MercyChild

TIME TO LEARN HOW TO FIGHT!

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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" (2 Cor. 10:3-5).

The battlefield is the mind. The enemy desires to set up thought "strongholds" in our minds. These are thoughts that won't go away, that eventually must be acted upon. These "strongholds" are whatever is opposed to "the knowledge of God."

So, here is what happens: Everything is going just fine, and all of a sudden a thought about drinking alcohol, having a fix or the need to get high, comes into our thoughts. Maybe it is a memory of drinking or the "social" activity involved. Or perhaps it is a thought of how sweet or how soothing just one drink or fix would be. The thought may be, "it would be so nice just to feel that numbness - what could one drink or one fix hurt?" This is the beginning of a thought-stronghold. This image that is lodging itself in our brain is in opposition. We can understand then that the evil one is setting that thought up in our minds to turn us away from God. This image, and the associated emotions that are conjured up in the heart can become a stronghold of the Devil, and lead us to use, drink and/or other sins.

Or, if our particular downfall is going to a bar or party, we can be praying against going all day, but all of a sudden thoughts come into our heads: "Everybody loves you there! Somebody is just waiting to see you." A popular former television show centered in a bar invites us to go "where everybody knows your name." After all, the struggles of day to day life are so difficult, what would be wrong with a little reward, or a celebration of victory, or just a moment of escape from the pain? Though we try to push these thoughts away, and may be successful for the first or second time, eventually the thoughts get stuck in our minds and we are off to sin.

We need to make sure we understand that our minds are a battleground. And most importantly, we need to possess "divine weapons" and know how to fight using them. It is obvious that the enemy wages war on our minds. Notice the following verses:

"The mind of sinful man is death..." (Romans 8:6).

"The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so" (Romans 8:7)

"Many live as the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things" (Phillipians 3:19).

The reason that the mind of sinful man is death is because the Devil has numerous thought-strongholds there. Sinful man is fixated on sinful thoughts, and the wages of sin is death. In our case, thoughts about alcohol, drugs or whatever we want to use can totally overwhelm and control our minds.The sinful mind is saturated in sinful thoughts. When God's law requires it to think of pure, lovely, truthful thoughts it is totally unable to do so. The sinful mind is filled with sinful images and is bent on fulfilling the desires of the flesh.

Guys, our minds are the battleground. If the Devil can just get our minds fixed on "earthly things," he knows that we will be "enemies of the cross," and therefore enemies of God.

None of us who have been enslaved to alcohol, prescription or other drugs can deny the difficulty involved in this war.



Here are two things we can do to combat these thoughts that get lodged in our minds:

1. We can refuse to have access to any drug, which will cease the income of any additional experiences or 'visual' things that can drag us into sin. This point is key, and without allowing ourselves zero access there really won't be any victory in this area. Please review Matthew 5:29-30, Romans 13:14 and Joshua 7:13.
2. We need to begin to immerse ourselves in Scripture, seeking God for grace to apply what we read. Taking in the Water of the Word has the effect of washing away the images that remain in the brain. Please review Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:3.

As we continue to put these two things in place over time we will become free from all strongholds of the enemy, by the grace of God.