Stomping Out the Darkness: Discover Your True Identity in Christ and Stop Putting Up with the World’s Garbage

“Victory in the battle for our minds is the inheritance of everyone who is in Christ.”

A few years ago, Shelley attended my (Neil’s) class on resolving spiritual conflicts. At the end of the course she handed me the following letter:

Dear Neil,

I just want to thank you again for how the Lord has used your class to change my life. The last two years of my life have been a constant struggle for the control of my mind. I was ignorant of my position and authority in Christ, and equally ignorant of Satan’s ability to deceive me. I was constantly afraid. My mind was bombarded by hostile, angry thoughts. I felt guilty and wondered what was wrong with me. I didn’t understand how much bondage I was in until I came to your class.

I was always taught that demons didn’t really affect Christians. But when you began to describe a person influenced by demons, I just about passed out from shock. You were describing me! For the first time in my life I can identify Satan’s attack and really resist him. I’m not paralyzed by fear anymore and my mind is much less cluttered. As you can tell, I’m pretty excited about this!

When I read the Scriptures now, I wonder why I

couldn’t see all this before. But as you know, I was deceived.

Thanks again so much.

Shelley

Shelley struggled in her faith because she didn’t understand the spiritual battle going on for her mind. She was a child of God all right, but she was a defeated child of God, the unknowing victim of Satan the deceiver. She didn’t understand her identity in Christ or her authority as a believer. She was being “destroyed for lack of knowledge” (see Hosea 4:6).

Like Shelley, many Christians are spiritually out of touch and defeated in their daily lives. They don’t understand that Satan is battling to control their minds and ruin their lives. Struggling believers need a true picture of what is happening in their minds. They also need to realize that God can renew their minds and free them from the struggle just as He did for Shelley.

GOD ’S WAY VERSUS MAN’S WAY

Faith is God’s way to live. Trying to think and reason without God is man’s way to live. God’s way and man’s way are often in conflict. It’s not that living by faith means we disconnect our brains and ignore our responsibility to think. No, we are required by God to use our brains and choose the truth. God is a rational God and He works through our ability to think and reason.

But our ability to direct our lives on our own is limited. The Lord said, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). We don’t have the brain power to understand God’s thoughts through human reasoning. That’s why we need the Bible, God’s divine revelation.

So we can live God’s way by faith, which we will call the “high road.” Or we can live man’s way by using our limited ability to understand, which we will call the “low road.” The low road describes our tendency to live independently from God. Solomon urged us always to live on the high road, God’s way, when he wrote, “Do not lean on your own understanding” (the low road), but “in all your ways acknowledge Him” (the high road) (Proverbs 3:5-6).

We walk the high road in our lives when we determine to learn God’s plans for us in the Bible and commit ourselves to obey Him. We walk the low road when we think thoughts and consider plans that are opposite of what God’s Word says. We weaken our commitment to walking the high road whenever we play around with ideas that are opposite to God’s Word.

For example, God’s high road for us in school is honesty. The low road is to cheat. If a Christian studies hard for an important exam and prays for God’s help, he’s walking the high road of faith. But if he decides to take a cheat sheet to class just in case he forgets something, he has made a commitment to the low road. And the more he thinks about low-road options, the more likely he will be to take them.

Don’t even consider low-road plans. The more time and energy you spend thinking about your own plans on how to live your life, the less time and energy you have to seek God’s plan. The person who flip-flops between God’s plan and leaning on his own understanding is called double-minded, “unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). When you continue to flip-flop, your spiritual growth will slow to a crawl, your maturity in Christ will be blocked and your daily life as a Christian will be marked by discouragement and defeat.

THE SOURCE OF THE LOW ROAD

Where do low-road thoughts come from? There are two main sources.

First, our flesh still sparks low-road thoughts and ideas. The flesh is that part of us that was trained to live independently from God before we became Christians. At that time there was no high road in our lives. We were separated from God, we didn’t understand His ways and we learned to succeed and survive by our own abilities. Even though we now have a new nature in Christ, the sinful world still tempts us to return to those old ways of thinking and living.

Second, there is someone active in the world today who hates the high road. Satan and his demons are busy trying to put negative, worldly patterns of thought into our minds that will bring out negative, worldly patterns of behavior.

The battle for our minds is a conflict between the high road, living God’s way by faith, and the low road, living man’s way by following the desires of the world, the flesh and the devil. You may feel like you are the helpless victim in this battle, being slapped back and forth like a hockey puck. But you are anything but helpless. In fact, you are the one who determines the winner in every battle between the high road and the low road.

STRONGHOLDS ARE THE PRIME TARGET OF OUR WARFARE

The battle for the mind is explained in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (NIV).

The first thing we need to know about the battle for our minds is that it is not fought on the level of human ability. We can’t outsmart or outmuscle the flesh or the devil on our own. Our weapons must have “divine power” if we are going to win a spiritual conflict.

The main targets that must be destroyed are the “strongholds” in the mind. Strongholds are bad patterns of thought that are burned into our minds either through repetition over time or through one-time, deeply shocking experiences. How are these strongholds established in our minds? Usually they are the result of a number of subtle steps that lead us away from God’s plan for us and trap us in low-road behavior.

