I'm writing this post because I feel in my spirit that many are now entering a season of spiritual conflict marked by mental attacks and discouragement. Mine started this last Friday. In the middle of the intense blessings which God poured out that weekend in Dallas, I was fighting an onslaught of mental attacks in the form of doubts and prideful thoughts.
From talking to several brothers and sisters, young and old, near and far, I realize that this isn't only happening to me; many are being attacked in their minds during this time. This is why I want to share some advice on how we can face these battles and what purpose they play in God's plan.
First of all, we should realize that the enemy's attack has two fronts; on one end he attacks you with thoughts, doubts, fears, etc., and on the other end he attacks you with shame, discouragement and fear because you are having these thoughts.
It is similar to when a wolf pack is hunting deer in the forest. The pack hides in the underbrush while one member of the pack circles around the prey and begins to chase the deer toward the ambush. One wolf alone is not very likely to catch the deer, but when they work together they have a much better chance. In our case, the enemy's initial attack is not the most dangerous; it's what we do next that can lead us into deep trouble.
The initial reaction of most inexperienced believers is to look away from Jesus.
Shame will make them say:
"I am so terrible! God must be so ashamed, disappointed and angry with me. I cannot come before God."
Pride will make them say:
"I'm better than this. I got this. I can fix my thoughts through my reasoning, I'll fix this and then I'll pray."
Desperation will make them say:
"God take this away! Have mercy, have mercy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, forgive me, forgive me..."
But all of this is just a trap of the enemy. His goal is to get us to put our eyes on ourselves; our strength, our weakness, our problem, our failure, our need. He knows that once we look away from the Lord, we're toast.
So, what is the correct response? The answer: Look to Jesus with faith, and praise Him.
I mean, think about it, you have nothing to be ashamed of because God loves us with perfect love. He accepts us the same whether we have good or bad thoughts running through our mind. And the fact is, we are terrible people. So what? We never trusted in our own righteousness anyways. Our Lord is our righteousness and He is the only good thing about us.. Why bother trying to justify ourselves? God is the one who has justified us by the blood of His own son. Instead, we can confess to God that we are weak, and his strength will be made perfect in our weakness, for when we are weak, then we are strong.
Why should we try to fix our thoughts before we allow ourselves to enter his presence? It is he who loved us when we were yet sinners and enemies of God. It is Christ who has entered into the throne room of God, making a way for us with his own blood so we can come boldly before the throne of grace to find help in time of need. And why should we spend our prayers groveling and begging for mercy and forgiveness? The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was the last payment for sin, and it is sufficient for all who trust in Him. We don't need to pay for his mercy and forgiveness with our tears and remorse, instead we need to trust him and bear fruit worthy of repentance.
Here are a few things you can do to fight the good fight of faith when you are being attacked mentally:
1. Praise God! Praise is the key to unlocking the door of your mental jail cell. Praising God is the opposite of trying to fix your thoughts with your own reasoning. When you praise God in the middle of a mental attack, you are putting your faith in the God who is higher than your own mind. You are letting your renewed spirit have it's way, regardless of what your old flesh is feeling. When we praise God, we allow the Spirit of God to influence our mind with divine vision and spiritual sight.
2. Commit to a special season of prayer and fasting. Last year, I came under a heavy mental attack and the Holy Spirit led me to fast everyday, and pray like crazy just to survive it. I immediately felt much better! My faith was strengthened greatly during that first week of fasting. After the week was over, the Spirit was still telling me to continue fasting, but I reasoned within myself and told myself that I was being exaggerated, so I stopped. The attack immediately intensified. That's when I realized that, if I was going to survive this battle, I would have to fast for 40 days which is what the spirit had been telling me to do for some time. I threw my reasoning aside and fasted for 40 days, and that is how I was able to survive that season of conflict. (Clarification: I did an 18 hour fast once a day, every day, for 40 days. Please be sure you are eating and drinking well between fasts, and taking a multivitamin if possible.)
