Guarding Your Mind by Kalu Thankgod Ugochukwu - HTML preview

Chapter Five

The mind as a battlefield

The mind is unusual in that it constitute a battleground where supernatural forces contend against the mind of a man. The will of a man is like a citadel which these forces aim to capture and the field where battle is done for the contention is the mind. Even the Bible clearly intimates us on this reality in II Cor. 10:3-5 in the words Paul the Apostle reads:

3 We walk in the flesh, we do not war after it; he continued to:

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…(KJV)

It is obvious that this passage of the scripture precisely talks about the mind as a place of battle. Notice how it first he intimates us with reality of a battle, then where the battle is fought and finally what is being contended for. The struggle is exclusively for man’s mind and unfortunately many do not even know about this, the ignorance of this truth has led them into all kinds of manipulations. This is not puzzling to anyone wise enough to recognize that out of the abundance of the mind proceeds words and actions or inaction; everything starts from the mind, which is the best target for any manipulator and most unfortunately man’s weakest link. So you see why this topic must not be treated lightly.

Let us look at that particular scripture in another perspective, Paul talks about the flesh not being our chief enemy, we could say the flesh in this context could be the physical events happening all around us, like the coup that happened in Myanmar, COVID variant in Brazil, Mexican Cartel wars, Boko- Haram insurgence in Nigeria and many other issues around the globe. Paul went further to assert that our defense against our true enemy in obscurity is powerful but only if we can will it, because they are not physical.

The war on the human mind comes in the forms of ideas, insinuations, imaginations that may seem to emanate from our minds, but are actually not from us. These suggestions are like fiery darts fired against us day-in day-out without seizing, they may not be visible, but that cannot be said of the actions or inaction that supersede them which practically make our defeat evident.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought. —Ezekiel 38:10 (KJV)

Notice the sentence come into thy mind? Sometimes, a stream of thoughts like a raging sea floods the mind of a Christian in the manner of “I think” or “doing so and so will solve this problem”, hardly the victim of such treacherous invasion recognizes the ploy but it takes the spirit of discernment and deep root in the word of God not to be ignorant of such scheme. We are responsible before God to thoroughly scrutinize every idea, every inspiration and thought to bring the same to the obedience of Christ daily, this simply means to critically ensure that every thought, righteous or not conforms to the will of God and does not in any way go against the teachings of Jesus Christ.

A Christian must be able to discern and interrupt any and all repugnant and unholy thoughts creeping into the mind, all corrupt suggestion impressed upon their hearts, sometimes they could be so strong that it feels like they emanate from our deep thoughts, but alas they are attacks from the master of minds and enemy of man. It is true the attack on man’s mind is unceasing and inevitable but some cases are worst and avoidable. The Christian must do his best never to give place to these vices by avoiding situations that will make his mind vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy, things like giving place to anger, depression, envy, lust, listening to gossips and disturbing news, to mention a few.

An easy way of recognizing these alienated thoughts however natural they appeal, is that they exalted thoughts, as the bible would put “exalteth it against the knowledge of God.” This includes thoughts that encourages self-sufficiency and ignores the need to put one’s whole trust in God in every situation.

Now, last part of that scripture becomes indispensible, the Christian as a soldier of Christ, a guardian of his own mind if you will, must critically scrutinize and bring each and every thought to the full obedience of Jesus Christ. This, my dear reader is the battle and unfortunately it is a never ending one.

Let us apply this to a real life scenario, a man hears of another man’s story, whose wife poisoned him for no justifiable reason, then begins to think about the story over and over in his head trying to logically make sense of the matter. This unknowingly to the man opens up this mind to manipulation, now look at this, at every little provocation from his spouse the thought of that incident flashes back to him, alienated insinuations floods his minds, it would sound like this:

“…maybe this women wants me to die of heart attack so she can inherit my wealth, that is why she is nagging me so much”

“I know that women are evil, who knows if this one is cheating on me…”

Notice the “I” and “me” in those thoughts? Exactly, that is how the enemy of man and his minions launch attacks on our minds, making seem like it is only our own thoughts. These force are extraordinary intelligent and proficient in their lifelong assignment, and man stands no chance of winning this battle except with the grace of God, which strengthens us.

Man’s fallible mind

The complexity of the subject discussed above affronts common sense and is so deep that I cannot afford to divulge it fully, lest we stray from the focus of this book, but I recommend you read Prepare for war by Rebecca Brown MD, which clearly depicted this scenario, also read The spiritual man by Watchman Nee. These books went a long way in my personal development and I encourage you to read it for yourself including other books from the authors.

Since the fall of man, man’s freewill has been in contention between God and the enemy of man. The seat of man’s freewill is the mind, thus, whoever captures the mind of man influence his will, God has no interest in capturing

man’s will but has given him everything he needs to WILL alright, but on the other hand the enemy of man intends to capture the seat of man’s freewill and use it for his own purposes.

