There are many Wars in this life, some on the World scale, some civil, some religious in nature, and then there are those on a personal level. Within these Wars there exist also various types of warfare being waged, we want to look at the battles of the mind, and how they adversely affect us as individuals, as churches, families, and national and world views.

Why the mind?

 First we need to refresh our understanding, when God created man, He created man a triune being, three parts of a whole, this being Body, Soul and Spirit. Heb. 4:12, 1 Thes. 5:23

HEBREWS 4:12

12         For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

I THESSALONIANS 5:23

  23     ¶  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

·        Body – The house in which we live, the physical realm.

·        Soul – The nature of the Spirit, the mental realm, intellect, sensibilities, will etc…

·        Spirit – The heart of man, the spiritual realm, the part of man that knows God.

 When God created man, He created man with the right to choose, the freedom of self will, or as we refer to it ‘a free moral agent’. These are part of the laws of creation that govern life, the enemy knows this too, and must abide by these laws. To put it in layman’s terms, it means that the enemy cannot invade your space, and control you, take over your life unless you allow it, by giving him an open door. The mind is referred to as the neutral ground; it is the one place that the enemy attacks, thus by planting seeds of

Doubt, lies, wrong or negative thinking, hopelessness etc….  But because God has made us so, it is up to us what we do with these or any thoughts, or mindsets. It is up to us to filter out any thing bad or harmful, for if we don’t, then these seeds begin to grow, and as they grow they become fruitful and multiply, thus evil begets evil, negative begets negative etc. You get the picture!

Some of the enemy’s tactics are;

·        To attack the mind with negative and wrong thinking, anything contrary to truth. This comes directly to the individual in the way of Mind thoughts, at times of casual thinking, or meditating upon a situation, event etc.

·        Stimulus Response – using a situation to stimulate a thought from a past experience, thus retrieving a previous thought pattern, from a negative or bad experience.

·        Using other people, who have already yielded to his ways, to sow seeds of doubt, lies and discord, this, can come through close relationships, casual acquaintances, fellow workers etc.

·        Using the social elite, the media, and star power to reinforce his lies, this is a tremendous power play by the enemy, to influence the weak minded.

Some of the aforementioned are what make up a STRONGHOLD, this we will talk about in part two.