 A few years ago my granddaughter Zoe was making some invitations for a pool party and she's great at designing so she's really making them very pretty but I glanced at what she wrote about the pool and she said that it was heated but she spelled heated H-E-E-T-E-D. So I said Zoe, heated is spelled H-E-A-T-E-D and she rolled her eyes at me and she said Grandma it's not the invitation that's going out I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to say and she goes it doesn't matter Grandma and I said yes it does Zoe and I said everything you put into your brain matters if you put it in wrong you're going to remember it wrong if you spell it right you will remember it right now I believe that and because I believe that I try to be very careful of what I put in here because you and I know that once it goes in here it's really hard to scrub out or get rid of I think our memory has what what I call ruts and we file our experiences into those ruts and sometimes that that self-rut that self-protect rut that I'm a failure rut all of those kind of thoughts rut get really really wide and then the I'm a child of God rut is is really small and what I find happens is the experience comes into our life and we've got this skinny I'm a child of God rut we've got a fat I'm a failure rut and and things get put in here and we've got to expand this by feeding it with praising God by feeding it with the what's good and lovely as Philippians 4 8 says by feeding it truth so it gets fatter and fatter and this one we starve you know this is where we take our thoughts captive and deny our thoughts so it's skinnier and steadier and then when the circumstance happens falls into that fat rut and that's what we want the rut that God has for us what we do with the things in our life will determine the battle that goes on in our minds you see we can't change our hearts they're kind of stuck with being deceitfully wicked until we go home to be with Jesus at least as far as our ability to change them God changes hearts doesn't he but our minds see our minds we get to change God does what we can't do he won't change our mind because that's our part and see our part we won't change our minds unless we believe that the thoughts and the truth that God gives us are true we'll stay with the old kind of thinking so God provides the tools and the power and we discover that as we change our minds God changes our hearts it's important to recognize that's where the battle is it's not in the body as much as our bodies can trouble us it's not in the heart as much as our hearts can deceive us it's not with life as much as circumstances can affect us it's not even with other people our problem is not with our husbands or our parents or children co-workers or friends as much as they can hurt us or disappoint us or even fail us battles in the mind and although our minds are flesh we can't fight as we just read the battles with our flesh for the source of our battles that we fight is spiritual the source is powers and principalities much stronger than you and I could ever be so right off we've got a side and understand that to win we've got to fight them these battles with our spiritual weapons weapons of the flesh do not work see do you believe that just in case you don't I want to go over some of the weapons of the flesh that our thinking and the world has provided for us even before that we've got to consider some of the battles we fight in our minds here's some of them worry guilt fear discouragement inadequacies depression anger all battles in the mind and there are more but hopefully you'll see as we move on that no matter the battle the answers are very similar at least when you fight with spiritual weapons not so much with fighting with weapons of the flesh now what are the weapons of the flesh basically the weapons of the flesh fall into three categories look into our own power look into our own reasoning and looking to our feelings the word of God tells us that neither of those work Zechariah 4 6 says not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord of Hosts now notice this word Lord of Hosts up there is Jehovah Sabbath in other words he's the Lord of Hosts he is the one who has power over all powers and all principalities so God says it's not in the flesh it's by his spirit and his spirit has power over all powers and all principalities that's a mighty weapon so if you find yourself thinking thoughts of worry what are some of the fleshly weapons what are those things that people tell you to tell yourself when you're worrying maybe it's consider the odds statistics say that 97% of the things that we worry about don't happen so you got to do but see some of you have experienced the 3% haven't you you've been in that 3% and you sit there and think that's nice but I know bad things happen so it doesn't work you say it'll all work out fine it usually does but you've been the brunt of some pretty painful stuff you know you know there are times when bad things do happen and then we're told remember the phrase don't worry be happy oh thanks that really helps or guilt you know someone will come up to you and they want to lighten the guilt so they say it's not your fault anybody would have done what you did you were provoked it's not really that bad yet you have this conscience that knows what you did was wrong and you don't know how to deal with it and the weapons of the flesh don't help you know you're guilty and you just can't put it away like that or fear again probably won't happen think positive