Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle of Your Mind

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Meyer’s idea that our thoughts have the power to shape our reality is well established in the field of psychology and our culture. Henry Ford’s famous quote, “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right,” or versions of it, are commonly cited to remind us that thinking positively is the first step to success. Think about what a rebuke that was to the Pharisees who had memorized the Pentateuch — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They had memorized it, yet Jesus says that their problem is that they don’t know the Scripture. They needed to teach others their knowledge, teach others to love knowledge, and get rid of anti-intellectualism. (By the way, we need great Christian intellectuals today more than ever before — people a lot brighter than I! — who battle on the intellectual level against the many competing worldviews.) 2) Perspective (Wisdom) Paul says in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” — more than we can imagine. More than we can dream. Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. I think I’m a pretty big dreamer, but God says, “Think of the biggest thing you can think of, and I can top that. I can outdo that.” A Challenge to Thinkers and to Doers God began to show me that He had done His part, and now I had to do my part. He had set my mind free from this demonic pressure. Now it was up to me to re-educate my mind—to cultivate a totally different outlook and way of thinking. Before I was delivered, I was not able to do it. After I was delivered, it was my responsibility to do it. God had done His part in delivering me, but I had to do my part in maintaining my deliverance.

For Meyer, a close relationship with God is the driving force behind a positive mind and life. To reap the full benefits of our relationship with God, both our rational mind and our spirit must be attuned to and focused on His wisdom, teachings, and love. She explains that God invites Christians to share His love and wisdom through the power of the Holy Spirit, which provides a link between our own spirit and our mind. Since our rational mind is susceptible to becoming confused and discouraged, the Holy Spirit can help us feel the right thing to do. A goal is a kind of statement of faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please” God (Hebrews 11:6), and “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). The Bible says that “according to your faith be it done to you” (Matthew 9:29). And when we set goals, we are saying, God, I believe you want me to accomplish this with your help by this time. I am challenging you. I am daring you. I am begging you: dream great dreams for God, and teach others to dream great dreams for God. I have seen the face of mental illness. I have seen what it is like when people are unable to hear God because their minds are broken and cannot seem to connect to God even when they want to connect to God. And I know whatever gets your mind gets you. So one of the most important things we need to learn and teach others is how to guard, strengthen, and renew our minds, because the battle for sin always starts in the mind. Maybe I am the only person in the world who doesn't like this style of transcribing the Scripture. She does have a huge following, which is merited. She has a lot of good things to say and counsel others with. I do love her works and can usually ignore the punctuation in question when she's just quoting one or two verses. But to do that with the whole Bible is more than I can tolerate. We naturally feel that if we think something, it must be true because it comes from within us. But just because you think something does not make it true. As I said above, I have seen the face of mental illness. So many different suggestions can come into the mind. The world puts suggestions in our minds that are false, and we are bombarded with those false ideas all the time. And, of course, Satan makes suggestions all the time. But your problem is much deeper than Satan. Everybody has a mental illness. We are all mentally ill. The mental illness is called sin. And the Bible uses at least a dozen different phrases for the condition of our minds under sin. Our minds are:Battlefield of the Mind is about solving some of the common problems we all encounter in life, such as depression, anger, or worry, by getting you to examine the way you think about things, or as the book puts it, "you need to begin to think about what you are thinking about." And that's basically the goal of the whole book.

Out of pride proceeds prejudice—having your mind made up before you’ve heard the facts. It’s narrow. It’s arrogant. And it’s destructive. God has given us the appropriate weapons because this war in which we’re engaged is not in the physical realm. Our weapons are not physical, but spiritual. God has given us spiritual weapons that will destroy strongholds. In this war there are strongholds that oppose us and oppose God. And Paul goes on to describe these strongholds in verse five: “...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...” You don’t judge the health of an army by how many soldiers sit in the mess hall and eat every week and listen to your Bible study. You judge the health of an army by how many are on frontlines doing battle in the world. We want to be able to bring them in, build them up, train them forward, and send them out. And to do so, we must be able to teach people not only to love the Word but also to do the Word (James 1:22–25). Here are what I call “the five levels of learning”: The first way you guard your heart and mind is “in everything” to pray. Then Paul says to think about “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise.” Notice that he says to pray about everything. If you were to pray as much as you worry, you would have a lot less to worry about. Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. This kind of prayer is like a running conversation — which means we are not on our knees. We don’t close our eyes.When we begin to develop character and do good habitually — daily Bible reading, regular fasting, regular prayer, regular days of prayer, regular witnessing — when these become the habits of our lives, the more we do them, the better we will get at them. And so we come to the last level of learning: skill. I also found some of the information wrong, some of it to the point where it could be harmful to a reader with already low self-esteem. For example, she talks about what a "normal" mind should be like for a Christian. As part of the requirements for "normal," she says a mind should not be busy, and should not wander. This might be true of some people, but for others, it's not. Adam McHugh's "Introverts in the Church" points out that introverts naturally have a busy mind. Brain scans support his claims by showing the chemical activity in the brain of an introvert vs. an extrovert. Joyce Meyers' portrayal of what a "normal" brain should be like would be discouraging to people like me, who are constantly reviewing and reflecting. It is natural, healthy, and -- you guessed it -- "normal" for us to have a busy mind. As a teenager I heard, “The impact on your life will be largely from the people you meet and the books you read.” So I decided to get very intentional about both of those — whom I would meet and what I would read. And when you begin to build a library of godly, Christian books, you are leaving a legacy for the next generation. Twice in the book of Proverbs we are told to “store up my commands within you” (Proverbs 2:1; 7:1 NIV). If you are going into eternity, you are going to take that with you.