3. Rebuke the evil spirit that is attacking you. Each evil thought has a spirit behind it. For example, if you are being attacked by doubt, there is a spirit of doubt supporting that thought. I say 'supporting' because the thought is partially coming from our own flesh, but the evil spirit is amplifying and promoting it. Rebuke any evil spirit in the name of Jesus, with faith, and you will feel immediate relief. That Doesn't mean that the conflict is over but it will help you in that moment.
4. Meditate on the word of God. The word of God is like a hammer that breaks the stone in two. Some stones take many hits before they break, so you have to find the right hammer for your rock, and hit it often. Find scriptures that combat the lie Satan is telling you and quote them out loud, pray about them, meditate them, and over all, fight to believe them!
Now, why would God allow this to happen? Is there an example of this in the Bible?
The Bible reveals that these spiritual conflicts are nothing strange or out of the ordinary in the life of God's servants. On the contrary, God has a higher purpose in these struggles. God allows the enemy to attack us as part of a carefully designed test in order to purify us, strengthen our faith in Him, and make us mature, faster. Consider the life of Peter. Although he had many good qualities, yet he was full of self-confidence, pride and an independent spirit, up until the night he denied the Lord Jesus. Early that night, Jesus told Peter that the devil had asked for permission to sift Peter as wheat, and apparently God granted the devil his desire, in order to purify Peter. If wheat is not sifted, the wheat grains are mixed with chaff, which makes the wheat unusable. Peter was called to be a leader in the church, but he was unusable because of the chaff in his life.
We would like for there to be an easier way to get this done, but in God's wisdom, this is the best way for many of us. We must be tested and tried to bring our deepest sins and weaknesses to the surface so we can face them and so God can deal with them. God allows the enemy to squeeze us like we squeeze a sponge to remove the water, but never more than we can handle. In the case of Job, God limited precisely what the enemy could do against him. In Peter's case, the Lord Jesus prayed for him that his faith would not fail, and it didn't. We must remember that no matter how dark the valley of the shadow of death gets, the Lord is with us. And best of all, we know that he has given us sufficient grace to overcome what we are going through. It might take all the faith and effort you have, but if you are willing to fight the good fight of faith, you will be surprised to find that you have the necessary strength. Remember, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you and Christ is in you. Dig deep into the Rock. Reach high to take His hand, with all the faith you have, and you will see His glory in even your darkest hour; you will emerge victorious on the other side.
From talking to several brothers and sisters, young and old, near and far, I realize that this isn't only happening to me; many are being attacked in their minds during this time. This is why I want to share some advice on how we can face these battles and what purpose they play in God's plan.
First of all, we should realize that the enemy's attack has two fronts; on one end he attacks you with thoughts, doubts, fears, etc., and on the other end he attacks you with shame, discouragement and fear because you are having these thoughts.
It is similar to when a wolf pack is hunting deer in the forest. The pack hides in the underbrush while one member of the pack circles around the prey and begins to chase the deer toward the ambush. One wolf alone is not very likely to catch the deer, but when they work together they have a much better chance. In our case, the enemy's initial attack is not the most dangerous; it's what we do next that can lead us into deep trouble.
The initial reaction of most inexperienced believers is to look away from Jesus.
Shame will make them say:
"I am so terrible! God must be so ashamed, disappointed and angry with me. I cannot come before God."
Pride will make them say:
"I'm better than this. I got this. I can fix my thoughts through my reasoning, I'll fix this and then I'll pray."
Desperation will make them say:
"God take this away! Have mercy, have mercy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, forgive me, forgive me..."
But all of this is just a trap of the enemy. His goal is to get us to put our eyes on ourselves; our strength, our weakness, our problem, our failure, our need. He knows that once we look away from the Lord, we're toast.
So, what is the correct response? The answer: Look to Jesus with faith, and praise Him.
I mean, think about it, you have nothing to be ashamed of because God loves us with perfect love. He accepts us the same whether we have good or bad thoughts running through our mind. And the fact is, we are terrible people. So what? We never trusted in our own righteousness anyways. Our Lord is our righteousness and He is the only good thing about us.. Why bother trying to justify ourselves? God is the one who has justified us by the blood of His own son. Instead, we can confess to God that we are weak, and his strength will be made perfect in our weakness, for when we are weak, then we are strong.
