Introduction
“I’m not good enough. I am defined by my past shortcomings. I am a sinner. I deserve to be here, wallowing in self dread. I will never change. Even though I gave my life to Jesus, I will fail eventually. Change is never permanent with me. And I don’t deserve any better.”
I know that this is the pre-recorded message that plays in your mind every day. You can’t help it, these thoughts permeate your very spirit and sink their claws into you. You cannot get rid of them, they always return. Maybe not that drastically as my example above. But you can’t help but listen to the little voice in the back of your mind, saying: “You’re not good enough.” “You deserve to be alone.” “You are so stupid.” “Remember those times when you failed.”
The good news is that these self-doubts are by no means uncommon. We all have them to an extent. I’ve had these thoughts bubbling in my brain since before I can remember. These thoughts may seem harmless at first, you might even regard them as helpful guides leading you away from danger. But, given the attention, these poisonous seeds begin to blossom. They chip away at your self-confidence, paralyze you with fear and prevent you from growing. Growing socially, personally even spiritually.
So, what is to be done about them? I wish it were as simple as stop thinking about them. Its not going to be easy, it’s a fight. A Battle in your mind. But here we are together, let’s see if I can pass around some weapons.
Establishing The Battlefield of Our Mind
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
– Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)
We wake up in the morning and the first thing we do is check social media, YouTube the news and our emails. From our first waking moment our minds are up for grabs, rent free. We allow anyone to wander in and leave behind seedlings of ideas that take root in our minds. Then we spend the rest of the day with our thoughts wandering between ideas like a leaf blowing in the wind.
Your mind is a battlefield of ideas. When you allow anyone onto the battlefield and do nothing to fight for and take ground in your mind, you will be overrun. The ideas the devil has given you is dangerous and can lead you to ruin. You cannot stop the enemy from launching an attack on your mind and heart, but you can take up an offensive against him. You can strike first and win the ground for God. This is our responsibility:
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
– Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
I’m not trying to oversimplify the complex inner workings of our hearts and minds, but I am trying to get you to take them seriously. Literally everything we are, and everything we have a hope of becoming or achieving in the future, starts first in our minds. You want to be successful? Have an amazing relationship? Bring the kingdom of God into the world? What about just being less miserable? The first step is Winning that battle in your mind. After all, Paul writes in Romans, that we are changed and transformed by the renewing of our minds.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform 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.”
– Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
It is at this stage in our journey together, that the enemy will try to kick up dust and rage against you taking the battlefield of your mind seriously. Is anyone else having these thoughts burning in their chest? “I don’t deserve any better.” “I’m not worth fighting for.” “I’m too far gone.” If these are your thoughts, you need to take the battlefield of your mind even more seriously. You are worth fighting for! On the contrary, in Jesus’ opinion, you are worth dying for.
We also have a responsibility to take control of the battlefield of our mind. You are an important and irreplaceable part of the body of Christ. God has created you for a specific purpose in His kingdom. He lives inside you. Your life, who you are, what you do is connected to God’s story. You have a responsibility to the tasks God has set aside for you. A responsibility to your future wife, husband and children. To everyone your life touches.
You don’t belong to yourself. You are not your own to abuse and degrade in your mind. If you were to collect the most beautiful paintings in the world and throw them onto a heap, then they are trash. We become how we are treated. Treated by others yes, but more so how we treat ourselves. Beautiful paintings, made meticulously and sold for extraordinary prices, become trash if we treat it as such. You are doubly God’s. He made you meticulously and He bought you, out of destruction, with His precious blood.
So, the fight is on. A fight in your mind that will determine everything about you. It will be bloody, but I have good news. Our victory over the devil is already assured. We just need to lay hold of Christ’s victory in our minds. Let me show you how.
Identifying The Lies of The Enemy
You need to Pay more attention. We are living in the information age. We understand more than anything, that attention is a commodity we use. The age where every advert, influencer and company competes for your attention. Even this website and blog post is my attempt to speak truth into your lives, in exchange for your attention. Your attention is your most valuable commodity. Don’t give it to just anyone. Where our attention lands, our hearts and minds follow.
We alone control how we use our attention. We chose what to ignore and what to think about. What thoughts to entertain and which to shun. You alone, are the DJ of your mind. You control the playlist. But some of us can’t get enough of that amazing song: “I am useless.” Yes! Let’s queue that track in our mind. “Number one failure, destination you.” Let’s get that mix up and just listen to it all day long!
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”
- Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
Our mind is a battlefield. If you keep playing the failure soundtrack, I know what the outcome of the fight will be. If you grow weeds, your mind is a dilapidated field. If you grow fruit trees, your mind is an orchard. What we think about is what we are. If you imagine yourself a loser, that is what you will become. We need to refurbish our minds, to stop thinking about whatever we want, and start thinking about God’s incredible victory in our lives.
“3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We 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. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.”
