Losing My Mind: Time for an Upgrade

It’s confession time again…hold on to your device! 

I recently confessed that I’ve been dealing with the spirit of fear.  I also confessed that I’m sick and tired of being run roughshod by the enemy, who is busy trying to fulfill his chief task of “wearing out the saints.”

Now, I’d like to confess that the battle over the spirit of fear is waged, primarily, in my mind. 

I hear you.  “Well, duh….”

Wait!  Don’t leave yet!  Isn’t it usually the simplest things that we miss? (And I promise…I didn’t just call you simple of mind.  Pinky promise.)

Our thought-life is where things are birthed.  Nothing generally happens in our lives that we haven’t thought about first!  Before we do anything about anything, we think about it.  Granted, sometimes we don’t spend enough time thinking things through to their logical conclusion, and sometimes, our thoughts are colored by fantasy and wishful thinking instead of being rooted in reality, but any decision we make usually has been birthed in the chambers of our mind before it ever becomes manifest by our actions.

You’re not sure?

Scientists hypothesize about things, based on facts they already have, and then they begin to imagine ‘what if’.  An intriguing ‘what if’ leads them to experiment, and experiments usually yield answers, even if it’s not what they hoped for.

Inventors see a need, and usually experience a frustration, which leads their minds to turn in creative ways.  Like a scientist in a lab, they begin to hypothesize and experiment.  They see something first in their minds, and then seek a way to make it take shape in reality.  Imagine that, not that long ago, that smart phone in your hand was only the stuff of science fiction.  It took visionary after visionary, trial after trial, to make it reality—but our world is almost unimaginable without the convenience and availability this technology affords us. 

In a darker vein, terrorists plot and plan first in their mind, strategizing for maximum effect.  The architects of 9/11 didn’t roll out of bed on a whim that day, and all simultaneously head for Logan International.  It was a sick, twisted plan that was birthed in a demented mind. 

Our minds are incubators for action, but the actions are predicated on the directions of the thoughts we entertain there.  Adulterers are those who have entertained both thoughts of dissatisfaction with their current partner, and the idea that there is something better out there and that they deserve it, no matter the cost.  It’s birthed in the mind before it ever takes its awful shape in reality.  The problem is, they never seem to fully consider the horrific, destiny-altering damage their actions bring into the lives of everyone around them for decades to come.  They only see the looming self-importance of their own ‘needs’, their own desires.

So, what is our task?  How in the world can we cease being SLAVES to our thoughts?

Paul gave us the answer:  

1 Corinthians 2:13-16 NKJV

¹³ These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. ¹⁶ For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV

⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Enslavement to our thoughts is only remedied by their emancipation through Christ Jesus.  The indwelling Holy Ghost is truly the Comforter, who guides our foolish thinking away from man’s wisdom, and to spiritual wisdom!  Without the benefit of His Spirit living within, the things of God are nothing but foolishness. 

But when we allow (and we must ALLOW) the Spirit to reshape our minds in His image, replacing our faulty thinking with the true wisdom of God that spoke the universe into existence, everything changes.  We are able to see things as they are—that the fear that grips our minds is truly only there—in our MINDS.  We are able to break free from following thoughts down the negative road that the enemy would lay before it, rejecting his scenarios, and realizing wholeheartedly that God doesn’t just have A PLAN for us—He has GOOD PLANS for us!  All we have to do is allow Him to reshape our thought processes, to speak His Word in faith, and declare our intentions to follow after God’s way.  We refuse to look to the right or to the left, we refuse to be distracted by the crazy, circus-sideshow that Hell is displaying all along the shoulder of the Straight-and-Narrow Way.  Our eyes are on the God of Heaven, who has never, ever let us down.  He is the goal, He is the prize, and eternity with Him is the destination. 

In his book, The Bride’s Prize, pastor Brian Kinsey writes:

            “We must cooperate with God in our transformation by receiving the Word into our hearts, hearing it, accepting it, and obeying it.  As we do so, we are on a course that cannot be altered by any force in the universe, other than ourselves.  You can receive the word, or you can reject it.  When you pray, seek the Spirit, humble your heart before the Lord, and live in obedience to His Word.  You will be transformed.” (p. 42-43, Word Aflame)

That is what Paul was saying in Romans:

Romans 12:2 NKJV

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

When you have the Mind of Christ, you begin to see all of the enemy’s shenanigans for what they are:  distractions designed to derail the destiny of the blood-bought Child of God.  He can’t get through the Blood of Jesus.  He can’t penetrate the Blood.  He can’t do anything but present the potential for chaos, and try to bait us into biting, embracing worry and fear, and into making stupid, rash decisions.  But he’s there on the sidelines, waving his arms and making a scene, all in hopes that we will turn our head from the Author and Finisher of our faith. 

Jesus is the author.  He’s the One who wrote the Book, not the other guy.  And He will FINISH the Book, too.  So don’t give the enemy access to the pen of your mind, and allow him to write any part of your story.  You’re too smart for that!  You have God-potential that, placed in the hands of the Master, is unparalleled. 

All you’ve got to do is hand Him all your marbles.  We have the Mind of Christ.