Creflo Dollar - The Battle Of The Mind, Part 1
If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of St. John chapter 10 and verse 10. Our series that we're working on, I call it, "Winning in Spiritual Warfare". But today, I want to give it a subtitle, "The Battle of the Mind". "Winning in Spiritual Warfare: The Battle of the Mind". No, I need you to understand something, that my life and your life is a product of my thinking. I just want to talk to you before I get started. My life and the fruit in my life is a product of my mindset, that everything that pertains to your life is going to be worked out in your mind. Your mind is the battleground to determine what your life is going to be like.
Let me say that again, your mind is the battleground to determine what your life is going to be like. And so, it's this simple, you know, you're going to either allow God to have access to your thinking or you're going to be convinced to not pay attention to God or his Word, and then you're going to give access to your thinking to the world. Now, the problem with that, is, you know, the Ford Motor Company created the Ford engine. And if you're going to make sure that that engine runs properly, you would want to get the information from the Ford company. But some people decide, "Well, I don't need the Ford company to get information about this engine. I'll just call a paint shop. And I'll get all the information from the paint shop about this engine".
And that's what we're doing. God is the Creator of this human system. God is the Creator of human beings and God is... you are a spirit. You have a soul which is your mind, will and emotions, and you live in a physical body. And God knows the ingredients that you need in your mind in order to produce the life that you want. And so, instead of depending on God, and finding out what you should be thinking to produce good life, we completely shut off from God, and think in the way he wants us to think, and think in according to the Word, and we have open our mind up and given access to the words of the world. And we go to the world and say, "Hey, give us the materials for our mind". We don't go to God, the Creator, and say, "Give me what I need for my thinking".
We go to the world. They didn't create you. That's not your Creator, and you're going to the world, and you're going to the ways of the world, and you're allowing the education of the world, and you're allowing the norms and values of the world to determine your way of thinking. And so, you don't like your life right now, check out what you've given your mind access to. You don't like what's going on right now, you don't like your living, you don't like your pain, you don't like being broke, busted, and disgusted. You don't like being in fear all the time, you don't like how your relationships are turning out, everything in your life is determined by everything in your mind. Everything in your life is determined by your thinking.
It seems so simple to me. Here's God that made a human being, and he says, "All right, I'm going to put a software component in the human being, and if he'll put the right things in that software, he'll live the right life. If he'll take my Word, and think according to my Word, and put it in his mind, then he'll live an abundant life". But so many people say, "I don't believe. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in the Word". And then some of us, unfortunately, we get ourselves in situations where we hear the Word being taught wrong. And when it's taught wrong, then we think wrong. And when we think wrong, then we believe wrong, and then we say, "I don't want to have anything to do with that anymore".
What's going on in your mind is going to translate into your life. And so my life, your life, is a product. Life is a product of something. It is a product of my way of thinking. So if you get victory in your mind, you going to have victory in your life. If you have defeat in your life, it's only because you got defeat in your mind. Nothing is allowed to exist in life without it first existing in your mind. That's the arena. So if you change your thinking, you can change your life. People always asking, "I need to change my life," and we don't even know how do we do that? I'm telling you right now, if you change your thinking, you change your life. The problem is we change our thinking from one bad way of thinking to another bad way of thinking. And it gets progressively worst. And you have to change our thinking to be aligned with the one who created you.
See, I can understand if the world created you, but they don't know how. God created you, and if anyone knows how you should be thinking to produce the life you want, God would know. Are you fed up? Tired? Sick and tired of being sick and tired? Are you wondering how bad can it get, wanting to change and don't know what to do? This series is for you. Wanting new relationships, wanting to do things better than what you're doing, this is for you. It's so simple: right here. It's in your mind. Your mind is the arena of faith. Your mind is the battleground for your life. What your life will be like, will be determined in the battle in your mind. The battle between what's good from God's Word in your mind versus what's a lie in the world in your mind. Who will win in the battle of your mind?
Satan is after your soul. Satan is competing to see who will sit in the control of your mind, because if you can control the mind, you can control the life. That's the only real weapon that Satan has, it's a weapon of suggestion to suggest faults. And if you're not in the Word of God, and you don't understand the Word of God, then his suggestions will be appealing. And he wants to work in the pleasure center of your mind so that you can accept it. There is a war going on, a battle for the souls of men. Now remember, when a I use the word "soul" remember man is a spirit being. He possesses a soul. The soul is the mind, will and emotion. Religion uses the word "soul" and "spirit" interchangeably as if they are one. They are not. You are spirit, you have a soul, you live in a body.
