Battle of the Mind part 1

ever increasing faith from Los Angeles California  with pastor and teacher dr. Frederick Casey price welcome to ever-increasing faith remember these  words from the book of Romans chapter 10 verse   17 so then faith comes by hearing and hearing  by the Word of God praise God for another day   and for another privilege and opportunity to  share with you the Living Word of God I need   your continued faithful financial support if  ever increasing faith television is to remain   on the air in your area on the screen is an  adjuster you can mail your tithes offering or   gift of love let me take this opportunity to  thank you so very much for your path to your   president and whatever future support you were  led to give you are helping to make it happen   alright turn in your Bibles to the book of Hosea  chapter 4 the book of Hosea chapter 4 I'm going   to begin a new study today that I will I believe  will be a blessing to you now you're gonna have   to do a lot of really critical than when I say  critical I mean being really on listening to   get the benefit out of this message the title of  our subject is the Battle of the mind our thought   life and our armor the Battle of the mind and  then in brackets our thought life and our armor   the Battle of the mind our thought life how we  think what we think the way we think the Battle   of the mind our thought life and our armor you  got it all right what does a I almost heard it all right very good very good the battle within  the mind is unavoidable you can't get around it   and the interesting thing about it is that  the conflict knows no age limits no barriers   of any kind no gender ethnicity everybody has to  deal with the battle of the mind and failing to   maintain our thought life produces consequences  and it's interesting to note that as time goes on   and the older you get the consequence has become  more severe for the person that hasn't taken   the time to learn how to govern their thought  life for instance think about a thief when I   was younger kids have a lot of time on your hands  nothing's ever changed about that and we would get   into problems and so we decided to to steal some  peaches off of a tree in somebody else's yard now   you know I've petty step petty little small stuff  like that but we climbed over the fence and we   filled up our little baskets our little bags with  all these beautiful fruit peaches and everything   that was a little thing but it was still thievery  and it was that hatching ground for other things   now we didn't get caught we had no consequences  to pay but we always remember that we had stolen   those peaches well then it started to escalate and  the next thing we knew we were plotting to steal a   car well that wasn't so bad but thing is we got  caught we got caught and the consequences were   not so nice I was the oldest of the group at that  time I was 18 and so I was considered an adult the   other guys that were with me they were 17 and  so they were not they was considered juvenile   so they went to juvenile they took me to jail the  jail with the adults and even after that I didn't   didn't control my thinking like I should have and  I had a friend another friend he wasn't with this   group they've got caught stealing a car and so  he he enticed me to drive his car and what had   happened when we got caught stealing the car they  took away my driver's license and I wasn't opposed   to drive but I'm gonna be smart I can beat the  system so I drove and to show you I can go back   and look at my life and I could give you many  illustrations about things that happened to me   that I know that were divinely guided by God not  not the things that I did but how God orchestrated   me being able to get out of the thing without  being messed up for the rest of my life and so   I never will forget we were way over in East Los  Angeles this this this friend of mine he had a   he worked for a photographic company that where  people would take their film and take it into a   drugstore to get it processed well the drugstore  didn't process the film they sent it out to a   company that was their business to process film so  this guy had this job of picking up and delivering   to the drugstores the reproduced photos and so we  were driving in so he had me driving a car while   I like to drive so but I'm gonna beat the system  here we are way off in East LA I don't even know   where we were what street it was I mean it was  in a residential area it was you know a bunch of   heels and things like that and so here I come  down the hill driving this car and got to the   corner didn't stop made one of those California  rolling stops you know what I'm talking about   which is not a stop and turned the corner coming  right down the street was a motorcycle cop caught   me this time I went to jail for 30 days you took  away my driver's license till I was 21 years old   what I'm showing you all because of not control I  thought life as each incident occurred the results   became increasingly more severe thank God I got  stuck who knows where it could have been but you   think about yourself you go back in your life  and start thinking many of the things that you   got yourselves involved in all was because your  thought life was out of control it was a