thoughts buckle up pull up your bootstraps face your fears look them straight in the eye and you try but your fears kind of look straight back at you it doesn't help inadequacies you can do it look in the mirror and tell yourself you're beautiful you're smart read some self-help books speak positive messages to yourself but nothing helps to block out the messages of the past that shout out at you failure worthless unlovable depression again think happy thoughts deny the sad thoughts get out more find a hobby anger stuff it no express it hit something exercise and you know see some of this works for a while a little bit the fleshy weapons don't heal now i'm not sure that i can say that i'll worry and guilt and fear come from evil principalities and powers i think many are just a result of life and having these minds of flesh that you and i have but i will say this once the worrying starts or the guilt starts or any of those things i think the enemy of our souls is right there ready to play the thought game with us isn't he and drag us down even further into despair and he can take you and i from one thought and spiral us down into depression in just a few moments let me give you an example and i have no one in particular in mind it's an exaggeration but it's hopefully will prove to you the point that what satan does i think you'll probably be able to think of some own your own scenarios but that ridiculous spiral of thoughts let's say that month ago you saw the announcement for this conference look good first thought wonder who it could go with normal thought normal fear next thought who would really want to go with me again see normal thought but rather than fight it with the tools we'll be looking at in a minute you hang on to it you entertain it and satan notices the insecurity and he sees that insecurity as an invitation to play a game with you you just had a thought now it's his turn puts this thought forward yeah i mean nobody has even asked you to go with them have they he already knows what you're going to think so the rogue that he is he doesn't even let you take your turn yet and he shoots another thought at you you better not at risk asking anybody what if they say no how humiliating that would be remember what happened when you were a kid you're the same nothing has changed about you nobody likes you and you know what remember you have big feet now you've always had big feet and you know it who would want to sit in a road at the church with someone that had big feet and you know what's going to happen you're gonna sit in the row and somebody's gonna want to walk by you and they're going to trip and they'll look down and see your feet and they're gonna smirk and then their friends gonna go what happened and you're going and you know that lady's probably thinking she's probably can't get shoes anywhere but go online and so you go through all of these thoughts and you think i can't go to the conference i have big feet now how do you go from wow that looks like a great advertisement for a good conference i wonder who i could go with to i can't go to that conference i need to stay home and watch it online because i have big feet but you and i do that all the time don't we and and if he can get us with that first thoughts see first thoughts not our fault we get arrow shot at us all the time but when we start dwelling on it satan just takes us down that spiral and i have found that it is much easier to pull myself out when i catch that first thought than i'm when i'm down in that spiral so i've learned i don't want to play and but i can't play there's a devil under every bush or there's a devil behind every bad thought so some are his some are yours and really there's no sense in trying to differentiate them because really we we think very much like him and the tools to beat those thoughts the thoughts of the flesh or the thoughts of the enemy are the very same thoughts now i can guarantee the effectiveness of god's tools from mind battles isn't that incredible god puts in his word ways that we can defeat the things that drag us down in our mind how can i do that because he has promised it he has guaranteed that they will work and i'm going to we're going to put quite a few scriptures up on the slides and um on the screen so just write down the reference and and listen to what i'm saying because these are truths declared by god isaias 26 3 you will keep him in perfect peace effusions 6 11 that you may or will be able to stand against the wiles of the devil effusion 6 13 that you may or will be able to withstand effusion 6 16 you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one he shoots those arrows but we through the word of god have this ability to cause him to fizzle out that's an incredible promise Philippians 4 7 and the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds and Philippians 4 9 and the god of peace will be with you incredible promises and there's more but for the purposes of today they'll have to suffice now if you're familiar with any of those verses you know i didn't give you the whole verse i gave you the promise part but in each case and each one of these it's a conditional promise a promise based on what you and i do the fulfillment of the promise is based on our choices in other words this peace of mind that's a result of winning the battle of the mind it's not dependent on god it's dependent on us if you and i do what he says in these verses he will do what he said he would do give us peace and victory over the attempts of the devil to win