Giving Our Mind to Christ - Part 1 — Zac Poonen

The Battle for Control of the Mind

As we approach the end of time, the coming of the Lord draws near, we're going to see that the battle is going to be more and more for who is going to control your mind. The battle is for the mind and everything that we see around, you know, there's tremendous powers at work today to control our thinking.

Worldly Influences Enter Through the Senses

The Bible says the devil is the ruler of this world, so he controls all the things in the world which can make you think in a certain way. He controls television, newspapers, cinemas, all the things by which he can put something into your mind and it's usually through the eyes and through the ears.

Music that we hear gets into our mind, things that we read, things that we see. So as a Christian, if you're not going to be wise, you will unconsciously allow things to slip into your mind that over a period of time change your way of thinking.

Repentance as a Complete Change of Mind

Maybe many years ago you had really turned away from sin and the world and turned around, you know. Repentance really means a change of mind. That's the real meaning in all our Indian language translations that's translated more correctly.

In English, we don't understand repent sufficiently. A lot of people think repentance means you feel sorry. That's part of it, but the main part of repentance is not feeling sorry. It's a change of mind.

That means I was facing the world and sin and had a different way of mind and then I turned around 180 degrees and my way of thinking changed. And if our turning around from sin and the world and all is not 180 degrees, sort of 90 degrees or 130 degrees, we're not going to reach our destination.

It's going to take a long time to reach that destination if I'm going off at an angle. Of course, the devil's aim is to get most people to look in the other direction towards him and the world and the devil and sin and be anxious and fearful about a whole lot of things that are coming in the world.

But where he finds that he has not succeeded in preventing a person from turning to Christ, then he will try his best to make sure that that turning is not 180 degrees away from sin and the world a little bit.

Or if a person was 180 degrees once upon a time, he'll try and get him to shift back and say, we can't be so legalistic. It's a great word the devil uses. The Holy Spirit uses it too, but you've got to make sure who's telling you that.

Legalism, Worldliness, and False Broad-Mindedness

Is it the Holy Spirit or the devil? You think the devil won't like you to be legalistic? The people who killed Jesus were not the sinners, but the legalists. I believe that the people who killed the church today are the legalists.

The body of Christ way back on Calvary was crucified by legalists, and the body of Christ today is crucified by legalists. The worldly people like Pilate and Herod and all, they're not much bothered whether Jesus is killed or not.

So the devil can try and say, don't be so legalistic. We've got to be a little more liberal and a little more broad-minded. And he uses nice words. He won't use words like, we must be more worldly, because then you'll sort of wake up.

No, no, no. He won't use such words. He'll make you do something worldly by calling it broad-minded, large-hearted. If he says large-hearted, boy, he's got you. Because we all want to be large-hearted.

A lot of people who, many Christians who say, we got to be large-hearted towards other people, and then you're not so careful about doctrines. So, remember the battle is for the mind. In 2 Corinthians chapter 10, we read like this.

Giving the Mind, Tongue, Eyes, and Ears to Christ

He speaks, you know, we emphasize often in the church, give your heart to Christ. We ask people, have you given your heart to Jesus? We ask children, ask Jesus to come into your heart. That is the easiest part of all.

I'll tell you what's more difficult, to give your thoughts to Christ, and to give your tongue to Christ, and your eyes and your ears to Christ. That's much more difficult. Well, we don't hear much about that.

Have you ever heard anybody say, give your tongue to Christ, or give your eyes to Christ, or give your thoughts to Christ? No, it's always give your heart to Christ. What does that mean? You just say, Lord Jesus come into my heart, that's it.

Spiritual Warfare and the Weapons of God

But see what he says here. He says, like everybody else in the world, verse 3, we walk in the flesh. That means I've still got a flesh, just like everybody else in the world. But we've got a war going on inside this flesh, which other people in the world don't have.

If you want your mind to belong to Christ, you must fight a war. I'll tell you this, I've been a Christian 47, nearly 48 years now. I'm still fighting a war in my mind. Otherwise, I'll be a backslider.

If I stop fighting that war for one day, I'll be a backslider. He says, we war. But we don't war according to the flesh, the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly weapons. He says, I don't go fighting with people for something earthly.

No, I'm not interested in that. Worldly people can do that. He says, our warfare is with spiritual weapons, powerful by God's power for destroying fortresses. You know, like the walls of Jericho in the olden days, cities were surrounded by a wall and you had to destroy that.

Tearing Down Fortresses and Worldly Philosophies

You know, in India, you see some places, forts. And those fortresses must be destroyed before you can occupy that, all those soldiers and defeat them. Otherwise, they're inside the fortresses. And where are these fortresses?

These fortresses are in our mind. He says, therefore, we are destroying speculations. Speculations means all types of crooked philosophies that worldly people have. You know, God must be like this. And this is like that, like that.

People who don't go by clear teaching of Christ and the apostles speculate. It could have been like this. Worldly philosophies, we are tearing down everything that's lifted up against the knowledge of God.

Jesus said, to know God is eternal life. And anything that comes between me and knowing God and Jesus Christ is a fortress I've got to tear down. And when we do this, we reject all these worldly philosophies.

Bringing Every Thought Captive to Christ

And we tear down everything that comes in the way of my knowing God and Jesus Christ personally, intimately. Then we can bring every thought, listen to this, every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

So think of your mind like a fortress, which has been constructed from your childhood with all types of thoughts inside there. And those thoughts that you got from childhood and that you grew up with from your childhood days and your youth.

Selfishness and Pride as Strongholds

These are not good thoughts. They're not thoughts to glorify God and to live for Christ. They are basically, I would say, two types of thoughts. You can say there are two generals, let's say, both fighting for the same devil, but occupying two different battalions inside our mind.

One is called selfishness and the other is called pride. And all the thoughts that come into our mind from childhood, as we grow up, these soldiers keep multiplying in our fortress, inside our mind, soldiers of selfishness.

What is good for me? And keep on thinking the soldiers multiply. What is good for me? What's good for my family? I'm going to seek that. I'm going to seek that.