Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle of Your Mind

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Thinking positive is paramount to living a happy and successful life because our thoughts become self-fulfilling prophecies. Meyer explains that positive thoughts lead to positive words and actions that generate more positivity. Likewise, negative thoughts lead to negative words and actions that create further negativity. Therefore, Meyer argues that the only way to truly take ownership of our lives is to first take ownership of our thoughts.

Having a model of positivity to emulate can make our work towards a positive mind feel more tangible and attainable. Meyer chooses Jesus as a role model, but we might have someone else who has positive qualities that we would like to cultivate in ourselves. Until we are saved, we don’t have any protection against the fiery darts that the Devil unleashes on our minds. Repentance means changing your mind — not just changing what you do. It’s first and at its heart mind change. Repentance is changing the way you think. It is a mental shift. Put on the helmet of salvation. I am a child of God and I am fearfully and wonderfully made. He loves me and cares about every single detail of my life. Before I was ever born, He approved of me. He has a great plan for my life!” ( Psalm 139; Romans 8:38 Jeremiah 1:5; 29:11) God began to show me that He had done His part, and now I had to do my part. He had set my mind free from this demonic pressure. Now it was up to me to re-educate my mind—to cultivate a totally different outlook and way of thinking. Before I was delivered, I was not able to do it. After I was delivered, it was my responsibility to do it. God had done His part in delivering me, but I had to do my part in maintaining my deliverance. Do you think about what you’re thinking about? This may sound funny, however learning to regularly take inventory of our thoughts is essential to having a good life.I was looking for a good study Bible for this year. I was SO EXCITED to see that she had put one out that used my favorite work by her, Battlefield of the Mind. That's why I am so crushed to give this less than a perfect review.

Make no mistake, though. In the course of that year, I had many prayer battles. I had to fight my way through to the truth. I had to reject lies from the devil—doubt, discouragement, fear—and I had to do that through prayer. By using those two great weapons—the Word of God and prayer—I eventually won that battle in my mind. Three strongholds If I were to say to my wife, “Honey, I’ll be faithful to you twenty-nine days of the month,” she knows, and I know, that partial faithfulness is unfaithfulness. It is only faithfulness if it is my habit to always be faithful to her. I have noticed how the next generation values authenticity. I would like to ask, when has inauthenticity ever been in style? Authenticity has always been an attractive quality. But a lot of those proudly promoting their authenticity don’t realize what it really is. You are not authentic until you can publicly admit how inauthentic you are most of the time. Authenticity begins when you start by admitting that you are inauthentic.I had come to the end of my solutions, and one day a phrase in Isaiah 61:3 captured my attention: “The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness...” I grew up with a very highly educated mind. I had attended a prestigious university and had become a professor. But the trouble was that the mind that was being educated was an enemy of God. I had inside me a very highly educated enemy of God. Maybe I am the only person in the world who doesn't like this style of transcribing the Scripture. She does have a huge following, which is merited. She has a lot of good things to say and counsel others with. I do love her works and can usually ignore the punctuation in question when she's just quoting one or two verses. But to do that with the whole Bible is more than I can tolerate.

Psalm 101:3 says, “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” I know you would never invite a couple to come over to your house and ask them, “Why don’t you commit an act of adultery right here in front of us?” But you do it every time you watch a TV program that has adultery in it. If you don’t know how special you really are, you won’t be all God created you to be. Discover the truth so you can have confidence to be yourself. I’m constantly reading. Every year I read through the complete works of a great thinker. In 2009 I read through twenty-six volumes of Jonathan Edwards. In 2010 I read through Church Dogmatics, the complete works of Karl Barth. I’ve read through John Wesley and through several other leaders. It is prideful to think that leaders from the past don’t have anything to teach us. There really is nothing new under the sun. If it’s held forth as new, then it’s not true, because truth is eternal. It was true a thousand years ago. It will be true a thousand years from now. The text of this Bible is easy to read and use. Scattered throughout the book are book introductions, “winning the battles of the mind” articles, “keys to a victorious life” articles, PowerPoints (brief powerful comments for a specific Bible verse), “speak God’s Word” entries, “a prayer to renew your mind” entries, highlighted Scriptures on thoughts and words, and finally how to have a real relationship with Jesus.Truth is never invented; it is only discovered. And if God has shown it as truth, somebody else in the church has seen it before. In fact, if you ever come up with a truth that nobody else has ever seen, I can tell you this: you’re wrong. No matter how much we know in any area there are always new things to learn and things we have previously learned that we need to be refreshed in.” When I talk about dreaming great dreams, I am not talking about changing doctrine. The Bible says in Jude 3 that the biblical faith was “once for all delivered to the saints.” The gospel is there, and we don’t change it. To do so is heresy. But for those of us who are leaders, whether in the church or simply in our homes, what we don’t see with our physical eyes is far more important than what we do see. I can attest to that after nearly forty years of leading. We can only do the impossible if we see the invisible. Do not be anxious about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Here’s what I want to say to you, friend. Those of you who are thinkers, you need to do more. Those of you who are doers, you need to think more. It’s not one or the other. It’s both-and. THINK! But how do you do that? And how do you teach other people to do that? How do I make my mind mind? I have noticed that my mind doesn’t always mind. It is often disobedient. It is often very rebellious. It wants to go in a different direction. When I want to think a certain way, it wants to go another way. When I need to ponder, it wants to wander. When I need to pray, my thoughts want to float away. It was a glorious revelation for me when I realized I don’t have to think about just anything that comes into my mind. I can choose my thoughts and do my own thinking— on purpose. In celebration of selling 3 million copies, FaithWords is publishing a special edition of BATTLEFIELD OF THE MIND.Battlefield of the Mind is not a metaphor. In her bestselling book of 130 publications, author, Bible teacher, and speaker Joyce Meyer explains that whether we know it or not, we are engaged in a constant and literal battle for the well-being of our minds. On one side of the battle is Satan, who tries to corrupt our minds and lives with his negativity. On the other side are Christians hoping to live the meaningful and fulfilling life God intends for them. Joyce Meyer is a well-known Bible teacher and a New York Times best-selling author. She has written 130 books that have sold millions of copies and been translated into 155 languages. As a teenager I heard, “The impact on your life will be largely from the people you meet and the books you read.” So I decided to get very intentional about both of those — whom I would meet and what I would read. And when you begin to build a library of godly, Christian books, you are leaving a legacy for the next generation. Twice in the book of Proverbs we are told to “store up my commands within you” (Proverbs 2:1; 7:1 NIV). If you are going into eternity, you are going to take that with you. The next time you notice yourself thinking the same old negative things, choose to replace them thoughts with truth from God’s Word. There are many passages in Scripture that we could look at in this chapter, but I want us to focus in on one, 2 Corinthians 10:3–5: