Battlefield of the Mind (13 page)

We make excuses for our own behavior, but when someone else does the same thing we do, we are often merciless. Doing unto others as we want them to do to us (Matthew 7:12) is a good life principle that will prevent a lot of judgment and criticism, if followed.

A judgmental mind is an offshoot of a negative mind—thinking about what is wrong with an individual instead of what is right.

Be positive and not negative!

Others will benefit, but you will benefit more than anyone.

GUARD YOUR HEART

Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that
you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23

If you want to have life flowing to you and from you, guard your heart.

Certain types of thoughts are "unthinkable" for a believer—judgment and criticism among them. All the things that God tries to teach us are for our own good and happiness. Following His way brings fruitfulness; following the devil's way brings rottenness.

BE SUSPICIOUS OF SUSPICION

Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever
ready to believe the best of every person.... 1 Corinthians 13:7

I can honestly say that obedience to this Scripture has always been a challenge for me. I was brought up to be suspicious. I was actually taught to distrust everyone, especially if they pretended to be nice, because they must want something.

In addition to being taught to be suspicious of others and their motives, I had several very disappointing experiences with people, not only before I became an active Christian, but afterward as well.

Meditating on the components of love and realizing that love always believes the best has helped me greatly to develop a new mindset.

When your mind has been poisoned, or when Satan has gained strongholds in your mind, it has to be renewed according to God's Word.

This is done by learning the Word and meditating (pondering, muttering to yourself, thinking on) it.

We have the wonderful Holy Spirit in us to remind us when our thoughts are going in the wrong direction. God does this for me when I am having suspicious thoughts instead of loving thoughts. The natural man thinks, "If I trust people, I'll be taken advantage of." Perhaps, but the benefits will far outweigh any negative experiences.

Trust and faith bring joy to life and help relationships grow to their
maximum potential.

Suspicion cripples an entire relationship and usually destroys it.

The bottom line is this—God's ways work; man's ways don't. God condemns judgment, criticism and suspicion, and so should we. Love what God loves and hate what He hates. Allow what He allows and disallow what He disallows.

A balanced attitude is always the best policy. That doesn't mean that we are not to use wisdom and discernment in our dealings with others.

We don't have to throw open our life to everyone we meet, giving every person we encounter a chance to crush us. On the other hand, we don't have to look at everyone with a negative, suspicious eye, always expecting to be taken advantage of by others.

TRUST GOD COMPLETELY AND MAN DISCREETLY

But when He was in Jerusalem during the Passover Feast, many
believed in His name [identified themselves with His party] after
seeing His signs (wonders, miracles) which He was doing. But Jesus [for His part] did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all [men]; And He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man [needed no evidence from anyone about men], for He Himself knew
what was in human nature. [He could read men's hearts.] John 2:23-25

One time after I had been involved in a disappointing church situation, God brought John 2:23-25 to my attention.

This passage is speaking of Jesus' relationship with His disciples. It plainly says that He did not trust Himself to them. It does not say that He was suspicious of them or that He had no trust in them; it just explains that because He understood human nature (which we all have), He did not trust Himself to them in an unbalanced way.

I learned a good lesson. I had been hurt badly in the situation at church because I had become too involved with a group of ladies and had got out of balance. Every time we get out of balance, we open a door for the devil.

First Peter 5:8 says, Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.

I learned that I had been leaning on the ladies in this group and placing in them a trust that belongs only to God. We can go only so far in any human relationship. If we go beyond wisdom, trouble will brew, and we will be hurt.

Always place your ultimate trust in the Lord. Doing so will open the door for the Holy Spirit to let you know when you're crossing over the line of balance.

Some people think they have discernment when actually they are just suspicious. There is a true gift of the Spirit called the discerning of spirits.

(1 Corinthians 12:10 KJV.) It discerns good and bad, not just bad. Suspicion comes out of the unrenewed mind; discernment comes out of the renewed spirit.

Pray for true gifts—not flesh that masquerades as gifts of the Spirit.

True spiritual discernment will provoke prayer, not gossip. If a genuine problem is being discerned by a genuine gift, it will follow the scriptural pattern for dealing with it, not fleshly ways that only spread and compound the problem.

PLEASANT WORDS ARE SWEET AND HEALING

The mind of the wise instructs his mouth, and adds learning and
persuasiveness to his lips. Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the mind and healing
to the body. Proverbs 16:23,24

Words and thoughts are like bone and marrow—so close, it is hard to divide them. (Hebrews 4:12.)

Our thoughts are silent words that only we and the Lord hear, but those words affect our inner man, our health, our joy and our attitude.

The things we think on often come out of our mouth. And, sad to say, sometimes they make us look foolish. Judgment, criticism and suspicion never bring joy.

Jesus said that He came in order that we might have and enjoy life.

(John 10:10.) Begin to operate in the mind of Christ, and you will step into a whole new realm of living.

Chapter 14

A Passive Mind

My people are destroyed for lack 
of knowledge....

HOSEA 4:6

This statement is certainly true concerning the area of passivity. Most Christians are not even familiar with the term, nor do they know how to recognize the symptoms.

Passivity is the opposite of activity. It is a dangerous problem because the Word of God clearly teaches that we must be alert, cautious and active (1 Peter 5:8)—that we are to fan the flame and stir up the gift within us. (2 Timothy 1:6.)