battle   in the mind you fought the battle and lost went  into something and got hooked up and messed up as   a result of it so we got to talk about the Battle  of the mind our thought life and our armor God   understands the Heavenly Father understands our  challenges and he has made available equipment   or as the Bible calls it armor that we may use  in order to win this battle within the mind so   where do we begin Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 if  you have to see I have it now I'm reading from   the New King James Version of the Bible for  the benefit of first time visitors internet   viewers and ultimately television viewers so if  you're still using the traditional King James   is perfectly alright excellent translation but  some of the words have been upgraded to modern   usage so if I use some words you don't have it  doesn't matter we will actually end up in the   same place so Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 it says  my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge   because you have rejected knowledge I also will  reject you from being priests for me because you   have forgotten the law of your God I also will  forget your children now obviously we're not all   priests in the thin that it was talking about  back there under the Old Covenant but I think   principles here can be extracted the idea is that  people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and I   think that people are destroyed in their lives  many times because of lack of knowledge of how   to govern and control their thought life their  thought get out of control and as a result of it   they many times get into problems that they wish  they'd never seen hallelujah think about hatred   starts out with something little but you keep on  going to keep on going with it never control that   ultimately can end up destroying relationships  what about divorce all divorces started out with   some thought how do you get a divorce how do you  divorce when you started out I love you I love   you I love you I love you I love you I love you so  much in all of a sudden now you can't stand each   other what happened many times it all started here  in the table actually there really wasn't anything   wrong but somehow a little thought got planted  instead of you rejecting that thought taking   control of that thought you kept on mulling over  yeah that's right I could have a yeah I could have   a woman look better than that yeah cook better  yeah yeah yeah I don't care Yeah right yeah ain't   nothing anyway I always didn't want somebody  a little bit taller you know all these kind of   thoughts come you might seem like not much right  now but if you go back and look thoughts destroy   relationship adultery there is no adultery without  thinking about it I want to give you a principle   through this series I'm going to give you several  different principle this first principle is this   thoughts always precede actions no matter even if  you didn't think about it but that long was the   thought something came up before you act even when  you saw what we call on the spur of the moment   there what there was the thought and there was  time to do something about that action just didn't   do it the Battle of the mind our thought life now  based on Hosea 4:6 my people are destroyed for   lack of knowledge therefore our only hope is to  come to know the truth about this war within our   mind and the armor with which we are to clothe  ourselves go down to Ephesians chapter 6 now I   I will caution you about some of these scriptures  that we're getting ready to look at because when   I tell you where they are you're gonna say oh  I know that yep I know that and you're going to   end up missing something very important Ephesians  chapter 6 if you have it say I have it now we're   going to look at some things here in a section of  scripture that I know are very familiar to you I   guarantee you however we're going to examine some  things that I think you perhaps have never seen   in the context in which I'm going to show it to  you because I hadn't seen it and you know I'm   smarter than you Amen hallelujah you do know that  you do realize anyway moving right along and then   go over to will all right if he's in chapter 6 if  you have a say I have it alright verse 10 finally   my brethren now I want you to pay very careful  attention to what we're going to be looking at   because again we're going to look at some things  that are very familiar but I guarantee you there's   gonna be some twists here that you haven't seen  before in this way all right finally my brethren   be strong in the Lord and in the power of his  might put on the whole armour of God that you   may be able to stand against the wiles of the  devil but we do not wrestle against flesh and   blood but against principalities against powers  against the rulers of the darkness of this age   against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the  heavenly places therefore take up the whole   armor of God that you may be able that you may be  able to withstand in the evil day and having done   all to stand stand therefore having girded your  waist with truth having put on the breastplate   of righteousness and having shod your feet with  the preparation of the gospel of peace