A RENEWAL OF OUR MINDS -- CONTINUE

C – We need to wage war with evil:
Some in our modern culture have trouble accepting the fact that there really is a satan and that there really is a demonic army that exists in the unseen world. Even believers sometimes making light of these things as if they are too sophisticated to take such a view of the supernatural world. Those who deny these beings exist are the most vulnerable to their attacks. The most volatile battle zone in which satan wages war is the battlefield of the mind; the last thing that he wants is for us to possess the mind of Yeshua Moshiach. He attacks us through images that make us lust for sex, power and money; he attacks us through words that cause us to doubt the YHVH we worship; he attacks us through circumstances that leave us vulnerable and weak and sometimes his attacks are successful and cause us to give in to his purposes. -- But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank YHVH through Yeshua Moshiach our Adonai. So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of YHVH, but with the flesh the law of sin. -- Romans 7:23-25. Paul describes his internal struggle as a [war with my mind.] It is a war that we are all too familiar with but what can we do? How can we overcome? How can we win when Satan is bombarding us? There is a simple strategy: when a sexual image, lust or greed of some kind enters your mind, do not give in for even five seconds before mounting a counterattack with the mind. Five seconds! In the first two seconds we shout, [No!] Get out of my head! In the next two seconds we cry out: -- O Adonai, in the Name of Yeshua, help us. Save us now. We are yours. Good beginning but then the real battle begins. This is a mind war. The absolute necessity is to get the image and the impulse out of our mind. How? Get a counter-image into the mind: Fight, push, strike and do not ease up. It must be an image that is so powerful that the other image cannot survive. For example, have you ever in the first five seconds of temptation, demanded of your mind that it look steadfastly at the crucified form of Yeshua Moshiach?

Men, let us say you have just seen a see-through blouse inviting further fantasy. You have five seconds. Now, immediately, demand of your mind, [you can do this by the Spirit] demand of your mind to fix its gaze on Moshiach on the cross. Use all your fantasizing power to see His lacerated back. Thirty-nine lashes left little flesh intact. He heaves with His breath up and down against the rough vertical beam of the cross. Each breath puts splinters into the lacerations. Elohim gasps, from time to time He screams out with intolerable pain. He tries to pull away from the wood and the massive spikes through His wrist rip into the nerve endings and He screams again with agony and pushes up with His feet to give some relief to His wrists. But the bones and nerves in His pierced feet crush against each other with anguish and He screams again. There is no relief; His throat is raw from screaming and thirst. He loses His breath and thinks He is suffocating and suddenly His body involuntarily gasps for air and all the injuries unite in pain. In torment, He forgets about the crown of two-inch thorns and throws His head back in desperation, only to hit one of the thorns perpendiculars against the cross beam and drive it half an inch into His skull. His voice reaches a soprano pitch of pain and sobs break over His pain-wracked body as every cry brings more and more pain. --- Now, you are not thinking about the blouse anymore, you are at Calvary. And you are winning the spiritual battle because through YHVH’s help you have replaced the sinful image in your minds, with the image of the One who defeated sin on my behalf.

2 – The outcome: Personal renewal:

When we are filled with Ruach HaKodesh and we are in agreement with YHVH’s Vision and are in possession of the Mind of Moshiach, we will experience personal renewal at a level we have never even imagined before. And what is the result?

A – Satan is defeated:
Through personal renewal, relying on YHVH’s Power, we can completely destroy the work of satan in our lives. That does not mean we will not be tempted, but the temptation will not be given into because we are now experiencing something much greater than anything satan has to offer us.

B – Guilt is removed:
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. -- Psalm 19:13. How would it feel to go through life with absolutely no guilt on your conscience? We can know exactly what it feels like when we have been renewed. YHVH promises us that not only will every sin be wiped from our record, but that the guilt will go out the door right along with it.

C – YHVH’s Will is discerned
The closer we walk with YHVH, the more we know YHVH, the better we understand YHVH; the more I think like YHVH, the more able we are discerning His will.