GUARD YOUR MIND

Most people have not come to realize the important part the mind plays in their day to day life and experience.

Man is tripartite. He is principally a spirit, has a soul and lives in a house called the body. The truth has eluded many for so long. They only see things from the physical perspective. They do not have a clear understanding of their nature. They do not know that they are spirits, like God is.

The word says, "He that is born of the Spirit is spirit." God is a Spirit; We are born of God, so we are spirits! But that is not the end. You also have a soul which comprises the mind, emotions and the will. The soul is generally referred to as the seat of the person (personality). The mind is a very important department of the soul. It is the seat of the intellect. It has to do directly with what you think and how you think. It controls your personal self-esteem. In many places, it is rendered as the heart.

When you are thinking of a man’s personality, you can think of the mind as the heart of his being. Not the physiological heart, but when you are talking in terms of the whole, total and rounded nature of man, then the spirit is the real man.

The mind, the seat of the intellect has overpowering influence over the other aspects of the soul. It is obvious that man’s intelligence-level will affect his emotions and choice of things will. So the mind becomes crucial in success pursuit.

The mind is the arena of battle. It is where ideas are harnessed and hatched. It is where thoughts spring up. The greatest schemes in the world today are products of ideas originating from the mind. And these include positive and negative ones. They are all products of thoughts, and thoughts originate from the mind.

The principal use of the mind is thinking. God gave you the mind to think! That is its major function. When the mind has concluded the thinking, it passes it over to the will to decide. That is why most people do not make any success. They are good thinkers but poor decision-makers. Even in the choice, your mind is still actively involved.

The mind is the battle-ground for success or failure, prosperity or poverty, health or sickness and disease, favour or disfavour. It is the mind. That is where the stronghold is. Paul the Apostle said it is the stronghold the arena of war in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5,

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds). Casting down imaginations (reasonings) and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ"

I will point out three words to you in these verses. They are IMAGINATIONS, KNOWLEDGE, and THOUGHT. Imagination is the same as reasoning. And the mind is the seat of reasoning. You reason or rationalize with your mind. It is one of the basic activities of the mind.

Knowledge is another. The mind as you now are aware is the seat of the intellect. You KNOW with your mind. Thought or thinking is a principal function of the mind. If you put all these together, you will see that Paul says they constitute your first battle. It is the battle for the mind. In other words, what you imagine, know and think determine what your life becomes eventually.

Before new birth, your thought life was perverse. You naturally thought negatively. You did not think any good thing. And that explains the perversity that characterized your day to day activity. Your actions and reactions were controlled by the thoughts that took root in your mind. But now that you are born again, your mind remains just the same.

True, your spirit man has become a new creation according to 2 Corinthians 5:17, but that does not affect the mind. You have a duty therefore to renew your mind. The thought pattern of the old nature of sin does not suit the new creation who is created in righteousness and true holiness. So you have a duty to change it, make it conformable to the new, and that you do by renewing it with the word of God.

I said that meditation means, "to think through something." I also said the principal function of the mind is thinking or thought (either positive or negative). The point now is you have to take time to gird your loins by thinking through God’s word. God’s word is the divine tool for conditioning your thinking.

Thoughts are governed by three basic things: association, observation, and teaching. Your mind is conditioned by what you observe, what you see automatically registers on your mind. It is also controlled by what you associate with and of course what knowledge you allow it to acquire.

Based on this truth, you can determine what you think by controlling your observation, association and what you are taught. This is where meditation comes in again. Think upon the word of God. Allow your mind to settle on the word. Renew, control and reorientate your mind to thinking Word thoughts. Paul said to be transformed through mind renewal in Romans 12:2,

"And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God"

It therefore becomes important for you to know this. You may have thought that you have no control over your thought. I believe you do. You can determine the things you dwell upon in your mind. That is why Paul said we cast down imaginations, high things and bring every thought to obey Christ.

It comes after you have constantly renewed your mind by meditating on the word. By this you will be able to prove God’s will. Proving God’s will means bringing to light, to public glare and sight, God’s perfect will for you. And that means if you renew your mind, your failure will be transformed to success. That is God’s perfect will for you.

It is important for you then to watch your thought pattern. People easily fall into problems (temptations) because they do not keep watch on their mind. The choice of what you think about is yours. The devil can not force you to think on a thing; you have the power of choice. The decision is in your hand. This is why the Bible says for you to gird up the loins of your mind! 1 Peter 1:13 says,

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober ..."

You have to gird it! Your thought pattern controls what happens to you. If you don’t gird, control and master your mind-power to think success thoughts, you can never be successful. You become conscious of what you think about regularly, and before long, you see that your thoughts (desires) begin to pattern and determine your life circumstances. The Bible says you are a product of your thoughts.

"for as a man thinketh, so is he"
Proverbs 23:7

Your thought makes or mars you. Somebody will say, "No! my confession makes me." But what do you confess? Out of the excess of your thoughts! So you say what you think! And what you think is what you have after saying it. If you think failure, you will talk failure and get failure. I said, thoughts are like seeds. If you sow it, it will germinate and grow.

The Bible says you will reap what you sow. You cannot expect to reap an orange if you sowed some guinea corn. If you want orange, sow orange seeds. If you want success, sow success seeds. Think success thoughts. See yourself successful. Don’t allow any other thought. You never can rise above your thought level. It controls and dictates your actions. It patterns your lifestyle. You will be exactly what you think of yourself.

Thoughts are images. When you think on a particular thing, you don’t think on it in words. They come as images but the images are painted to the outside world by words. Proverbs 23:7 says that you are the image you hold of yourself. You cannot be better. You cannot be worse. You are exactly that image, the picture you paint of your life.

People say, "I don’t understand you. I am not thinking anything about me now," and I say that is why there is no progress in your endeavour. No motivation. That explains why you are stagnant. You must begin to think success thoughts if you must be successful. This affects all areas of life. You cannot succeed in any area your thought is not established upon. You are drifting; you cannot make it. Make a definite thought commitment. Think on what God says about your success. Build that image. Allow it to be real to you. Give it all it takes. That is the secret.

I do not mean to say it is easy. You will face challenges while you are renewing your mind to think success. Your mind will tell you it is not possible. You cannot make it. Back out! It will present you with a catalogue of sound reasons why you must back out. That is the battle you must win. The unrenewed mind is the greatest antagonist of success. But you can win that over and make it.

Saturate your mind with success truth. Associate with successful people. Observe success materials and success teachings. Get acquainted with them. Allow them to take hold of your thinking and you will notice a divine transformation in your life.

Apart from all these, what you think about has a way of getting across into your spirit man. And when it comes to that, it becomes wonderful or dangerous depending on whether the thought is positive or negative. When a matter gets into you, it has reached the state of accomplishment. You are ready, eager and set to do it.

Be careful of what you think. Think success not failure. Think prosperity not poverty. Think self-esteem not self-deprivation. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You do not desire to be poor, so do not think it. You do not desire to fail, so do not think it. If you must think anything, it must be what you desire. You would not desire evil for yourself, so don’t think it. Think positive. Think good. Think success. Think health. Think prosperity. Think of things that are of good report. Paul tells us what to think of in Philippians 4:8,

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things"

That is the prescription. Always use Philippians 4:8 to test what you think about. Most of the thoughts people think do not even pass the first test. They are not true! Do not think on anything that does not pass the test.

Is it true? Honest? Just? Pure? Lovely? Of good report? Does it have virtue? Does it have praise? If it does not pass this test, throw it out of your mind. Think on good things. Think your way through to success and excellence.