The Spiritual Battleground: Our Minds and Hearts

We often think of spiritual warfare as something happening outside of us. But more often than not, it’s happening within us.

Experiencing the Mind of Christ - Thinking His Thoughts

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor. 10:3-5).

This is where the war goes down. It is in our minds that the battle is won, when we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We must be vigilant in our thought life. “How long will your wicked thoughts lodge within you?” (Jer. 4:14) We don’t want to let a thought slip past our awareness unless we want to experience it, because we know that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7).

Speaking Father's Words

We also know that life and death are in the power of the tongue and when we declare a thing, it is established (Prov. 18:21; Job 22:28). Jesus taught that we are accountable for what we speak: by our words we are either justified or condemned (Matt. 12:36-37). These Scriptures make it clear that we are like our Creator Father in whose image we were made. Just as He did, we create our world with our words (Heb. 11:3).

Derek Prince taught that a “right confession” is when we say what God says - and only what God says - about our situation, health, finances and relationships, and we keep on saying it! That is holding fast to our confession because we know He who promised is faithful (Heb. 10:23).

Feeling Holy Spirit's Emotions

However, we need to back it up even further. We need to ensure our thoughts are congruent with our words. But just as important as our thoughts and words aligning with God’s thoughts and words, we must also be sure our feelings align with His as well. This is the place of agreement - spirit, soul and body - and it is a powerful space from which to live.

In our minds we win the spiritual battle by thinking only God’s thoughts: whatsoever things are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, praise-worthy, excellent and virtuous (Phil. 4:8).

In our hearts we win the spiritual battle by feeling only God’s emotions, the fruit of His Spirit: love, joy, peace, faith, hope and compassion (Gal. 5:22). Aligning our thoughts and feelings with God’s thoughts and feelings is the most effective supernatural strategy for warfare we have.

Living into the Victory

Our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). When we truly live from that place within Him – inside the mind of Christ, inside the heart of God – we win. We are safe, protected from the enemy, and maintaining the victory Jesus already won for us. When we are living inside Him, we are more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37).