Change your mentality!
You are a son or daughter of God and
more than a conqueror. You have not received the spirit of fear but of power,
love, and sound mind. You are called to move mountains and to go to another
level. Change your mentality!
For though we walk in the flesh, we
do not war according to the flesh. —2 Corinthians 10:3
The enemy works in five ways:
- The power of suggestion
- Mentalities
- Strongholds
- Reprobate mind
- Apostasy
The Power of Suggestion
The power of suggestion takes place
when Satan comes to your mind, as he did with Eve and Jesus, and the thought
seems to be yours because you don’t always see that it is Satan’s. The enemy
will always come to you during your weakest moment; when you are emotionally or
spiritually tired. You have to remain spiritually strong and constantly align
your mind and spirit with the Word of God. When these thoughts come, you have
two options: you can fight them or entertain and meditate on them. For example,
no one commits a sin from one day to the next, and no one gets divorced
overnight. Everything begins with a thought that you entertain rather than
avoid or rebuke.
You need to take those thoughts
captive to the obedience of Christ. The atmosphere, media, and modern culture
are designed to place the enemy’s thoughts in your mind. For example, the
greatest temptation sent by Satan against the youth takes place in the sexual
area. Satan plants the thought and leaves you to cultivate the seed and do the
rest of the work.
Mentalities
A mentality is an established
thought pattern. It is fixed in the mind which means that you focus on it all
day long.
- Your mentality will determine the path your life will take.
- If you focus your mind on something specific, that is your reality. For example, if your mentality is of sickness, that will become your reality.
- Wherever your mentality is, that is where it will lead you. I ask you: What do you think about all day long?
- Habits originate in your way of thinking. When a habit is birthed, you begin to continuously do certain things until the habit becomes a part of you.
- Your behavior begins to change. For example, if you have thoughts of fear all day, you will begin to make decisions based on fear rather than basing them on faith.
- When that mentality is there, you become what you think. Your way of thinking comes from your reality.
- You conform to your way of thinking. You bind yourself to the thought. This acts like a yoke that controls your life and doesn’t allow you to move freely. You have placed various yokes on your life. For example, the yoke of sickness, passivity, fear, and others.
Strongholds
- These are Satan’s lies that wait for you to approve and agree with them while they hide within your human reasoning.
- These thoughts make sense to you because they are based on fact.
- They are real to you but not to God or other people. You need to act above the facts.
- People get offended when you challenge their strongholds. God never called you to be average. He called you to move in the supernatural.
- People with mental strongholds seek places where they are approved; hence, they attract each other.
- Your mentality, not your race or your past, separates you from other people.
- Your realities are different because they are formed by the way you think.
Reprobate Mind
- God turns your mind over to the enemy because you are so focused on your stronghold and mindset that you get closed off to spiritual things.
- You return to sin and don’t feel bad about it.
- You begin to argue and reason trying to convince yourself that what you are doing is correct. For example, you think that having a drink once in a while is not bad, but the problem is that you walked away from it and if you return, you will become an alcoholic.
- Satan’s goal is for you to return to where you came from.
- I often see young people who were on fire for Jesus turn their attention to something else and then return to the world.
For this reason God gave them up to
vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is
against nature. —Romans 1:26
Apostasy
- There are two sins that God doesn’t forgive: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which consists in attributing Satan the things done by God; and the other is apostasy which is to mock the supernatural after knowing the truth.
- The Bible says that if you know the truth and return to the place where you came from, you will find judgment.
For though we walk in the flesh, we
do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down
strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to
the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when
your obedience is fulfilled.. —2 Corinthians 10:3-6
You need to rebuke the thoughts as
they come. You need power and authority to destroy those strongholds. When
someone speaks of fear, it paralyzes your imagination—imagination is the only
place that has no limits and where Satan attacks with thoughts of fear.
You are a son or daughter of God and
more than a conqueror. You have not received the spirit of fear but of power,
love, and sound mind. You are called to move mountains and to go to another
level. Change your mentality!
You
need to experience the truth before sharing it with others.
When the enemy releases thoughts,
you take them captive to the obedience in Christ, and you have the right to
punish the enemy.
When you speak the Word and cast out
a thought, spiritually speaking you are punishing the enemy; but you still need
to obey. This means that if you are trying to take captive the thoughts of
poverty but you are not tithing, then what you say will not come to pass. If
you are trying to take captive thoughts of fear, you must first repent of those
thoughts.
If
you don’t obey, when you try to cast out the devil, he will mock you.
How to be Free
- Recognize that you have allowed Satan to place thoughts in your mind.
- Repent wholeheartedly.
- Crucify the flesh, daily; the more you die to self, the harder it will be for the devil to place thoughts in your mind because they will not be appealing to you. If Satan comes with thoughts and you entertain them, he will know that they are attractive to you and will continue to send you those kinds of thoughts. Don’t respond to them!
- Get ready to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Cast out those thoughts immediately.
The Strongest strongholds are:
- Fear of man
- Tradition or religion
- Mammon
- Sexual
- Poverty
- Rebellion
- Fear
- Disbelief
How many of you recognize that you
have allowed the devil to bring thoughts to your mind?
If you want to repent and destroy
strongholds, repeat this prayer: “Heavenly Father, I recognize that I have
allowed the enemy to establish thoughts in my mind. I repent and, with all of
my heart, I ask you to forgive me and to cleanse me with Your blood. I renounce
every stronghold in my mind and believe that you have given me the power to
destroy and to cast them out. Right now, in the name of Jesus, I order every
stronghold to leave. I renounce every form of thinking that comes from
the enemy. I am free, now! Amen!
"We played the flute
for You, and You did not dance; we mourned to You, and You did not lament"
(Matthew 11:17). Jesus is not our assistant who must jump to our beck and call.
Rather, WE work for HIM, and if we trust in Him, He gives us His Spirit, who
will enable us to do that work. And it’s a "work" of joy, for He is
with us, and it is His effort, not ours, that accomplishes the goal.
Remember the Scripture, "Likewise also the Spirit helps our infirmities; for we know
not what to pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself makes intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that searches the hearts
knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the
saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27). This is a
WONDERFUL Scripture and it, too, places our relationship with God into proper
perspective.
Even our prayers, which God has pledged to
answer, are subject to His will. Not our will but His, and that is consistent
with the "Lord's Prayer", where He taught, "THY
will be done" (Matthew 6:10). A. B. Simpson put it like this:
"He separates from our prayer all that is
imperfect, ignorant and wrong, and presents the rest with the incense of the
great High Priest before the throne on high; and our prayer is heard, accepted,
and answered in His Name."
This is true of your "work" and mine in
His Name. We must learn to delight in HIS accomplishments, His deeds, His will,
and give glory and honor to our Lord. So many times He blesses us and we must
always remember, the work is His, and so is the glory, for He is indeed
wonderful. We were at a funeral service in Inglewood, California, this week,
and one of the pastors said, "God doesn’t need your vote to be who He is."
Our theology, our doctrines, our ideas about God
are limited because WE are limited. But He is without limitation - our job is
not to analyze but to WORSHIP, for now and all eternity. We may "play the flute" but He is not required to "dance." We may "mourn"
for whatever reason, but it is not essential that He "lament" in relation to our mourning. It is us who
serve Him and not the other way around. Let’s do it HIS way.
Father, we ask that Your will be done in our
lives. No longer our will, Father, but Yours. We want our hearts and lives to
belong to Jesus, and we ask for Your Spirit, that we may learn Your way and
trust in You more. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Prepare The way of The Lord in Your Heart The Messiah is coming.
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