above all   taking the shield of faith with which you will be  able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked   one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword  of the Spirit which is the word of God I'm sure   that many of you you read that before I've been  read it for years but I recently received some   revelation knowledge about it that I didn't see  before and wondered how in the world as smart as I   am how I didn't see it but that's the beauty about  the Word of God that's why you always want to come   to the Word of God like an empty glass before  a fountain of water if you come full you can't   receive anything you got to come empty so that you  can receive now I want to call your attention to   some things here we must understand that this  whole armor we are encouraged by God to put on   the intensity of called admonition along with  the chosen symbolism of a Roman soldiers armor   suggests strongly that if we choose not to comply  or obey what God has said here in this section   then it is inevitable that we will be defeated  in the battle of the mind now more important than   that and more important than pause description  of each piece of armor is an instruction that   he gives twice go back and look at verse 11 verse  11 it says put on the what now now I wonder armor   just armor forget about the Bible right now  but I'm sure we've all heard of armor armor is   basically for what protection it's for protection  right but notice what Paul says notice what the   Spirit of God emphasizes it he doesn't just  say put on the armor of God he says put on the   whole armor hi baby how you doing doing okay he  didn't say put on the armor which would have told   us what to put on the armor right we would have  known what to put on the armor but I think that   there's something special here in this term whole  armor look at verse 13 look at verse 13 he says   therefore take up the whole armour of God he says  it twice I wonder is he trying to get something   across to us apparently then success does not  depend on one piece of armor alone the word whole   is the key in other words no single piece of armor  can produce complete victory in our lives you must   put on the whole armor of God now I didn't see  that in years gone by I got fixated like many do   I got fixated on several pieces of armor shield  of faith sword of the Spirit I know with myself   I capitalized on those and bypass and overlooked  the word whole there has to be a reason why God   put that in there hold on not just armor but the  whole armor so apparently it takes all of the   armor to produce complete victory all of it now  it's not wrong to take pieces but you're not going   to get the full value it's impossible okay happen  otherwise God would have never said take the whole   arm again I always thought that each piece of the  armor was to protect each area of my spirit man visualize the human body what is man spirit soul  body right now again by doing this and limiting   our thinking just to the pieces of armor we  we become fixated on each individual piece   to the neglect of the whole and I believe that's  dangerous now what do I mean all right visualize   a soldier in full armor now obviously Paul had  to write in the day that he was in but I'm sure   we've all seen like King Arthur and the knights of  the round table and you know Robin Hood and things   like that with the guys wearing the middle suits  of armor but it's very interesting that even now   many of our police officers certainly those in the  military but even the police officers especially   like the Special Forces people are the SWAT  teams I mean they're they have armor on now it's   not that it's not metal like you know we don't  see it the shining metal armor but they've got   Teflon they've got all kind of stuff to ward  off then to protect them and deflect bullets   and missiles that come towards them they have  helmets on and all kind of thing what all that's   armor what's it for protection but these allows  visualize let's say that the helmet we read about   a helmet of salvation if the helmet now follow  this careful if the helmet protects the head   physically now we're talking about if the helmet  protects the head perhaps the helmet of salvation   protects our mind if the breastplate protects  the soldier's vital organs like lungs and heart then maybe the breastplate of righteousness  protects the heart of the believer but how   can that be when the Bible refers to the heart  of man which is the spirit the real person that   lives on the inside because you know your  body is not you your body is just where you   live we're spirits we have souls we live in a  body so if if the breastplate of righteousness   protects the heart of the believer and the heart  is referred to as the spirit of man or the heart   of man or the spirit of man how can the heart  have a heart now you didn't get that I said if   the breastplate of righteousness protects  the heart of the believer and the believer   is spirit soul and body and I'm convinced  that biblically speaking the heart refers   to the real person the spirit man on the  inside because he's a sinner in court of   our being then how can the heart have a heart  so that don't look like that fits excuse me all right then let me ask you this