Satan Attacks the Mind — Ray Brubaker

Ray Brubaker's Classic Radio. This is Ray Brubaker's Classic Radio, news-related subjects in light of the Bible. And now, here's your commentator, Ray Brubaker.

Satan’s Attack on the Human Mind

Satan seemingly is attacking men through the medium of the mind. There are now some 750 ,000 patients in our mental hospitals. Another 10 million suffer from some form of mental disease. According to the Chicago Daily News, one in every five families will have or has had someone close to them in state hospitals.

These facts are indeed rather frightening, revealing the need of prayerful, sympathetic study of problems related to the mind. Recently, on a television broadcast, a psychiatrist revealed that one out of 20 persons in the United States had had assistance from psychiatrists.

He then went on to state that one out of 10 needed such assistance. There are those in states of moral or spiritual depression who resort to unscriptural means to find a solution to their mental frustration.

Unscrip­tural Attempts to Find Peace of Mind

For instance, there are those who turn to intoxicating liquors, thinking they can drown their ills. Instead, these merely intensify them. Dr. Vladimir Erse, superintendent of Psychopathic Hospital, told a group of Illinois judges that one out of every four in our mental hospitals is an alcoholic problem.

Then there are those who have taken to consulting soothsayers, crystal ball gazers, or tea leaf readers in an effort to secure peace of mind. Palmistry is becoming big business in many sections of the country.

In fact, a six-year survey revealed that half the people of the United States believe in or have patronized some form of fortune-telling. Still others turn to sedatives, tranquilizers, sleeping potions, which do not provide a cure but simply dull the senses, making one less aware of his fears and more vulnerable to wrong actions and wrong decisions.

Under sedation, for instance, many give in to the desire to end it all. Satan thus seeks to accomplish his greatest human victory, if he can, make one a suicide. And suicides are becoming so frequent that they account for at least 50 ,000 known deaths annually in the United States, incidentally the ninth major cause of death today.

Fear, Worry, and the Reality of Mental Anguish

Today a tremendous struggle goes on within the perplexed and troubled hearts of men, and as we said earlier, Satan is battling for the minds of men. Now what is the reason for much of our mental anguish?

Is there a cure for fear, worry, and frustration? You know the medical practice is constantly confronted with functional conditions which do not have their origin in disease germs, brain disease, or fictitious run-down nerves.

Rather these disorders are said to be due to emotional conflicts which produce fears, anxieties, bodily tensions. Even as I heard a well-known clergyman say some time ago, 90 of all ills today are imaginary.

Well were you to talk to these depressed folk, you would soon agree they do not regard their ills as imaginary, they are very real. Tchaikovsky, the great composer, suffered much during his lifetime. After a medical examination the doctors reported their findings, nothing wrong, just nerves.

How many like the great Tchaikovsky hear the doctor's verdict, there's nothing wrong with you, knowing there exists within one's inner being an emotional conflict, like a seething volcano about to burst.

How often a doctor hears a patient describing his condition like this, I'm afraid I'm having a nervous breakdown, I can't control myself. Another will describe a tightening around one's head for instance, growing tighter day by day, producing a fear that something might snap, and the person will lose control of himself.

Others tell of hearing voices, some suggesting they destroy themselves, but most of these persons know that these are attacks of the enemy Satan. Now we might ask are these conditions real or imaginary?

And quickly we would reply such emotional illnesses are very real. In fact they seem to be more real and more of a problem than physical ailments. In the case of appendicitis for instance, an operation will bring relief, but no operation can seemingly bring relief to the tormented and frustrated mind.

The Mind’s Influence on Physical Symptoms

Of course there are instances in the case of psychosomatic sufferers when they feel an operation will relieve them of their mental anxiety. And again we might illustrate, a dear soul might hear that a relative or close friend has cancer.

The question suddenly pops into the mind, maybe I too have cancer and don't know it. The more this person allows her mind to dwell on the fact that she might have cancer, the more tendency for that person to have cancer.

And eventually sensing a weak spot in the body, or a hardening or a sore that suddenly appears, the person becomes so frustrated that instead of allowing nature to take its proper course and deal with the trouble, there is immediate suspicion of cancer followed by a checkup which reveals nothing.

But that person has allowed her mind to dwell so long in the fact that she may have cancer that she asks for an immediate operation, and only surgery will relieve the mental anguish. Now friends that may be a far-fetched illustration, but it illustrates the power of thought in a person, and strangely enough many persons do think themselves sick.

When a so-called nervous person is under a continuous strain of fear and anxiety for a period of time, the tension may become so great producing a physical condition, disease or even death. In other words, so-called nervous conditions do not always remain in the mind as worry, but may produce physical symptoms, organic diseases.

Thus nervous tension may be the whole cause or part of the cause for certain forms of eczema, asthma, nervous heart, dyspepsia, gastric ulcer, chronic gallbladder, appendicitis, diarrhea, constipation, colitis, arthritis, goiter, migraine headaches and so forth.

Sympathy for Those Facing Psychosomatic Distress

Science is often experimented with thought reaction. Suppose you planned an experiment where on the job several of you men decided to play a prank on a fellow worker, each of you sometime during the morning hour, when coming in contact with this fellow worker, we'll call him Joe.

