Mind Battles, and a Church That Won't Leave the Building

Our thoughts are powerful, and the enemy knows it! In this episode, I talk about the battle for the mind and what God's word says about it. I also discuss how inward-focused the church has become and why I believe most "church" happens, or should happen, outside the four walls of a church building. I hope you enjoy this episode! Thanks for listening. 

Transcript

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Hey everybody, welcome back to the Dissatisfied Podcast. Thanks again for joining me. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate it. So today we're just gonna jump right in. So a few days ago, I was praying and asking the Lord what I should talk about on this episode. And you know, sometimes I hear him really clearly, and I get these little signs and confirmations that I heard him, which is always nice. But other times I feel like I'm just supposed to choose a topic because, you know, I'm not really hearing him that clearly. So I thought about a topic on mind battles, but I wasn't super confident in that choice. So I kind of struggled back and forth for a few days with that. And I think sometimes we can overthink hearing God's voice. Of course, it's awesome in those moments, you know, when it's undeniably God speaking to you. And I've had those moments. And honestly, every single day I'm always asking him to speak to me and give me signs and show me this and you know, tell me this, all those types of things. So that's always great when we can hear him clearly. But the reality is we live in a really noisy world. So there's times when we might not get that super clear answer from him, or where it might seem he's not even speaking to us. And here's what I'm gonna remind myself of, and what I want to remind you of. So in Proverbs three, five through six it says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. And then Proverbs 16, three says, Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. So that's encouraging, isn't it? When we're walking with God, when we pray, when we're filling ourselves with his truth and his word, when we acknowledge him in everything, good and bad, when we're laying everything before him, he will be in it. So, you know, as I commit this podcast to him, he will establish my plans. So I believe I can choose a topic, even if I don't hear him clearly, and he will bless it. Because I am acknowledging him in it. So, you know, yes, I want to hear his voice loud and clear, but I need to live in the understanding that as I trust the Lord, I can be confident in the decisions I'm making. You can be confident in the decisions that you're making when you are acknowledging him and when you're putting everything before him. So we're gonna talk about mind battles a little bit. So, you know, we've all experienced the battles of the mind, battles in our thoughts. And I would say that that's the number one way that the enemy attacks us, is in our minds. And I've been in some mind battles the past couple weeks because my mom has been having some pretty serious health issues. And, you know, mind battles come in the form of fears, worries, anxious thoughts, all those types of things. There was one day where I even had to tell myself to get it together. I was like, okay, Rochelle, get it together. And we have to do that sometimes. We have to encourage ourselves sometimes. So when we have these battles of the mind and we give into them, what's happening is we're stepping out of alignment with God and what he tells us. Philippians 4, 6 through 7 says, 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. So there is a peace of God that comes that is beyond anything that we can understand because it's supernatural, and that peace comes when we go to him in prayer and thanksgiving about everything and anything. And I think just to clarify, I don't know that it means you come to him and you thank him for whatever stress you're under or you know anything like that, but you can come to him and thank him for being God. You can come to him and thank him that he hears you. You know, sometimes it's hard to thank him for our suffering, although I think that that's also biblical to thank him in everything. But we can find something to thank him for when we come to him in prayer. And I'm not saying that all of this stuff is easy to do either. It's very difficult. But the reality is it's what we are told to do. And, you know, maybe you're gonna have to do it a hundred times a day to stay in that peace. And if that's the case, then that's what we do. I was actually looking through an old notebook the other day, and I was I was taking notes from a book that I was reading by Max Lacato. This was, I don't know, 20 years ago. And I wrote down this quote The power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not the one who says it. Wow, that's so simple, isn't it? And it's just something we need to remember that when we pray, our prayers are powerful because of the one who hears them. Not because we're saying a prayer, not because we're praying, it's because he is the one that holds the power, the one who hears us. One of the very first Christian books that I ever read after I got saved was Joyce Meyer's Battlefield of the Mind. So I was 28 when I got saved, and I would spend every waking moment that I had at Barnes and Noble. And I would just grab all the Christian books that I could. I would read and take notes. So I have several notebooks still full of notes that I would take. You know, if I didn't have plans, Barnes and Noble was my plan. And this was back in the good days when our phones