Mind Games

  • Carlton Williams
  • Feb 17, 2009
  • Series: Chew On This

2 Corinthians 10: 4-5 ‘(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) 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’ (KJV – emphasis mine)

MIND GAMES

This text focuses on Satan’s primary strategy for enticing us to do his will. This is one of those strategies that we don’t have to remain ignorant about. If we would only embrace what the Holy Spirit reveals here through Paul, and take the appropriate action, we will live lives of victory over temptation. 

Here, Paul used three key words to describe how the enemy attacks our minds: strongholds, imaginations, and thoughts. We can see a negative progression here; Satan always starts with a thought – a thought of failure, a thought of sin, a thought of inadequacy.  The enemy knows you cannot prevent a thought from coming into your mind just as you cannot prevent a burglar from coming to your door. His aim is to get you to ‘invite him in.’ He gets his ‘invitation’ if you permit the thought to dwell in your mind and get your imagination involved with that thought.

When you examine a negative thought you are presented with a choice; you can either engage the thought, or cast it down with God’s word. If you choose to engage the thought, your imaginative powers and your mental creative abilities go to work giving the thought definition. Through this process, you are making the thought ‘yours’; you are creating scenarios of evil based on the initial thought that entered your mind. You see yourself in the image; doing what the enemy had suggested with the thought. Imaginations eventually become strongholds. A stronghold is a fortress, a defensive wall that is impenetrable. In this context, it is a fortress of thoughts that are well established in your heart – and this is the stage referred to in James 1:15 ‘when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full grown, brings forth death.’  Sin is conceived at the point when your imagination begins to create the scenario of you committing the act suggested. At this stage you are looking for the opportunity to commit the sin. Sin never just takes place; it is conceived through a process. 

But thank God, the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, imaginations, and thoughts. We can control which thoughts we allow to dwell in our minds.  Philippians 4:8 says, ‘Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.’  Don’t tolerate dark thoughts.  We see Jesus’ example in Matthew 4:4, His response to Satan’s temptation was swift ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Quash dark thoughts immediately with the word of God. The quicker you deal with them, the easier the victory.

Thoughts are easier to deal with than imaginations and imaginations easier to deal with than strongholds.  They can all be dealt with through constant application of the word that deals with the issue, through retraining the flesh which had gotten used to the pleasurable physical feeling, your eyes that had gotten used to the physical appeal, and your mind that had assumed that this was the path of joy. 

Satan is the expert at these mind games. He knows that he can’t make you sin; but he knows he doesn’t have to. All he has to do is shoot a thought into your mind. If he can get you to engage your imagination, he can establish a stronghold in your mind and you will commit the sin yourself. Once you get into a cycle of sin, it requires more effort to come out of it because a stronghold has been established.

Thank God for the power of the word that destroys all strongholds!  Don’t get fooled by Satan’s mind games.  We have the strategies to overcome all!