the battle of your mind and mind so here's our part there's so much here i'm going to give you a lot of scriptures because there are weapons this is a scripture filled message in my attempt to keep you awake is i'm going to be putting up lots of slides i don't think i've ever done such a powerpoint filled message before but we need god's word to fight this only the application of god's word is going to enable us to be victorious over the battles of our minds take those things captive so i'm going to not really hand out your weapons this afternoon see the day you accept jesus christ god handed you this arsenal of weapons here this is available to you for peace and victory for uh not having fear for not being discouraged here they are already accessible to us we're told that he daily loads us with benefits and and i i think he daily gives us the arsenal of the weapons that we need to fight because he knows what a day is going to be like so first i want to go with the put-offs the things that you and i can't do if we want to bid uh win the battle of the mind we've got to put these things away so number one we are to put off every thought that sets itself up against the knowledge of god put away anything that is against what we know god is like what we know god is declared second chrithians 10 5 and niv says 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 if a thought is against the truth of god then you and i would be wise not to entertain it not to go with it if it doesn't pass through that grid line of flippians 4 7 which we'll talk about in a minute we've got to take that thought captive to christ we have to bring it into subjection to christ we have to allow him to tell us whether we should can continue thinking that thought or not not us deciding but where should i go with this or not and we've got to believe him i remember a few years ago when we had to put my mother in a rest home for a couple of weeks and we walked by this one door towards her room and i looked at the room number and right away i remember that just a year and a half prior to that that's a room my my dad went home to be with the lord in and uh you know the thoughts and i remember so clearly i felt like the lord said don't go there and it was so clear to me because where would my thoughts have gone all the sadness rehearsing in my mind what it was like for my dad to suffer all those kinds of things and it was like like the lord just said do not go there and see that's taking our thoughts captive it's being obedient to him when he says don't go there it's like all right i won't go there and i stopped i have a coffee cup in my office at church it's a maria engelbright cup and see she's standing there with her on her hands on her hips saying snap out of it and this is not counsel to give someone else all right this is something for you but every once in a while when i get overwhelmed and i'm in my office i just kind of roll my chair over to the cup and set it on my desk and i stare at it you know it's just stop it don't go there snap out of it and see we are able to do that sometimes we think oh this is so overwhelming i can't pull myself out of this feeling but you know say you're in an argument a heated argument with someone and you're angry and you're expressing your anger phone rings what do you do hello hi yeah yeah everything's good fine how are you doing now how are you able to do that see you have the desire to do it and you're fully capable of snapping out of it we all are and we've got to remember it's a whole lot easier to snap out as i said when you're right at the first part and you're deeply into it see this whole idea of taking thoughts captive is really only available to the believer what an awesome privilege we have i mean an unbeliever can shut their mouth can prevent outbursts of words but this battle of the mind the harmful thoughts have to be replaced with the truth the truth of god's word see only believers have access to the truth of god's word because it only applies to us and and i feel like stopping right there and and just say la you know think about that privilege that you and i have to deal with our thought life the truth that god has said and declared to us because we're his girls and we can beat this and number two we are to put away short-sightedness and we get that from 2nd peter 1 9 and we'll look at uh this again when we look at the put ons so number two is to put away short-sightedness and number three put away thoughts or worries about tomorrow put away thoughts and worries about tomorrow matthew 6 34 says therefore do not worry about tomorrow and let me add to that put off number four put away thoughts or regrets about yesterday put away thoughts and regrets about yesterday philippians 3 13 says brethren paul wrote i do not count myself to have apprehended but one thing i do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those which are ahead in verse 14 i press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of god in christ jesus so key here paul says i forget the things that are behind and yet he just the verses prior rehearsed his his past life but forget here means i will not let these things affect who i am and this is so crucial girls that that we all have those past messages and paul says i'm not going to let those things dictate who i am who i am is what christ has for me and i'm pressing forward to that i'm not going to let the regrets about yesterday get to me or the pride see it's when we have regrets it's it's our own effort to make ourself pay