SATAN'S TARGET: YOUR MIND

Phillip Aiken Wrote:

SATAN'S TARGET: YOUR MIND
Read full article at: http://www.nuggetsoftruth.com/spiritual_warfare_and_how_to_win.htm

A. When Satan wanted to lead the first man and woman into sin, he started by attacking the woman's mind (See 2 Cor. 11:3 and 1 Tim. 2:13-14).

B. Why would Satan want to attack your mind?
-Because your mind is the part of the image of God where He communicates with you and reveals His will to you.

-Because your thought life according to Proverbs 4:23 controls the rest of your life. "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." "Heart" in the Old Testament deals with your thought life in over 200 of the 800 times "heart" is used. Verse 23 could read, "guard your thought life with all diligence because it will determine how you live."

-Because your thought life dominates and shapes your attitude.
-----Your thought life leads to an attitude.
-----Your attitude leads to an action.
-----Your action leads to an achievement.

C. It's important that we protect our thought life because we can become no bigger, no better, no finer, no more successful than our dominant thoughts. "As a man thinketh in his heart (deeply) believes) so is he" (Prov. 23:7).

-What the mind attends to it considers.
-What the mind does not attend to it dismisses.
-What the mind attends to continually it believes.
-What the mind believes it eventually does.

II. SATAN'S WEAPON: LIES
A. The mind is the battleground where spiritual warfare is won or lost.

-Satan realizes that if he can change or influence what you think then he can change or influence how you behave.

-Satan tries to influence what you think by the strategy of enticement and deception.
This is what he did to Eve in the garden.

B. Satan came to Eve as the serpent, the subtle deceiver of the mind.
-He cannot touch our wills so he comes against that which influences the will ---our thought life.
-A person's thought life so affects the will that they are said to be a product of their thinking. (See Prov. 23:7 again).
-Your body may be built by food, but your personality and character are built by thought.
-God's nature is to influence our life with truth. Satan's nature is to influence our life with lies.

C. Notice the steps Satan took in getting Eve to believe his lie.
-He questioned God's Word, "indeed has God said...."
-He denied God's Word, "you shall not surely die..."
-He substituted his own word, "you will be like god...."

D. How did Eve respond to Satan's approach? She responded by making three mistakes that led her into sin.

-She took away from God's Word. (In verse 2 she omitted the word "freely").
-She added to God's Word. (We do not find the words "or touch it" in God's original command).
-She changed God's Word. (God did not say "lest you die". He had said you shall "surely die").

III. SATAN'S PURPOSE: TO MAKE YOU IGNORANT OF GOD'S WILL.

A. Why did Satan attack the Word God had spoken to Adam and Eve and try to change it?

-Because God wanted Adam and Eve to know His will and God's Word reveals God's will.
-Apart from the Word of God we have no understanding of the will of God.
-If Satan can get the mind to question the Word of God then that person will never discover God's will.

IV. YOUR DEFENSE: THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD

A. John 8:32, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."
-Only the inspired Word of God can reveal and defeat the devil's lies.
-Jesus used the Word of God to defeat Satan's attack on the Mount of Temptation (Matt. 4:1-11).

B. If we are to win the battle of the mind we must

1. Love God's Word
2. Know God's Word
3. Memorize God's Word
4. Meditate on God's Word
5. Believe God's Word
6. Use God's Word
7. Do God's Word

C. If we follow these 7 steps, we will be able to "Cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every though to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).