When Adam sinned against and fell from grace, he made his body and soul vulnerable to the ultimate enemy of man, who corrupted him, and infested his soul and mind with cares of this life or carnality. This is why the mind of man remains fallible till date, the mind of man is filled with carnality and he balled around by the grand manipulator of his mind, who does with man as he wills, no one alive is exempted from the attack of the enemy but there is hope for man, only if he chooses to embrace it by renewing his mind.

5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.—Romans 12:2

When a man fails to renew his mind and pattern of thoughts, he will continue to be at the mercy of his manipulator. An average Christian may understand the concept of projected thoughts or operation of alienated insinuations from external forces as discussed above, however, because he has failed and fails to renew his mind towards God, he finds those malefic suggestions suiting his purpose at the moment, just the perfect inspiration, a flawless plan and solution to his more immediate concern, he rationalizes it without much effort to scrutinize and bring everything to the obedience of Christ. There is a way that seems right to him but at the end is destruction, because nothing good comes from this peculiar enemy regardless of how right, rational or justifiable his suggestion appeal. The bible made it abundantly clear that he came to steal, to kill and to destroy; so how can a thought injected by him and his cronies be of any good to man, a Christian nonetheless?

Garrison

It is spiritual suicide for any Christian not to guard their mind. Many Christians today, no longer see the need to guard their minds courtesy of the overwhelming influence of the media, they entertain every thought, every lust and every other thing that corrupts the heart and besets the mind.

But, a Christian as a soldier on his guard recognizes black for what it is, he rarely needs any higher form of reasoning or education to discern what is of God and what is of his enemy, he simply needs to do his duty which is to guard, what is to be guarded? The windows of his mind, his eyes, his ears and even the tongue.

…taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench every fiery dart

shot of the wicked. –Eph. 6:16 (KJV)

On this battlefield of ours, there is man’s way of guarding our minds and unplugging from power source, but there is the Christian way, the better way. The verse above clearly speaks of faith in God as the Christian’s battle shield  in guarding or garrisoning over his mind, this may sound a bit funny to the ordinary man but to the deep Christians, who understands the terrain wherein he is and how helpless he is without God, knows that his absolute faith is an invaluable asset unto victory.

A professed Christian must be on his lions girt always, the bible charges us to be watchful and pray always with all prayer and supplication, not to be at the continuous mercy of the master of minds and arch enemy of our souls. Many Christians today barely have time for the bible, many wake in the morning to check the latest news updates, and often times end up deliberating and arguing the news with others that often times their entirely forget to pray and then when they realize how late they are for work or other activities, they quickly dash out. This is the way of the world not the way of Christ. Christ’s way is to be watchful, to be vigilant, every Christian must be conscious of the terrain within s/he is, like a garrison of troops guarding the king’s castle, the Christian soldier even for one second cannot be distracted because he knows not from whence the enemy cometh.

Dr. Rebecca Brown in the chapter fifteen of her book Prepare for war, furnishes us with the reality of the mind as a battlefield and that everyone is attacked in their mind more than any other place. In it she critically illustrated the mental struggle of a double minded man and how the enemy of his soul mocked his effort. But, when he exercised faith, courage came, he resisted the devil and he flew from him. That is the beautiful thing about faith in God, it makes you bold, strong, wise, and it gives you discernment and hope. Dr. Brown also went ahead to postulate that this battle of ours is unceasing, unrelenting and will continue as long as we live on the earth, therefore I say unto you dear reader, you need the daily grace of God as long as you walk this earth, that you may be able to garrison and stand against the fiery darts of the enemy of your mind.

Conclusion

Believe it or not, the brain reacts poorly to distressing news, and subsequently it releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, repeated experiences of this can affect the whole body negatively. While staying up to date on trending news, moderation is the key. Between concerns for loved ones, uncertainties for the future, the pandemic, lockdown restrictions, insecurity, dwindling economy, recession, unemployment and the likes, have left many people with the feeling of despondency, frustration and fear. As a Christian, you must understand that this is what the world is about, but we are not of this world, our minds must not conform to this world but must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. However, this transformation and renewal does not come automatically, it comes through faith in God, through reading the Word. The Word of God says that He has not given us the spirit of fear but of power, love and sound mind, so why should we fear?

The synoptic gospels acquaint us of the story of the disciples who were so petrified by a siege of raging tide; they thought that they were going to die so they woke Jesus and said unto him:

“Teacher, care ye not that we drown?” but he answered them saying:

“Why are you afraid, O ye of little faith?.

The significance of this story presents the matrix of cause and effect in the life of a modern-day Christian. When a Christian begins to fidget over news and concerns of this life such as rumors of wars, unemployment, insecurity, protests, recession or famine to mention a few, and he gradually begin to lose his sacred peace, calmness and his very faith in God to keep him wholly. Honestly, sometimes it feels like those are what the news is intended to achieve, knowing the tricks and vices of our enemy, why should we give in these invasive news and bad reports? Rather than that we should set our minds on, things above, on Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good

report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. —Philippians 4:8 (KJV)

Dear reader, the verse above summaries the whole matter, therefore, I charge you to transform, renew, purify and guard your mind vigilantly from the assaults of this world, and fix your mind on things above, as you do may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

THE END