hadn't become our lives, and when Barnes and Noble was an actual bookstore and not trying to, you know, cater to all the wokeness. So this was when there was actually a Christianity section. Nowadays you go in there and the Christian books are mixed in with Islam and Buddhism, occult stuff, witchcraft stuff. I I've seen it. I've gone in there and I'm like, what is happening to good old Barnes and Noble? Dang it. But anyway, the first book that I read was Joyce Meyer's Battlefield of the Mind. I didn't even realize that books like that existed because I had grown up a Catholic. So I didn't know there was this whole other Christian realm where people wrote songs and wrote books and they were encouraging and eye-opening and, you know, gave me revelation. So I was just eating all that stuff up. But this book, The Battlefield of the Mind, had a real impact on me because it made me realize just how powerful our thoughts are. And we have to discipline ourselves in it. We have to discipline ourselves when it comes to our minds and our thoughts. Because changing the way that you think does not happen overnight. Because there's literal neural pathways that have been created in your brain, and some of them are negative pathways, some of them are harmful, and it takes consistent effort to create new neural pathways. And that's what part of this battle is. You know, we have a real enemy who attacks our minds, and he wants us to get in these patterns to where it's going to take a lot of effort to get out of these negative thought patterns. So something I've been doing the past few days is that every time I have a fearful or anxious thought come in, which is often, I just stop and I literally say no. I just say no out loud. And I start to say things like, God is good, I trust the Lord, and then I pray. And I have to do this again and again and again some days, because the reality is we are in constant battles, in our thoughts, especially. And in Romans 12, 2, it says, Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And when you look at the Greek for the word renewing in that verse, it actually points to something that is intense and repetitive. So again, it takes discipline, it takes effort, it takes repetitiveness and intentionality to change our thought patterns. And, you know, the truth is that we are living in a world that is constantly battling for space in our thoughts, especially when it comes to scrolling our phones, right? And there have been studies after studies that stress is a key factor in why people doom scroll. And then the more you scroll, the more you feel you need to. And it's this cycle that becomes addictive because you know we're we're stressed, so we scroll, but the scrolling actually creates more stress in our lives, and it's just this vicious merry-go-round that we get ourselves on. It is not healthy in any way, shape, or form. But for many of us, our phones are our lives. But in reality, they're kind of our enemy when it comes to the health of our minds. And I 100% believe the enemy is using social media, he's using reels and shorts and this 24-7 constant information, a lot of it false, to hijack our brains. Because if he can keep us in this constant state of distraction and stress, then he takes us off the battlefield. He won't have to worry about us advancing into his territory. And believe me, the enemy has been around a lot longer than you and I have, and he knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to how to attack our minds. If he can get you discouraged and overwhelmed, then he can get you to give up. You know, where you start thinking things like, what's the point? Things will never change, life is too hard, God must not be good, I might as well quit. All of those thoughts will come in as you feel discouraged, as you feel overwhelmed. And once you start to agree with those thoughts, the enemy's job is done. At that point, he can just kind of walk away and just hand it over to you now at that point. You'll actually be the one to take it to the finish line. If you don't get a hold of your thoughts and take them captive, I really think we need to start looking at negative thoughts like we do drugs. So if a negative thought comes into your mind, just imagine somebody's offering you heroin and just say no. And if you're an 80s kid, you probably remember that anti-drug campaign that Nancy Reagan head up, headed up, is it head or headed? I don't know. You know what I mean. But the entire thing was built around the slogan, just say no. So let's do that with our thoughts. Negative thought comes in, no. And sometimes there's other things you're gonna have to do in addition to saying no to that thought. And I'm gonna give you an example. So last year, when some more stuff happened with the culty church that we came out of, there were some people from there who pretty much came after my son on a whole other level. And that's his story to tell at some point. But for me, when this thing occurred, there were several days after that initial attack on him that I was feeling just so overwhelmed and just this feeling of heaviness, and honestly, just I felt sick to my stomach, my mind was racing, and whatever it was that I was feeling was not of my own self, and I could sense that. So one day I was just sitting with the Lord and I asked him, I said, Lord, what is this? Because it was just such an intense, awful feeling. And immediately I felt him show me that what was at work through this attack was the same spirit that killed my brother Rich. And if you know that story, my brother Rich took his own life in 2016, and also my dad committed suicide in 1994. But