Listen now: The Battle for Your Mind – Series 8, Ep 3
In the third episode of our series, Fighting Your Spiritual Battles, John and Shay take a look at the daily struggle against temptation, doubt, and fear. This battle for your mind is extremely important, and one that can, at times, feel impossible to win. We’d like to share some insight into the strategies used by the enemy, as well as ways for you to effectively maintain a “sound mind”.
Here are the four areas we’re going to explore today:
What the Enemy Always Does
Ways the Enemy Can Work on Your Mind
How the Enemy Worked on Jesus’ Mind
How We Win the Battle for the Mind
What the Enemy Always Does
Looking closely at the story of Satan tempting Adam and Eve in the garden as found in Genesis 2 and 3, we see that he preyed upon each of them in very distinct and unique ways to draw them away from trusting God’s promises, in three stages:
Cognition: Asks questions to cause doubt
Emotion: Stirs up feelings of fear and shame
Action: Encourages division and blame
Here’s how that looks for each of them:
Eve: Serpent isolates her and questions her on what God had said. Introduces the idea of inferiority – don’t you want to be enough on your own instead of depending on Adam?
Adam: Serpent uses fear of being alone to lead Adam to think he needs to choose Eve over God in order to maintain their relationship.
Satan accomplishes this deception by using the same two moves with us that he did with Adam and Eve: temptation and accusation.
Temptation - “You need to be in control”; plays off of hurt, fear, and self-protection:
Feeling bitter over suffering – “No one knows what I’ve been through”
The unrighteous have good lives – “Being a Christian doesn’t pay off”
Living a double life – “I’ll do enough good things to outweigh the bad”
Accusation - “You are unworthy of God’s love”; plays off of shame and condemnation:
Obsessing over past sins that cannot be undone
Thinking “God must be mad at me”
Thinking “If I were a real Christian, I wouldn’t have these doubts”
Ways the Enemy Can Work on Your Mind
First, Satan is angry with God because he knows God is going to win the battle in the end. He wants to be like God, but he never will be and he’s jealous of God’s generosity towards us. So he attacks us to get back at God.
Second, he tries to make sin look good to us. He wants to make us confident in our ability to handle the consequences of our disobedience. He never will remind us of the unintended consequences of our sin.
Third, he works primarily with the sins of the flesh. He takes the sins we already struggle with and strengthens their power. He wants us to stumble so that our lives will be ruined and discredited. The thief comes to steal kill and destroy, so Satan is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. That’s his goal.
How the Enemy Worked on Jesus’ Mind
When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, his approach was very similar to the tactics he used on Adam and Eve. He was challenging Jesus to doubt God’s goodness and provision by implying that only a negligent father would let his son go hungry. The message was: You can’t depend on Him. You are all alone. Make your own bread.
How We Win the Battle for The Mind
Use Satan’s 3 Strategies Against Him:
Cognition: Become a lie detector by knowing the truth
Emotion: Learn your vulnerabilities and how to regulate your emotions
Action: Choose to stand against and resist
How can you do this? By claiming the gospel message of Jesus’ sacrifice, grace, and forgiveness. Jesus resisted the devil, stood against him, dismantled his lies and had full command of his emotions. So when we encounter the evil one mounting an attack on our mind, we can bring Jesus to the fight. He has already won the battle for us. He succeeded in our place. As it says in Revelation 12:11, “They overcame the accuser with the blood of the lamb.”
Satan has many areas he can use to gain access to your mind. It’s important to be familiar with them:
Seven Doors Satan Tries to Open
1. Rebellion/Self-will: Since the first sin that ever was committed was rebellion, this sin has to be listed first. Every time we seek to be the final authority of our own lives, we are in rebellion to God and his plans for us.
2. Anger: Not righteous anger, but irrational, uncontrollable anger. Anger, like other sins, opens a door for the devil. “In your anger do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26).
3. Hatred/Murder: Following on the heels of anger is violence. John tells us in 1 John 3:12 that the one who does not love his brother is acting like a child of the devil. In contrast, God’s people are to love one another.
4. Guilt: Satan is our “Accuser.” The Holy Spirit uses godly sorrow to convict us of sin and produce genuine repentance that is met with God’s forgiveness; Satan uses guilt to drive a wedge between us and God. Satan entices us to sin, and then when we follow his suggestions, he heaps condemnation upon us.
5. False Religions: Satan inspires people to embrace false cults and occult teachings. These teachings are sometimes subtle and sound legitimate, but they have been poisoned with deception that encourages some form of belief that “You are your own god”.
6. Envy: This resentful longing for things that belong to others can also be called “covetousness”. If left unchecked, it will lead to spiritual, emotional, and even physical death.
7. Sexual immortality: Pornography and various other forms of sexual immorality can open the door for Satan to gain a foothold and it can be really hard to free ourselves once he does.
How do you close the doors to Satan and win the battle of the mind?
Understand and Resist Temptation
1. You must pause and give thanks to God for your test. This might seem difficult, but your faith will be strengthened when you see your trials as allowed by your heavenly Father. Don’t give thanks for sin, don’t give thanks for the devil; but give thanks that God has found you to be worthy of being tested, knowing that “the testing of your faith produces patience” James 1:3.
2. You must learn the meaning of the word “resist.” Most of us think that victory over Satan should come easily. We recite a verse of Scripture and assume that temptation should leave us. But remember that when Christ resisted, Satan returned with a greater assault! Temptation might be an ongoing, daily battle that will require active resistance. Yet you can be comforted to know that Christ sympathizes with your weakness, stands beside and defends you when you’re under attack.
3. You must use the Scripture against Satan just as Christ did. You can say to Satan, “Go! For it is written…” Satan leaves when he can no longer get you to believe a lie. For instance, if you are battling against guilt, you may need to quote Romans 8:1 out loud: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
The struggle is real! In those moments when we give in, theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “…we have forgotten God”. But no matter how many times you may fail in your struggle against sin and temptation, remind yourself of this promise: “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
The insight in these books helped to shape this episode, and we highly recommend them: God’s Devil: The Incredible Story of How Satan’s Rebellion Serves God’s Purposes, by Pastor Erwin Lutzer, and The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope by Curt Thompson.