THE BATTLE OF THE MIND (Part Three)
| For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Strongholds are sets of wrong beliefs and philosophies, fears, negative experiences and unwholesome fantasies programmed in a person’s unconscious mind as mentioned in part one of this study. These are places in which a person is internally held in bondage (prison). They determine a person’s perspective, thought pattern, reactions and responses to certain situations and events. They exert influence on our decisions, moods, feelings and reasons. They house a person’s childhood, religious and traumatic experiences. They contain negative images, pictures, scenes, sounds, words and feelings.
When negative or criminal thoughts are entertained, nourished and accepted in the conscious mind they are gradually transmitted to the unconscious mind through the process I called spiritual osmosis.
Osmosis: This is a process of gradual or unconscious assimilation or absorption of ideas, opinions, suggestions and knowledge.
These thoughts or materials are arranged, classified and filed for easy retrieval whenever they are needed. The contents of these strongholds sometimes surface on the conscious mind without invitation. They are involuntary flashes of past events, experiences and fears from within (unconscious mind). Therefore, to deal with any stronghold in your unconscious mind that can influence you to act negatively, you have to employ spiritual weapons in pulling it down. The renewal of the mind is a factor that will ensure the dismantling of these strongholds, reconstructing your character and establishing a new thought pattern in you.
According to the Scripture, the surest way that guarantees transformation is mind renewal. Transformation means to metamorphose. It is a complete change of character, appearance and attitude. A man is a product of his thoughts. What a man spends time thinking about is what he will eventually become. A man who spends most of his time fantasising about sex may eventually become a rapist. If you want to change your behaviour you need to change your thoughts.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…………
Proverbs 23:7, KJV
The most potent and effective spiritual weapon for mind renewal is the Word of God. The Word of God is the only tool that has the ability to penetrate the three realms of man (spirit, soul and body) and bring the desired change. It has an inherent power of creation and transformation, it is spirit and life, it is light and cannot fail.