specifically in this moment, I felt the Lord show me that it was the same spirit that killed my brother, and it's a spirit of murder. So the intensity of these thoughts and emotions that I was having about this attack that had happened was because we were up against a spirit of murder, which of course seeks to kill, right? And sometimes it comes in the form of trying to kill your spirit, trying to kill your future, trying to kill your joy, your love, your confidence, trying to kill your faith. And sometimes that will result in killing you physically. I mean, when you look at everything I just listed there, if the enemy can steal those things and destroy those things in your life, that will lead a lot of people to suicidal thoughts. And once those thoughts take root, it can lead to the actual action of committing suicide, like it did with my dad and brother. But I remember in that moment when I asked the Lord and He showed me that, I knew in that moment something was changing inside of me. There was this pivot that I made. I immediately stopped entertaining those fearful thoughts, and I honestly just went to war. I've never felt anything like it rise up in my in me, but I went to war like I had never done before. And, you know, there's times where there is something very dark that is behind our mind battles. And when the Lord shows you something like He did me in that moment, you've got to pull yourself up by those bootstraps, you've got to grab your sword, and you gotta start kicking arse. I have to say it the Irish way to keep it clean. So yeah, you gotta start kicking the devil's arse. And that's what I did. And honestly, I spent the next few months, several months, daily warring against that spirit of murder. And what does that look like exactly? Well, it looked like spending 20 to 30 minutes every single day praying, speaking truth, speaking life, literally pointing my finger at that spirit, and in the name of Jesus, taking authority over it and tearing it down with specific things I would say and pray. And something else that I also did daily was I would plead the blood of Jesus over my son and our family and this entire situation. And I also prayed scripture, and I'm still doing those things every single day on some level. And there are some days where I feel like I need to, you know, bring it up a notch and war a little bit more intensely. So, what happens with these mind battles, with these, you know, war in our thoughts, it's often a direct attack from the enemy. It's often a demonic attack. And I say often because sometimes we are battling our own flesh as well. And, you know, we have to command our own thoughts to come into alignment with the truth of God's word. But like I said, often it's the enemy planting seeds of doubt, fear, anxiety, worry, all of those things, because he's trying to pull us down and out of the position that we have in Christ Jesus. He's trying to pull us out of that peace that God gives us as we trust him. So the battlefield of the mind is very real, but God has given us everything that we need to have victory in those in those types of battles. Okay, I'm gonna shift gears a little bit here. I'm gonna go into a little bit of a different topic. So I've shared a lot in some past episodes about my experience in the church and our experience in leaving that church we left. And you know, I thought I was done for a while talking about church stuff, but yeah, I'm not. We're not done yet. I promise you, in the near future, I'm gonna be talking about things other than church stuff. I'm gonna talk about chemtrails, I'm gonna talk about Bill Gates and how I think he might actually be a demon clothed in flesh. I'll touch on those types of fun subjects, but I think the topic of the church is really important. And I realized I was not done when I had lunch with somebody the other day, and we ended up having this conversation about church, about spiritual abuse, control, manipulation, all those things. And so it just got me thinking again. And I started to think to myself, I wonder why some people end up seeing the truth where their eyes are opened, you know, they see what's at work regarding spiritual abuse and control manipulation. And then sometimes people don't see it, others don't, or others won't. Sometimes I think it's won't, because I know for certain that some are willfully ignorant. I've even had people tell me, to people, in the past, I've had people tell me they would rather not hear the truth. Said that to me. They'd rather not hear it, they'd rather not know. That's insanity. But what is it that makes some people finally say, yeah, this isn't it? You know, where they start to look at this toxic stuff going on and they call out the BS and then they get the heck out of there. Even though they know that there will be a cost, because there will be a cost if you leave a high-control, manipulative church. Now, if you've only been going to that church for a couple of months, you're probably going to be able to get by unscathed, really. You might just get talked about behind your back, but they were probably already doing that anyway. But if you've been there for years and you've served and you've been involved, and then you leave, there will be a cost. And that cost comes in the form of slander and lies and character assassination. And sometimes it comes with an actual intent to destroy your life. So I don't really have an answer for why some people end up seeing it and why some don't. I'm still asking God about that. But I actually had a friend the other day that I was talking to, and I told her that I have not been to church in a while, and