You would show concern for his physical well-being. Now one might ask, Joe are you feeling well today? You tell Joe he looked a bit anemic. Another comes up to Joe to inquire, how come you're so pale faced Joe?

Still another comes over to Joe to talk about his recent battle with the flu. His symptoms, he seemed tired, listless and was pale around the gills. You know before the day is over, if he's the psychosomatic type, Joe will head for home sick.

Now to a great many people this sounds weird and perhaps unbelievable. Yet there are literally millions who suffer from somatic diseases, the result of allowing the mind to dwell on oneself, one's problems, one's worries, even to the point of actually becoming ill.

Now one thing I'd like to emphasize here, please be sympathetic and understanding with anyone with a psychosomatic condition. Don't be like Job's comforters who never comforted, but cruelly sought to show Job the cause of his misfortunes.

How often a patient is instructed, don't carry on like a baby, or why don't you grow up? There are times when we need to be told to take our minds off ourselves. I very well remember in the hospital when my nerves shot.

I went into uncontrollable crying. The best tonic I received came when the nurse demanded of me, why don't you get control of yourself? And how grateful too I was for a sympathetic and understanding patient wife who did not nag at me because of my frustration.

Dr. Gilbert Little, with over 25 years of psychiatric experience, has emphasized that nervous patients are the most misunderstood of all sufferers. So we need to be extra sympathetic, extra cautious with individuals who seemingly can't help themselves, can't keep from fretting, can't stop worrying.

Rule One: Surrender to Christ

However, I'm happy to report that for 90 of most such illnesses, I believe there is a cure. One need not be frustrated, filled with fear, a psychosomatic. And I want today to leave with you three simple rules to follow which will bring complete victory over the mind.

First of all, surrender to Christ as Savior and Lord. Today one hears of so many cases of rape, suicide, murder, and the victim will plead momentary insanity, declaring, I don't know why I did it. You can be absolutely certain that a person saved, controlled by the Holy Spirit, would never commit an act whereby he must exclaim, I don't know why I did it, except perhaps for a case of real insanity, and I don't know of any such cases.

Rule Two: Recognize Oppression from the Devil

Secondly, realize that oppression comes from the devil. Acts 10 .38 reminds us, God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.

Oppression, whether of the mind or body, is of the devil. And when you are a Christian, and you allow your mind to dwell upon some evil thought, worry, lust, financial distress, you are yielding to satanic oppression.

Now here I'd like to point out that the Bible forecasts perilous times for the last days. Pastors and missionary workers report a strange wave of unrest sweeping over our land. Discouragement, depression, seems to be afflicting even the most spiritually minded.

Now without hesitancy, we point out that the nearer we come to the day of Christ's return, the more we will sense this satanic oppression. Years ago, when men preached in the power of the Spirit, people literally, in some instances, held on to their seats to prevent them from sliding, as it were, into a Christless eternity.

Today, however, there is lack of concern about the future, little thought of hell, no fear of the tribulation, which the Bible describes as a hell on earth, when the redeemed ones are transported back to heaven, and the earth becomes the scene of demonic activity, when Satan will actually be worshipped by the masses on earth.

Now these things should alarm us, but instead there is a spiritual coldness settled over the church. Instead of calling men and women to holy living, we seem to drift along with a careless attitude of unconcern.

There is an alarming desire for the forbidden lusts of the flesh, a love of the world, and little desire for spiritual victory, the power of the Holy Ghost in our lives, definite answers to prayer, and the supernatural workings of God.

Why? Because Satan, my friends, knows his time is short and is making an all-out attack to ensnare us. And one of his chief attacks, my friends, is upon the minds of men. The third rule to follow, claim victory over Satan in the name of Jesus.

Rule Three: Claim Victory over Satan Through Christ

The devil, my friends, is a defeated foe to the Christian. You may not think so, but the Bible reminds us when Jesus went to the cross, it was through death that he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Now, how often I've had to declare to the devil, the Lord rebuke thee, Satan. I'm a child of the Lord Jesus Christ. My body I've given to the Holy Spirit to possess, and through this shed blood I am his, and you cannot touch me.

Satan knew he was defeated and left like a wounded hound dog. However, the Lord began to show me little sins in my life, petty lusts and pride, and as long as these were there, Satan continued his oppressions, which were almost overpowering.

Still there was victory in the name of Jesus and in claiming the power of the blood. But one day I came to know the blessed Holy Spirit in a way I had never known him before. Whatever experience you want to call it, I know he came into my being to dwell, and henceforth he himself has warded off the attacks of the enemy, as I continue to lay claim to the resources available to each believer.

Today, my friends, there is victory, spiritually, mentally, and physically, over all the oppression of the devil, through full and complete surrender to the will of God, laying claim to Christ's victory over the devil, one at the cross, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, he who raised up Jesus from the dead.

My prayer that you may come to know the fullness of God in your soul, and victory over all oppression of the devil, through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thank you for listening to Ray Brubaker's Classic Radio. For a free audio of this message, visit RayBrubaker .com on the Internet. May God richly bless you is our prayer.