and jesus took care of that didn't he says we owe nothing give him your mistakes so he can do something good with him with them don't hold on to them and limit him don't look back you aren't going that way and i have this sign in my office because i do a lot of counseling and it's so helpful don't look back you're not going that way because we're pressing for the things that god has for us in jesus christ and those are all good and we have to know how good they are if we want to press towards them right you ever want to press towards something that you're not excited about no but when we're excited about what we're pressing toward we don't even want to look behind because that just holds us back and that's where paul was at my past doesn't matter anymore because i just am so excited about what god has for me and jesus christ it's a good place to be i want to look at some put on so some things we're supposed to put off we're supposed to put on i have 10 things and when i'm done it'll all be on a list and and you that's why you have cell phones you can take a picture of the slide and that'll kind of help you a little bit first one put on the knowledge of god and his promises we just saw that we are to take captive any thought that's against the knowledge of god so we would be wise to have a knowledge of god right we read in deuteronomy seven nine therefore no the lord your god he's god the faithful god who keeps covenants our promises and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments no see we've got to know this that the lord we claim to serve he is god that he is faithful that he is the god that keeps his promises and we've got to know his promises i mean how can you trust him to take all the things in your life and work them out for good unless you know he has promised to do that and that he is a keeper of all of his promises not one has failed or can you trust him to cover your credit card debt when you lost your job see we've got to know the word of god has he promised to do that has he promised to cover any kind of debt that we might have has he promised to get us the job a job next week when we've lost one this week we've got to be able to put our promises in the sure promise our faith and the sure promises of god because they can be dependent on how do we get to know god and his promises through what he said about himself and and what he said he promised through his word Psalm 42 11 says why are you downcast on my soul why so disturbed within me put your hope in god for i will yet praise him my savior and my god see you can't put your hope in someone you don't know we've we've got to know him andrew murray wrote that prayer is how god gets a hold of us he said he wrote the word of god is how we get a hold of god prayer is how god gets a hold of us and i like that so number two is pray pray about everything flippians 4 6 says do not be anxious about anything but in everything my prayer and petition with thanksgiving presents your request to god now you see the comma it's got to be there for grammatical purposes but uh it's not good for practical purposes because what we tend to do is we say do not be anxious for anything and then we kind of leave a gap and we're think about oh we're not supposed to be anxious about and we would get ourselves in this state of fretting and take out that can't comment it's do not be anxious about anything but in everything pray you know as soon as you catch yourself being anxious start praying because it is the thing that changes us prayer doesn't change god see it it changes us some 61 2 says from the end of the earth i will cry to you when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than i now notice first this victory over the battle of the mind is is not that we will never have a battle we'd like that but that's not what we have in life or what scripture has promised when my heart is overwhelmed overwhelming things will always be there for us but when they do we're to go to him flipians four six gives us another tool for fighting the battle of the mind that of thanksgiving so number three is we give thanks some verses call it a sacrifice and sometimes it is isn't it when we're fighting the battle of the mind thanksgiving is so hard to do because in those times we tend to be so self-focused and we just don't want to and we don't feel like it i see it time and a time again in churches people that are fighting a battle very often don't worship is he worthy of being worshiped when we're in a battle yes but somehow we we stop thanking him we stop being grateful and the battle becomes overwhelming but if we push ourselves and give god that sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise the battle will be lightened god promises that not too long ago i was in my devotions in and Psalm 47 and it begins with the words clap your hands all you people shout unto god with a voice of triumph and i was tired and it was a bad day and i looked at that and i felt the lord kind of saying clap your hands shout to me i don't not there you know sorry and uh kind of went on with my day and you know it's getting a little bit better and then i felt like the holy spirit said again clap your hands can you do it now and i kind of sighed because i knew it was the lord and you know it's chris was sharing about moses we can object but we need to be obedient in the long run and and so i did i started clapping my hands and started singing to him and there's actually an old marinata song that has this that's keyed off of that verse and i