question  what does the loins Girt about with truth   protect what about the feet shod with the  preparation of the gospel what does that protect remember the word hole say hole could it be  that traditionally we have placed an undue   amount of importance on the parts of the armor  to the neglect of the hole could it be that the   only reason Paul refers to a Roman soldier and  his armor was to stress to us the severity of   this battle what's he saying that if I choose  not to put on the whole armor I will experience   defeat in life just as quickly as the soldier  in the midst of battle without his armor would   experience defeat can you imagine a soldier going  out with no armor on could it be that that's what   Paul was attempting to get across to us I think  this can be proven by examining another portion   of Scripture now as I told you you got to pay  real strict attention are you gonna miss it go   to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 1st Thessalonians  chapter 5 keep your hand on Ephesians because   we'll come back to that Ephesians 6 we'll  come back go to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 now we're going to look at some things here  now that as I told you before you're gonna   see something you might have missed few of you  pretty smart pretty clever I can look at some   Intel spiritually off but wait but we're gonna  look at something here that's going to be very   very interesting first what did I say first  Thessalonians chapter would all right first   there's only Chapter five all right now now  listen carefully verse eight I'm gonna see   how spiritual you are verse eight but let  us who are of the day be sober putting on   the breastplate of faith and love and as a  helmet the hope of salvation what did he say   let me read that again because it's really  important we gonna get to something in a   moment verse eight again but let us who are of  the day be sober putting on the breastplate of   faith and love and as a helmet the hope  of salvation now what's up with this if   you compare the Salone ins with Ephesians that  we read previously it would appear that Paul   in the use of his symbolisms was confused but in  reality he wasn't and we'll see that in a moment notice that in first Thessalonians that we  just read chapter five verse eight he calls   it the breast plate of faith and love  breast plate of faith and love say that   breastplate of faith and love one more time  breastplate of faith and love interests on   breast plate breastplate of faith and love  but in Ephesians 6:14 go back to that now Ephesians 6:14 he calls it the breastplate of  righteousness now which is it the breastplate of   faith and love or the breastplate of righteousness  then in Ephesians 6 16 look at that he called it   the shield of faith but in first Thessalonians we  just read he says breastplate of faith and love   and notice also something that's conspicuous in  its absence that in Ephesians in describing the   armor of God Paul never refers to love it's not  even mentioned in that sixth chapter now all of a   sudden now is faith in love well what is it what  what well I think there's a little secret here Paul again described it and as I said he  doesn't even mention love as a vital piece   of the armor that we are to put on and in  comparing first Thessalonians with Ephesians   it's obvious that Paul did not remain loyal  to his Roman soldier symbolism throughout his   two writings or teaching it seems that to him  I'll pick up on this it seemed that to him it   didn't matter whether its breastplate of faith  or breastplate of righteousness gives can I get   mattered because the interchanges him he wasn't  consistent in his symbolism if the symbol was to   be breastplate of righteousness then it would  be breastplate of righteousness everywhere he   would mention breastplate but he doesn't so  there must be something up with this all of   this brings us to some specific questions  that demands some specific answers some of   the question that we must ask and answer  to bring clarity to this armor issue are   and we'll get into that in just a moment  but some of you should remember the young   man talked about understanding see we just  read some scripture but do you understand it see Paul said breastplate of faith and love and  it says breastplate of righteousness which which   which which which which which one is it which one  is it I can quote it I can read it do I understand   it so there are some questions that demand  specific answers and some of the questions that we   must ask and answer to bring clear to this to this  armor issue are number one write this down I'll be   looking at me better be looking down at your paper  number one what is the armor that we are to put on what is the armor that we are to put  on number two what exactly is it to   be used against why do I need armor I mean  I have an enemy I understand that but but   why do I need armor why do I need all this  helmet breastplate shield sword loins Girt   feet shod so so what exactly is the armor  to be used against number three what does   it protect and number four I'll go back over  them number four how is the armor to be used how is the armor to be used all right let's go  back over there number one was what what's the   first question that