Our Environment

Remember Mr. Rogers and his beautiful neighborhood? Every day was wonderful, and there were no problems that a couple of hand puppets and the man with the sweater and sneakers couldn’t solve. It was an ideal world. The real world is quite different.

We were designed to live in fellowship with God and fulfill His purposes. But we were born physically alive and spiritually dead in a world opposed to God’s design (see Ephesians 2:1-2). Before we came to Christ, all our experiences came from this sinful environment. Every day we lived in this environment we were influenced and shaped by it.

The worldly influences we have been exposed to include people, places and events that have tempted us to travel the low road. We have also been influenced by books we read, movies we watched, music we listened to and even shocking events such as a car accident or a death in the family. We learned ways (which may or may not have been God’s way) to cope with what happened to us and to solve the problems they produced. If you grew up in a non-Christian home, you learned how to survive, cope and succeed in this world apart from God.

When you became a Christian, your sins were washed away, but your old ways of thinking and behaving, which you learned as you adjusted to your environment, remained. In fact, a born-again believer can continue to live out the same basic lifestyle she had while she was living independently of God. That is why Paul writes that we are not to be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds (see Romans 12:2).

Temptation

Whenever we feel attracted to the low-road plan instead of God’s high-road plan for our lives, we are experiencing temptation. The purpose of all temptation is to get us to take the low road, to fill genuine needs through the world, the flesh and the devil instead of in Christ. That’s the great contest. And Satan knows just which buttons to push to tempt us away from depending on Christ. He has watched your behavior over the years and he knows where you are weak, and that’s where he attacks.

Consideration and Choice

The moment we are tempted to get a need met in the world instead of in Christ, we are on the threshold of a decision. If we don’t immediately choose to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV), we will begin to consider it as an option. And if we begin to think about it, immediately our emotions will be affected and the likelihood of yielding to that temptation is increased.

A humorous “Cathy” cartoon strip shows the serious consequences of considering a tempting thought instead of immediately dismissing it. Cathy is struggling with her diet. Notice how her unchecked thoughts carry her away like a runaway freight train:

Frame 1:	I will take a drive, but won’t go near the grocery store.
Frame 2:	I will drive by the grocery store, but will not go in.
Frame 3:	I will go into the grocery store, but will not walk down the aisle where the Halloween candy is on sale.
Frame 4:	I will look at the candy, but not pick it up. Frame 5: I will pick it up, but not buy it.
Frame 6:	I will buy it, but not open it. Frame 7: Open it, but not smell it. Frame 8: Smell it, but not taste it. Frame 9: Taste it, but not eat it.
Frame 10:	Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat!

The Bible teaches us that God has provided a way of escape from every temptation (see 1 Corinthians 10:13). But the escape is at the threshold. If you don’t control the temptation when the thought first occurs, you run the risk of allowing the temptation to control you.

For example, a guy sees a pornographic magazine and is tempted toward lust. He could say, “My relationship with sin is over. I don’t have to give in to this. I choose right now not to look at it and not to think about it.” Then he separates himself from the picture immediately and escapes the lust.

But if he hesitates, stares at the picture and begins to fantasize about it, he will trigger an emotional landslide and a physical response that will be difficult to stop. He must capture the tempting thought at the threshold or it will probably capture him.

Action, Habit and Stronghold

People who study human behavior tell us that if we continue to repeat an act for six weeks, it will become a habit. And if we exercise that habit long enough, a stronghold will be established. A stronghold is a low-road pattern of thinking that is deeply burned into our minds. Once a stronghold of thought and response has formed a groove in our minds, choosing and acting contrary to that pattern is very difficult.

Hostility is a stronghold. God’s Word tells us to love and pray for our enemies. If you can’t help fighting with those who oppose you, you may have learned to cope that way and your low-road response has become a stronghold.

Inferiority is a stronghold. As a Christian, you are a child of God, a saint who is inferior to no one. If you are constantly shrinking back from people because of feelings of inferiority, it’s because the world, the flesh and the devil have carved a negative, low-road groove in your mind over the years.

Manipulation is a stronghold. Do you feel like you must control the people and circumstances in your life? Is it nearly impossible for you to give a problem to God and not worry about it? Somewhere in your past you may have developed a pattern of control that now masters you. It’s a stronghold.

Sexual addiction is a stronghold. If you can’t keep yourself from thinking about or looking at the opposite sex without impure thoughts and desires, a stronghold of lust may have taken root in your mind.

Homosexuality is a stronghold. In God’s eyes there is no such thing as a homosexual. He created us male and female. But there is homosexual behavior, which can usually be traced to past negative experiences with parents or sex. Such experiences prompted these individuals to doubt their sexual adequacy and they began to believe a lie about their sexual identity.

Eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia are strongholds. Here is an 89-pound girl standing in front of a mirror believing that she is fat. Have you ever seen a lie more obvious than that? She is the victim of negative thought patterns about herself that have been burned into her mind and direct all her activities concerning her body and the proper use of food.