honestly, I have no desire to. And she was very gracious, and she said, Well, that's understandable because it's like you've seen too much now. And nobody has ever said that particular phrase to me, and it really resonated with me. Yeah, I've seen a little too much to want to go back into any church environment. Now, hear me out. Like I've said before, I do believe there are some healthy churches. I know some of them. But I guess you could say I'm jaded at this point. But also, maybe I'm exactly where God wants me. I read this the other day. This was on Substack, and this is just a quote from somebody's Substack post. And it was titled, Stop Inviting People to Church. Seriously, hear me out. I'm not saying church is bad. The early church didn't say come to our service. They said come to my table. What if we stopped inviting people to a place and started inviting them into our lives? And I thought that was good. But I wonder, how does that make you feel? Did that make you feel a little uncomfortable to hear somebody say stop inviting people to church? I mean, honestly, a few years ago, I probably would have had a problem with that. I would have had an issue with that statement because I was in a cult like environment where they lived and breathed the family. Right? Divorcing the family is what we were told. We were divorcing the family. What a weird thing to say. What a weird thing to think when the Bible is clear that God's family is all over the place, not just inside the church walls. But, you know, a few years ago, my entire existence was built around that church and the people and the activities and the serving. And also the belief that we in that family were somehow set apart because we were special. But honestly, I think most Christians in general are hung up on this idea that if you don't attend a church, then you're really not living out the Christian life the way it should be. And I know that this is this is kind of a hot debate right now, but I mean, how many times have you heard, well, that's where you build community? That's literally the main thing you will hear if you talk about, oh, I don't really go to church right now. Well, you need community. So somehow, if you're not attending a church, I guess you're just going to be alone and friendless for the rest of your life. I've also heard people say, Well, God has given you gifts and anointings to share with the body of Christ, which implies that our gifts and what God has, you know, given us to share with people are only useful within the church. And I just feel like that's the opposite of what the gospel is. I feel like that's the opposite of where we're supposed to go to share what God has put in us. I mean, Jesus told his disciples, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. The Bible says to make disciples of all nations. And you know, remember this when the Bible talks about the church at Corinth or the church at Thessalonica, it's speaking of a body of believers in those cities. My point is this the church definitely serves its purpose. Okay, it does serve a purpose. It has in my life, it truly has. I'm so thankful for how God changed my life when I was in a church one day and I heard the simple gospel and God saved me. But unfortunately, we are living in a time where I would say a majority of churches are self-serving. And the way that these churches operate, including how, where, and why people are serving, it's for the benefit of the church itself. And I know this is a tough subject, you know, and it can be debated, and it can be hard to hear these things because I think the church culture in America has been stuck in the same system, the same pattern for so long. We need a paradigm shift. And paradigm shifts are hard. Do you know what a paradigm shift is? It's an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way. I believe we need a new and different way of doing church in America. I think that's where we're at. We need a paradigm shift. Because honestly, I'm to the point where I would much rather sit around my table with a bunch of cussing, smoking, loud non-believers than what I've encountered inside a church building. Not every church building, but a lot of them. And just know this, I'm just speaking from my heart here, okay? This is by no means this all-encompassing idea in regards to church or people inside the church. There's good churches, there's great people in them. I'm just sharing my own feelings based on what I've experienced. And I would wager that there's many people who feel the same way that I do. There's a lot of people who are tired of playing church. A lot of people are tired of the facade, you know, having to look a certain way, act a certain way, be a certain way, to belong. And I'm definitely one of those people who are tired of it. I honestly don't see an effective and powerful church right now. I see a timid, weak, and inward-focused church right now. Again, clarifying here not all churches. There are some strong leaders, there are some strong churches who are going after the truth hard, and I love it. But it's many churches that are operating in self-serving ways. And when you've built a system that is self-serving and inward-focused as the body of Christ, that's not it. It's not the way it's supposed to be. We're supposed to be a threat to the enemy, we're supposed to be a threat to wickedness. And unfortunately, that really doesn't happen a whole lot when we keep it all inside the four walls of the church. I mean, I look at some of these street preachers or these guys that go and stand, you know, outside of abortion clinics to offer assistance, or they're