Battle of the Mind

[stephen]

Have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every man in his room of pictures? - Ezekiel 8: 12. RSV

These men were elders, leaders of the community; and though we may be leaders in the Christian Church, this does not give us any immunity from evil imaginations. We have this room full of pictures, whether we like it or not. The danger of an uncontrolled imagination lies in the fact that what today is in the imagination, may tomorrow be in the act.

Yet imagination is one of the greatest gifts that God has given to His people. Out of the imagination comes all the artist's creativity, all our delightful day-dreams and our hopes and aspirations. It can be a clean and beautiful and sweet room ; or it can be a dark and secret and loathsome room. Because we are fallen creatures our imaginations, God given, can often be polluted; they can be disorderly and crude and bizarre and frightening.

Now this is all part of our natural man, and we should never need to be frightened and worried by the fact that those thoughts do come crowding into our minds, because we are what we are. But we do not keep the door closed, and we don't enjoy the darkness, and we don't hide this room away from the Lord. We open it up; we let God look right inside, and say, 'Here's the room of my imagination Lord, Keep it pure and clean and wholesome and lovely today'.

This is the battle that the Christian has - the battle of the mind. Paul said the only way to win this battle for the mind is by working positively at it, and whatsoever thinghs are pure, and whatsoever things are healthy and wholesome and good and righteous, think on these things, and fill your mind with them. Phill; 4:8

 

[Coconut]

Eze 8:12 "...For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.'"

Is there anything more wicked to imagine than that the LORD, has forsaken us when trouble befalls us, and we don`t see the miracles we expect?

Judges 6:13 "And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of?"

Does this sound like us? Yes, we do it -- or if not we, at least I am sore tempted to imagine it, even if my voice has not uttered it, as these Elders in Ezekiel s vision did...

So we don`t have idols engraved on our walls like they... but what about the walls of our hearts?

God will never forsake us, but we have often forsaken Him because we have turned our eyes from Him to worthless things...




On the bright side, this chapter of Scripture contains one of my favorite 'spiritual' eye openers...It shows us that God has ways of getting our attention...even if He has to pick us up by the hair of the head to do it (Ezekiel 8:3)

 

[lawrenceb]

Since there is no love in satan's camp, fear is the master. The enemy hits us with a trauma, then layers-in the fear programming.

Demons are attracted by the "scent" of people. We are made in the image of God, and we are attractive prey to those who hate God Almighty.... When demons target a person or people, a common tactic is to make trouble for the person .... When a person's problems reach a crescendo, they will be in a state of mind to grab any solution that is passing by. People then make pacts with demonic forces. They sell their souls hoping for relief from their problems.

All this is clear as a bell to the spiritually enlightened, but the demonic forces are able to dull the senses of their victims to the point they no longer have the slightest realization that they have sold their souls. People make a choice to accept the falsehoods offered by the demons for their relief, rather than stick with the truth which seems to hurt (continuously abiding in Christ)....

If you were asked now, "HOW DOES SATAN ENSLAVE PEOPLE?" you should know the answer because it was just given it to you. The answer is Satan's control is trauma-based. A trauma is applied to the lives of people. They reach out for some type of answer to the trauma, and the demons offer some type of answer.... The lies are turned into a false reality which the people believe. The falsehoods are a blurring of reality which the people on one level may know are false, but their minds can't break loose of the power of the lie. The power of the falsehoods are fueled by tradition and demonic manifestations and demonic attacks.

Anyone who steps outside of the demonic lie is attacked....Because a people has willingly sacrificed the truth for the falsehood in their need for relief from their trauma, they have chosen to be deceived. This choice to be deceived has a great deal of spiritual power to it. They are no longer truth-lovers. It is not enough to come to these people with the truth. They have rejected the truth. They must at some point will to seek the truth again. These people can have all the proof shown to them about the truth, and they will continue to reject it. Their demonic bondage needs to be broken somehow.

This bondage can be broken in a number of ways. Pointing out the inadequacies of the lies is sometimes sufficient to break the demonic spell over people. But after the lies are broken, they need to be followed by the truth--and the love of truth.....

Trauma and lies are used in the same way. Souls are sold to the lies in return for their safety. A basic ingredient to the programming of a group of people is the same -- trauma and fear.

Firstly, we need to repent of turning to one other than Christ, and then recommit and resubmit ourselves to our Creator. Repentance. We need to claim the blood of Jesus Christ and ask the Lord to take back the territory we had given to the enemy. The Lord is faithful to those who repent; he will restore. Things may get worse before they get better, or any of several other possibilities. No second guessing, no doubts, stand on Christ Jesus, the one we claim to love and serve. Outcomes will also be affected by the standing of our spiritual covers (e.g. husbands, etc.) or lack thereof.

Secondly, we, the body of Christ, must pray in unity and agreement that the Lord's will would be done for each other in Christ. If elders were available, they would lay hands on us for deliverance and healing. We would ask the Lord to bring conviction that we would, in fact, repent (and also forgive our tormentors).

There is more, but that is the bare bones of it.

This is spiritual warfare.