The Battle for your Mind!

We are not human beings going through a temporary Spiritual existence... We are Spiritual beings going through a temporary Human experience.

This one is long but I believe it is worthwhile.

In an earlier post I discussed my intentions to quit chewing tobacco. During this time I have had several internal self talk battles with myself. Through these internal discussions it has brought to mind an idea that seems to make sense. The bible says that un-regenerated man is sinful beyond measure.

This is Romans 3:9 from the Message:

Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it: There's nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They've all taken the wrong turn; they've all wandered down blind alleys. No one's living right; I can't find a single one. Their throats are gaping graves, their tongues slick as mudslides. Every word they speak is tinged with poison. They open their mouths and pollute the air. They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year, litter the land with heartbreak and ruin, Don't know the first thing about living with others. They never give God the time of day.This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin.

And the Bible says that He gives us His Spirit to live within us:

John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.

And when we receive that Spirit we begin to war within ourselves.

Romans 7:14-15 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

That we must die to ourselves everyday in order to live the life God wants us to.

Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

So… after considering everything I read concerning the war within me, I want to consider taking the whole thought to a literal extreme. Let’s divide the sum of who we are into parts. Our body, our mind (the flesh), and the Spirit that God gives to live within us. Our body is the vessel that contains who we are. It is nothing more than a tool. Granted it has needs and desires that the mind must continually filter, but it is a tool of the mind none the less. Our mind which controls the body is sinful by nature, without the Spirit of God to control it. When we give our selves to God we essentially lay down the control of our mind to the Spirit. Before Christ came into us the thoughts and desires we acted upon were restricted only by the laws or taboos of the society we live in or by the opinions of those we live around or with so as to remain in good graces with them. But after receiving God and the Spirit we are given a ‘second voice’ if you will. Our mind becomes divided. There is the part that desires God and that which wishes to remain as it was. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:31 that he dies everyday. I think he means that every day he must wake up and choose to slay the thoughts of the flesh to deny his selfish desires and serve only those that are of the Spirit, to choose God over self.

I believe if we can change the way we think… change the way we see ourselves. Then we can become a master of our body, instead of the other way around. I will use another example. I have a high threshold to pain. Not because I don’t feel pain but because I can compartmentalize it. In my mind if I know that the pain I am feeling is superficial and no real harm is befalling me then I can ignore it because I know that it is just my body providing stimulus from something it is experiencing. In 2 Peter 2:19 it says; “for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him”. If we can master our bodies, if we can train our minds to become masters of our bodies then we can better discern the voice of God and ignore the signals are body is sending us. It would be almost as if we see ourselves in third person. We train our mind to see everything circularly, to see our body and its desires objectively. To logically and consciously decide to deny the body anything that is not necessary and seek what ever is of God. To isolate and compartmentalize any desire… the desire of lust, the desire for food, the desire for sleep, anything… and make an informed decision and act in a way that is honoring to God and beneficial to the body.

I think one of the exercises that God gives us to train our minds to control our bodies like this is fasting. If you can regularly train your mind to deny your body one of its most basic and necessary desires then you can train your mind to overcome any desire that your body throws at it.

1 Corinthians 9:27 …but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

There is an old Chinese story. A young man is questioning his master about the desires for good and evil within him and how to choose to do good and not evil. The master said; "we all have two natures… you decide which one wins by determining which one you feed!"

Let us all begin today to train our minds to feed the nature that God gives us, and starve the nature that wars within us against Him.