. Rebellion is a result of negative knowledge. Get your knowledge from God and no other source.

Ephesians 4 ²²You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Your training and conditioning puts your mind in control. Something in your mind must be renewed. Our subconscious mind is like cruise control. Once we program it, it will keep going until we set a new setting. One day you didn’t smoke, and another day you do, why, because you got a stronghold in your mind. When your mind is trained over and over, it develops a habit. The spirit of your mind takes control when you are not conscious of something.

The spirit if our mind does not become renewed without habit training. When you make a decision and stick to it, it becomes a habit.

Habits are hard to start. Whether they are good or bad. How can we start to develop new good habits?