The battle for your mind

My friends in 2 Corinthians 10: 4-5 it says "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" We live in a material world but our battle is in the spiritual. The battlefield is in the mind. Our weapons are spiritual weapons, such as the Word and prayer. These weapons are to be used against strongholds in our minds. Strongholds are equivalent to stinking thinking developed while growing up. When I worked as a residential counselor many of the kids I worked with had stinking thinking, such as, I will take this because I like it. Liking something does not give you the right to take it, but these were strong and wrong patterns of thinking that were established over many years. We all have them, and the devil exploits them to try to get us to do something that goes against God's will for our lives. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the Word of God, and a consistent prayer life to tear down these strongholds and in the process renew our minds. With these spiritual weapons strongholds like pride, prejudice, false arguments, thoughts and knowledge can come tumbling down. I have only mentioned two weapons in this writing, prayer and the Word. Our prayers are like long range rockets blasting away at destructive thinking patterns, and at the enemies attempts to use them against us. The Word is a sharp two edged sword used for close range combat. Used in this way it is an offensive weapon, causing great harm to the enemy but also the Word applied in our lives is like a surgeons scalpel cutting away the self-life and all of the stinking thinking that is part of it and leaving us totally dependent on Jesus and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. My friends don't let stinking thinking stink up your life, but rather apply the Word of God and prayer to your life. Allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind.