Just like with physical circumcision, the renewing of the mind begins with a “cutting away of the flesh.” The Greek word for “renewing” means “to renovate.” Renovation begins by stripping off the old in order to put on the new. This process is at the very center of the renovation of our minds. God wants to strip away and tear down the wrong thinking and believing that has been keeping you out of your promised land. His Word will tear down those strongholds as we confront the strongholds with the truth. “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
Dear saint, we are in a war. It is a battle between life and death, good and evil, God and Satan. This battle is fought on the battlefield of your mind. In these last days, Satan has begun his greatest attack against the minds of men. We must live in a military alertness against Satan’s attack!
We are told to cast down imaginations (thoughts or reasonings). This is how to do spiritual warfare for our souls: we must capture our thought life and bring it into obedience to God’s Word. Until you learn to cast down and capture wrong, destructive thoughts and attitudes, it is impossible for you to live in victory as a believer.
God has a promised land for you, saint! It is a place of His provision and power. It is a place of kingdom life, love, joy and peace. This “promised land” is obtained by renewing your mind with His Word. This is God’s system for victorious and successful living.
“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’” (John 8:31, 32) Jesus said that “the truth shall make you free.” But understand this, even though the truth can make you free, there is a condition. Jesus gave this condition in verse 31 when He said, “If you abide in my word.” Jesus emphasized that a disciple is one who continues in His Word. In order to know the truth and be set free, you must be a disciple who continues in God’s Word. You can’t be a half-hearted or compromising Christian and expect to receive and know the truth that will set you free. God’s Word requires a strong, consistent commitment in order to benefit from its potential power. God wants to write His Word in our minds. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Hebrews 8:10) “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them…’” (Hebrews 10:16)
Jesus understood the vital importance of our souls being filled with God’s Word. In Matthew 15:18, 19, He described the soul and how it functions: “‘But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Jesus told us here that a man’s life (what he does) is controlled by what is in his heart. The Paraphrased Version of Matthew 15:18 reads that “it is the thought life that pollutes.”
Your soul is like the soil of a farm — whatever is planted into it produces a crop. In the parable of the sower, Jesus taught about four different types of ground. These four types of ground are four types of heart conditions. In every different soil, the ground produces whatever was sown into it. In the same way, your soul (which is your mind, will and emotions) is designed to produce whatever is sown into it. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)
Your soul works scientifically, just like your body. If you eat junk food and never exercise, your body will suffer. Also, if you feed your soul garbage all the time, you will reap garbage. You are not a garbage dump for Satan and the world! You are a child of God, and God wants to fill you with the priceless treasure of His Word!