felt my countness change but it was obedience it was a choice of okay lord you say in scripture thanksgiving changes people i don't feel like thanking you now i just hurt but i did it i put on thanksgiving and i watch god change me and i watch myself win the battle of the mind that just felt like this is just gonna be a bad day you know and it wasn't because i praised god promises that in Philippians 4 7 number 4 meditate on good things meditate on good things Philippians 4 8 says finally brethren whatever things are true whatever things are noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things of good report if there is any virtue if there is anything praise worthy meditate on these things that's our criteria now we we run these things up to the lord you know and and he very often comes back with is it good is it a lovely thought is there virtue in this see if it if it doesn't fall into the category of Philippians 4 8 it's you and i shouldn't be thinking it and those are the thoughts we say here lord this is off this is not going to get me anywhere make this your goal if the thoughts don't fit with these things commit not to think them and then choose something to think about that does fit with them see there's always the put off but we can't stop there we've got to put on something to replace it we got to do both if you are seriously trying to do this this is what you'll probably experience you have a thought and you kind of run it by the lord and okay i know i know i shouldn't think this thought i'm going to put off this thought i'm not going to think this thought and the more you say i'm not going to think this thought the more you think that thought and and so then you said okay praise praise i'm going to praise the lord that's going to make the thought go away so you do this praise you jesus praise you jesus hallelujah and then you discover that our minds can actually praise the lord and think a negative thought at the same time and it's so frustrating so this is what i do i praise the lord alphabetically because i have to use my mind to do that i have to concentrate and i usually choose about three things per letter and and i'm not rigid for example a might be lord you're all powerful you are more powerful in this whole problem that i'm going through lord you always love me no matter what lord you're awesome and and when i do it i try to think of something different each time recently i used for b i said lord you you heal the broken hearted so what i'm saying is is concentrate on praising him not whether or not the the letter is the first letter of a sentence that you think of do this when you try to go to sleep at night i have put myself to sleep more times than i can say just by praising the lord alphabetically and god inhabits the praises of his people so we get a better sense of his presence he responds to praise and you know what satan responds to praise too he hates it and he flees when we praise god now he comes back and checks for as we talked about this morning a more opportune time and we fight him back with praise and so one of the things we need to do to fight that battle of the mind is put on thanksgiving and then fifthly be steadfast be steadfast first chrithians 15 57 and 58 but thanks be to god who gives us a victory through our lord jesus christ therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast again see our choice be steadfast be immovable always abounding in the work of the lord knowing that your labor is not in vain in the lord if the enemy thinks you will back down or change your mind there's a possibility to get you back to thinking the old thoughts he'll be more persistent but when i've discovered what i've discovered if he realizes how serious you are and how you flee to god so quickly and you price god so quickly he backs off when you're struggling with particular thoughts make a commitment to the lord be serious i will not go with these thoughts anymore i will not entertain them as i said you're still gonna get the fiery dart shot at you but it's our choice whether we allow the dart to penetrate or we diffuse it number six is the put on to number two of the put offs which tells us where to put off short-sightedness second peter 1 9 says when we aren't experiencing certain things when we're lacking things like diligence and self-control and perseverance if we're not growing in the lord it says we're short-sighted in other words we can only see right in front of us as crystal said we we can only see this bill three of our grandchildren have been in little lake and i've taken a lot of photos of them now what tends to happen when you're in the bleachers and you try to take a picture of your grandchild in the field what do you see the chain link fence right how many pictures do you have of just the chain link fence and see that short-sightedness that's looking at the spill it's like you can't see anything but what's right in front of us and peter says when we lack these things when we're not growing in the lord it's because we're short-sighted and what do we have to do we've got to refocus and when we refocus what happens is the chain link what's right in front of us loses its its power and we can see that which we need to see and so we see a much clearer picture of what's important and what god wants us to see golfers have that problem a lot sometimes they get stuck in the trees trees all around them but good golfers have learned something they look for the green ahead and they watch for the opening and they don't look at all the