Mature Class Study, teacher Rick Coleman.
There’s a saying that, the mind is the devil’s workshop. Well, the mind really is the door to our heart and soul.
II Timothy 2:1-3 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses…commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.mind
We need to keep a watch over our mind and keep good mind discipline. People can form bad habits while they live a life of sin that causes more mind battles after they’re saved. When we were in sin, there was no need to discipline our mind. This can make it harder to bring our mind under control and into discipline. We need to fight as good soldiers of Christ. The enemy is not satisfied for us to just be saved. He is like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. Fighting men gave their lives and service to protect us from attacks by our enemies. The Congressional Medal of Honor is the most prestigious military award for outstanding bravery above and beyond the call of duty by putting one’s life in danger during action. It has only been awarded to 3,508 people. It’s a wonderful thing when we have victory and the enemy flees. We gain confidence in ourselves to resist the enemy when we have victory. We have to take up our cross and crucify our flesh every day. Now we can walk in the Spirit and crucify the flesh so we have victory over sin and temptations of the enemy. We say, “Get thee behind me Satan. You’re an offense to me.” We won’t be able to resist unless we submit to God.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Obedience and submission are keys to success in our spiritual battle so we can have victory. Spirits aren’t visible but we know they’re real by faith. The weapons of our welfare are mighty! Great is he that is in us! We have victory through God.
II Chronicles 20:15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord…Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
The Lord brought us up out of a pit through Jesus’ help. The enemy can work through the door of our mind. We have to be careful about what we do and look at, so we guard our mind from the enemy every day. There are two different worlds we can walk in – the carnal world or spiritual world. We can have peace in the midst of a chaotic world when we submit our mind to God.
Romans 7:23-25 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus…our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
We’re in a daily warfare against the enemy of our souls. We must be sanctified so we can crucify the flesh and have victory over it. It’s our job to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh, to guard the mind, and walk holy. There are two different worlds we can walk in – the carnal world and the spiritual world. We can have peace in the midst of a chaotic world when we submit our mind to him.
Romans 8:1-8 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
We are in a daily warfare against the enemy of our souls – it’s a battlefield.
I Timothy 1:18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
We have to lay hold so we’re anchored to the rock, Jesus. We need to be careful to not be entangled in the affairs of life.
I Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
We don’t want to let the enemy work in our mind so we think we can make it on our own and don’t need each other.
II Timothy 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
Read the word and listen to the message to hear what the Spirit says and eat of the tree of life. Then we have victory over all the power of the enemy.
Revelation 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
God gives us power to overcome the nations and have victory.
Revelation 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
God makes us a pillar in the Church of God when we have victory over the enemy.
Revelation 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Christ overcame, resisted temptation, and no guile was found in him. He’s our example and pattern to follow. We’re sons and daughters of God when we have victory and overcome the enemy.
Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.