The first step in the proses of renewing our minds, is to remove the weeds. The enemy has been busy spreading his poisonous seed in our mind and we need to uproot them. This may be a painful proses. This may even be a dangerous one. What will it be like to realize the potential you had when you remove these crippling weeds? The trees you could have grown. The trees you lost because it was suffocated and deprived of nourishment, stolen by the growing cancer of the weeds.
It will be hard. But if you want to change and renew your mind, you need to take responsibility for the garden in your mind.
We need to examine every plant in our mind, as well as every new plant we get delivered. The number one question you need to answer is: Where did this thought come from? If the thought came from the enemy, we need to uproot it. If it came from God, we need to nurture it. We know where these thoughts are from, by comparing it to the Bible. We need to learn how to recognize the voice of God.
When the devil comes and gives us lies, we can respond, like Jesus did in the desert. Matthew 4:1-11. “You are starving, turn these stones to bread” the devil said, tempting Jesus. “No” Jesus responded, “It is written in the bible, that man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
If you are faced with a thought that says: “I am a failure.”
Examine the thought! Did Jesus who died for me want me to know that I am a failure right now?
No! Deuteronomy 20:4 says that through God’s power, I am victorious.
“I am alone”
Isaiah 41:10 says that God is always with me.
“I am a sinner”
1 Corinthians 1:30 says I have the righteousness of Christ.
This is your mind. It is no longer up for grabs for the enemy to plant anything he wants. You need to get the limiting, paralyzing and hindering thoughts out of your mind. To make room to grow into what God wants you to be. But an empty field is not useful to anyone. Let’s see what we can replace the weeds with.
Holding on to Truth
There was once a group of kids who learned how to river raft. They were fairly inexperienced, but they were slowly building confidence in their river rafting ability. Their coach, knowing they were ready to take on the dangerous rapids, encouraged them to get into the raft. They got out safe on the other side, by following their coach’s rule on the positive point.
They learned that no matter what is going on around them, their entire focus should be on where their coach is pointing. Then they would row with all their might to get there. He would point to their positive point, the safest path. He never pointed at the sharp rocks that could cut the raft, nor would he point to the logs that could capsize them. For the coach knew if the kids gave any focus to the obstacles, then they WILL go towards them and hit them.
“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
- Hebrews 2:1 (NIV)
In the previous section, we learned how dangerous it is to give any attention to the lies of the enemy. The sharp stones that slashes open our rafts. The logs that flips our rafts over and threatens to drown us. Now we must learn where our focus should be. Where is Jesus, our coach, pointing us to go? Where is our positive point?
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.”
- Deuteronomy 11:18 (NIV)
The second step in the process of renewing our minds, is to plant the truth of God in our hearts and minds. God talks to us in so many ways in the Bible. God tells us what we are made for. How to follow in His footsteps. What the truth is. We need to examine and store up the truth of God’s words in our minds. That we may be transformed.
Yes, that does mean we need to memorize scripture, but I promise it is not as difficult as it sounds. After all, we have no trouble remembering what the enemy says to us. All it takes is to make a conscious decision to reflect on the truth God gave you. You don’t even have to spend extra time reflecting on the truth, just replace it with the time you usually spend reflecting on the lies of the enemy.
If the thought comes to you: “I am a failure.” Think about it. It does not agree with the Word of God, therefore it’s from the enemy. Discard the thought. Now ask yourself what the Bible says. If you don’t know look it up, there is no shame in that, Google is your friend. Deuteronomy 20:4 says that God fights with us and gives us victory. Wow, I am not a failure. I am victorious. Think about that while you get a coffee, while you’re driving to work, while you’re in the shower. I don’t fight alone. I can’t fail, because God ALREADY gave me victory.
If you reflect on that thought often enough, the thought will take root in your mind and become cemented into your heart. Then when the enemy comes and points at the rocks of your failure, you can focus on the victory God is pointing towards. The tree of victory will then begin to bear fruit in your mind. Your confidence and trust in God will increase. You will start to love yourself and others as God loves you.
Do this, for every thought you have. Take one thought every week. Find out what the Bible says about that thought. Plant that thought and nurture it in your mind.
Every verse engraved in your heart and planted in your mind, is another arrow you have in your quiver. There will come times in the spiritual battle of our minds where we just need one more arrow to strike the enemy with a killing blow. There will even come times where we need to endure massive hurricanes. In that case our trees need to be firmly planted and rooted deep within our hearts. So that when the storm passes and the enemy retreats, we are left standing stronger on the other side.
The word of God changes, strengthens and works within us. This is the Christian diet. Our very breath. You can let the enemy come and uproot and trample that truth. Or you can have a conviction to the truth, like Skillet sings about in The Resistance:
“You can take my heart, you can take my breath
When you pry it from my cold, dead chest.”
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.”
- Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
The New Story
“22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
- Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV)
We all are story driven people. History, even our memory consists of a story. We form opinions, explore our emotions and root our own identity in a story. Stories are the number one medium we use to communicate our experiences, teach our children about values, we even hold in high esteem a story’s ability to entertain us. Our story is the bedrock of our identity. If you want to grow, you will need a solid foundation. The final step in the proses of renewing our minds, is to put on our new self.
What is your story? The story that defines your identity. Is your story the jet fuel you use to reach new heights, or the anchor that weighs you down? No matter what your story, I have amazing news for you. God has a better story for you. You are not stuck with the circumstances you are dealt. If your story is holding you back, you need to change it.
After high school I felt God’s calling on my life to help people. Determined, I found the best emergency medicine course in the country. I strived and persevered for two years, after which I dropped out. Looking back, I realise why I needed to experience this two-year set back. I gained maturity, learned how to take responsibility and came much closer to becoming the man God wants me to be. At the time though, I made a declaration over my life. My story was that I was a failure. My story paved my way forward.
Cut to the next year where God called me to go into ministry. The failure of emergency medicine was still fresh in my memory, and because of the way I had to wait forever to receive my grades, applications for the university where I would study Theology was closed. God led me there however, so my dad called them. They said that the final registration to the faculty would be finalized tomorrow. If I phoned a day later, they would not have been able to help me, but in God’s grace, a place was saved for me.
With all the pieces falling into place I studied myself to death and passed everything in the first semester with flying colors. No, I got my grades back and I barely scraped through. That’s when I realized that I had give up on myself. My story was that I was stupid. That I didn’t work hard and wasn’t determined enough. That I was a failure. This story almost dragged me down to non-existence. Fortunately, my professors never gave up on me and God never gave up on me.
I had to change my story to become successful. I would have never gotten my degree if I still had the failure story firmly planted in my heart. I had to see myself the way God sees me. To this day, as part of my morning routine, I read and memorize my new story.
I am a soldier of God, sent from His throne room, to accomplish heavenly goals, here on earth. I Have endured hardship, self-doubt and destructive people to learn how to persevere for God. I Am resilient and God strengthens and works within me. I am eager and can adapt to any task God has given me. I have God’s power and determination inside me. I walk with the authority my God has given me. I can endure all things and follow God as He changes the world.
When God rescues us from our old stories, He gives us a new story. This is my story, what is yours? Imagine God askes you why you are not living to your full ability and potential. Would your current story be an excuse? What if you could stop living in your limiting story and grab hold of God’s true story for your life? Think about your current story. Is that what God wants for your life, or does God want you to succeed despite your old story? Use your past as a context, don’t let it define you. Then we can do as Ephesians 4:22-24 says:
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
This is the power of God’s story in your life. You did not fail, you grew. You did not lose your job, your kingdom assignment at that company ended. You weren’t forced to do anything, God planned and assigned a task for you to do. This is not the power of positive thinking. This is using the word of God, to stop hindering ourselves and lay claim to the declarations God has spoken over our lives. Write down your new story. Memorize it, breathe it in every morning. Then you will lay claim to the promises God gives you in His word and become the YOU that He wants you to be.
Conclusion – The Battle in the Bedroom
Your mind is a battlefield, a garden of competing ideas. You need to take what goes on in your heart and mind seriously and take responsibility for your thoughts. What happens in our hearts and minds, is who we become. Where your attention lands, is where you will walk. You need to uproot the lies, planted in your mind by the enemy, and guard and grow the truth God gives you. Then you will be changed through the attitude in your minds and start to see yourself as God sees you. If you want to change your life, you need to change your story.
“11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
- Judges 6:11-12 (NIV)
This verse comes from a time where God’s people, the Israelites, were being persecuted by the Midianites. They ravaged the Israelites’ crops and killed their livestock. God then called Gideon to rise to defeat the Midianites. God called Gideon while he was threshing wheat. Not while he was fighting on the front line or inspiring God’s people to defend themselves. Gideon was called in a field. David was called and anointed king of Israel while he was out shepherding sheep. 1 Samuel 16.
“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”
- Zechariah 4:10 (NIV)
Don’t despise the day of small things. If we show God faithfulness in the little, then He will trust us with a lot. The biggest part in our story, is the preparation phase. Therefore, our story is defined by daily faithfulness. How often does one day, turn into a week, a month, our entire lives? The biggest battle we will face therefore, is the battle in our bedroom, as soon as we wake up. You can assert the territory in your mind, every morning, for God, or you can let the enemy distract you with lies. You can shift your focus to God’s story and walk in His footsteps, or you can believe your old, false story.
David didn’t wake up one morning and become a King. He became a King every morning. Gideon didn’t wake up one day and become a Mighty Warrior. He became a Mighty Warrior every morning. They faced the battle in the bedroom, they won the fight in their mind every day. That is how they gained confidence, that’s how they changed and became who God wanted them to be. God loves you enough to accept you just as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you the way you are. Now rise! The Lord is with you Mighty Warrior!
John
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This blog was very helpfull in my faith journey!!