TD Jakes - How to Guard Your Mind and Protect Your Soul
The problem is our minds are the place where we struggle. You see, when God made man, He made him in His likeness and in His image. The book of Genesis says, «Let us make man in our likeness, and in our image, and after our kind.» Let us make man. Let us make one. Let us make man in our likeness and in our image and after our kind. God made one man. How is one man an expression of us? How can the letter «us» create an image of the «us» that comes out as one? Because the «let us» is also one. So, when God said, «Let us make man in our image, and in our likeness, and after our kind,» He made one man. He didn’t make ten, he didn’t make five, and he didn’t make three, but He made one man in three parts.
Can I go deeper? He made him; He gave him a body, He breathed into him a spirit, and he became a living soul. So man became a tripod being; he is body, soul, and spirit. In my body, I have world consciousness; it’s only through my body that I am aware of the world. My spirit doesn’t get cold, doesn’t have a fever, doesn’t get hot, and doesn’t feel wind. My body gives me world consciousness, and when my body is gone, all consciousness of this present world leaves away. My body gives me world consciousness. A fly could land on the head of a dead man, and he won’t blink because he’s lost world consciousness; it doesn’t matter anymore. He has lost the tool, the mechanism, whereby he has contact with this present world. In my spirit, I have God-consciousness, for God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. If I know God at all, I know Him in my spirit because God is a spirit.
Job said, «Deep calleth unto deep,» and the noise of Thy water spouts have I supposed. God is spirit, talking to my spirit. In my spirit, I have God-consciousness; in my spirit, I am aware of God. The consciousness of God in my spirit creates the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance. All of that comes out of the union between the Spirit of God and the spirit of man. So, the body gives me world consciousness, the spirit gives me God-consciousness, and the soul gives me self-consciousness. My soul gives me self because watch this: He breathed into him the breath of life, «nephesh,» and he became a living being. He became aware of himself. When God breathed into him, it was not just that Adam became aware of God — that was true in his spirit — but he also became self-aware.
How do I feel? How I feel sets me apart from rose bushes, oak trees, maple trees, the shrubs, and all types of plants. They have life; they have spirit; they have body, but they don’t have self-consciousness. That’s why the rose doesn’t scream when you cut it. But man has a living «nephesh»; he has a living soul; he is aware of himself. This soul of mine is a blessing. My soul writes poetry; my soul creates music; my soul designs property; my soul has aspirations; my soul is equipped with feelings and emotions. My soul has uniqueness; my soul is artistic; my soul has emotions; it’s where my emotions dwell. This soul of mine laughs; my soul has joy; my soul has creativity; my soul has pain. It’s in my soul. «Why are you cast down, O my soul?»
Look at that; the soul gets low! David said, «No man cared for my soul.» My soul gets in trouble. The battle for the soul encompasses your mind, your memories, and your emotions. God said, «That’s the part of you that is creative and powerful and wonderful and amazing, but also under attack.» Because when Satan gets ready to come after you, he’s coming after your soul, your mind, your emotions, and your memories. He’s going to work all of that. Satan doesn’t need your car. «Ah, the devil is after my car!» Why? He doesn’t drive! «The devil is after my job.» You think he’s going to work the next day? He’s not after your car; he’s not after your house. The devil doesn’t want to live in your house; the devil’s not at your house. He is using your house, your car, and your finances to get on your nerves. He’s after your soul. He’s after your mind.
There’s a war going on, fighting for your mind. There’s a war going on in your members; they’re pressing, trying to control your mind. Why? Because it is with the mind that we serve the Lord. I know you sing, I know you clap, and I know you dance at your church, but none of that is really how you serve the Lord. It might be how you praise the Lord, but it’s not how you serve. It is with the mind that we serve the Lord. And the mind tells the fingers to play. «Play for me, Marcus.» If you left his fingers and you took away his mind, he couldn’t play anymore. It’s his mind. It is with the mind that we serve the Lord. It is with the mind that we serve the Lord. It is with the mind that we clap our hands; it is with the mind that we worship. It is the mind that the devil hates.
There’s a war going on for your mind. 2020 has been a year, a year-long fight for your mind, for your peace, for your strength, for your comfort, for your courage, for your faith, for your resilience, for your fortitude, for your reliance, for your tenacity. It’s about your mind; it’s about what’s going on in your head when nobody’s looking. It’s about the anxiety of the human soul, the anxiety that goes on in the human soul. «Why are you discouraged? Why are you cast down?»
This battleground is what is being discussed in the inner fabric of this text that if you’re not careful, your soul is moved by every headline. Your soul is moved by every email. Your soul is moved by bad news; your soul is affected with a phone call in the middle of the night, and the enemy is after your soul. When you want to be stable, after a while, you get seasick.
When you’re tired of rocking through feelings, emotions, memories, ghosts, and fears in the soul. It’s in the soul where you look back on things people said to you when you were seven, when you were ten, and when you were twelve. Your soul is still wounded by somebody who may be dead, but they left their fingerprint on your soul; their words are echoing in your head. You’re a grown man wrestling with little boy stuff because you have grown out of it, but your soul is stuck. The turbulence of the soul is coming from the assault that comes from both the past.
I wish I had somebody who had a past. The turbulence that comes from the past, the complexities that come from the present, and the uncertainty of the future all gang up on the mind at the same time. So, one moment you’re thinking about what happened twenty-five years ago, and then the next moment you’re worried about, «Can I pay this bill in time?» And then you’re worried, «Do I have enough to make it through the future?» The soul is assaulted throughout all three time periods: the past, the present, and the future.