So when you get born again, your spirit is just like God. It's perfect. Okay? But then even as a born-again Christian, your soul, if it's not renewed with the Word of God, and specifically the Word of grace, then you can still end up doing things in your body and then blaming it, you know, on all, other kind of things, is your soul. Satan wants your soul. He wants your soul whether you're a Christian. He wants your soul whether you are a sinner. He wants control of your soul so he can control and determine your life. So, let's deal with this, and if you'll hang in here with me over the next several weeks, if you will just stay here with me, if you'll come to church through the stream.
You know it's amazing to me, that thank God for all of you, who have come to church, but there's some members of our church who hadn't attended church since March 2020. And let's pray for those people, that they don't fall victim of the devil. And what's the important parts of tuning in and getting this Word today? You get the right way of thinking. If you can think right, you can live right. If you can think right, you can believe right. Someone says, "Well, what's the right way of thinking"? It's according to the Word of grace that came from the Creator of the human system. Amen. So let's lay some foundation here and talk about, first of all this morning, the reality of a spiritual warfare. What is that and how do we win in this spiritual welfare? John chapter 10:10. He says, "The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy".
Now notice, that's not God. God gets the blame for the stealing, and the killing and destroying. Every time there's a hurricane hit or a tornado, people are just, "Oh, look at God. Look at destruction God caused". No, no, no, no, no. Satan, there's a devil loose. Please understand, there's a devil loose. "Well, I don't believe in the devil". Well, I tell you what, that's the greatest thing the devil can accomplish in your life, to finally get you not to believe that he exists. 'Cause if you don't believe he exists, he can just kind of wreak havoc in your life because you don't believe he exists. He exists. Well, how do you know that? 'Cause the Bible speaks of it. "The thief cometh not but for to steal, kill and to destroy". God's not a thief. Satan is the thief. Satan is the killer. Satan is the crook. Satan is the destroyer. And so any area of your life, stealing, killing and destroying, Satan gets the blame for that. Stop blaming God for that.
Look what he said. He says, "But I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly". So Jesus says, "I'm not the thief". He says, "I'm the one that's going to be responsible for you to have life to the full, in abundance, until it overflows". So the will of God for your life is to have life to the full, in abundance until it overflows. So you've got to make sure that you've placed the responsibility in the proper place. Steal, kill, destroy: that belongs to Satan. Life to the full until it overflows: that belongs to God. God is for you not against you, all right? So there it is. Those, the two opposing forces in this spiritual warfare.
Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 through 12. Let's look at it first of all in Kings James and then in the Amplified. All right, now notice, he says, "Finally, my brethren, be," what? "Strong in the Lord". "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of the Lord's might". So this battle is not going to be won in my strength. It's going to be won in the strength of the Lord, in the ability of the Lord. All right? "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil". Now, the armor of God, is simply put, if you just read the rest of the chapter, the armor of God is the Word of God. It's the Word of God. And in particular, I'm talking about the Word of grace. He says, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles," or the strategy, "of the devil". Notice, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood".
So our fight is not against human beings versus human beings. Now, listen to this carefully, well, who are we fighting? We're fighting demonic spirits. There are four categories of demons: principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places. Now, you don't hear people talk about that a lot but there demonic forces arrayed against you as a Christian, and their job is to make your life miserable. Their job is to have a strategy to defeat you away from the victory that Jesus has already made available for you. No let's look at this in the Amplified Bible, Ephesians 6:10-12. Pay attention how it's written here. He said, "In conclusion, be strong in the Lord, be empowered through your union with him".
As Christian people, we have a relationship with the Holy Ghost. "Be empowered through your union with him. Draw your strength from him". He says, "That strength which his boundless might provides". So there's strength that you can draw from him. You can draw from his Word. "Draw your strength from him". Eleven, "Put on God's whole armor, the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies, that you may be able successfully to stand up against all the strategies and the deceits of the devil". So the devil has designed strategies, deceitful strategies to try to get you away from the will of God for your life, the plan of God for your life, the abundance of life in your life, the victory from your life. Satan has a strategy. A strategy.
It's going to be a deceitful strategy. And you'll be amazed the number of Christians and the number of Christians and the number of people in the world who fall, they fall for the deceitful strategy. The deceitful strategy that makes sense. The deceitful strategy that the norms and values of the world endorse. And when you're not aware that there's a devil loose, who is trying to attack you and win against you through deceitful strategies. Do you understand that the devil is just not out here, just going crazy trying to kill you. He has a specific design to try to kill, steal, and destroy in your life. He knows your weaknesses, and he knows your pleasures, and he knows how bad you beat yourself up, and he knows all of those kind of things. And so, he devises a strategy against you, and in some cases, just uses the same file the rest of your life. There's a war going on. There's a war going on.
