By Benjamin Raven Pressley
Fear, sadness, even depression are the battles we all seem to fight on some level everyday of our lives. Sometimes it is worse from person to person and day to day. Sometimes there are legitimate medical reasons like chemical imbalance, malfunctioning glands like the thyroid and probably lots of others that can contribute to fear, sadness and depression. That being said though as human beings just trying to live must realize there is always a spiritual side to things, a spiritual warfare that contributes to these things. We may or may not can deal with the medical issues related to the problems we have but we can deal with the spiritual and mental issues that exasperate a situation.
To survive and be victorious over fear and sadness there are four areas we need to work on:

• We must learn to control our thoughts. This will take re-training your mind from years of stinking thinking. We must realize that the battle in our mind must be won and can be won.
• We need to know who we are in Christ.
• We need to know who the devil is and how to deal with him. He has been defeated and has no power over you any more than you give him. His weapons are fear, doubt and depression. The good news is he cannot read your mind and he cannot control your thoughts. He can interject thoughts into your mind but you don’t have to accept them.
• We need to know how to recognize the voice of God and the voice of the devil, as well as the voice of our own flesh. We must realize that we have the power of choice and we can choose which voice we listen to. Choose to listen to God as He speaks and as He has already spoken in the Bible, God’s Word.Have you read the book Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer? If you haven’t please get it. Any bookstore carries it or order from Amazon.com. God used that book to literally save my life. There was a time in my life when I was so afraid. I was afraid that every ache and pain was something serious, I was afraid something was going to happen to my children, I was afraid I would lose my job or I would not have enough money to pay my bills…afraid, afraid, afraid. I was sad and depressed all the time. I didn’t want to live. It got to a point that I thought I was losing my mind and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I couldn’t sleep. I was tormented by my thoughts. I thought I was at the mercy of my thoughts but this book helped me to realize that I controlled my thoughts and I could choose what I think. I learned a lot about dealing with worry and fear. It exposed the devil’s most formidable weapon against the believer and destroyed the stronghold it held on me. Much of what I am about to share with you is what God has taught me through reading that book and what I have learned since.
  First of all realize God has not given you the spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Get this verse in your head and into your spirit. Say it out loud frequently.  Every battle you fight in this life will be won or lost in the mind. Some things you cannot control but you can control how you think and how you are going to react and what you are going to do about it.    Our actions are a direct result of our thoughts. Negative thoughts create a negative life. Worry, doubt, confusion, depression (most cases), anger, feelings of condemnation, all these are attacks on your mind. We must learn to: Gain control over our mind and find freedom and peace. Recognize damaging thoughts and stop them from influencing our life. Be patient with ourselves even when we make mistakes. Arm yourself with the Word of God, praise, prayer and other spiritual weapons. Follow the light out of your mental wilderness (bad attitudes and excuses people use that keep them from God) and find undreamed of happiness and fulfillment. I know that is promising a lot. And I don’t come to you as one who has mastered this. But if you knew me only 5 years ago and walked with me on my journey till today you would understand how far I have come believing God, following these principles I am going to teach you. I want you to get free. I want you to learn how to live free.
      Do you know we are made up of body, soul and spirit? You have a spirit. If you have been born again your spirit that was dead is now alive again. That is why it is called being born again. You are now a spirit being that has a soul and that lives in a fleshly body. God’s Spirit dwells in you. Your spirit is where your conscience dwells. It is the only part of you that can hear God’s voice as He speaks from His Word and sometimes a still small voice from within. Those voices screaming at you from outside in are not God. They are the devil or the bad programming of years of not thinking right. Your body is the part of us that interacts with the physical world using our five senses. The soul is your mind, your will and your emotions. It is like a bridge between your body and spirit. It is where you make decisions, where you choose. God has given you the power of choice. He does not choose for you. You must choose to follow God’s voice so your spirit will rule over the body. If you continually choose what the body wants then it will rule and the spirit will become weak.
      Prov. 23:7 says as a man thinks in his heart so is he. What do you think you are? If you think you are weak and fearful, you will be weak and fearful. Find out who the Word of God says you are and train yourself to think that way.
     2 Cor. 10:5 says bring every thought captive. Control your thoughts! Where the mind goes the man follows. Get your mind on an ice cream sundae long enough you will go and get one. If you think someone has hurt you long enough you will not treat them right. We can do something about what we think about. You are not at the mercy of every thought that pops in your head.
     Did you know you can think thoughts on purpose? Sure you can. And it is important that you do just that! Take some time everyday to have a think session and meditate on thoughts that Bible says. Get one of those Bible promise books or better yet get Joyce Meyer’s The Secret Power of Speaking God’s Word. It is a topically arranged easy to carry book. I have taken it in doctor’s office many times while I was sitting in the waiting room reading the verses out loud to keep from becoming fearful. Think things on purpose. It will change you. I know what you’re thinking what about the person who is always thinking bad thoughts and prospers. Well, you don’t know, that person may be miserable inside. You can have all the ‘stuff’ in world and not have peace, joy and happiness. What we think about is important to God. The Bible teaches it is the hidden man of the heart that He is concerned about…… [Read the rest of this study]

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