I have read various definitions of the word "passivity," and I describe it as a lack of feeling, a lack of desire, general apathy, luke-warmness and laziness. Evil spirits are behind passivity. The devil knows that inactivity, failure to exercise the will, will spell the believer's ultimate defeat. As long as a person is moving against the devil by using his will to resist him, the enemy will not win the war. However, if he enters into a state of passivity, he is in serious trouble.

So many believers are emotionally ruled that an absence of feeling is all that is needed to stop them from doing what they have been taught to do. They praise if they feel like it, give if they feel like it, keep their word if they feel like it—and if they don't feel like it, they don't.

EMPTY SPACE IS A PLACE!

Neither give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:27 KJV

The place we give Satan is often empty space. An empty, passive mind can be easily filled with all kinds of wrong thoughts.

A believer who has a passive mind and who does not resist these wrong thoughts often takes them as his own thoughts. He doesn't realize that the evil spirit has injected them into his mind because there was empty space there to fill.

One way to keep wrong thoughts out of your mind is to keep your mind full of right thoughts. The devil can be cast out, but he goes and wanders in dry places for a season. When he returns to his old home and finds it empty, the Bible says in Luke 11:24-26 that he comes back, brings others with him and the person's last condition is worse than his first. For this reason we never attempt to cast out an evil spirit from an individual unless that person has been instructed in how to "fill up the empty place."

I am not saying that every person who has an evil thought has an evil spirit. But an evil spirit is often behind evil thoughts. An individual can cast down imaginations repeatedly, but they will always come right back until he learns to fill up the empty space with right thinking. When the enemy returns, he will then find no place in that person.

There are aggressive sins, or sins of commission, and there are passive sins, which are sins of omission. In other words, there are wrong things that we do, and there are right things that we don't do. For example, a relationship can be destroyed by speaking thoughtless words, but it can also be destroyed by the omission of kind words of appreciation that should have been spoken but never were.

A passive person thinks he is doing nothing wrong because he is doing nothing. Confronted with his error, he will say, "I didn't do anything!" His analysis is correct, but his behavior is not. The problem arose precisely because he did nothing.

OVERCOMING PASSIVITY

My husband Dave had some problems years ago with passivity.

There were certain things that he was active in. He went to work every day, played golf on Saturday and watched football on Sunday. Beyond that, it was very hard to motivate him to do anything else. If I needed a picture hung on the wall, it might take him three or four weeks to get it done. This caused great friction between us. It seemed to me that he did what he wanted to, and beyond that he did nothing.

Dave loved the Lord and as he sought Him about this problem, God directed him to some information about passivity and its dangers. He found that evil spirits were behind his non-action. There were certain areas in which he had no problems because he had maintained his will in those areas, but in other areas he had basically, through non-activity, given his will over to the enemy. He was oppressed in those areas and had moved into a place where he had no desire, no "want to," no motivation at all to help him accomplish certain tasks.

Study of the Word of God and prayer were two other areas where he was passive. Since I knew that he was not seeking God for direction, it was hard for me to listen to him. I had a problem with rebellion anyway, and you can see how the devil used our weaknesses against each other.

Many people are divorced over just such problems. They really don't understand what is wrong.

I was actually too aggressive. I was always running out ahead of God, in the flesh, "doing my own thing" and expecting the Lord to bless it.

Dave did not do much of anything except wait on God, which severely irritated me. We laugh now when we think of how we both used to be, but it was not funny then and had God not gotten our attention, we might have been one of those divorce statistics.

Dave would tell me that I was always out ahead of God, and I would respond by saying that he was ten miles behind God. I was too aggressive, and Dave was too passive.

When a believer is inactive in any area in which he has capability or talent, that particular area begins to atrophy or become immobilized. The longer he does nothing, the less he wants to do anything. One of the best examples is physical exercise.

I am currently on a good exercise program, and the more I exercise, the easier it gets. When I first started, it was very hard. It hurt each time I followed the program, because I had been inactive and passive concerning exercise for a long time. The longer I did nothing, the worse my physical condition became. I was getting weaker and weaker due to non-use of my muscles.

Dave began to see what his problem was! He was dealing with evil spirits that were oppressing him because of long-term inactivity. As the Holy Spirit revealed this truth to him, Dave determined that he would once again be active and aggressive, not lazy or procrastinating.

Making the decision was the easy part; putting it into action was the hard part. It was hard because each of the areas in which he had been passive now had to be "exercised" until it was strong again.

He began to get up at 5:00 a.m. to read the Word and pray before he went to work.
The battle was on!
The devil does not want to give up ground that he has gained, and he won't give it up without a fight. Dave would get up to spend time with God and would fall asleep on the couch.

Even though there were mornings when he fell asleep, he was still making progress simply because he was getting up out of bed and attempting to build a prayer life.

There were times when he was bored. There were days when he felt that he was making no progress, that he was not understanding what he was reading anyway or that his prayers were not getting through. But he persisted because of the Holy Spirit's revelation about this condition called "passivity."

I began to notice that when I needed Dave to hang a picture or fix something around the house, he responded immediately. He was beginning to do his own thinking again and make his own decisions.

Many times he did not feel like doing it or even want to do it in the natural. But he went beyond his feelings and fleshly desires. The more he took action based on what he knew to be right, the more freedom he enjoyed.

I will be honest and tell you that it was not easy for him. He was not free in a few days or even a few weeks. Passivity is one of the most difficult conditions to overcome because, as I have mentioned, there are no feelings to lend support.