trying to preach the gospel, they're trying to give these women some truth and some hope so that they don't follow through with terminating their pregnancy. And I think to myself, sometimes, well, what am I even doing? Like, what are we doing? The world around us is literally crumbling under the weight of sin and deception. And most of us go to church once a week and we worship and we hear a message and we drink our coffee and we chat with our friends, and then we go back home and we live our lives the exact same way as always, and then we repeat that same thing week after week. And somehow we tell ourselves that we're world changers for Jesus when we don't even attempt to engage in the world outside of our comfortable churches. I don't know. I don't know what I'm saying anymore. Does this mean I'm gonna go stand outside some abortion clinics and preach the gospel? I mean, maybe I think it might mean that. That's probably in my future at some point. You know what else is in my future? Not being afraid to talk about Jesus and our need for a savior. I'm just gonna go full-on Jesus mode, and not in a weird way. It doesn't have to be weird. But here's a for instance, one day I had placed a Walmart order, Walmart pickup pickup order, and I went to my usual Walmart, not too far from me, that I usually order from. But when I got there, they told me, oh, this that it's not here. And it was actually at the Walmart that was 25 minutes away from me. And I had no idea how that even happened because I had never even placed an order at that other Walmart. But I drove all the way there, 25 minutes away to get my order. And as I was sitting in my car waiting, I had some thoughts that I knew were from the Lord. And I felt like he told me the reason you are here is to encourage the person who brings out your order. And I thought, well, okay. I mean, couldn't I have done that at the Walmart, you know, closer to me? But okay. So this young guy brings me my order, and you know how it's kind of nonchalant, it's kind of this quick process. So he's putting the groceries in the back of my car, he gets done, he closes the back, and he starts walking away. And I'm thinking, oh no, I'm gonna lose my chance. So I rolled down my window and I shouted, and I was like, Hey! And he started to walk back towards me a few steps, and I just said, Hey, the Lord wants you to know that he sees you and he loves you. And he just got the biggest smile on his face and he said, Thank you. And, you know, it wasn't some big encounter, it was simple and quick, but I believe God used it in this young man's life. He had a purpose and a plan in that moment that was about this other person. It was not about me, it was about the other person. And I believe that our days should be filled with moments like that. When we're listening to the Lord, when we change our perspective, you know, something that was in reality an inconvenience to me turned out to be a God thing. And guess what? It didn't happen inside the four walls of the church. Am I telling you not to go to church? No, I'm not telling you that. I'm telling you that there's a lot we are missing when our focus is only on our church or what's happening at our church. We have to stop relying on a church building or even a church family to check our, you know, am I being a good Christian box? Because there's a whole lot of church that should be happening on the outside. Think about it this way. Here's a thought You know how if you stay inside your house for too long and you don't ever go outside, you're gonna eventually become vitamin D deficient. It will also impact your sleep cycle, it'll cause mental and emotional problems. It's not healthy to stay indoors all the time and to never go outside. And it feels like this is where much of the church is at. Where we've stayed inside the four walls for way too long. We have focused on the inside, and now the church is deficient and it's unhealthy. But most people don't see it that way. I don't believe it was ever about bringing people in. And that's kind of what churches become, right? Oh, invite people to church, invite people this Sunday. Always about bringing people into the church. I don't think it was ever about that. I believe it's about us, the body, being sent out, going out, being salt and light outside the four walls, going out to people and places that are in darkness and bringing them truth and light. Does this make sense? I hope it does. I feel like there's a word in this from the Lord to his body. I believe we need a change, and I pray that we start to see it happening. And it will start when we all come together and realize that this system that's been going on, this system of church that we have in America, it's not cutting it. It's not the way that it's supposed to be. Are there aspects of it that are needed? Is there a place for the way that the church is right now in America? Maybe, I don't know for sure. I don't think we can deny what God has been doing in the church realm. He's shaken things up, and it's because things need to change. Things are so broken. And I believe God wants to rebuild it in his way, the way that he intended it, not the way that we've tried to build it. So as you go about your week, just realize that church actually should be taking place outside the four walls of that building that you go to on Sunday. Church can happen in the Walmart parking lot. Church can happen down at the local laundromat. It can happen in your driveway. You get the point. Let's start taking the truth and the light of Christ outside where it was meant to be. Thanks for listening, and I hope you join me next week.