It’s time to clean up your thought life and to guide your mind!
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3–5)
These three verses, written by Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, hold the compass that unmistakably points us in the right direction whenever we deal with an assault by Satan on our thought life. If you are tired of struggling with the enemy’s barrages against your mind, these verses will give you the strength you need to press on as an overcomer in Christ.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.”
With our minds, we both conceive of and receive thoughts; then, we either reject those thoughts or accept them.
It’s true: the place where we have given the largest amount of ground to Satan, by accepting many of his false ideas, is in our mind—which is the most dangerous place of all.
The mind is dangerous because it is part of our fleshly system, or fallen human nature. Yet, if you ponder this truth, you will quickly realize that this is actually great news, because although your mind has been clogged by countless conversations with Satan, you will not have to fight him in the weakness of the flesh—you can defeat him in the power of the Spirit!
Fighting Satan in the flesh will weary you and drain you of all of your purpose and all of your productivity. However, when you attack Satan in the Spirit, you will find yourself strengthened, and will miraculously begin walking in the authority of Christ.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”
This Scripture firmly states that we are to attack the lies of the enemy with something that is “divinely powerful”!
What is the “divinely powerful” weapon that we have been given access to?
This one-two punch of “divinely” and “powerful” is best translated from the Greek as “absolutely God”!
There should not be one bit of your flesh in the fight; you can stand with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, in your hands and let that sword rip Satan into shreds on your behalf.
When you fight your battle with “divinely powerful” weapons, you will demolish “strongholds” in your thought life.
A stronghold is an area in your mind that Satan controls because he stated his argument in a deceptive conversation with you, and you believed his misleading hypothesis.
Many Christians embrace the lies of Satan and rehearse them over and over again until those lies become strongholds in their mental real estate. If Satan can gain a foothold in our minds, he will likely control our lives, because as we think within ourselves…so are we.
You literally give to Satan a parcel of real estate in your brain when you allow yourself to ponder thoughts of fantasy, worry, criticism, or anything else false and negative. All that Satan is capable of offering is deception; all that God is capable of giving you is truth.
“We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
When we have given Satan a piece of real estate in our gray matter, our thoughts will inevitably begin to contradict the truth of the Word of God.
Our heavenly Father took a great risk when He gave us the freedom to think for ourselves. This privilege of being able to choose our own thoughts confirmed the gift of our being made in the image of God Himself. We are set apart from animals with this extraordinary gift of having the ability to choose our own thoughts.
We do not fight our Satan-induced doubts with drugs, with neurological reconnections, or with a lobotomy! Instead, we bring down every thought that is contrary to the knowledge of God and destroy speculations at their very root. We need to do what the Word of God says to do with the lies of Satan: Destroy them! Take them captive! We must take captive our outrageous and unhealthy thoughts and make them obedient to Jesus Christ.
As you strategically choose your thoughts, your goal is to fill your mind to a greater degree with the principles and truth found only in the Bible. If you have a “default” setting in your brain, it should always be set to the Word of God!
Examine me, O Lord, and try me; test my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth. (Psalm 26:2–3)
Did you enjoy this blog post? Then you will love Carol McLeod’s book Guide Your Mind, Guard Your Heart, Grace Your Tongue.