Satan Wants to Control Our Minds

There is a war, and our enemy is not flesh and blood.

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The devil wars against us. According to this verse, there is a deadly array of demonic hosts. They are invisible and are dedicated to the destruction of our thought life. They are under the authority of the prince of darkness, the devil himself.

2 Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

This verse speaks of imaginations, knowledge, and thought. There is a war. Satan is behind it, and our minds are his battleground. Satan’s desire is to conquer and to control our thought life and make our thought lives a citadel from which he can war against God.

There is a difference between our minds and our brains. The Bible is very clear about this distinction. Our minds do the thinking, and our brains are what we think with.

This is similar to the relationship between a piano and the pianist. The pianist uses the piano to express the music.

Our brains and our minds are separate. When we get saved, we have the mind of Christ. This doesn’t mean that we have a higher IQ, but we have a different capacity for thinking. The fact that we’ve been saved doesn’t mean that the war is over for us.

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Paul is writing here to the Corinthian Christians. The word “simplicity” means “purity,” “sincerity.” It’s single-minded devotion. The devil wants to corrupt our minds.

2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

“Godly jealousy” is a good jealousy that wants to protect those whom we love. Parents have a right to be jealous over their children that they might be protected. Paul uses the analogy in this verse to say that the people at Corinth were his spiritual children. They were the bride of Christ, and Paul did not want them to be corrupted. Paul wants to protect the church. He wants the church to have that pure, sincere love and singlemindedness for Jesus Christ.

The devil knows that if he can get our minds, then he can corrupt our minds and pull us away from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

God destroyed an entire civilization because of their thought life.

Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. We need to guard our minds.

Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Our minds need to be fastened upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only does the devil want our minds, but God wants our minds. It is through our minds that God reaches us, communicates with us, and controls us.

Ephesians 4:17-18 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

“The vanity of their mind” in this passage means “the emptiness of their mind.” The word “heart” here refers to the mind. God does not communicate to us through our emotions. Emotions are the shallowest part of our natures. Salvation is the deepest work of God. God reveals Himself to our minds and changes our minds.

Ephesians 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

God renews us in the spirit of our minds. We can change the way we live by changing the way we think.

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.