Why should we try to fix our thoughts before we allow ourselves to enter his presence? It is he who loved us when we were yet sinners and enemies of God. It is Christ who has entered into the throne room of God, making a way for us with his own blood so we can come boldly before the throne of grace to find help in time of need. And why should we spend our prayers groveling and begging for mercy and forgiveness? The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was the last payment for sin, and it is sufficient for all who trust in Him. We don't need to pay for his mercy and forgiveness with our tears and remorse, instead we need to trust him and bear fruit worthy of repentance.
Here are a few things you can do to fight the good fight of faith when you are being attacked mentally:
1. Praise God! Praise is the key to unlocking the door of your mental jail cell. Praising God is the opposite of trying to fix your thoughts with your own reasoning. When you praise God in the middle of a mental attack, you are putting your faith in the God who is higher than your own mind. You are letting your renewed spirit have it's way, regardless of what your old flesh is feeling. When we praise God, we allow the Spirit of God to influence our mind with divine vision and spiritual sight.
2. Commit to a special season of prayer and fasting. Last year, I came under a heavy mental attack and the Holy Spirit led me to fast everyday, and pray like crazy just to survive it. I immediately felt much better! My faith was strengthened greatly during that first week of fasting. After the week was over, the Spirit was still telling me to continue fasting, but I reasoned within myself and told myself that I was being exaggerated, so I stopped. The attack immediately intensified. That's when I realized that, if I was going to survive this battle, I would have to fast for 40 days which is what the spirit had been telling me to do for some time. I threw my reasoning aside and fasted for 40 days, and that is how I was able to survive that season of conflict. (Clarification: I did an 18 hour fast once a day, every day, for 40 days. Please be sure you are eating and drinking well between fasts, and taking a multivitamin if possible.)
3. Rebuke the evil spirit that is attacking you. Each evil thought has a spirit behind it. For example, if you are being attacked by doubt, there is a spirit of doubt supporting that thought. I say 'supporting' because the thought is partially coming from our own flesh, but the evil spirit is amplifying and promoting it. Rebuke any evil spirit in the name of Jesus, with faith, and you will feel immediate relief. That Doesn't mean that the conflict is over but it will help you in that moment.
4. Meditate on the word of God. The word of God is like a hammer that breaks the stone in two. Some stones take many hits before they break, so you have to find the right hammer for your rock, and hit it often. Find scriptures that combat the lie Satan is telling you and quote them out loud, pray about them, meditate them, and over all, fight to believe them!
Now, why would God allow this to happen? Is there an example of this in the Bible?
The Bible reveals that these spiritual conflicts are nothing strange or out of the ordinary in the life of God's servants. On the contrary, God has a higher purpose in these struggles. God allows the enemy to attack us as part of a carefully designed test in order to purify us, strengthen our faith in Him, and make us mature, faster. Consider the life of Peter. Although he had many good qualities, yet he was full of self-confidence, pride and an independent spirit, up until the night he denied the Lord Jesus. Early that night, Jesus told Peter that the devil had asked for permission to sift Peter as wheat, and apparently God granted the devil his desire, in order to purify Peter. If wheat is not sifted, the wheat grains are mixed with chaff, which makes the wheat unusable. Peter was called to be a leader in the church, but he was unusable because of the chaff in his life.
We would like for there to be an easier way to get this done, but in God's wisdom, this is the best way for many of us. We must be tested and tried to bring our deepest sins and weaknesses to the surface so we can face them and so God can deal with them. God allows the enemy to squeeze us like we squeeze a sponge to remove the water, but never more than we can handle. In the case of Job, God limited precisely what the enemy could do against him. In Peter's case, the Lord Jesus prayed for him that his faith would not fail, and it didn't. We must remember that no matter how dark the valley of the shadow of death gets, the Lord is with us. And best of all, we know that he has given us sufficient grace to overcome what we are going through. It might take all the faith and effort you have, but if you are willing to fight the good fight of faith, you will be surprised to find that you have the necessary strength. Remember, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you and Christ is in you. Dig deep into the Rock. Reach high to take His hand, with all the faith you have, and you will see His glory in even your darkest hour; you will emerge victorious on the other side.