Battlefield of the Mind (17 page)

We see from this Scripture that the Word has the power to save us from a life of sin, but only as it is received, welcomed and implanted and rooted in our hearts (minds). This implanting and rooting takes place through attending to God's Word—by having it on our mind more than anything else.

If you and I meditate on our problems all the time, we will become more deeply rooted in them. If we meditate on what is wrong with ourselves or others, we will become more deeply convinced of the problem and never see the solution. It is as if there is an ocean full of life available to us, and the instrument we are given to draw it forth is diligent study and meditation of the Word of God.

Our ministry is called Life In The Word, and I can say from experience that there truly is life in the Word of God.

CHOOSE LIFE!

Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the
Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising
from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is
life and [soul] peace [both now and forever]. Romans 8:6

Calling your attention again to Philippians 4:8 seems to be a good way to close this section of the book: . .whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].

The condition your mind should be in is described in this Scripture.

You have the mind of Christ, begin to use it. If He wouldn't think it, you shouldn't think it either.

It is by this continual "watching over" your thoughts that you begin to take every thought captive unto the obedience of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV.)

The Holy Spirit is quick to remind you if your mind is beginning to take you in a wrong direction, then the decision becomes yours. Will you flow in the mind of the flesh or in the mind of the Spirit? One leads to death, the other to life. The choice is yours.

Choose life!

PART 3: 
Wilderness Mentalities

Part 3:

Introduction

It is [only] eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea [on Canaan's border, yet Israel took forty years to get beyond it].

DEUTERONOMY 1:2

The people of the nation of Israel wandered around in the wilderness for forty years making what was actually an eleven-day journey. Why? Was it their enemies, their circumstances, the trials along the way or something entirely different that prevented them from arriving at their destination?

As I was pondering this situation, God gave me a powerful revelation that has helped me personally as well as thousands of others. The Lord said to me, "The Children of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness making an eleven-day trip because they had a 'wilderness mentality.'"

YOU HAVE STAYED HERE LONG ENOUGH

The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have dwelt long
enough on this mountain. Deuteronomy 1:6

We really shouldn't look at the Israelites with such astonishment because most of us do the same thing they did. We keep going around and around the same mountains instead of making progress. The result is, it takes us years to experience victory over something that could have and should have been dealt with quickly.

I think the Lord is saying the same thing to you and me today that He said to the Children of Israel in their day:

"You have dwelt long enough on the same mountain; it is time to move on."

SET YOUR MIND AND KEEP IT SET

And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the
higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. Colossians 3:2

God showed me ten "wilderness mentalities" that the Israelites had that kept them in the wilderness. A wilderness mentality is a wrong mindset.

We can have right or wrong mindsets. The right ones benefit us, and the wrong ones hurt us and hinder our progress. Colossians 3:2 teaches us to set our minds and keep them set. We need our minds set in the right direction. Wrong mindsets not only affect our circumstances, but they also affect our inner life.

Some people
live
in a wilderness, while others are a wilderness.

There was a time when my circumstances were not really bad, but I could not enjoy anything in my life because I was a "wilderness" inside.

Dave and I had a nice home, three lovely children, good jobs and enough money to live comfortably. I could not enjoy our blessings because I had several wilderness mentalities. My life appeared to me to be a wilderness because that is the way I saw everything.

Some people see things negatively because they have experienced unhappy circumstances all their lives and can't imagine anything getting any better. Then there are some people who see everything as bad and negative simply because that is the way they are on the inside. Whatever its cause, a negative outlook leaves a person miserable and unlikely of making any progress toward the Promised Land.

God had called the Children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt to go to the land He had promised to give them as a perpetual inheritance—a land that flowed with milk and honey and every good thing that they could imagine—a land in which there would be no shortage of anything they needed—a land of prosperity in every realm of their existence.

Most of the generation that the Lord called out of Egypt never entered into the Promised Land; instead, they died in the wilderness. To me, this is one of the saddest things that can happen to a child of God—to have so much available and yet never be able to enjoy any of it.

I was one of those people for many years of my Christian life. I was on my way to the Promised Land (heaven), but I was not enjoying the trip. I was dying in the wilderness. But, thank God for His mercy, a light shone in my darkness, and He led me out.

I pray that this section of the book will be a light to you and prepare you to walk out of your wilderness into the glorious light of God's marvelous Kingdom.

Chapter 16

My future is determined by my past and my present.

Wilderness Mentality #1

Where there is no vision, the people perish....

