7th August 2011


Free #5 – A Victorious Mind


Free #5 - A Victorious Mind


Our minds are uniquely placed at the centre of your SPIRIT (our God conscious part), our FLESH your world conscious part), and our WILL (our decision making part).















In this position, your mind collects all manner of information from the normal course of our life - whether good, bad or neutral.


We know that God is the most life-giving, freeing and health-producing source of thought we can experience – he speaks to our heart, his word can dwell richly in us, and so on.


We also know that the Devil would like to achieve the opposite – he’s the thief that comes to rob, kill and destroy, so he too desires to contribute a flow of thoughts to establish in our minds.


2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 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.


  1. •It’s war! The question is not “is he?” it’s “how is he?”

  2. •It is happening invisibly and spiritually (not carnal … v4)

  3. •The battle field is the place of arguments (imaginations – KJV), knowledge and thoughts … v5. Our minds are a battle ground where the enemy seeks to set up obstacles against the knowledge of God (that flow of liberating, life-giving thought from God) and establish strongholds.

  4. •Satan’s objectives …

  5. -to invade with thoughts in the hope that

  6. -they will take sufficient hold in the mind of the person to become a stronghold,

  7. -that’ll cause that person to miss God’s awesome plans for their life (and embracing obedience = finding God’s best for your life)


A stronghold is a building – a construct erected on captured territory to secure occupancy and from which to conduct further operations. The building materials that Satan uses are thoughts, imaginations and knowledge from which God has been blocked


Mark 5 tells the story of a man who Jesus delivered from demons. It says that always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. Some years ago I wrote this brief narrative about this man.


  1. I wonder how this man got in such a state? You can be sure he wasn’t born like this. He was likely a complete delight to his Mum and Dad; no one is born insane!


  3. Rather, he was born to be loved, to be cuddled, to be held and nurtured. To hear the words of how precious and delightful he was. To grow up through his school years, ever learning, discovering, dreaming of what he wanted to be one day, as most children will do.


  5. This is never part of any child’s dream: living among the tombs, unwelcome anywhere else. Often visited by rough men trying to restrain him with shackles and chains – a  million miles away from the affectionate and affirming words and touches that he’d been born into life to receive.


  7. The screams started as outward cries he would make when the pain on the inside was too much to bear. The hitting with stones, the tearing off of his clothes, and other acts of self-mutilation, his mind now told him was what he deserved, so useless, so worthless a person he believed himself now to be. No, it was never part of a child’s dream to roam about in this living death, without any friends, without a single loving voice, alone, so completely alone.


  9. He didn’t suddenly get like this, this is the end of the journey. Along the way there were less extreme moments of rejection. Along the way there were less severe incidents of rough handing and bullying. Along the way there seemed to be no one to fix the painful panic attacks that would come and go. Along the way there just seemed to be more moments that told him how useless he was rather than how much potential he had. And along the way all this just seemed to accumulate, and he never saw the demons that were poised to take advantage, and bind the sorrow to his very heart.


This is an extreme story, but even the smallest portion of such a situation is totally unacceptable – God’s purpose for our mind is to know complete peace.


  1. •Philippians 4:6-9 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus . . . whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.


  1. •A mind where there is peace is not one that never experiences the enemy’s attack, rather it’s a mind that effectively rebuffs those attacks and keeps it’s borders secure.


Picture your mind as an office … The occupants of this office are called “thoughts”. Knowledge, understanding and wisdom are the three basic procedures of thought.   Proverbs 2:1 - 9




















RECEPTION (Knowledge)

  1. •Entrance point. Here we either permit or refuse further entry.

  2. •Deals with facts, concepts, words, pictures & impressions (not necessarily understood or true)

  3. •Psalm 119:130 the entrance of your word gives light


RESEARCH (Understanding)

  1. •Takes received knowledge a stage further to understand and interpret. The ‘penny drops’.

  2. •May take a trip to board room (reason), or  draw from memory to assist the process.

  3. •Matthew 13:23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.


PROMOTIONS (Wisdom)

  1. •Final step in thought process

  2. •‘Knowledge’ gathers the facts, ‘Understanding’ interprets them and ‘Wisdom’ applies them.

  3. •The ‘penny’ may have dropped but what are you going to do with it? What action will follow?

  4. •Application is either wise or foolish, obedient or disobedient.