trees that are right in front of them they look for that opening and they hit the ball towards that and that's what god would have you and i do ignore the the things right in front of us that cause us to be short-sighted peter tells us that short-sightedness is due to one thing second peter one nine for he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and what and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sense see short-sightedness is often because we forgot forgot who he used to be forgot who's god made has made us now we forgot all the glorious things that we get to be now just because of jesus and we lose sight and we start worrying about those things that are right in front of us so number six is remember god's goodness the psalmist wrote of having that problem in psalm 77 he used phrases like my soul refused to be comforted i was troubled i complained and my spirit was overwhelmed i'm so troubled that i cannot speak you hold my eyelids open in other words i can't sleep we've all been there and then he and then he goes into this tirade of accusing the lord of things like are you going to cast me off forever are you going to withhold your mercy are you going to fail to keep your promises are you forgetting to be gracious don't we get like that when we get overwhelmed we start it's it's god's fault he's left me alone truth would we can find scripture to combat every single one of those accusations but you know what everything turned around for this psalmist and the psalmist he decided to instead of despair start praising and he said in verses 10 and 11 of psalm 77 and i said this is my anguish but i will remember the years of the right hand of the most high i will remember the works of the lord you forget and he started remembering the graciousness and the wonder of god and you watch this psalm that just said i complained and accusing god to praising god for his goodness we've got a counter the lies with the truth and seven is the counter to putting off shortsightedness and that's found in Colossians 3 2 set your minds on things above not on the things of earth and speaking of setting our minds number eight make god's purposes your purposes make god's purposes your purposes as a 26 3 says you will keep him in perfect peace see the will you want perfect peace here's a promise here you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts in you now this word mind here can be translated whose purpose whose purpose of life see this is one of my my life verses here i hang on to this and i it's my check when i don't have peace god promises perfect peace when when my mind or my purpose of life is stayed on him stayed on him so i lack peace i check what's my purpose sure enough what's my purpose me that's why i don't have peace and i get my purpose on on the things that god would have for me me and voila i have peace what a glorious promise and see this is the battle of the mind i have no peace i have no peace here's your check where's my purpose of life oh it's on me switch it and the promise is peace god's antidote to fear is himself over and over again in the bible god declares do not fear i'm with you if you don't know him to a place where you trust him there's not much value in that is there see what if you were really fearful and i came up to you and said you don't need to be afraid i'm with you what would you say what good is that right you know what are you going to be able to do about my problems and see if we don't know that god is all powerful holy he does everything perfectly and loving then then how am we going to trust him how are we going to not fear but this god that is perfect and all powerful and loves you says don't fear i'm with you remember when you were little and called out to your mom sometimes at night and you're so afraid what'd she say it's okay mommy's here it's how you needed to hear because you trusted your mom to take care of you and and here are wonderful awesome god says don't fear i am with you all of his resources available at his disposal which he promises are for our good number nine put on the armor of god and we find a listing of each piece in Ephesians 6 11 to 17 we see truth and we see righteousness and we see the gospel and faith and salvation and the word of god we are to put them on we are to apply the truths that they represent and then we have the promise if we do this we will stand for today i want to focus just on the first piece of armor for a couple minutes satan's first piece of weaponry is what he's a liar he tells you lies and he and he tells enough of the lie to make it make sense to you and to me and our first line of defense against his attacks is the truth god says put on truth that's the armor he has given us in his word when we start doubting and we start fearing and we start believing accusations against ourselves wait a minute what's truth what does god say ask yourself when you're in a mind battle what am i believing right now and that's such an important question when your mind you become fearful or discouraged wait a minute what am i believing right now and face it and then what does god tell me about that what is truth and you'll find that it's often a lie that has you in turmoil not truth and then ten renew your mind renew your mind romans 12 1 and 2 says i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your body as a living sacrifice holy acceptable to god which is your reasonable service and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of god stop thinking like the world and stop thinking