I don’t want us to be deceived, we have an evil enemy who goes about seeking what he can destroy (1 Peter 5:8). The main thing he wants to destroy is our lives and humankind. Ideally all of God’s creation is his target. So how do we combat the enemy? Well firstly we must understand how he operates. The more someone understands how a person operates the easier it is to interact with them. The more someone understands their boss, the easier it is to navigate the relationship and this also applies to spousal relationships, friendships, sibling interactions and almost any relationship there is!

Many problems in life comes about because we don’t take the time to understand each other at an individual level, cultural or ethnic level, or even a national level, because nations disagree with other nations which sometimes can lead to wars. So, taking the time to understand people who are opposite or different from us is important.

This concept also applies to inanimate objects, like an electronic or technological device for example. If I don’t read the television manual I wouldn’t be able to fully understand how to interact with it, understand  it’s functions and features or even the limitations. So, reading and understanding the manual from the creator of the object will work well for our benefit.

I want to put forward today that by applying these two approaches we can better equip ourselves to understand the attacks of Satan. That is, if we spend time to read and understand how he operates by looking at God’s manual, we will be better poised to quench his fiery darts (Ephesians 6:16). So, let’s examine the devils playbook as noted by the bible.

One of the first things that the devil attacks is our mind. I would even go as far as to say, “not one of the first” but the first thing he attacks is our mind. The very first attack from Satan on mankind was with Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3). He wasted no time with Eve, Satan went straight for the jugular to deal a fatal blow by attacking her mind.

If you look at the verbal exchange you will initially notice Eve was standing firm on the word of God and when you stand on the word of God you will always be in right standing. But the Devil started to use twisted words (verse 4) and say, “you will NOT surely die!”. He planted words which are totally opposite and untrue and this is what he continues to do today. Putting seeds in Eve’s mind and our mind to cause us to change our thinking.

Then we all know what happened next, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” – Genesis 3:6.

Eve only lost when she changed her mind! It is only when we change our mind and turn away from God is WHEN WE WILL LOOSE. The opposite also holds, it is only when we change our mind and turn away from this world is WHEN WE WILL WIN. The mind is truly a powerful thing and both God and Satan know this.

The thing is, the mind affects the Heart, and both affect our behaviour and our behaviour will produce negative or positive actions. And as we all know, actions have consequences. But when we trace back to the root cause we can always see that the gateway which started it all was the mind.

This is why we always have to be conscious of what we are thinking. Put another way, we have to think about what we are thinking about. This is why the bible commands us not to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). The Apostle Paul also warned us by using Eve as an example when he said:

2 Corinthians 11:3 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

I wouldn’t want anyone who is reading this blog to simply read it and move on. I want to encourage everyone to stop for a minute and think about your current thoughts towards a situation, person, event or even God Himself. Spend time to search yourself and see which thoughts are opposite from the life-giving words of God.

If you found any then that thought is a poisoning and contaminating weed which was planted in the garden of your mind by the Devil and his instruments. Those thoughts only come to steal, kill and destroy you and I say root them out. Root them out by searching the scriptures for verses which are more in alignment with heavenly thinking and what would positively feed your soul. Remember faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God (Romans10:17)

Philippians 4:8 (NIV-WS) Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

In this moment I encourage everyone to renew your mind and don’t fall for the plans of the enemy by letting him lead you astray from your sincere devotion to Christ our Lord. Be mindful of his attack on your mind.

PS: Dane Miller was last seen walking out his tool shed and heading to the garden of his mind to root out some weeds.

Your Brother in the Lord,

Dane Miller | Author

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