The Battlefield of the Mind
The mind is the battlefield upon which God and Satan face off. Every act, invention, war, and change--positive or negative--begins with a thought. Wars are fought over thoughts--thoughts of greed, religious and political ideologies. The light bulb in Thomas Edison's head turned on before he had the idea to create the light bulb. You and I can fly to and fro, covering distances in a matter of hours that would have taken days, months and even years to cover by land simpy because the Wright brothers had an idea. Thoughts are so powerful they can effect your physical body: they can produce chemicals in your body that thrust you into a state of sickness (tumors, heart disease, asthma, headaches, obesity, diabetes, Gastrolintestianal problems, accelerated aging, etc.). Medical research reveals that positive thoughts can undo the effects of negative thoughts. For example, laughter has been discovered to release certain chemicals in the body: serotonin and interleukins, which boosts your immunity; it also oxygenates your body, which increases blood-flow to the brain, thereby increasing brain function and memory; it also helps to eliminate parasites and bacteria, and more. Just think: all of that money you spent on dangerous drugs and medications you could have saved just by using the natural medicine God already placed inside of you: laughter. This is why Solomon, being years ahead of modern day science, wrote in Proverbs 17:22, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength" (NLT). Ever wonder why people who laugh more and express themselves more live longer than those who bottle up their emotions? The devil knows that the mind is more powerful than you or I can imagine; that's why he messes with it so much. He even knows that the mind has the ability to perceive different dimensions; hence, the use of drugs by the shamans and oracles (psychics) in antiquity...and today. They used powerful, psychedelic, mind-altering drugs to help induce an altered state of consciousness in order to commune with deities in other realms. This is why God condemned sorcerty in Relevation 9:21. The word "sorcery" in the Greek is pharmakeia, from whence comes our English word "pharmacy" (drugs). God knows, as does Satan, that certain chemicals open up the mind to certain realms--particularly, the realm where demons and fallen angels dwell. God urges that we avoid sorcery in order to keep certain doors shut. (Remember: God condemns all forms of occultism in Deuteronomy 18, of which sorcery, shamanism, and mind-altering practices such as yoga and transcendental mediation are.) If Satan can't get you one way, he will come at you another way. For some people, he knows he can't get them with drugs and alcohol, so he uses thoughts of lust, perversion, fear, anxiety and worry, and even religious strongholds. Therefore, in order to combat the stress-inducing, damaging, debilitating, tormenting, demonic thoughts Satan loves to plant in our minds (1 John 4:18) in order to stifle, distract and devastate us and destroy our health and derail our spirits from the path of God's perfect will, God instructs us to meditate on His Word day and night (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2) (the word "meditate" in the Bible is the Hebrew word hagah, and it means "to mutter, to speak, to muse, to utter." Therefore, Christians are to continually discuss the Word of God (ponder over it) in their minds. This is the opposite of occult meditation. In the occult (in yoga, transcendental meditation, hypnosis, etc.), the goal is to empty your mind of all thoughts; but in biblical meditation, the goal is to fill your mind with God's Word--in doing so, you'll leave little room for Satan to enter your mind and plant his thoughts and suggestions in your head. Remember: Paul said to leave Satan no room in our lives (Ephesians 4:27). Satan knows that all things will forever work out for the good of those who love God and obey His Word (Romans 8:28; 1 John 5:3) and that if they "feint not" (Galatians 6:9) (which means to not give up on God and stop obeying His Word out of frustration) during their season of trials and testing, they will enter into their "due season" of harvest and reward; therefore, he attempts to play with our minds and make us think God doesn't see or love us when we're going through in order to remove us from the place of blessings. So, get hip to Satan's schemes and remind yourself of God's Word continually--preferably, daily. Every farmer knows you only reap what you sow, and a harvest takes time to grow--it grows roots before it manifests above the surface. So, be patient and let your blessing develop some roots first.