Guard your mind, Guard your life
by Ivan Ho 29 Mar 2020
“Our mind is like a battlefield”. At times, random thoughts can enter our minds that are not of God. Other times, they are sent by the enemy custom made for you: they are wicked seed thoughts that comes from the enemy with the goal to lead you away from God’s destiny for your life. If you don’t guard your mind and screen out the thoughts that pop up in your mind, you will start to doubt God and the things that He has planned for your life.
The thought: “He loves me, He loves me not…” is a thought of demonic origin, for God’s love for you remains the same even though the things may be collapsing around you, even though you may have lost your job or a loved one, even though the world is experiencing an unprecedented crisis at the moment….. even though you don’t seem to hear from Him in times of isolation.
Well, if you are reading this, God is speaking to you right now!
We need to guard our heart and mind at all times and be careful not to entertain demonic thoughts that enter our mind. With the influx of social media information and all kinds of messages coming from the people we make contact with on a daily basis, more and more undiscerning people of God would be led astray.The reality is, married couples end up in divorce because one or both parties begin flirting with messages sent by third parties. The devil is using the social media to break up marriages, plant seeds of wrong doctrines, spread rumours and lies to sabotage our lives. The society is in chaos right now largely because people of God fail to resist all kinds of demonic attacks.
1. Stay alert and be on guard
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
1 Peter 5:8
According to Strong’s Concordance:
Sober (original Greek: nēphō) means: to abstain from wine (keep sober) that is be discreet
Vigilant (original Greek: grēgoreuō ) means: to keep awake that is watch: – be vigilant, be watchful.
The enemy is prowling around looking for preys he may devour, and the ones who are sabotaged by demonic attacks are usually the ones who are not vigilant, the ones who are spiritually speaking, half asleep.
If you stay alert and guard your mind against entertaining suggestive thoughts from the enemy, you stand a much better chance in deterring him from attempting to attack you in the first place. He often picks his victims amongst those who are half awake.
2. Guard the word of God in your heart
If your mind has been attacked by the enemy lately, like I have been, congratulations, for God has a destiny for you in His kingdom purpose! The devil won’t waste his very limited resources to attack those who are not following Christ. If God hasn’t spoken to you and given you words concerning your destiny, the enemy will leave you alone. But if you have heard from God, you become a threat to the kingdom of darkness, for chances are that the devil has heard what God has spoken to you as well. Oftentimes, the evil one will use the people around you to speak things to you in order to deceive you into doubting the word of God you have received. Be careful who you connect with and who you take advices from.
Before the fall of man, the devil used the serpent to deceive Eve. The moment Eve fell into sin, she was used by the devil to lead Adam into disobeying God as well. More often than not, the one closest to you could be used by the devil to attack your mind into doubting God’s word.
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Genesis 3:1
The first word was from God, the second opinion was from the devil saying to Eve: “Has God said...?”. Adam initially delivered the word he heard from God to Eve. However, the devil tempted the woman by giving her an alternative interpretation of God’s original word. The problem with Eve was engaging herself in a conversation with the devil instead of walking away from the serpent.
If the devil can make you doubt what God has said, he has taken you captive and won you over, so to speak.
You need to guard the word of God and let it abide in your heart. Let your mind be taken captive by the word of Christ, for your destiny will be dependent on it.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; 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;
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
When thoughts of doubts are playing in your mind, you need to shut down those thoughts and start reading and speaking the word of God into the spirit realm!
3. Submit to God, resist the devil
Passivity and lack of vigilance means that when you are under attack, you stand very little chance against the enemy. You cannot win any fight just standing there absorbing the punches. At some point, you have to turn defence into attack. In order to defeat the devil, you must not only wear the full armor of God, but also to use the weapon of God against the enemy.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:14-18
Your belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, helmut of salvation are vital armor of God that allows you to stand against the enemy’s attacks. But you also need to turn defence into attack by walking in faith, spreading the gospel of peace, praying and speaking the word of God which is the sword of the Spirit over your life. Don’t speak your own words or try to reason with the devil, just remind him exactly what God says in His written word. That’s what Jesus did when the devil tempted him in the wilderness when He said: “It is written…“! Matthew 4:1-11
If you seldom read the bible and let the word of God govern your life, you would have no offensive weapon to use against the enemy.
When thoughts of doubts are playing in your mind, you need to shut down those thoughts immediately and start reading as well as speaking the word of God into the spiritual realm!
Attacks of the enemy are sometimes unavoidable especially if you have the call of God upon your life. In these days and age, we need to be even more vigilant than ever and totally submitting ourselves to the will and purpose of God for our lives. We can no longer carry on business as usual and just be a passive churchgoer. In the last days, some will fall prey to the enemy’s schemes if they are not careful. The bible says in the latter times some will abandon the faith and follow spirits of seduction and doctrines of demons.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.
1 Timothy 4:1
We need to submit ourselves to the will of God, be vigilant at all times, and resist the devil in the name of Jesus when he does come to attack. If you resist the devil, he will flee from you!
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James 4:7-8