Any knee-jerk response that directs your thinking and acting in a negative, low-road manner is a stronghold in the mind. Any wrong behavior you can’t control may spring from a stronghold. Somewhere in the past you knowingly or unknowingly formed a pattern of thinking and behaving that now controls you.

IN ORDER TO WIN THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND, YOU NEED A PLAN

Must these negative patterns of behavior control you? Absolutely not! Anything that has been learned can be unlearned. If your mind has been programmed wrong, it can be reprogrammed. By hearing God’s Word being taught, studying your Bible and living as Christ’s disciple, you can stop being conformed to this world and experience the transformation of the renewing of your mind (see Romans 12:2).

If your past experiences were spiritually or emotionally devastating, Christ-centered counseling will help you resolve the conflicts. Since some of these strongholds are thoughts raised up against the knowledge of God (see 2 Corinthians 10:5), learning to know God as a loving Father and yourself as His accepted child is your starting place.

But there’s more going on in our minds than the bad patterns we have developed. We’re also up against the devil, who is scheming to fill our mind with thoughts that are opposed to God’s plan for us. We must capture the enemy’s thoughts and make them obey Christ before they prompt us to take the low road (see 2 Corinthians 10:5).

Satan’s plan is to put his thoughts and ideas into our minds and deceive us into believing that they are ours. It happened to King David. Satan “moved David to number Israel” (1 Chronicles 21:1), an act God had forbidden, and David acted on Satan’s idea. Did Satan walk up to David one day and say, “I want you to number Israel”? I doubt it. David was a godly man and he wouldn’t have obeyed Satan. But what if Satan slipped the idea into David’s mind this way: “I need to know how large my army is; I think I’ll count the troops”?

If Satan can place a thought in our minds—and he can—it isn’t much more of a trick for him to make us think it’s our idea. If we knew it was Satan, we’d reject the thought, right? But when he disguises his suggestion as our idea, we are more likely to accept it and act on it.

In Acts 5 we read about Ananias and Sapphira being struck dead for lying. They may have thought it was their idea to hold back some of their offering while getting the strokes and attention from others who believed they had given everything. If they knew that it was Satan’s idea, they probably wouldn’t have done it. But the Bible clearly says that Satan filled their heart to lie to the Holy Spirit (see Acts 5:1-3).

If Satan can get us to believe a lie, he can control our lives.

EXPOSE THE LIE AND YOU WIN THE BATTLE

Satan’s power is in the lie. Jesus said, “The devil … does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Satan has no power over us except what we give him. When we fail to take every thought captive, we can be deceived into believing his lies.

Satan can introduce his thoughts into our minds like silent inner voices. Many Christians we talk to clearly hear voices in their mind, but they are afraid to tell anyone for fear that others will think they have a mental problem. More than 1,200 Christian high school students were asked, “Have you heard ‘voices’ in your head like there was a subconscious self talking to you, or have you struggled with really bad thoughts?” Seventy percent answered yes!

Many Christians are plagued with bad thoughts that stop or hinder their personal devotions. Seldom do they realize that these distractions reflect the battle going on for their minds, even though Paul warned us, “The Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1).

Since Satan’s primary weapon is the lie, our defense against him is the truth. When you expose Satan’s lie with God’s truth, his power is broken. That’s why Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). That’s why He prayed, “My prayer is … that you protect them from the evil one…. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:15,17, NIV). That’s why the first piece of armor Paul mentions for standing against the schemes of the devil is the belt of truth (see Ephesians 6:14). Satan’s lie cannot withstand the truth any more than the darkness of night can withstand the light of the rising sun.

What is our part in the battle? First, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds (see Romans 12:2). How do you renew your mind? By filling it with God’s Word. In order to win the battle for your mind, you must “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15) and let “the word of Christ richly dwell within you” (Colossians 5:16). As you continue to fill your mind with God’s truth, you will equip yourself to recognize the lie and take it captive.

Second, Peter told us to prepare our minds for action (see 1 Peter 1:13). Do away with fruitless fantasy. To imagine yourself doing things without ever doing anything is dangerous. You will lose touch with reality. But if you imagine yourself traveling the high road by obeying the truth, you can move yourself toward living that way. For example, if you read about caring for the poor in your devotions, you can prepare your mind for action by planning ways to use some of your own money to help the homeless. Just be sure you follow through by doing what you imagine.

Third, take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ (see 2 Corinthians 10:5). When a thought pops into your mind that doesn’t agree with God’s Word, refuse it right away. Choose instead to believe and act on the truth.

Fourth, turn to God. When your commitment to the high road is being challenged by low-road thoughts from the world, the flesh or the devil, bring it to God in prayer (see Philippians 4:6). By doing so you are acknowledging God and exposing your thoughts to His truth. Your double-mindedness will dissolve “and the peace of God … shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

As we turn to God, He will do His part. But we must assume responsibility for our own thoughts as directed by Philippians 4:8-9:

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.

Victory in the battle for our minds is the inheritance of everyone who is in Christ.

TRUTH ENCOUNTER

1. Why is the low road still present and often attractive to us as believers? How can we avoid it?

2. Why can’t the battle for the mind be fought just on a human level?

3. What are some strongholds in your life?

4. How do you break down a stronghold?