The Real Battle

What are the messages you're believing every day? As Christians, we have been saved into a new reality, but our mindset will determine if we actually get to enjoy it!

Every moment of every day, our minds are filled with messages. These messages often run in our minds like the sound from a record. Grooves have been worn in. The needle runs on the grooves. The grooves hold the needle and communicate through it to our ears.

Life has a way of working grooves into our mind. Along the way, people speak into our lives, circumstances lead to certain conclusions, experiences of pain cause us to develop defense mechanisms. Often, without even contemplating it, we allow our mind to run on these grooves, filtering our present experience through those messages.

One way to think of this is through the lens of “mindset.” A mindset is an established set of attitudes. These established attitudes have a way of taking experience and shaping it. Taking moments and making them something with meaning for us.

How often do we examine our mindset? How often do we take time and consider the beliefs that are interpreting our world for us? Chances are, not very often. And we pay a price for it. Two important Scriptures show why:

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:4–5)

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Both of these passages, and we could add many more, make something clear: Our mind is a place of warfare. We often think of spiritual warfare as something happening “out there” in the heavenlies. But the truth is, the battle is most often happening within our own way of thinking.

The Devil is perfectly content to have us live our lives if he can make us miserable and ineffective doing it. He has trapped many believers in a terrible place: Having redeemed spirits yet remaining trapped in unredeemed modes of thought. If he can do that, then we lose our joy, our peace, and our witness. Rather than shining like stars, we walk through life like everyone else, trapped in negativity and defeat.

Limiting vs. Expanding Mindsets

Our mindset will either be running along grooves that limit us or expand us. We will either rise up to the next level in our spiritual growth or remain where we are, plateaued or even slipping backwards. Tragically, this often takes place without us realizing it. At every moment, we are interpreting our circumstances, drawing conclusions and making decisions. All of this is filtered through mindset. That mindset is either limiting or expanding. For example:

• Sinner vs Saint

• Temporary vs Eternal

• Defeated vs Victorious

• Old vs New

• Law vs Grace

• Poverty vs Prosperity

In every circumstance, we are responding out of mindset. The question we must ask is, “Is my mind set on Truth or on falsehood?” So many of our beliefs operate below the surface and control our thoughts and emotions. Here are a few “limiting” beliefs that can work into our mindset:

• “I'm just a sinner saved by grace.”

• “Be careful about getting a big head.”

• “Be satisfied with what you have.”

• “What if something goes wrong>”

• “I don’t have what it takes (time/energy/resources).”

• “What will people think?”

• “What if I miss my window?”

• “What if I make the wrong decision?”

• “What if someone does something wrong?”

• “I can’t please God.”

• “Until _______________ changes, I can’t be happy.”

One of the most powerful tools for expanding our mindset is already within us: Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to every believer so that we could learn to think like Him. Jesus promised that we could learn to hear His voice, respond to him, learn from him.

Try this simple exercise: Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what He likes about you. What about you brings Him delight? He will reveal that to you, and it will become a source of identity and motivation. The truth is, we’re much more inclined to draw near people we believe enjoy us that people we know are constantly disappointed in us. And if someone we like likes something about us, we tend to value it ourselves. Why would it be any different with the Person closer to us than our next breath?

I’ve had a chance to walk through this exercise with hundreds of people in the last two years. I’ve been amazed by the results. People have experienced basic life transformation as their sense of love and attachment to God has grown. Many have discovered areas where their identity was shaped, not by the reality of God’s love, but by the limiting beliefs they just “picked up along the way.”