| Daily Thought — April
16, 2008 |
|
| LIVING THE
SOLUTION WITH DAILY INSPIRATION |
But if you
harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts,
do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does
not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual,
of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition,
there you find disorder and every evil practice. (James
3:14-16 — NIV)
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will
abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and
things taught by demons. (1 Timothy 4:1 — NIV)
The Battle for the Mind:
There are those who will admit that people can be influenced
or even controlled by evil spirits, but when it comes to “the
believers” they no longer consider that possibility.
Both James and Paul make it clear this is not the case.
Just because someone is a believer does not shield or exempt
them from the attack of the enemy. In fact, it almost always
insures that they will attacked by the enemy. It is through
this persistent attack that the believers can be broken
down and give into or make some sort of compromise to stop
the attack, or at least lessen it. When they do this they
are being influenced and controlled. Still not convinced?
What then is the purpose of putting on the full armor of
God to protect us from the fiery darts and arrows of the
enemy penetrating our minds if they can have no effect
on us? The truth is we can be affected. We can be fooled.
We can be influenced and controlled it we are not vigilant
and on our guard.
Neil T. Anderson did a survey of 1291 professing Christian
High School students and found the following:
47 % had experienced a presence in their room that scared
them.
54% struggle with “bad” thoughts about God.
37% say it is mentally hard to pray and read their Bibles.
70% say they have heard voices in their heads like a subconscious
self talking to them, or struggle with really bad thoughts.
24% have impulsive thoughts about killing someone.
Remember these are Christians, not non-Christians. (We
might expect this result from non-Christians).
I am not willing to believe that 70% of our Christian High
School students are paranoid or psychotic. This is the
result of evil spirit influence in/on the minds of believers.
So what are we to do?
We must test everything against the Word of God, not our
world view. When our world view or the world view that
we are told we are to have or that is popular at the moment,
comes in conflict with the Word of God it is the world
view, not the Word of God, that must change. We must be
in the Word of God daily. We must learn the Word of God.
Use it to test new ideas and thoughts. Do these new ideas
and thoughts point us and others to God and glorify Him?
If not then they must be demised. We must keep our hearts
connected with the Father. We must, as Paul said, put on
the Full armor of God.
Live intentionally, purposely, free and with passion,
Pete Reinbold
|
| You
can see past Daily Thoughts - visit
the archive. |
 |
Scripture taken from the
Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.Copyright © 1973,
1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights
reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of
International Bible Society.
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks
of International Bible Society. Use of either trademark for the
offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent
of International Bible Society.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible,
New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission
of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189, USA. All
rights reserved. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
You'll also receive Practical
Biblical Solutions for life's challenges with our free
e-zine
|
| |
 |
|
