The Battle for the Mind

The Battle for the Mind By Jessie Penn Lewis       (2 Cor. 11.3, A.V.) "I fear lest, by any means, as the serpent, beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."       THERE is a great battle to-day over the use and control of the mind, not only in the world, but among the children of God.       1. The fact of a "war " declared by Paul.       First note the fact that the Apostle declares that there is. a "war" in which he is engaged. " My warfare ," he says, "is not waged according to the flesh." This is in accord with his statements in other parts of his writings.       2. The battle for the mind described.       We see there is an aspect of the war described in this passage which has to do with the mind . "Thereby can I overthrow the reasonings of the disputer." In verse 4 (A.V.) we read of a "pulling down of strongholds ". The Apostle seems to infer that the mind is a "stronghold" which has to be pulled down, and every rebel thought in it made captive. A "stronghold" is generally held by an enemy , and truly there is an enemy holding the stronghold of the mind, according to 2 Cor. 4. 4, where it says that the "god of this world" (age) has "blinded the minds of them which believe not".       3. The condition of the mind by nature.       In various parts of the Pauline epistles we can gather very clearly the state of mind, when held by the enemy as a stronghold. It is described in some cases as a " reprobate mind " (Rom. 1. 28), a " blinded mind " (2 Cor. 3. 14), a darkened mind, causing men to walk in the " vanity of their minds " (Eph. 4.17-19), intruding into things which the mind cannot fathom, "vainly puffed up" by a " fleshly mind " (Col. 2. 18).       In Rom. 8.7, the Apostle says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (A.V.). This is confirmed in Col. 1. 21, where those who are unregenerated are described as "enemies" in the " mind ", and therefore alienated from God. We therefore clearly see how, in the natural man, the mind is "darkened", "puffed up" by the flesh, empty and vain in its thoughts, carnal because governed by the flesh, and in all its activities-whether apparently "good" or visibly "bad"-at enmity with God.       4. The unregenerate mind the stronghold of Satan.       The stronghold of the mind of man is therefore the strategic centre of the "war" with the "god of this age", because it is primarily through the mind that he holds his captives in his power, and through the mind of those captives transmits his -       (1) Poison into the minds of others, and his       (2) Plans and schemes for arousing those souls to active rebellion against God.       The mind of the Christian is also the strategic centre of the "war on the saints" which Satan wages with ceaseless and fiendish skill. And for this reason the mind is the vehicle for the Spirit of God , dwelling in the spirit of the believer, to transmit to others the truth of God, which alone can remove the deceptions of Satan which fill the minds of all who are in the darkness of nature.       If the Holy Spirit is dwelling in the regenerate spirit have you considered the question of His outlet ? If it were only by speech you would be an oracle! But there are no "oracles" on earth now. The " oracles of God " are the Scriptures. The Word of God is being displaced not only by the Higher Critics, but by many of God's own people by their taking supernatural" revelations" as being of equal authority with the written Scriptures. There are wrecked lives because they have turned from the Word of God to what they call direct revelation. There is a direct revelation by God the Holy Ghost illuminating the Word of God, and putting it into the spirit, but not apart from the Scriptures. 5. The Holy Spirit and the mind of the believer.       If the mind is the vehicle of the Spirit it is absolutely necessary that the Spirit of God should have full possession of it, with every "rebellious thought" brought into captivity to Christ. The Holy Spirit, dwelling in the spirit, needs the mind as a channel for expression, but it may be so blocked up, and filled with other things that He is unable to transmit all He desires to do. A "blocked" mind means the spirit unexpressed, and a spirit unexpressed is a stoppage of the outflow of the Spirit of God to others.       6. The mind of the Christian not fully delivered.       This explains why numbers of God's children are unable to hold the truth of God which they hear, or to apply it to their lives, or express it to others. The mind has never been fully delivered from the grip of the enemy . Shall I put it crudely, and say that many get new "hearts", but they keep their old "heads!" They do not realize that unless the hold of the adversary, which he has through the fallen nature of man, is removed from the mind, he has a position of vantage in the life of the believer, for attack and for hindrance in active service . How many there are who have "minds" that never "think a thing out".       Devoted children of God, with hearts full of love, but "minds " full of all kinds of mixture-minds that have not been renewed and delivered from the interference of the enemy. Consequently they have a strange lack of spiritual perception. They may get "flashes of light", and follow the "flash" -which often like a will-o'-the-wisp leads them astray-but they are not intelligent in their spiritual vision. They do not know that God is able, not only to deliver the mind from the enemy's grip but also to renew it, so that it becomes as clear as crystal, with "every rebellious thought brought into captivity."       We have seen that one reason why the liberation of the mind is so important is because it is the vehicle of the spirit. Has it never struck you how extraordinary it is that the children of God can hear so much, and express so little? If you will ask one and the other to intelligently transmit something of what they have heard, they cannot do it. They have listened to volumes of truth for years, and yet they have no power to transmit, and help a soul in need. And many of these hearers will tell you that they have received a Baptism of the Spirit! The reason for this lies in the unrenewed mind . They may truly have received the Holy Spirit, but speaking reverently, He is "locked up" in the spirit, and cannot get through the blocked channel of the mind. One reason is that many children of God do not soak themselves, so to speak, in God's thoughts. They think that to read a text in the morning is enough, and so they do not get the mind fully renewed. All the working of the old mind is emnity against God, and that is why you find people prejudiced over truth. Whenever you find a man prejudiced over some truth he does not understand, it always means that there is some activity of the old mind. The mind is like a seed plot. We do not realize what we are taking in, or sowing in the ground for future use. If you only make a remark about some person you have sown a seed , and if it is a critical thought, it is there ready to blaze into a "prejudice" at the first opportunity.

The Battle for the Mind

The Battle for the Mind

By Jessie Penn Lewis

      (2 Cor. 11.3, A.V.) "I fear lest, by any means, as the serpent, beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

      THERE is a great battle to-day over the use and control of the mind, not only in the world, but among the children of God.

      1. The fact of a "war " declared by Paul.

      First note the fact that the Apostle declares that there is. a "war" in which he is engaged. " My warfare ," he says, "is not waged according to the flesh." This is in accord with his statements in other parts of his writings.

      2. The battle for the mind described.

      We see there is an aspect of the war described in this passage which has to do with the mind . "Thereby can I overthrow the reasonings of the disputer." In verse 4 (A.V.) we read of a "pulling down of strongholds ". The Apostle seems to infer that the mind is a "stronghold" which has to be pulled down, and every rebel thought in it made captive. A "stronghold" is generally held by an enemy , and truly there is an enemy holding the stronghold of the mind, according to 2 Cor. 4. 4, where it says that the "god of this world" (age) has "blinded the minds of them which believe not".

      3. The condition of the mind by nature.

      In various parts of the Pauline epistles we can gather very clearly the state of mind, when held by the enemy as a stronghold. It is described in some cases as a " reprobate mind " (Rom. 1. 28), a " blinded mind " (2 Cor. 3. 14), a darkened mind, causing men to walk in the " vanity of their minds " (Eph. 4.17-19), intruding into things which the mind cannot fathom, "vainly puffed up" by a " fleshly mind " (Col. 2. 18).

      In Rom. 8.7, the Apostle says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (A.V.). This is confirmed in Col. 1. 21, where those who are unregenerated are described as "enemies" in the " mind ", and therefore alienated from God. We therefore clearly see how, in the natural man, the mind is "darkened", "puffed up" by the flesh, empty and vain in its thoughts, carnal because governed by the flesh, and in all its activities-whether apparently "good" or visibly "bad"-at enmity with God.

      4. The unregenerate mind the stronghold of Satan.

      The stronghold of the mind of man is therefore the strategic centre of the "war" with the "god of this age", because it is primarily through the mind that he holds his captives in his power, and through the mind of those captives transmits his -

      (1) Poison into the minds of others, and his

      (2) Plans and schemes for arousing those souls to active rebellion against God.

      The mind of the Christian is also the strategic centre of the "war on the saints" which Satan wages with ceaseless and fiendish skill. And for this reason the mind is the vehicle for the Spirit of God , dwelling in the spirit of the believer, to transmit to others the truth of God, which alone can remove the deceptions of Satan which fill the minds of all who are in the darkness of nature.

      If the Holy Spirit is dwelling in the regenerate spirit have you considered the question of His outlet ? If it were only by speech you would be an oracle! But there are no "oracles" on earth now. The " oracles of God " are the Scriptures. The Word of God is being displaced not only by the Higher Critics, but by many of God's own people by their taking supernatural" revelations" as being of equal authority with the written Scriptures. There are wrecked lives because they have turned from the Word of God to what they call direct revelation. There is a direct revelation by God the Holy Ghost illuminating the Word of God, and putting it into the spirit, but not apart from the Scriptures.

