The Lord spoke to me one day and said, "Teach My people that they cannot out think the devil."
I replied to Him how that made sense to me because Satan was smarter and more experienced than we were.
When I asked what we could do, He answered me, "You can out talk him." When I asked why that could be, He replied, "Because Satan can't answer you back." Of course, all of us know that we win all one-sided conversations.
Since Satan can only work through our thought processes, our wonderful Lord is trying to help us overcome this source of frustration.
The brain (our carnal thoughts—past, present, and future) can only be overcome by a verbal use of the tongue. Only with powerful words of faith and Scripture can we successfully battle the greatest source of our insecurities.
The tongue will speak out either for the flesh or for the heart. If we use our tongue to give aid and comfort to the flesh, then the heart—that which we believe with, the God-given spirit within us—is neutralized.
If we receive doubts, fears, and unbelief, and then speak and live them, then we are truly carnal Christians.
David's Temptation
The story of David and Bathsheba is a good example of a great man falling because he gave in to his carnal brain.
As a shepherd boy, he had a believing mind. He experienced what God could do by the victory he received over the bear and the lion. Young David was the only person in Israel who was ready to face Goliath.
That which caused David, the giant killer, to fall has also caused many other Christians to fall. They do not know how to combat the temptation that comes to their flesh by what they see and hear.
What should David have done when he saw Bathsheba bathing, especially when he learned she was another man's wife? He should have averted his eyes, sung the 23rd Psalm, and worshiped God. Just by using his tongue to speak Scripture, David could have caused the temptation that was so demanding at the moment to pass.
Plus, David already had a beautiful wife that God had given to him to satisfy his desires.
Many twentieth-century men have also fallen in this same way. It happens all too frequently.
The Answer
There is an answer to Satan's temptation of the brain. It is to use the mind of Christ—a set will that speaks out loud and says, as Jesus said, "Not My will, but Thine be done." The words of the mouth, spoken out of the depth of the heart (the mind of Christ), will offset the evil that appeals to the fleshly brain.
As you can see, insecurities, if allowed to go unchallenged, will always interfere with the Lord's security that wants to flow from our hearts where He dwells.
I have overcome many of my insecurities by doing this: simply confessing Christ as the source and strength of my life. The tricks of the enemy and the carnal brain are thus offset, and I am free to become what He wants me to be.
A Prayer
Dear Father, I am so glad You laid all my sins and evil thoughts on Your Son, Jesus. He took all my sins and gave me complete pardon, so that I will never have to meet them in heaven.
Thank You for helping me to allow the new mind of Christ—the mind that loves God and hates evil—to grow inside me.
Thank You that I know now how to deal with this carnal brain. I will set my new mind of the spirit to serve You, and with my mouth I will continually confess Your greatness and my love to You. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers