Part I: The Problem of Right Thinking 1 The Secret Battlefield

Part I The Problem of Right Thinking

1 The Secret Battlefield

If we really learn what God wants us to learn about right thinking, it will cause many of us who are secretly worrying and anxiety-ridden to be freed from things like depression, fear, anxiety, and guilt. If we learn and grasp what God’s Word has to say about these areas, it will absolutely revolutionize our whole way of life.

Hardly a year goes by when I don’t end up counseling one or more people who have attempted suicide. Many of them are Christians, and yet they get to the point after a long series of events where their mind becomes so depressed and anxiety-ridden that they see no way out.

The Bible says that Satan has been a liar and a murderer from the beginning. It is his goal to push humanity to the precipice of self-destruction. When you look at how many people today, even Christians, are taking medications and are going to see psychiatrists and psychologists, it means a lot of us have never mastered the victory God has for us.

And just to clarify, I don’t mean in any way to put

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down these types of help. God uses Christian psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors. Yet, many of them would be put out of business if God’s people would learn and truly embrace His spiritual antidote for the mind.

We have been wrongly taught all our lives that the flesh (our desires) is the battlefield. The flesh is not really the battlefield. The mind is the battlefield. Every battle is either won or lost in the mind. Therefore, if you want to change what happens externally you must first change it in your mind. That’s where the secret battlefields are. And I don’t want you to wait until your crisis point to win the battle!

Important Principles

We’re going to start with some basic principles and then build with one brick at a time on top of what the Bible teaches about the mind. The first principle is this: Thinking is the dress rehearsal for action. In other words, all actions are the product of our thinking. Before you ever act out anything, it first has been thought out in your mind.

Here’s a second principle: What we sow in our minds, we reap in our actions. The mind is the first place that Satan always starts his attack. Where did Satan attack in the Garden of Eden? He cleverly injected a subtle

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thought of disobedience into Eve’s mind. That thought of disobedience gave expression to an action of disobedience. And that’s where Satan always starts. So, thinking is the dress rehearsal for action. Then, whatever we sow in our minds, we reap in our actions.

Look at the following cause-and-effect statements. If you sow a thought, then you’re going to reap an act. If you sow an act, what will you reap? Eventually you’ll reap a habit. If you sow a habit, eventually you will reap a character. And if you sow a character, ultimately you will reap a destiny. Where did it all start? Back at the thought. One thought led to an act that led to a habit that led to a character that led to a destiny.

Here it is in another form to help you better understand the principle:

Sow a thought .............. Reap an act Sow an act.................... Reap a habit Sow a habit................... Reap a character Sow a character............ Reap a destiny

One is the root and the other is the fruit. Spiritual character and eternal destiny are changed for good or ill—all beginning with a thought! At first, an unspiritual thought is often rejected. Then the next time it enters our mind, we entertain it a bit longer. We give mental arguments for and against the validity of the idea. We remind ourselves that God’s Word says one thing. But

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then we rationalize that it must mean something different, or that it does not apply in our case. Soon, we have built up a mental case in defense of the thought pattern.

After we have convinced ourselves, we are ready to translate the thought into action. When the externalization of the thought takes place, relationships are on the line and the future hangs in the balance.

Christianity versus Other Religions

The folly of religion is that it tries to change a person by starting externally. This is one of the great distinguishing marks between Christianity and other world religions. Other religions basically try to start changing someone by dealing with evil fruit in their life. They will come alongside a person and, through religious practice or discipline or whatever the case happens to be, try to alter that person’s character by changing their fruit. This simply doesn’t work.

Do you change an apple tree by picking the apples? The more you pick the apples, the more the other apples will continue to grow. Jesus Christ isn’t really concerned with the fruit. He primarily deals with the root.

Jesus Christ is the greatest radical the world has ever known. The word radical comes from the Latin word for root (radix) and refers to getting to the root of a problem. Jesus came and He dealt with the root of the

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problem! He said, “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matthew 12:34). We’re going to define what heart means in a minute.

Jesus said if you want to change the fruit, radically alter the root. In other words, radically alter the nature of that which is producing the fruit. He said we can change the fruit from what Paul calls “the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16) to the “fruit of the Spirit” (5:22). How does this take place? Jesus said in John 15:5, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” Then, it’s no problem at all for God to produce His fruit.

Let’s revisit the apple tree. Have you ever seen one in an orchard strain to produce an apple? How absurd! The most natural thing in the world for an apple tree to do is produce apples. Likewise, the most natural thing in the world for the Holy Spirit to do is produce His fruit.

So if His fruit is not being produced in our lives, guess where the problem is? It’s not with Him. He’s not impotent. It’s because we are not really abiding in Him so that He can work in our lives. If we are abiding in Him, then the fruit will change from the works of the flesh, those old fruits of fallen mankind, to the fruits of the new nature: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

We can radically alter the fruit of our life by radically altering the root of our life. All of us have beliefs that

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behave and attitudes that act. If you want to change your behavior, then alter your beliefs. If you want to change your actions, then alter your attitudes.

More Principles

Here is another important principle: If you want to make your living right, make sure that your thinking is right. Do you want to make your living right? Make your thinking right.

And here’s yet another: The quality of a person’s living cannot rise above the quality of their thinking. It’s absolutely impossible. We constantly think that we can alter the quality of someone’s livelihood or living by altering their environment and culture and so on. It ultimately does not bring lasting change. If you want to change the quality of a person’s living, you must change the quality of their thinking.

There is a story of a communist who was preaching in London. He was on a stump and was really ranting. About that time, a Christian came up and they began to dialogue back and forth. Finally, the communist said to the Christian, “Let me tell you what our gospel of Marxism will do for that man over there in the gutter, that alcoholic, that person who is downtrodden in society.” He said, “We’ll take that man and we’ll put a new suit of clothes on that man. What are you going to do about that, Christian?”

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