Christians, in today’s society, with all of the violence, perversion, sexual imagery and other Babylonian behavior, it is very difficult to keep one’s self from being polluted by the world, as we are advised to do in Scripture. I received a revelation recently on what the situation is like for our minds. Is your mind a fort or prison?
The first imagery is of a fort: It is the midnight watch. Big lights are sweeping out across the land, searching to make sure no one is trying to attack you. You see movement in the tree line, you sweep the light back, you see someone running, you sound the alarm, hundreds of soldiers are mobilized and take their position on the wall, trying to prevent the attack.
The second is of a prison: It is the midnight watch as well. Big lights are sweeping across the prison yard, searching to make sure that no one is trying to escape. You see movement in the recreation area, you sweep the light back, you see someone running and you sound the alarm, hundreds of guards take their position on the wall trying to prevent the escape.
The stories sound so familiar because they are. Let’s say for a moment that the enemy/inmates are perverted thoughts. When defending your fort, the enemy comes in the form of TV Shows, commercials, seductive ads, stores at the mall, images online, movies, etc. Pictures of women in almost nothing, constantly trying to come into your mind, your fort. Now if you do a good job on defending your mind, looking AWAY purposefully, adamantly on the defense, trying to keep your mind pure, GREAT! It is a lifelong battle, but well worth defending it.
If you have done a poor job. Now your mind is taken over, your soldiers are now guards and instead of the images and desires trying to get into your mind, now they are trying to escape, run free. All the little lusts, perverse thoughts, inappropriate ideas you have entertained are now vicious inmates trying to break free, and once free you will act upon the ideas and they will lead your body into sexual sin. These are images and thoughts that only God can remove and destroy. Trust me, my mind once was the prison. God has renewed it, refreshed it, and now I do everything in my power to keep the enemy out. I choose to defend my fort, my mind.
It is a lifelong battle we will all fight. Our minds will either act as a soldier or guard. You must decide: Fort or Prison. There is power in the fort, God’s on your side, He wants you to keep your mind pure, and He will help fight for you. When your mind is a prison, God will not help you control the enemy, you are on your own, because He does not want to help you keep your perversity and lusts locked in your mind, He wants mind renewal. It’s up to you to fight for your thoughts! Everyone will fight the battle, one way or another, whether fort or prison, but we must choose to defend our minds, our children’s minds, to be victorious in our lives.
I pray that God show us weak areas along our fort walls, whether movies, tv, the beach, pool, or water park, advertisements, or online. We need to guard our minds, refuse to allow those thoughts to get inside. Our country as a whole has let their guard down, we can see perversion running rampant, wild. Although the masses now embrace things once forbidden, we do not have to fall under the temptation to accept it as well. You will either spend your life as a warrior, fighting against perversity and immorality in your life or you will find yourself a prisoner bound up by perversity and immorality in your life. I pray strength for the journey, and power to overcome, in Jesus name, Amen.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NASB)
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived, But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self, with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:5-10 (NIV)
When a society degrades themselves the way ours does, the Bible explains what God allows. I recommend reading Romans 1:18-32 for a full view of what America is currently doing, and it says:
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree, that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:28-32 (NIV)
I do not condemn anyone for being among these people, as I once was. I was backslidden in college and these verses describe exactly who I was, and exactly what I was doing. Many of us would have claimed Christianity, yet been among the dead in sin, right along with them. There is hope, God DOES restore and He WILL renew your mind and make it an impenetrable fortress for your good and His Glory. Amen.
written and posted by Daniel Poggensee | 2016
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