 5. The Holy Spirit and the mind of the believer.

      If the mind is the vehicle of the Spirit it is absolutely necessary that the Spirit of God should have full possession of it, with every "rebellious thought" brought into captivity to Christ. The Holy Spirit, dwelling in the spirit, needs the mind as a channel for expression, but it may be so blocked up, and filled with other things that He is unable to transmit all He desires to do. A "blocked" mind means the spirit unexpressed, and a spirit unexpressed is a stoppage of the outflow of the Spirit of God to others.

      6. The mind of the Christian not fully delivered.

      This explains why numbers of God's children are unable to hold the truth of God which they hear, or to apply it to their lives, or express it to others. The mind has never been fully delivered from the grip of the enemy . Shall I put it crudely, and say that many get new "hearts", but they keep their old "heads!" They do not realize that unless the hold of the adversary, which he has through the fallen nature of man, is removed from the mind, he has a position of vantage in the life of the believer, for attack and for hindrance in active service . How many there are who have "minds" that never "think a thing out".

      Devoted children of God, with hearts full of love, but "minds " full of all kinds of mixture-minds that have not been renewed and delivered from the interference of the enemy. Consequently they have a strange lack of spiritual perception. They may get "flashes of light", and follow the "flash" -which often like a will-o'-the-wisp leads them astray-but they are not intelligent in their spiritual vision. They do not know that God is able, not only to deliver the mind from the enemy's grip but also to renew it, so that it becomes as clear as crystal, with "every rebellious thought brought into captivity."

      We have seen that one reason why the liberation of the mind is so important is because it is the vehicle of the spirit. Has it never struck you how extraordinary it is that the children of God can hear so much, and express so little? If you will ask one and the other to intelligently transmit something of what they have heard, they cannot do it. They have listened to volumes of truth for years, and yet they have no power to transmit, and help a soul in need. And many of these hearers will tell you that they have received a Baptism of the Spirit! 

The reason for this lies in the unrenewed mind . They may truly have received the Holy Spirit, but speaking reverently, He is "locked up" in the spirit, and cannot get through the blocked channel of the mind. One reason is that many children of God do not soak themselves, so to speak, in God's thoughts. They think that to read a text in the morning is enough, and so they do not get the mind fully renewed. All the working of the old mind is emnity against God, and that is why you find people prejudiced over truth. Whenever you find a man prejudiced over some truth he does not understand, it always means that there is some activity of the old mind. The mind is like a seed plot. We do not realize what we are taking in, or sowing in the ground for future use. If you only make a remark about some person you have sown a seed , and if it is a critical thought, it is there ready to blaze into a "prejudice" at the first opportunity.

      All this is so true that it is easy to see now why the Apostle describes the "mind" as a stronghold which has to be taken for Christ, and brought into subjection to Him. It may not have occurred to us that much which we have looked upon as "natural" disability in the use of our minds is to some extent the work of the enemy, who pours into the mind which has never been fully taken out of his power, his own visions, thoughts, ideas and ways.

      7. The need of the mind to be fully renewed.

      Now the question is, how can the mind become fully renewed, for if we are children of God, by the very entry of the truth of God, there has been a partial renewal. Conversion itself is described in the Bible as, in the first instance, a " change of mind ." This is the meaning of the word "repent."

      Repentance is "to recover one's senses" and come to a "right understanding." So repentance describes on the one hand first a "change of mind", to be accompanied by a change of heart.

      8. The Cross the place of deliverance.

      But for full renewal of the mind we have to go to the Cross, and learn its message that "our old man was crucified" with Christ. This is inclusive of the old carnal, darkened, fleshly mind. This comes out clearly in the words of Eph. 4.22-23, as following the Apostle's description of the darkened and empty mind in verse 17 and 18. The "old man" crucified is here bidden to be "put off" by the believer so that he may be " renewed in the spirit of his mind. " The way of renewal, therefore, is VIA CALVARY.

      The first need is the knowledge of the state of mind by nature, and that a "change of mind" at conversion does not go deep enough to deliver the soul from the power of the enemy in his thought life, and mental activities.