PROVERBS 29:18 KJV

The Israelites had no positive vision for their lives—no dreams. They knew
 
where they came from, but they did not know where they were going. Everything was based on what they had seen and could see. They did not know how to see with "the eye of faith."

ANOINTED TO BRING DELIVERANCE

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18,19 KJV

I come from a background of abuse; I was raised in a dysfunctional home. My childhood was filled with fear and torment. The experts say that a child's personality is formed within the first five years of his life.

My personality was a mess! I lived in pretense behind walls of protection that I had built to keep people from hurting me. I was locking others out, but I was also locking myself in. I was a controller, so filled with fear that the only way I could face life was to feel that I was in control, and then no one could hurt me.

As a young adult trying to live for Christ and follow the Christian lifestyle, I knew where I had come from, but I did not know where I was going. I felt that my future would always be marred by my past. I thought, "How could anyone who has the kind of past I do ever be really all right? It's impossible!" However, Jesus said that He came to make well those who were sick, brokenhearted, wounded and bruised, those broken down by calamity.

Jesus came to open the prison doors and set the captives free. I did not make any progress until I started to believe that I could be set free. I had to have a positive vision for my life; I had to believe that my future was not determined by my past or even my present.

You may have had a miserable past, you may even be in current circumstances that are very negative and depressing. You may be facing situations that are so bad it seems you have no real reason to hope. But I say to you boldly,
your future is not determined by your past or your present!

Get a new mindset. Believe that with God all things are possible (Luke 18:27); with man some things may be impossible, but we serve a God Who created everything we see out of nothing. (Hebrews 11:3.) Give Him your nothingness and watch Him go to work. All He needs is your faith in Him. He needs for you to believe, and He will do the rest.

EYES TO SEE. EARS TO HEAR

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
Branch shall grow out of his roots:

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;

And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the
Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears. Isaiah 11:1-3 KJV

We cannot judge things accurately by the sight of our natural eyes.

We must have spiritual "eyes to see" and "ears to hear." We need to hear what the Spirit says, not what the world says. Let God speak to you about your future—not everyone else.

The Israelites continually looked at and talked about the way things were. God brought them out of Egypt by the hand of Moses, talking to them through him about the Promised Land. He wanted them to keep their eyes on where they were going—and off of where they had been.

Let's look at a few Scriptures that clearly depict their wrong attitude.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

All the Israelites grumbled and deplored their situation, accusing Moses and Aaron, to whom the whole congregation said, Would that
we had died in Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness!

Why does the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword? Our
wives and little ones will be a prey. Is it not better for us to return to
Egypt? Numbers 14:2,3

I encourage you to look over this passage carefully. Notice how negative these people were—complaining, ready to give up easily, preferring to go back to bondage rather than press through the wilderness into the Promised Land.

Actually, they did not have a problem, they were the problem!

BAD THOUGHTS PRODUCE BAD ATTITUDES

Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled
together against Moses and Aaron.

And the people contended with Moses, and said, Would that we
had died when our brethren died [in the plague] before the Lord!

And why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into
this wilderness, that we should die here, we and our livestock? Numbers 20:2-4

It is easy to see from their own words that the Israelites were not trusting God at all. They had a negative, failure attitude. They decided they would fail before they ever really got started, simply because every circumstance was not perfect. They displayed an attitude that came from a wrong mindset.

Bad attitudes are the fruit of bad thoughts.

A LACK OF AN ATITUDE OF GR ATITUDE

And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to
go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient
(depressed, much discouraged), because [of the trials] of the way.

And the people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have
you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no
bread, neither is there any water, and we loathe this light
(contemptible, unsubstantial) manna. Numbers 21:4,5

Along with all the other bad attitudes we have already seen in the previous Scriptures, in this passage we see evidence in the Israelites of a tremendous lack of gratitude. The Children of Israel simply could not quit thinking about where they had come from and where they were long enough to get where they were going.

It would have helped them to consider their forefather Abraham. He went through some disappointing experiences in his life, but he did not allow them to negatively affect his future.

NO LIFE WITH STRIFE

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and
the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite were
dwelling then in the land [making fodder more difficult to obtain].

So Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife, I beg of you, between
you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are
relatives.

Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself, I beg of you,
from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if you
choose the right hand, then I will go to the left.

And Lot looked and saw that everywhere the Jordan Valley was
well watered. Before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was
all like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go to
Zoar.

Then Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley and [he] traveled
east. So they separated. Genesis 13:7-11