Episode Twelve: Mind Warfare

Hello everybody! Sorry for not posting last week, but Gabe was sick and Josh was out of town. This week's episode is Mind Warfare. We hope you enjoy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the Purpose Podcast. I'm your host, Gabe. And I'm your co-host, Josh. And today is March 26th, and you're gonna be seeing us on March 30th. Past two weeks I've been sick. So last week we didn't have one, and also also last week Josh was out of town. Go ahead and let them know why you were out of town, Josh.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Um I was going to Ohio. My sister is uh um enrolled at Valor Christian College in um Canal, Winchester, Ohio, and they was having VIP weekend, so they was having a bunch of different evangelists and uh different worship um leaders there, and um we did some pretty awesome things. We we went out into the um neighborhoods of Columbus, Ohio, and did some sidewalk ministry. We worshiped, we got filled with the Holy Ghost. It was great.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Sounds like a lot of fun. Seems like a real treat. It was so today our episode is called Mind Warfare. And I really I I was I I forgot to get a quote, so this quote I've gotten in the last five minutes and has nothing to do with mind warfare. I think it's just a found love quote. It's by Sam Sam Livingston. It says, Don't watch the clock, do what it does, keep going. That hits your heart strings there. It does. That that was that was deep. So one of the things you think about when you think of mind warfare, you think of the battlefield of your mind. And one of the verses I got for the for the battlefield perspective is Romans 12 2, and it states, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And also, I also got in Ephesians 4 23, it states, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Our mind can be our greatest enemy at times. God isn't the only one who knows our thoughts, the devil does too. He uses our insecurities, worries, and fears to dictate how he approaches us. Now, how just think about how or how many how many times you go in a situation with the worst thoughts and feelings. And them thoughts they're gonna dictate how you go through the situation, and a lot of times you'll come out the situation great. But we need to go into things with more of a high sphere, go into confidence, and you can hardly ever fail if you do that. But for example, imagine you're studying for a big exam in college. You're studying, studying, studying, studying, studying, but you're constantly worried, you're gonna feel like it, like it just trumps you. Like it trumps over any good thoughts. You're wasting space in your mind for anxiety rather than using that space for knowledge for the exam. And you can you see this a lot, not just with school, but with you know, like maybe you have like a presentation at work or you have pre- even a presentation at school or whatever. You can fill your head with anxieties and worries and fears of what can happen instead of I got this, I got confidence, I know I'm gonna do great. But now some people haven't gone through this, so I'll I'll I'll give another example. Maybe imagine you're going on a date with a potential partner in life. You in your heart, you feel that person could be the one, but your mind's gonna tell you the opposite. It's gonna try to trick you. Instead of using your heart, you go with your mind. That person's going to turn into a let's say this person turns into a great person. And you find someone afterwards who doesn't want to live for Jesus, who has no intention to, and they they want to live for the world. That's one of the biggest things, in my opinion. You know, like our hearts tell us one thing and our minds tell us another, and we miss out on a lot. This is just one of them examples. But you know, but not only these two situations, but you know, so many people have committed suicide because of their thoughts. And people go to war with with themselves, with the devil, and they don't know how to get over it. And they don't know how to they really don't know how to combat them, pretty much. So we see a we see a lot of people try to take a shortcut, but by doing this, it leads for more sorrow and pain for them for eternity. And not only that, friends and family who's left on the earth are wondering why why it happened, and they're in constant grief. I know some of this might be throwing in every direction and different thoughts, but I'm gonna bring it all together what the moral of the story is, the moral of the story, and that is that we we need to control our mind so it leads to a happier life.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

I I think that was pretty good, and um I I like what you said about our minds can be our greatest enemies at time at times, and um because I know for me personally that's something I struggle with a lot.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

My mind I think everybody struggles with it, it's just a humanly thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

My mind gets in the way of what could happen. But um a couple verses I picked for the battlefield of our minds. The first one comes from First Peter chapter one, verse 13. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And the second one comes from 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. And I think personally the enemy likes to get into your head and tries to fill you with doubt and with fear and with confusion. And um, I love the example you gave about fiding, because I meant if you know me, you know I'm single.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

But nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

But like I I think I told you this the other day. There's like a part of me that feels like, well, yeah, I want a date, but I'm not at my fullest yet. You know, I'm not done with school, I'm not the skinniest, I'm not this, I'm not that. And it's just the enemy getting in your head.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah, I think that's more non-warfare happening there.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