kind of played out before you  got to the end there what was number one again number two number three number four all right  consider this since Paul did not remain loyal to   his Roman soldier symbolism throughout his writing  it may be time to downplay the importance or   downplay its importance and doing so may allow us  to turn our attention to the more important issue   discovering the true armor of God now I propose  a very simple procedure that will assist us to   look beyond the soldier symbolism and find the  true armor of God that we are to put on now this   procedure requires us to remove the Roman soldier  phrases from within the passage of scriptures that   we just read there in Ephesians in other words  take out all of the soldier emphases what do I   mean all right for the sake of clarity only let  us remove the terms loins Girt breastplate feet   shod helmet and the sword and see what's left this  is gonna blow your mind you ready for this you you   never read it like this you ready for this I want  to go back and read it now you look at me you look   at me and listen to what we said we talked about  we need to answer these questions but what we're   going to do because I think what has messed us  up not Paul messed this up we just got we were   looking for the right reason in the wrong place  you get what I'm saying getting what I'm saying   so what we want to do to bring clarity to the  issue is we're going to pull out of his Roman   soldier symbolism because he was using it as an  illustration or example we're gonna pull out all   of the Roman soldier symbolism issues I'm gonna  take them out of the equation again loins Girt   I'm gonna get rid of it just for the discussion  breastplate we're going to move it out of the   way feet shod you get rid of it for now helmet  put it aside the sword put it aside see what   we have left look at me now I'm going to read  therefore take up the whole armour of God that   you may be able to withstand in the evil day and  having done all to stand stand therefore having   truth having righteousness and with the gospel  of peace above all taking faith with which you   will be able to quench all the fiery darts of  the wicked one and take salvation and the Word   of God you see an entirely different picture when  you remove the Roman soldier symbolism out of the   equation Wow you see something that you didn't  see before let me read that again because this   is your main to the issue at hand therefore  take up the whole armor of God that you may   be able to withstand in the evil day and having  done all to stand stand therefore having truth   having righteousness and with the gospel of  peace above all taking faith with which you   will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the  wicked one and take salvation and the Word of God okay watches now once the soldier terms are  removed it suddenly becomes apparent that   the armor that we are to put on is the  armor of truth righteousness the gospel   of peace faith salvation and the Word of God  that's the armor that's our protection truth   righteousness the gospel of peace faith  salvation and the Word of God now wait   a minute let's stop for a moment and think  and ask another question it's Paul asking   the church at Ephesus to put on salvation go  to Ephesians chapter 1 that's a good question is the asking the Christians in Ephesus  to put on salvation Ephesians 1 you have   it say I have it alright verse 1 tells us  who Paul was writing to Paul an apostle of   Jesus Christ by the will of God to the  Saints who are in Ephesus and faithful   in Christ Jesus so who is Paul writing to  Christians would you agree I said who is   Paul writing to Christians well why would  Paul tell save people to put on salvation he's writing to Christian and Christians were  already saved that's what makes them Christian   if that they're saved now he's tell him say  folk to put on salvation hmm then he tells   us to put on righteousness but but but but how  can that be Christians are already righteous   in fact Paul is the one that tells us this go  to second Corinthians chapter 5 you still here   alright don't leave me yet the Battle of the  mind our thought life in our armor oh you're   gonna love it you're gonna love it you just  got to stay with it we got to get through   the introductory period but boy I'm telling you  that mind is something the battle and there's a   battle going on you're not you have no idea how  important that battle is and why God has given   us this armor and how we're supposed to use it  alright Satan Corinthians remember Paul tells us   that put on righteousness put on righteousness  but who's he talking to Christians he's talking   to born-again believers they're already righteous  2nd Corinthians chapter 5 if you have a say I have   it alright verse 17 therefore if anyone is in  Christ he is the new creation old things have   passed away behold all things have become new  now all things are of God who has reconciled us   to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us  the Ministry of reconciliation that is that God   was in Christ reconciling the world to himself  not imputing their trespasses to them and has   committed to us the word of reconciliation  now then we are ambassadors for Christ as   though God were