The Mind is the Battleground – Protecting Against Spiritual Attacks

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The mind is the battleground where our enemy attacks us most. He can do more damage to a believer through the mind than he could ever do in any other area of our lives because it is in the mind where our actions and reactions are born.

 
For example, before someone ever commits adultery, it begins with a thought. So how do we fight this spiritual battle of the mind? By changing our perspective and by setting a watchman on the wall of our heart and mind! Read on!

The Mind is the Battleground – So Know Your Territory Well

My husband and I recently brought home six baby chicks. They were 1 week old when we got them and they are now nearly 5 weeks. They are getting bigger by the minute it seems and soon outgrowing their brooder.

We have a chicken coop outside on our property that we recently fixed up. My husband and I spent a lot of time looking for ways a predator could get into the run and the coop and we secured those areas tightly! We felt as if it was like Fort Knox in there and were just waiting for time to pass or the weather to warm up more before they could move out of my house!

It was a beautiful day today so I took them out to the coop for a little while to let them explore, play, and familiarize themselves with what will soon be their new home! I went into the run with them so they would feel more comfortable and they immediately started scratching the ground, digging for worms and checking out the new space!

They played and chased each other, clearly enjoying their newfound freedom!

But as they played, I stood in the run and looked around me. I saw a gap where the door met the ground. We would have to seal that up or else a small predator could get in.

I looked up at one point when a twig hit the roof of the barn and saw a gap at the top of the door we hadn’t seen from the outside looking in. That too would have to be closed up.

I was finding areas of vulnerability where I thought, from my vantage point on the outside, it was secure.

Doing Spiritual Battle – Finding Your Gaps

From the outside looking in, everything looked fine. It wasn’t until I looked at everything from the INSIDE that I found the gaps.

Are there areas of your life that look fine from the outside, but inside you have gaps in your armor that the enemy can get through?

Ephesians 6:11 says:

Put on the full armor of God, so that you are able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

TLV

The word ‘whole’ or ‘full’ in the Greek, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, is ‘panoplia’ and it means:

“1. Full armor, complete armor
         A. includes shield, sword, lance, helmet, greaves (protects the shins), and breastplate”

FULL armor, WHOLE armor. Not some of it, but ALL of it.

Ephesians 6:13-18

Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist when the times are evil, and after you have done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm then! Buckle the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. 

Strap up your feet in readiness with the Good News of shalom. Above all, take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 

Pray in the Ruach (Spirit) on every occasion, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, keep alert with perseverance and supplication for all the kedoshim (holy ones).

TLV (PARENTHESES MINE)

Are there areas of your life that look fine from the outside, but inside you have gaps in your armor that the enemy can get through? Share on X

The Mind is the Battleground – Changing Your Perspective

God has given us a full list of our armor and yet many times we go through our day-to-day lives only partially armed.

We may THINK we are fully protected because from the outside it appears that way! We may think everything is fine because we are not actively sinning in that area. But if we just look from the inside we find little gaps that the enemy can slink through and attack us.

Changing our perspective can bring to light those gaps and the place to begin is on the inside; in our minds.

The mind is the battleground where the enemy will begin to look for those gaps and will begin those spiritual attacks by planting seeds. Seeds of doubt, seeds of lust, seeds of greed.

We may not see them from the outside because they haven’t taken root enough yet to become action. But they may be there, inside the mind. He didn’t come in with a blatant attack! He snuck in another way!

Just because a person may not be actively cheating on their spouse doesn’t mean seeds aren’t being planted in their minds when they allow lustful thoughts to enter in.

Just because we haven’t yet walked away from an opportunity that God has put in our path doesn’t mean that the enemy isn’t sneaking through a gap to put fear into our minds.

“You can’t do that! You’re not good enough.”

And we don’t see it because we are looking from the outside.

How to Fight Those Spiritual Battles – Guard Your Heart from Spiritual Attacks by Setting a Watchman on the Wall

I recently wrote a post about guarding your heart and mind, and in it I referenced setting a “Watchman on the Wall”.

In ancient Israel, there would be a watchman on the wall of the city who would stand guard and sound the alarm when the enemy was approaching.

Do you have a watchman on the wall of your heart and mind?

What is guarding your heart?

If we fail to change our perspective and see that the battle often begins on the inside, in our minds, it is like a watchman only looking for the enemy in one direction while they approach from another.

If we fail to change our perspective and see that the battle often begins on the inside, in our minds, it is like a watchman on the wall only looking for the enemy in one direction while they approach from another. Share on X

If you do not watch what thoughts you entertain (what you watch, what you listen to, what you read, and what you DON’T read), you are allowing another piece of your armor to fall.

You are allowing the enemy to enter into a small gap in your defenses.

The mind is the battleground. So stand inside your walls and see what gaps you may have where the enemy can sneak in and guard yourself from those spiritual attacks.

Be sure to get your Prayers and Scriptures for Effective Spiritual Warfare below as my gift to you!

Tree of Life (TLV) – Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society.  Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.

Originally published 5/8/2019

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