Inhalt

introduction: Understanding Attacks on the Mind

We often wonder why it’s so hard to find some peace of mind. Well, peace is hard to come by when you live in a warzone. And like it or not, you are in a war — a very serious one. This war is cosmic in its proportions. It involves God, humans, angels, demons, principalities, powers, nations, and antichrists. And do you know where the front of the battle is? It’s in your head.

Here is how Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (emphasis added):

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

“The devil doesn’t want us to think clearly about sin. He keeps things vague so that he can imprison and disarm us.”

What are the satanic strongholds that spiritually imprison people, the strongholds that we seek to destroy? Arguments and opinions. Where is the battle raging? Where our thoughts are.

And arguments are not merely strongholds; they are weapons of mass destruction. Adam and Eve (and all of us with them) fell because of an argument. They believed the serpent’s argument and stopped believing God.

That is the deadly essence of sin: not believing God. To not believe God is to ally with Satan, whom Jesus said is “a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth. . . . For he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

You don’t want Satan as an ally. He’s treacherous. He’s out to murder you with lies.

The Victory that Overcomes the World

“When we are anxious, depressed, or irritable, it’s likely because we’re believing a lie about ourselves or God.”

The victory that overcomes the world is our faith (1 John 5:4). This is precisely why the devil does not want us to think clearly about sin. He wants to keep things vague so he can imprison or disarm us. But Jesus wants us to think clearly. He wants us to know the truth because the truth brings freedom:

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)

So as freedom fighters let’s fight against “unbelieving hearts” by exhorting one another every day (Hebrews 3:12–13) to live in the freedom — and peace (John 16:33) — of the truth.

Because our most important battles are won and lost with arguments. As people of God we can no longer be ignorant to spiritual warfare and the tactics of the enemy. The enemy, Satan, does not like the people of God, especially if they know who they are and walking in their purpose. One of the way in which he attacks the people of God is by building strongholds.

Strongholds are ways of thinking or a thought that the enemy injects in a person. That individual starts believing the lie(s) of the enemy, and will then starts acting out that lie. After a while what began as a thought becomes a stronghold. More importantly, spiritual strongholds are lies by the enemy that you hold to be true. When you are fighting against spiritual strongholds you are fighting against the thought(s) that holds an individual, family, community or even country in bondage. What then became a thought now can now become a culture or way of life for a set of people. That’s how many cultures came about, it began with a thought and then that thought became a way of doing things.

The enemy realize that the mind of an individual is very powerful and if he wants to defeat a child of God he needs to attack him in his/her mind, it is with the mind we serve God (Romans 7:25). Because Satan realizes this, he uses various tactics to control an individual thinking, e.g. condemnation, deception, doubt, and fear. Your thinking controls your actions; your action controls the direction your life is heading. This is why many people will never give their lives to the Lord, and if they do they continue to live a defeated life, as they feel condemn, inferior or any other mental attacks the enemy fit

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Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

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