He's filling you with doubt, he's filling we filling you with confusion. Um so you you have to be prayed up, you have to um read your word to know that hey, you you are this, you are that, you are um good, you're good enough. And um he the enemy likes to trick you at times. So any opportunity that opens up, you know, whether it's a new job, um, something with school, um, dating or all these different opportunities that open up, the enemy likes to tell you, like, no, you you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that, even though something that is God given, you know, God opened this door and you're letting the enemy confuse you and telling you no, you don't need to go through that door. So I think it's good to just be prayed up and um know what's from God. God, if it's from God, you're gonna feel more at peace. You're gonna feel like confident, you're gonna feel like, yes, I can do this, yes, I am worthy of this. And when you feel the opposite, when you feel confused, when you feel doubtful, when you feel fearful, you know that's the enemy talking to you.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

So then we gotta think about, you know, how can we tell if it's the enemy's voice versus God's voice? And I think you can look in John 8, 44, and that says, You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of a the father of lies. I think this verse is saying that we naturally live forward the worldly desires instead of what God wants for us, and he's going to constantly influence us to follow him. And if we're not careful, we can be led that way more in going to Christ. He's going to use our issues, insecurities, fears, all of it to prove his own point. We have to actively go for Christ. And uh, I got another verse from 1 Corinthians 14 33, and it says, For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. And also, I might see when go back to Romans 12.2 to a certain part of that verse, and it says that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. If you listen to God's voice, it that He's not going to lead you in the wrong direction. He's going to give you peace, guidance, and direction. And sometimes it can be hard to understand who is giving you directions in life. Because not, you know, not every thought, not every good thought is going to come from God. Because the devil is going to make something bad look good to persuade you. That's why it's important for us to pray about decisions, courses in our life, situations, whatever it might be. And God also might take us through bad situations, but not because he hates us, just because he wants us to go through hardships to grow in our faith with him. We're supposed to look for guidance when we have these hard times instead of letting the devil just run his course. No matter the reason for going through hardships, it's just important for us to look for God's voice to bring us out of dark times in our life. So if we really like like I said before, or clarified before, if we want to know who's talking, we just gotta really have faith in God and pray. I I think that it'll come more it'll come naturally to us on who's actually talking to us.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Right. And um enemy's voice versus God's voice. I chose a um scripture from First Corinthians chapter two, chapter two, verse 12. It says, Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. And um oh you're good. And I've I feel like you can easily pick out whether this voice is from God or if this voice is from the enemy. Because if you look back at the fruits of the spirit, which is in Galatians 5 22, um, you have love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And I feel like you can use the fruit of the spirit to kind of tell you, is this from God or is this from the enemy? Am I hearing the enemy's lies or am I hearing God's truthfulness? And um if it's if it brings you peace, if it's good, if it's loving, if it brings you joy, it's it's God's voice. If it gives you doubt, if it gives you fear, weariness, um if it gives you anxiety, that's the enemy whispering lies into your ear. And um I feel like as long as you know the fruits of the spirit, those fruits of the spirit is from God and they live in us, so you know they're obviously gonna be good. And um I know personally, personally, I have the enemy's lies all the time telling me you're not worthy of doing this podcast, you're not smart enough to go to school.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Same way.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Um, you're not loving full enough to be in a relationship just yet.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

You see, a lot of a lot of problems. I'm sorry about cutting you off, but um something that happens to me a lot is it brings up my past and some things that I've done, some of the bad things I've done, and it tries to tell me, you know, I'm not good enough to do better, or you know, I won't I won't be able to do better. And that's not really how we're supposed to think, but that's one of the things that the devil puts you in your head, like constantly, is these thoughts just because he wants to bring you down.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

And just like I said with this podcast, there's been multiple times where I'll write down my notes for our next podcast, and I'll get this feeling like I shouldn't be doing this. I've done this and this and this. I don't need to be doing a podcast talking about Jesus, you know, I'm not worthy of it, and that that's the enemy's lies because it's nothing but doubt, it's nothing but fear, but then you have that reassuring love that God has and it brings peace, you know. He cleansed you from sin, um, he's made you new, he's made you worthy to go spread the gospel, go spread the good news of him, and um that's nothing but joy and peace, you know, whenever you know that everything you've done in the past is now covered, he he took care of that on the cross, so you don't have to. And um, so if it if it brings you more happiness, more peace, you know, just know that it's from God, whether it's a voice, an object, an obstacle. But if it's that if it brings you anxiety, if it brings you fear, doubtfulness, that's definitely the enemy trying to get into your head and tell you you can't do this, you can't do that, even though you can do this and you can do that.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

So then you got you also gotta think, you know, like, so how can we discipline our thoughts? So one of the things that I got from this was, or one of the verses I got was from Philippians 4, 8, 4, 8 through 9, and it states, 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. Whatever you learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. And one of the I I thought of like an example here. I really don't know where I got it from. I don't I I can't remember if I think I just I really don't know. I don't know if I was watching a TikTok and an air filter unit, but and I was like, oh, that's that'd be kind of smart to to use that. I I can't I can't remember. But but how do you know what an air filter does, Josh?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Does it filter the air?