like you think spiritually see think what god thinks and and really when i say something like that you pretty much know how god would have you think about a situation and it's in the choice isn't it girls will you choose to go with what god thinks or what you think one night i was watching a football game with my husband and the runner was was backing up to catch a ball and and he got just smacked from behind and i i said to dale do they ever try to catch a ball again after they've been hit that hard and he said there's a saying they call it hearing the sound of the footsteps and once they've heard them they often hear them when they're running to catch the ball and they have to deliberately lock them out many of you have memories painful memories of the past and becoming a new creature in christ doesn't make them go away sometimes we're told that you know if you're a new creature in christ oh it's gone and yet you still hear those voices don't you the thoughts still plague you you see being a new creature in christ gives us the power to refuse to give them the power that's the put off the put on is we have this power to apply god's truth and refile the messages that the past has given us power to press on pass them towards what god has for us now you see much of the torment we suffer in our minds is due to how we have filed the events in our lives or how i would i'd love to give you a whole message on this because it's so crucial if you filed an event in your life as a statement about who you are or your worth you will battle in your mind if you filed an event in your life as devastating as ruined as waste as debilitating you will battle in your mind and it's not until you refile that event as god sees it that you will have the victory and you'll not only prove or discover god's will see as romans 12 says you'll learn to love god's will and cherish god will and want it the battle of the mind it's a battle and it's your battle to fight god won't fight it see he provides the tools and the power first peter 113 says therefore gird up the loins of your mind the romans would actually you know pull up their robes so the robes wouldn't hinder them when they would go into battle and so god says pull up your robe pull up the things that hinder you in your mind and put them away see god doesn't wield the sword you do god doesn't pull up your robe you do god doesn't apply the truth to the lies that have been thrown at you you do god supplies the tool it's god supplies the promises and he supplies the guarantee where to use them and your mind rather than being a mind filled battlefield will be a place of a peace and joy can reign now just a minute i just want to talk to you about this place of understanding that god supplies the tools for you to protect your mind and we see in 2nd Corinthians 5 17 therefore if anyone is in christ he's a new creation all things have passed away behold all things become new old thoughts in the past as i said often taints our new thoughts and we we think as as christians we will never have to deal with them again but we haven't been promised that yet often what we're taught and the result is we we doubt ourselves and we feel like somehow we failed because those old thoughts haven't passed away so this is important if we're going to have victory in taking our thoughts captive what has changed since you became a christian holy spirits come inside of you has any his goal is not just to save us but to work in us and through us that which comes gives us a desire to do what god would have us do in the power the holy spirit fills comforts teaches empowers transforms the action of the holy spirit is often used interchangeably as as a holy spirit coming upon but this filling is a greek word pletho which has a sense of influence supplied by furnished by the bible uses the word fill to describe someone filled with envy or confusion or fear even a sponge filled with vinegar so you get the sense of that's a major influence that's a control it's not a one-time experience filling of the holy spirit seems to be a result of you and i choosing who or what will influence us at the time choosing to yield to the guidance of the holy spirit is crucial if we're going to take our thoughts captive every believer has a holy spirit dwelling in us but we limit his power not always amazes me we have as much of the power of the holy spirit as we would like and it's up to us to obey his promptings or not when we have a thought that we just shouldn't dwell on see our part is to allow him to show us what to think this taking captive to christ as we take the thought and he by the holy spirit shows us what he sees and then quickens our heart to his truth to replace the thought we can't fight the thoughts of our minds with our minds we've got a secret god says and and that understanding comes from the holy spirit and it's our choice see are we going to be filled with him are we going to be influenced by him or be going to be influenced with our thoughts or the thoughts of the world that quickening of the truth comes only by by the holy spirit so john 1426 talks about him but the helper of the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that's what we need see what am i supposed to be thinking lord and he quickens us oh yeah that verse and john 1613 however when the when he the spirit of truth has come he will guide you in all truth and we've got to get out of our heads and listen to what the holy spirit says girls and when we do and we apply his truth we'll win and that's amazing