According to Joyce Meyer in her book; Battle Field of the Mind, the following are the summary of the situation.
- We are engaged in a war.
- Our enemy is Satan.
- The mind is the battlefield.
- The devil works diligently to set up strongholds in our mind.
-He does it through strategy and deceit (through well-laid plans and deliberate deception)
- He is in no hurry; he takes his time to work out his plan
In my short time of knowing and walking with God, I notice that when I'm low on the word or short of quality time with God in prayer time, I suffer. When I say I suffer, I don’t mean I mean starved of food or water or maltreated by anyone or God. I mean I suffer in my mind; I become anxious, fearful, suspicious, unhappy, easily angered and my relationship with others suffers too.
This doesn't happen to me suddenly, and this is the trend I have noticed. It starts by me becoming busy with many activities ( usually activities that really doesn't matter) and I stop praying as I should. I rush through my bible in the morning and go about my day focused on me, myself and I. Then it continues by me postponing my study and prayer time till late at night because I am so busy and I have to rush out. At night, I don’t get to study or pray because I am tired. I then begin to feel convicted but I brush it aside because I am busy. I stop giving the conviction attention and start to live the day as it comes. At this time, my mind becomes open and filled with all sorts of thoughts that produces negative feelings such as fear, anger, anxiety, selfishness and the likes. I know some of us can relate to this but thank God for His unending mercies that never gives up on us.
Our heart is where our life starts. Our heart is like our control tower. It’s the core of our being; where we have our emotions, beliefs, thoughts, convictions, our values. The condition of our heart determines our life and so it must be guarded with all diligence. Anything that has your heart, has a control over you.
Every action whether good or bad starts as a thought in the heart.
The bible tells us in Luke 11:22 that when a strong man fully armed guards his own house, his possessions are safe until his armour is taken away from him. Like the Strong man, our hearts are safe when we are fully armed guarding it. When our hearts are guarded, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we consciously think of only things that are true, noble, of good report, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse (Philippians 4:8)
To be in control of our lives, the devil tries to get a hold of our hearts through his one and only strategy. His strategy is to strip us off our God-given armour to make us vulnerable to his schemes so he can get our hearts. It’s a process. He strips off, gets a hold of our hearts in a subtle way and then he fills it with negative thoughts, suspicion, fears, anger, bitterness and the likes.
As Christians, we have God on our side who fully arms us with His truth, Righteousness, Word, faith and prayer so we can withstand the wiles of the devil.
Any distraction that tries to take you away from the only thing that matters; your relationship with God is the devil’s scheme to strip you off your armour and like Paul wrote to the Ephesians, I also write to you; You need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God: so you can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground. Stand with TRUTH banded around your waist, RIGHTEOUS as your chest plate, and feet protected in preparation to proclaim the GOOD NEWS OF PEACE. Don’t forget to raise the shield of FAITH above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at you from the wicked one. Take also the helmet of SALVATION and the sword of the Spirit, which is the WORD of God. Pray always.
Pray in the Spirit. Pray about everything in every way you know how! - Ephesians 6:13-18 (The Voice translation).
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