Battlefield of the Mind (7 page)

Unless he is paying close attention, he may not even realize that he is being spoken to.

That's the way it is with communication between God's Spirit and our spirit. The ways of the Holy Spirit are gentle; most of the time He speaks to us as He did to the prophet in this passage—in "a still small voice." It is therefore vital that we learn to keep ourselves in a condition conducive to hearing.

THE SPIRIT AND THE MIND

Then what am I to do? I will pray with my spirit [by the Holy
Spirit that is within me], but I will also pray [intelligently] with my
mind and understanding.... 1 Corinthians 14:15

Perhaps a better way to understand this principle of "mind aiding spirit" is to think of prayer. In this verse the Apostle Paul said that he prayed both with his spirit and with his mind.

I understand what Paul is talking about because I do the same thing. I frequently pray in the spirit (in an unknown tongue); after I have prayed that way for a while, often something will come to my mind to pray in English (my known tongue). I believe in this way the mind aids the spirit.

They work together to get the knowledge and wisdom of God to me in a way that I can understand it.

This also works in the reverse. There are times when I want to pray, so I make myself available to God for prayer. If there is no particular stirring in my spirit, I simply begin to pray out of my mind. I pray about issues or situations that I am aware of. Sometimes these prayers seem really flat—there is no help coming from my spirit. I seem to be struggling, so I go on to something else that I already know about.

I continue in this fashion until the Holy Spirit within me takes hold with me on some issue. When He does, then I know I have hit on something that He wants to pray about, not just something I am trying to pray about. In this way my mind and my spirit are working together, aiding one another in accomplishing the will of God.

TONGUES AND INTERPRETATION

Therefore, the person who speaks in an [unknown] tongue should
pray [for the power] to interpret and explain what he says.

For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the Holy Spirit
within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and
helps nobody]. 1 Corinthians 14:13,14

Another example of the way the spirit and the mind work together is the gift of tongues with interpretation.

When I speak in tongues, my mind is unfruitful until God gives either me or someone else the understanding of what I am saying; then my mind becomes fruitful.

Please keep in mind that the gifts are not tongues and translation.

Translation is an exact word-for-word account of the message, whereas in interpretation one person gives an understanding of what another has said, but in the interpreter's own style as expressed through his own particular personality.

Let me give you an example: Sister Smith may stand up in church and give a message in an unknown tongue. It has come from her spirit, and neither she nor anyone else knows what she has said. God may cause me to understand what the message was, but perhaps in a general way. As I step out in faith, and begin to interpret what was spoken, I make the message understandable to all. But it comes through me in my own unique way of expression.

Praying in the spirit (in an unknown tongue), and interpretation (of that unknown tongue) is a marvelous way to understand the principle of "mind aiding spirit." The spirit is speaking something, and the mind is given understanding.

Now just think about this: if Sister Smith speaks in an unknown tongue, and God is looking for someone to give forth the interpretation, He will have to pass me by if my mind is too wild and busy to listen.

Even if He tries to give the interpretation to me, I will not receive it.

When I was young in the Lord and learning about spiritual gifts, I prayed almost exclusively in tongues. After quite some time had passed, I began to feel bored with my prayer life. As I talked to the Lord about it, He let me know that I was bored because I had no understanding of what I was praying about. Although I realize that I do not
always
have to understand what I am saying when I pray in the spirit, I have learned that this type of prayer is out of balance and not the most fruitful if I
never
have any understanding.

PEACEFUL, ALERT MIND

You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace
whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on
You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes
confidently in You. Isaiah 26:3

I hope you can readily see from these examples that your mind and your spirit certainly do work together.
Therefore, it is of utmost importance
that your mind be maintained in a normal condition.
Otherwise, it cannot aid your spirit.

Satan, of course, knows this fact, so he attacks your mind, waging war against you on the battlefield of your mind. He wants to overload and overwork your mind by filling it with every kind of wrong thought so it cannot be free and available to the Holy Spirit working through your own human spirit.

The mind should be kept peaceful. As the prophet Isaiah tells us, when the mind is stayed on the right things, it will be at rest.

Yet the mind should also be alert. This becomes impossible when it is loaded down with things it was never intended to carry.

Think it over: how much of the time is your mind normal?

Chapter 
9

A Wandering, Wondering Mind

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind....

1 PETER 1:13 KJV

In the previous chapter we stated that a mind too busy is abnormal. Another condition of the mind that is abnormal is for it to be wandering all over the place. An inability to concentrate indicates mental attack from the devil.

Many people have spent years allowing their minds to wander because they have never applied principles of discipline to their thought life.

Quite often people who cannot seem to concentrate think they are mentally deficient. However, an inability to concentrate can be the result of years of letting the mind do whatever it wants to do, whenever it wants to do it. A lack of concentration can also be a symptom of vitamin deficiency. Certain B-vitamins enhance concentration, therefore, if you have an inability to concentrate, ask yourself if you're eating right and are nutritionally sound.

Extreme fatigue can also affect concentration. I have found that when I am excessively tired Satan will try to attack my mind because he knows it is more difficult to resist him during these times. The devil wants you and me to think that we are mentally deficient so we will not attempt to do anything to cause him problems. He wants us to passively accept whatever lies he tells us.

One of our daughters had difficulty concentrating during her childhood years. Reading was difficult for her because concentration and comprehension go hand in hand. Many children and even some adults don't comprehend what they read. Their eyes scan the words on the page, but their minds do not really understand what is being read.

Often a lack of comprehension is the result of a lack of concentration. I know that, for myself, I can read a chapter in the Bible or a book and all of a sudden realize that I do not know what I have read at all. I can go back and read it again, and it all seems new to me because, even though my eyes were scanning the words on the page, my mind had wandered off somewhere else. Because I did not stay focused on what I was doing, I failed to comprehend what I was reading.

Often the real problem behind a lack of comprehension is a lack of attention caused by a wandering mind.

A WANDERING MIND

Keep your foot [give your mind to what you are doing].... Ecclesiastes 5:1

I believe the expression "keep your foot" means "don't lose your balance or get off track." The amplification of this phrase indicates that one stays on track by keeping his mind on what he is doing.

I had a wandering mind and had to train it by discipline. It was not easy, and sometimes I still have a relapse. While trying to complete some project, I will suddenly realize that my mind has just wandered off onto something else that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. I have not yet arrived at a place of perfect concentration, but at least I understand how important it is not to allow my mind to go wherever it wishes, whenever it desires.

Webster's dictionary defines the word
wander
as: "1. To move about aimlessly: ROAM. 2. To go by an indirect route or at no set pace: AMBLE. 3.

To proceed in an irregular course or action: MEANDER...5. To think or express oneself unclearly or incoherently."1

If you are like me, you can be sitting in a church service listening to the speaker, really enjoying and benefiting from what is being said, when suddenly your mind begins to wander. After a while you "wake up" to find that you don't remember a thing that has been going on. Even though your body stayed in church, your mind has been at the shopping center browsing through the stores or home in the kitchen cooking dinner.

Remember, in spiritual warfare the mind is the battlefield. That is where the enemy makes his attack. He knows very well that even though a person attends church, if he can't keep his mind on what is being taught, he will gain absolutely nothing by being there. The devil knows that a person cannot discipline himself to complete a project if he cannot discipline his mind and keep it on what he is doing.

This mind-wandering phenomenon also occurs during conversation.

There are times when my husband, Dave, is talking to me and I listen for a while; then all of a sudden I realize that I have not heard a thing he has been saying. Why? Because I allowed my mind to wander off on something else. My body was standing there appearing to listen, yet in my mind I heard nothing.

For many years, when this sort of thing happened, I would pretend that I knew exactly what Dave was saying. Now I stop and say, "Can you back up and repeat that? I let my mind wander off, and I did not hear a thing you said."

In this way, I feel that at least I am dealing with the problem.

Confronting issues is the only way to get on the victorious side of them!

I have decided that if the devil went to the trouble to attack me with a wandering mind, then perhaps something was being said that I needed to hear.

One way to combat the enemy in this area is by taking advantage of the cassette tapes provided by most churches. If you haven't yet learned to discipline your mind to keep it on what is being said in church, then buy a tape of the sermon each week and listen to it as many times as you need in order to get the message.

The devil will give up when he sees that you are not going to give in.

Remember, Satan wants you to think that you are mentally deficient—that something is wrong with you. But the truth is, you just need to begin disciplining your mind. Don't let it run all over town, doing whatever it pleases. Begin today to "keep your foot," to keep your mind on what you're doing. You will need to practice for a while. Breaking old habits and forming new ones always takes time, but it is worth it in the end.

A WONDERING MIND

Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and
thrown into the sea! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes
that what he says will take place, it will be done for him.

For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer,
believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it]. Mark 11:23,24

Faced with one thing or another, I frequently began to hear myself say, "I wonder." For example:

"I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow."

"I wonder what I should wear to the party."

"I wonder what kind of grades Danny (my son) will get on his report card."

"I wonder how many people will show up at the seminar."

The dictionary partially defines the word
wonder
in the noun form as "a feeling of puzzlement or doubt" and in the verb form as "to be filled with curiosity or doubt."2

I have come to learn that I am much better off to do something positive than to just wonder all the time about everything imaginable.

Instead of wondering what kind of grades Danny will get, I can believe that he will make good grades. Rather than wondering what I should wear to the party, I can decide what to wear. Instead of wondering about the weather or about how many people will attend one of my meetings, I can just turn the matter over to the Lord, trusting Him to work out all things for good regardless of what happens.

Wondering leaves a person in indecision, and indecision causes confusion. Wondering, indecision and confusion prevent an individual from receiving from God, by faith, the answer to his prayer or need.

Notice that in Mark 11:23,24 Jesus did not say, "Whatever you ask for in prayer,
wonder
if you will get it." Instead, He said, "Whatever you ask for in prayer,
believe
that you will receive it—and you will!"

As Christians, as
believers,
we are to believe—not doubt!

Chapter 10

A Confused Mind

If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.

Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.

For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord.