Satan wants your mind!

Guard Your Mind!

Jesus gave us the victory at the cross, but we still have a battle on our hands!

As Christians it is important for us to realise and take very seriously that we are at war with Satan. Satan’s war against man began in the Garden of Eden when he lied to and enticed Adam and Eve to sin. We all know this story but what we have generally not realised is that this war has not yet ended, it still continues to this very day and beyond. It will only end once the Lord has returned and Satan and his followers are consigned to Hell and we are clothed in our resurrection bodies!

In the verse below we see that God has put enmity between Satan and man!

Gen 3:15 

And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.” 

In the above verse we see quite clearly that Satan is our enemy, and he has been at war with us right from man’s fall at in the Garden of Eden. Satan lied to Eve in Eden and he is still lying to us to this very day! Just look at the verse below!

John 8:44 

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 

Unlike God, Satan is not omnipresent, he is unable to be everywhere at the same time. So how does he lie to us?

Satan is after our minds; this is the main battleground he chooses in each and every Christian. If he can control your mind, he will control your thought life and everything you do that is ungodly and contrary to the teachings of God’s Word! 

If you allow this to happen it will be impossible for you as a Christian to life the victorious life that God intends for you in Christ Jesus. If you allow Satan to have control of your mind, he will destroy you!

How do we know this? How do we know that we should not allow Satan access to control our minds and thought life?

Before I go into answering these questions with scripture, let me say right now that God is and was always well aware that Satan would go after controlling our minds after man’s fall at Eden!

Dt 6:5 (AMP) 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and with all your soul and with all your strength [your entire being]. 

In the verse above, God commands us to love Him, amongst other things, with all our mind! This whole verse calls us to be fully committed to loving Him! In if our minds are fully committed to loving God there will not be any room for Satan to infiltrate our minds!

And in the verse below Jesus himself commands us to do likewise!

Luke 10:27 (NIV) 

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” 

God knows and has always known that one of Satan’s favourite battlegrounds would be in our minds. He knows that Satan will always seek to control the actions of man by controlling our minds. He sews lies and deception into our minds.

There are a number of scriptures in the New Testament that instruct us, as born-again Christians, on how to guard our minds against Satan’s attack, and believe me it will come, I speak from experience!

Let’s examine some of these scriptures.

Rom 12:1, 2 (NIV) 

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

In the two verses above Paul urges us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God because it is the fitting way, the right way, and the only way for us to worship God. He then goes on to say that we must not be enveloped by the ways of the world but to be spiritual transformed by the renewing of our minds. When we do this, we will be able recognise what is God’s will for us!

How do we renew our minds? By throwing of our old nature and washing (cleansing) our minds by reading and studying the Bible!

Eph 4:22-23 (AMP) 

22 that, regarding your previous way of life, you put off your old self [completely discard your former nature], which is being corrupted through deceitful desires, 23 and be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude], 24 and put on the new self [the regenerated and renewed nature], created in God’s image, [godlike] in the righteousness and holiness of the truth [living in a way that expresses to God your gratitude for your salvation]. 

Eph 5:26-27 (NIV) Brackets are mine. 

26 to make her (we, the church) holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

In Philippians 4, Paul tells us to train our minds to think about things that are pure and holy!

Php 4:8 (NIV) 

Finally, brothers and sisters, 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. 

Col 3:1-2 (NIV) 

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 

This is not just a New Testament teaching. Just look at what the prophet Isaiah says in the verse below.

Isaiah 26:3 (NIV) 

You will keep in perfect peace

those whose minds are steadfast,

because they trust in you. 

When our minds are fixed on the Lord we will be kept in His perfect peace! When we do this, we will be able to block out the lies and deception that Satan would bombard our thoughts with and take them captive!

2 Cor 10:3-5 (NIV) 

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 

In the verse above not only does Paul instruct us to take every though captive, but he also reminds us that we are at war with Satan and his followers and that with our renewed minds and knowledge of the Word, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can demolish anything that sets itself up against us!

So, my friends, in closing this little narrative, I would encourage you to fully immerse yourselves in these things:

• To love God with all your being.

• To allow yourselves to be conformed to the image of Christ!

• To immerse yourselves in the reading and studying of the Bible and be obedient to is teachings.

• To immerse yourselves in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and to be continually filled by Him.

• To clothe yourselves in the full armour of God and never take it off!

Eph 6:10-18 (NIV) 

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 

1 Cor 2:10-16 

10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. 

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, 

“Who has known the mind of the Lord

so as to instruct him?” 

But we have the mind of Christ. 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father

I pray that you would keep me safe from the evil one and that by your Spirit you will help me to keep myself clothed in the full armour of God. Holy Spirit fill me anew each day, I pray, and lead and guide my feet on the path of righteousness in Christ Jesus. Help me Lord to immerse myself in studying your word that I may be more and more conformed to your image and that my life will bring glory to your name. Amen.

To Jesus belongs all glory, honour and praise! 

Jesus the Name above all names!

Remember: Reading this article is no substitute for reading and studying the Bible for yourself! I am flawed the Bible is not!

Last updated: 10 April 2023