THE MIND GAME

Have you ever noticed that if one thing goes wrong you often feel like the world has just turned its back on you?

We tend to magnify, over-think and exaggerate our problem’s so much that the possibility of handling them or even overcoming them is zero.

Well I made a discovery of a certain mind game the devil plays with our minds and sadly we allow him play the game on us through our thinking.

 Note, before we are even born our full plan of life is with God, he knows our end from the beginning

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and future” Jeremiah 29:11

Our life plan is with God no one knows our tomorrow but Him alone, wouldn’t it be just wise to submit our lives to him being the beginning and the end of our life?

 When we are born the enemy, gets a grip of how great we are going to become and so he works out his plans to make sure that this does not happen.

Moses was born a leader who was to lead the children of Israel from captivity, before he was given birth to, the king issued a decree that any male child born from the household of Israel be killed then Moses was born at that time, it was not a coincidence that the decree was issued at the time when Moses was being born, the enemy wanted to finish off this baby before his purpose could be revealed.

The devil knows who you are but will never let you be that easily, through our minds the enemy gets to us, stops us from achieving anything good in life as planned by God. He makes us feel devastated and disappointed that we give up.

Our minds are devil’s playground and that is why the bible constantly tells us to guard our thoughts, one wrong thought and you have invited the devil to play around with you.

He will make you see things in their worst way, he will make you see your problems as things that cannot be worked on and give you a solution, that is, giving up, he will convince you not try again, with thoughts like; ‘didn’t you try last time and failed’; ‘can’t you remember how painful it was’ ; ’you don’t remember how you cried’; ‘this thing was not meant for you, furthermore you don’t even qualify to get it’; ‘God has forgotten you’ etc.

He will remind you of every failure you have encountered in your life and somehow we enter into his traps we give up on our dreams and everyone who was supposed to help us in the journey to our destiny including God Himself.

He feeds you with lies that somehow appear to be true and you give in. Through the things we go through, through the challenges we encounter on the road to our destiny, through the few friends who have turned their backs on us, through our past mistakes the devil gets to us, that’s why he is called father of all lies, and by the way the devil knows how to lie (well-crafted lies) let us give credit where is due.

The devils gives you a thousand reason why you cannot make it, why that position is not meant for someone like you, how you cannot achieve it unless you do it his way, he wants you to do the legal illegally  and we know the result of that – death. He comes only to kill, steal and destroy. The devil knows how to turn a hill into a mountain, a drop of water into an ocean and he does it with our help and permission through our thoughts.

You may think that this just but a game but no, it is a well-crafted game that will leave you high and dry, it will leave you miserable than it found you.

The bible advices us on what we should think about and guard our hearts against evil thoughts, by simply knowing the truth, the truth is the word of God. God told Joshua to always meditate on his word.

Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8

The enemy rides on our ignorance, God has clearly spoken about your life and his plans for you, during the temptation of Jesus Satan knew how to attack and when, he found Jesus when he was just finishing his fast and dared him to turn the stones into bread, now from a 40 day fast and you are dared with food and not only that he is being reminded that he has the power to change them into bread, that was not a big deal, right? Note; the enemy will always attack you at two points before you do something or just before you finish it, cause he clearly does not want you to win.

So when he got to Jesus, he didn’t go without information as I said the devil is very crafty and he can gather that which looks correct but in it sense it’s not, carefully examine what he told Jesus

The tempter came to him and said “IF you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Mathew 4:3

He told him’ IF’ you are the son of God, now the word ‘IF’ raises a question did the devil doubt Jesus to be the son of God? clearly not, from our knowledge about the devil, this could not be true, so he knew who Jesus was, then why did he use the ‘IF’ word, he used the word to get Jesus thinking, to make Him doubt himself, and once Jesus would have started to think in that sense then the enemy would have gotten to Jesus but see the response Jesus gave,

Jesus answered, “it is written: man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Jesus did not begin to tell the devil, are you doubting that am the son of God! No, but he quoted what the word of God says. The enemy did not stop at this the second temptation he quoted the bible

“If you are the son of God”, he said, “Throw yourself down. For it is written “‘he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Mathew 4:6

He quoted the bible actually the devil quoted psalms 91:11-12, he knows the bible but applied it in the wrong way, to all his questions or dares to Jesus he used the word “IF “perhaps he thought Jesus did not hear him the first time but Jesus never gave in, Cindy trim in one of the discussion with Td Jakes in woman thou at loosed said that the word of God is an information and this information without comprehension (thorough understanding) cannot be applied and without the application of the word there can never be a manifestation(clear, evident, distinct).

Jesus understood the word of God and how it should be applied to its context, knowing the word is nothing if we don’t fully understand it to its context because then we will not be able to apply it and we shall fall into anything the enemy will throw at us, as the word of God.

The word ‘IF’ is used to show doubt, what the enemy wanted was to put doubt on Jesus, if he was the son of God, if what God wrote about him in his word is true, but our Lord did not give in.

You can say it was easier for Jesus not to fall to the devils mind game but you are wrong, Jesus came to this world as a human being just like us, he was not a spirit but human with flesh and blood like me and you, he lived amongst us and that’s why the bible say that Jesus understands our struggle for he was just like us, he overcame the enemy not with powers but through the word of God which you and I have.

The enemy first starts to put doubts in our heads before he can proceed to his agenda, and once we fall into his traps us we are done. To win this game is simply having the heavenly mindset, when we begin to think of how things are difficult, how we are failing, we set a platform for the enemy to step in echo our doubts and magnify the impossibilities of things ever working out for us.

The bible tells us how we can win over this game;

‘Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things’ Colossians 3:2

The devil is constantly attacking the mind of believers with fears, doubts, worry and worldly thoughts, he wants to keep the believers from focusing on what really matters and that is God and His kingdom. The believers mind should be consumed by heavenly things.

We miss out on the manifestation of God’s presence because of our ungodly thoughts that often leads to ungodly practices. So what things are we supposed to think about or how does a heavenly mindset think

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable  - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Philippians 4:8

If we are to win this game and have a heavenly mindset then we need to understand our true position in Christ Jesus, we will not dwell so much on our desires getting fulfilled or using God as a way to getting our desires fulfilled but we shall get to understand that as God’s will get fulfilled our desires are also met. We have been raised with Christ who sits at the right hand of the father, therefore what belongs to the son is ours too, this reality should reflect in our thinking and how we live.

The scripture we quoted say that we should ‘set’ which can be translated to ‘seek’ so the word says seek those things above, meaning we are not supposed to think carnally that is seeking things below, things that are not from God, things that drives us in the opposite direction of God.

Romans 12:2a says ‘do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…….’

When you seek or set your mind and heart on things below then you are forced to think and live like the rest of the world.

To renew our mind is simply through the scripture, understanding the scripture, talking to others about the word of God, seeking things above and not below, impress the word of God in our hearts and begin to think like Him.

Don’t give in to the devil’s game, don’t give him a chance to put doubt across to you, don’t pose to re-think the question the enemy throws at you, he has nothing new, once you engage him in a conversation you lose, don’t let him confuse you.

Know who you are, trust the God you serve and;

‘Being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’ Philippians 1:6

He is a faithful God. He has provided us with the tools to win over this game, His WORD, comprehend it and then apply it, day and night meditate on it and you will win against the devil in his game.

#beencouraged

#lamabeinitiative