Verse 12, "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood. We're not contending only with physical opponents". You see those demonic spirits work through people, and you're thinking that you're contending against the people. It's that spirit. I had a situation one time where, you know, this guy was talking about his boss was really after him. And we told him, "Why don't you take authority of the spirit that's working through your boss"? He says, "How do you do that"? I said, "Just simply go pray, 'Father, I take authority over the demonic spirit that's working through my boss trying to torment me'". He said he prayed, and that boss changed like night and day. You see, he was not aware that there was a demonic spirit that had developed deceitful strategies to try to try to work against him, to try to move him out of the will of God for his life.
See, what he was doing was the will of God for his life, but there was a strategy to get him out of that. And so, you're not fighting, that's what the Scripture says, humans only. But what you're fighting are humans who are being controlled in a sense or oppressed in some cases by demon spirits to act a certain way. "Contending only with physical opponents, but against the despotisms, against the powers, against the master spirits, who are the world rulers of this present darkness". There are rulers of this darkness. "Against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly supernatural sphere". This is the reality of a spirit world. This is the reality of enemies coming against you. Your enemies that come against you will be defeated.
"They'll come in one way," Deuteronomy 28:7, I believe, "they'll come in one way and God will 'cause them to flee seven ways". Glory be to God. But you got to understand what's in this Bible. You've got to understand that there's a war going on. Satan wants your soul. Look at Luke chapter 10, 19 through 20. Now, here's a promise that we've been given. And this is just the foundation for the spiritual warfare. Here's a promise that we've been given. Good news. Luke chapter 10, verse 19 through 20, "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by in any means hurt you".
Now notice what he says, "Behold, I give unto you power". That first word "power" in this this means authority. The right to command. You have authority to have absolute mastery of every demonic force, over serpents and scorpions. Those are representatives of demon forces. You have authority over demon forces. You have authority over every demon force and over all the power, second word "power" ability. "Over all the power of your enemy". All the power. Your enemy is the devil, and you have authority over all of his ability. Glory to God. No matter what the devil can do, you have authority over all of his ability, and watch this, "And nothing shall by in any means hurt you". "Nothing shall by in any means hurt you". Look at verse 20. He says, "Notwithstanding in this rejoice not". Don't rejoice, "that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice," watch this, "because your names are written in heaven".
You see, I'm rejoicing this morning because I'm born again. I made Jesus the Lord of my life and I'm heaven bound. There's no doubt about it. There's no worry about it. When I leave my physical body, I'm rejoicing because my name is written in heaven. But I want you to know, while you're here, you have authority over the devil in Jesus's name. And then finally, in this reality of the spiritual warfare, 1 John 5:4, here's some more good news. Now, he says, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world". The world is defined as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
So when people say, "That's worldly," how do you evaluate if something is worldly? Does it have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life? Some people get at me all the time talking about music being worldly. "That's worldly music". Well, does it involve the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life? Well, then it's worldly. But that's what worldly mean. We're in the world, but we're not of the world's way of operation. We're not of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He says, "And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith". So the good news is that victory has already been made available to us by Jesus Christ. We have the victory to overcome, we have the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith in the victory that Jesus has obtained.
Now, that's what that means. So spiritual warfare, ladies and gentlemen, spiritual warfare is not doing something to try to get victory. Spiritual warfare is maintaining the victory that Jesus has already obtained. So notice we're in the New Testament, Jesus died to obtain victory. Notice we're in the New Testament. Jesus died to obtain victory. And so, Jesus was raised from the dead, he obtained the victory, glory to God, he finished the work, glory to God, and he give it to us who are now living under this New Testament, and our job is to maintain it and the devil's job is to try to get us to turn it loose. So Jesus died to obtain healing. My job is hold onto healing. Satan's job is to do something to try to cause me to give it up. Jesus has already obtained soundness, deliverance. My job is to maintain soundness and deliverance. Satan's job is try to get me to give it up.
And so you see, the battle that's going on here. So I wanted you to write this down, I've made my mind up. I'm going to take my time. I'm not trying to rush to hurry up and get finished. I want to make sure you have an understanding of this. I can't wait to get to the end of this, but let's take our time as we go. So, here's the statement as a result of you recognizing through these five Scriptures that there is a war going on, through these four Scriptures. There's a war going on. There's a reality of a spiritual warfare. The warfare is not for you and I to try to go and win. Jesus has already won. Satan has already been defeated. Satan is a defeated foe.
"Well then, what is a spiritual warfare"? The spiritual warfare is what I just explained. Maintaining the victory that Jesus obtained, and Satan is going to try to take it away. And so, I need to enter into the strategies that Satan will begin to use to try to take it that way. Whoever can hold onto it, will see the manifestation in their life. Whoever let it go, won't see the manifestation in their life, and yet we'll see some other things manifested in their life. So here's a statement I want to make, I want to read the statement to you, and then I want to go back and break it out with words. The most important thing, the most important thing that a believer can do in spiritual warfare is to believe the promises. The most important thing that a believer can do in spiritual warfare is to believe the promises.