One of my earliest introductions to the power of God’s word came through Joyce Meyer. Up until then, it was just a book and I was supposed to WANT to read it, but I didn’t really want to. I read to check a box. I read to look the part. I read thinking it would make God want to bless me. Joyce helped me look at God’s word as a true guide to living my life. There were secrets hidden in the Bible, and I wanted to know the secrets.

Joyce taught on the “Battlefield of the Mind”, and the effects of our thoughts on our lives. The truth is, you simply can’t have a positive life with a negative mind. God didn’t create you with a broken, negative mind … that’s the attack of the enemy. Understand, today there’s still a battle going on in your mind, and it’s creating either defeat or victory in your life.

Ephesians 6:17 tells us to “Put on the helmet of salvation.” What does a helmet do? It protects your head. Do you see what the helmet of salvation is? This is Jesus’ protection for your mind! The enemy is after your thoughts. He’s after your mindset. Your mind is the full on battlefield. And Jesus says, “let me protect your mind!”

Romans 1: 28 warns of what happens when God’s creation no longer seeks Jesus for protection over their thoughts. It says, “And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.” Their thoughts were wrong so their actions were wrong. Why were their thoughts wrong? Because they no longer gave any effort to seeking God and God gave them over to their worthless mindset. So the battlefield of their mind was lost to the enemy.

The Message translation says it like this, “Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose. They made life hell on earth.”

Who made life hell on earth? The people did. What caused it? Their unprotected mind and thoughts that ran wild.

Whew, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want God to quit bothering me. I don’t want him to quit waking me up. I don’t want him to quit convicting me. I don’t want him to quit giving me that icky feeling in my spirit when I’m out of alignment. Lord, don’t quit bothering me! Bother the heck out of me. Don’t let me sleep if I am wrong!

Have you seen a life where all hell broke loose? We all have seen that example. We’ve seen a life ruined because of a worthless mindset. We’ve witnessed the battlefield of the mind defeated by the enemy. A life filled with potential that falls so short. But understand, Jesus always wanted to protect that mind! Jesus always wanted to fight that battle. Jesus always had victory for them. But when we don’t choose Him, our minds go unprotected.

Girl, put on the helmet of salvation! Make time for God so he can protect you from the battle over your mind.

Our minds are wild little beasts. The moment you tell yourself not to think of something, what do you do … you start thinking of the exact thing you just said NOT to think about. I often teach how to harness the power of your thoughts using the example of a refrigerator.

Close your eyes and think about your kitchen right now. Think about all the details of your kitchen, just don’t think about your refrigerator. You can think about everything but your refrigerator. Think of your kitchen, just not your refrigerator. Your entire kitchen and it’s details are what I want you to think about, just as long as you’re not thinking about your refrigerator.

Now, what were you thinking about? Your refrigerator! Isn’t it crazy how the more you say “don’t think about that”, the more you DO think about that exact thing.

Sounds a whole lot like what Paul is saying later in Romans 7: 15, “For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.” He’s saying, I keep thinking about the things I don’t want to think about. I keep dong the things I don’t want to do. I can’t control myself and I can’t change myself. Finally he says in verse 24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

What will change us? What will help us control this mind that continually thinks about the very thing we don’t want it to think about? What will help us win this war on the battlefield of our mind?

Let’s return to your kitchen to see! Close your eyes again, and think about your kitchen. You can think about all the details of your kitchen, but I specifically want you to think about your sink this time. In your kitchen is your sink. What color is your sink? Is it white? Is it silver? What does your faucet look like? Does your faucet have a knob for hot and cold individually, or just one knob in the middle. Do you have one of those detachable sprayer things? Is your soap dispenser built into the sink? Which side of the sink is the garbage disposal? Is your sink currently empty of full?

Okay, now open your eyes and tell me what you were thinking about. What? Your kitchen sink! Precisely! And what were you NOT thinking about this time? Your refrigerator. This time, it took absolutely no effort to ignore your refrigerator. Now, why was that? Because I gave you something specific to think about instead. I offered you a new mindset. A new focus for your attention.

Girls, that’s what JESUS does for us!

Romans 8: 5-9 says, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. The mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, because the spirit of God lives in you!”

The Spirit of God lives within us through Jesus. And Jesus is our helmet of salvation. He protects our minds. When our minds are right, our actions can be right! We no longer have to do what we don’t want to do! We no longer have to think all the things we don’t want to think.

Jesus has rescued us from the flesh that causes us to resist what is good. He is the only answer. His Spirit living within you changes your mindset! This is how the war on the battlefield of your mind is fought and won. JESUS!

Remember, what happens to us when we no longer bother with acknowledging and seeking God … God stops bothering us. We’re turned over to a worthless mindset. We’re filled with thoughts of all we don’t want, and pulled right into those thoughts and create a living hell, doing all the things we know we don’t want to do.

But when we seek God, when we acknowledge him, we are given a new mindset led by the Spirit. We no longer think about what we don’t want, but about what we do want. Our thoughts are filled with goodness, and our actions flow from that goodness. We are able to take our wild thoughts captive and make them obedient to Jesus! Naturally, we will no longer dwell on the things we don’t want to because we’ve replaced it with the things of the Spirit.

You don’t have to avoid thinking about your refrigerator when I redirect you to your kitchen sink. Jesus redirects us to our sink. To the good story he has for us. To the power he has given us to change. To the mind that is set on him.

There’s a battle going on in your mind. The enemy of your soul wants to keep you stuck in a pattern of doing what you don’t want to do, and not doing what you do want to do. He wants to make you feel powerless and out of control. He thrives on this chaos and brings his hell to your corner of this earth… IF YOU LET HIM. Don’t let him.

Devil, you’re out. Jesus, you’re in! My thoughts are fully on you! I find my strength in you. I put on the helmet of salvation and receive protection for my mind. Through his Spirit, I have the power to control and direct my thoughts.

This is the last paragraph of Romans 7 in the Message translation:

“What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
(Chapter 8) With the arrival of Jesus that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation.”

My mind has been reset by the Spirit, and the Spirit brings LIFE!

Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela
Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim
Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com