pleading to us we implore you  on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God for he   that is God made him that is Christ who knew  no sin to be sin for us that we might become   the righteousness of God in him now here's Paul  telling us the ranch's to put on righteousness so what does he mean now he couldn't be telling  us to put on righteousness every day or put on   salvation every day because think about what would  happen if you get up one morning and forget to put   on your salvation you walk around all day unsaved  huh if he's telling us to put on righteousness if   he meant for us to do this every day and then  you give up one morning and go out dizzy and   in a hurry and forget to take your righteousness  you could walk around all day unrighteous surely   couldn't be talking about that could he so then  if we are not being told to put on our salvation   every day what does Paul mean in our Ephesians  passage when he tells us to put on salvation he   is simply Oh pick up on this now he is simply  telling us to put on daily what we know about   our salvation he's telling us to put on daily what  we know about our righteousness oh that's why we   read in Hosea my people are destroyed for a lack  of knowledge if you don't know what's involved   with your salvation just being saved if that's  all you know you don't know enough what does he   mean when he says put on truth put on faith put  on the gospel of peace put on the Word of God   I submit to you that the armor that we are to  put on is the armor of Bible knowledge that's   the armor what do you know about your salvation  what do you know about your righteousness what   do you know about the gospel of peace what do  you know about faith what do you know about the gospel of peace what do you know about the  Word of God I submit that we are to put on the   armor that we are to put on is the armor of Bible  not Paul is telling us that if we desire to win   the battle of the mind our thought life if we  are to win we must put on what we know about our   salvation then we are to use what we know about  our salvation against the enemy as he attempt   to destroy us through our thought life when we put  on what we know about these issues and when we use   our knowledge of these things properly we will not  be defeated by the wiles of the devil his fiery   darts will no longer carry out their destructive  work in our lives if we are to avoid becoming   another casualty of the war we must put on and  properly use the true armor of God which is simply   Bible knowledge now I want to ask a question  I want to point out something that you may not   have seen in Ephesians we looked at this but in  Ephesians 6:14 it talks about truth in Ephesians   6:15 you talked about the gospel of peace in  Ephesians 6:17 it talked about the Word of God you remember that don't lie now do you remember that  talked about truth talked about the Word of God   and talked about the gospel of peace my question  to you is this what's the real difference between   the Word of God the gospel of peace and truth  what's the difference what's really the difference   between truth the Word of God and the gospel of  peace what's the difference it's all the same   it means a simple why did he tell us this what's  the difference between it really is no difference   truth is the Word of God God's Word is the truth  and the truth is the gospel of peace because it's   the good news about the truth so what's the real  difference there isn't it how well we use what we   know about our salvation about our faith about our  righteousness about the gospel of peace and the   Word of God in essence determines whether we win  or lose this battle that Paul is telling us about another question I have for you why did  Paul use the Roman soldier symbolism   I believe that the reason he used  it was because he was out of time stay right where you are this message have been a  blessing to you they announced to attach some very   important information about how you may receive an  audio cassette or CD of the message which you've   just heard for your own spiritual nourishment  and edification remember again that these   telecasts and radio broadcast made possible by the  continued free will offerings of you the viewers   and listeners remember also these words the 2nd  Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7 for we walk by   faith not by sight this program is now available  to you on CD or DVD to share with your family and   friends CD copies are available for your love  gift of any amount DVD copies are available   for your love gift of $15 or more for the ongoing  support of this ministry call the number on your   screen or write to apostle frederick casey price  fox 90,000 los angeles california 90024 twitter   and join us again on the ever increasing faith  Network bringing to you the power of faith to   transform next time on ever-increasing faith God  doesn't want us to come up with the short end of   a big stick that he doesn't want us to go out  unprepared but he wants us to put on armor of   God this program is produced by ever-increasing  faith ministries and you our faithful friends and

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Length: 46min 44sec (2804 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 05 2019