  5. •Wisdom is closest to our will. Ephesians 5:15 see that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise


FILES (Memory)

  1. •At any stage of thought (Knowledge/Understanding/Wisdom) a matter may be stored in the file of our memory (usually automatic). Most of what is stored is very useful.

  2. •Sometimes thoughts associated with trauma will “hide” in the ‘file room’ and become a barrier to personal growth. When they are brought back into the light of knowledge, understanding and wisdom, progress can be made, healing may ensue and growth can begin again.

  3. •The Holy Spirit has an important role in your ‘file department’ (John 14:26  “The Helper, the Holy Spirit … will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you”)

  4. •Both forgetting and remembering see thoughts move in and out of the ‘file’. Forgetting and remembering can be either wise or unwise things to do. Hebrews 10:17 God remembers our sins no more (He is never instrumental in bring things forgiven to mind) Paul – forgetting those things that are behind)


BOARD ROOM (Reason)

  1. •Things are put into perspective through reason. The “why” questions are answered here.

  2. •Too much time spent “reasoning” can be unproductive and sometimes a cop-out for action (e.g. Felix in Acts 24:25)

  3. •Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. But a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient 2 Timothy 2:23

  4. •God invites us to come let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow Isaiah 1:18.


PROJECTS (Imagination)

  1. •The place of creativity, vision and ideas.

  2. •The force of the imagination can be seen by God’s reaction to vain and evil imaginations  (as in the days of Noah. Genesis 6:1 – 11 & 11:1 – 7)

  3. •If the imagination can be such a force for evil, then alternately it can be a great force for good (1 Chronicles 28:9 – 10 As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind … Consider (=see, perceive, have vision, gaze at) now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong, and do it.

  4. •Faith touches the mind here.


Imagine the chaos, disruption and trouble that follows an unruly enemy getting past the reception!


2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.


Eve doesn’t even know what sin is, she is perfect, sinless, in total relationship with God, in a perfect environment, not an ounce of trauma or disadvantage in her background. Yet the enemy is still able to attack her. How? By putting his thoughts into her mind. So right at the beginning, Satan shows his hand, he reveals his cards … his major weapon against people will be to sow his thoughts into their minds in the hope that those people will adopt those thoughts as if they were their own.



Six thought types used by Satan


  1. 1.Anxious thoughts … (panic attacks an extreme end of this)

  2. 2.Depressive thoughts … (pessimism, self-punishing, etc)

  3. 3.Improper thoughts … (immoral, forbidden sexual areas)

  4. 4.Fantasy thoughts … (disconnected from reality or the will of God, often compensations for proper vision – flights of fancy E.g. rock stars)

  5. 5.Erroneous thoughts … (prejudices, opinions, heresies)

  6. 6.Hope-less thoughts … (mixes anxious and depressive, an inability to see any good or any future prospects)


How to fight and win


2 Corinthians 10:4 & 5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 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.


  1. •“pull down” (NLT knock down)

  2. •“casting down” (NLT break down)

  3. •take “captive”


Here’s another principle of war … the Germans called it ‘blitzkrieg’ … lightening fast advances, hammer with surprising speed and force. Think about Jericho’s walls, David’s sling-shot … this is how God does war. HE STRIKES! Our weapons are mighty – they are our word of command “go and don’t come back” / the Word as a sword / strong resistance / praise is a weapon / clap / laugh / agreement


Last vital principle is this … once you’ve struck with a mighty weapon:


  1. 1.Raise your shield of faith, i.e. unconditionally believing what God says about you. Quenching the fiery arrows of demons.


  1. 2.Live soaked and full – because demons look for dry and empty places. Matthew 12:43-45 When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there


Isaiah 26:1 – 3 We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation that keeps the truth may enter. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.


Here our mind is likened to a city with walls and gates – and we are the gatekeepers! No one else can do this for you. We slam the gate shut on alien or rogue thoughts; and we fling the gates wide to truth, things of honour and the beauty of heaven.


The result is perfect peace


= completeness, soundness, welfare, peace

a.completeness (in number)

b.safety, soundness (in body)

c.welfare, health, prosperity

d.peace, quiet, tranquillity, contentment

e.peace, friendship

1.of human relationships

2.with God especially in covenant relationship


That’s a victorious mind!