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Yes, but it removes contaminants to improve air quality and protect equipment. So we're supposed to use filters in our own mind. We're supposed to remove thoughts that act as contaminants like anxiety, fear, and evil thoughts, to improve our mental health and protect our bodies. So, mental discipline is about filtering out the bad to make room for the good. And so now again, I'm going back to Romans 12, 2. And another part of that verse says, But be transformed by the renewal of your mind. The best way to start and end your day is by renewing your mind. So we need to pray, read our Bible, or even sit in silence, whatever helps us, you know, get to that point where our mind's clear, we can pray, go on with our day, go to sleep in peace. We have to get that mind right before entering and ending our day. And a lot of our thoughts can be peaceful, it can have a clear mind, and really it just makes you have a peaceful, more peaceful life, and that's what we all strive for in life.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Right. I I like that analogy of the air filter. Um, because it like you said, it filters, it cleans, and that's the elbow. I like that, but um I was reading Colossians chapter 3, verse 2. It says, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. So when you discipline your thoughts, you know, you you kind of want to block yourself from the what the world makes you think. You know, there's so many things out there that the world throws at you. And um, you know, we did a whole ep we did a whole podcast about homosexuality that can get thrown at you. Um there's so many things about politics that gets thrown at thrown at you.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

All the time, God, I can't stand that.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

It gets it messes with your mind because you don't know what's right, you don't know what's wrong. But one, if you read, if you read the Bible, you you kind of know what's right and what's wrong. But besides politics, um you just have to discipline, you know, listen, read the word because what you need to do is listen in the word. And um, you know, whatever what people say you should do, what people say is okay, you know, you gotta tell yourself no it's not. And um, I feel like music is a good way to discipline your thoughts because when you listen to music, that music gets into your brain, and then it controls the way you think. And um a lot of music that these days they talk about violence, they talk about homosexuality, they talk about you know, just all kinds of crazy stuff. Then that crazy stuff gets into your mind and you start thinking about it. And um, you have to say, you know, no, it's not okay. You know, instead of listening to a song telling you that you Was born this way, you know. Listen to music that's telling you how to live, how to live for Christ, how to live to repent. Yes. And um, you know, you just block out what the enemy is trying to throw at you, you know. He tells you all these crazy things, and you just gotta say, no, you know, all the lies that he tells you, don't listen to it. Tell yourself that's not real, that's just the enemy trying to scare me. You know, listen to what God says. It's kind of like when you get disciplined as a child, you know, your friends at school tell telling you it's okay, but your parents are saying it's not okay. You know, kids are the world, the parents are is the word. So you want to black out the world and listen to the word.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

So, what are some ways that we can do better, Josh?

SPEAKER_00 23:05

I can think of a lot of ways that me personally I could do better because I feel like this whole episode can go straight to me. Um, because I I really struggle with knowing what's from the enemy and what's from God. But um, ways that we can do better is opening the Bible, reading the truth, blocking out the enemy's lies. You know, pray, pray for discernment. Um pray that you know what's right and what's wrong. Um, and just live your life how God intended it to be. You know, he didn't intend for you to live a life in fear or in anxiety or um depressed, depressed all the time. He called you to live a life of joy, a life of peace, a life of love. And um, so live your life according to how God wants you to live it, not how the enemy wants you to live it.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

So, some some of the ways that I got that can that I can personally do better is you know, I got pray more, you know, maybe read the Bible more. I I really gotta be better on that. I really gotta be better on that. Me too.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

One thing I I agree with everything you said, and then um and I feel I feel like I need to bet on everything you said, and one more thing I wanna I'm gonna add to it is you know that we should surround ourselves with people who who uplift us, uplift us instead of bringing us down, yes, and get rid of those who don't do that, yes, because then those people can also get in your mind and tell you what to think or what to do, and then also try to think more happy thoughts, yes. Always think always think of the positive, think on the bright side.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

And that's gonna conclude our episode today. I think this is a pretty good though episode, you know. Yeah, I guess this is something everybody goes through.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Yeah, especially me personally. I feel like this episode, I could really take it and listen to it for myself.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Yeah, I think a lot of people can take from a lot from this episode, and also we can also we as me and you can take a lot from this episode. I think it just it can it's something that everybody needs to listen to, and it's a subject that everybody can work on. Right. So that's gonna be it for today's episode, everybody. If you're on Apple Apple Apple Podcasts, go like and subscribe on our YouTube. If you're on YouTube, go follow us on Apple. Y'all have a good weekend. Remember, keep seeking your purpose.