The Disciplined Mind: Managing Temptations and Contemplations

Synopsis of Bible Study 05/20/20

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III, D.Min.

Our head is attached to our body, so what’s in our head matters.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

We are constantly being informed by world views and philosophies that we here. Our personal stories are filled with disappointment, brokenness, and pain. Our hearts and minds have been with lies, deceit, and accusations from both the world and the enemy.

Have you ever slowed down and paid attention to what’s going on in your in your head? What are you hearing? What are you thinking? what are you believing in?

Temptation: The desire to do something especially something wrong or unwise.

Contemplation: The action of thoughtfully looking at something for a long time. A deep reflective thought. – In other words, my desires cause me to focus on things longer than I should, when  shouldn’t be focusing on them at all.It is a challenge.

You have to remember that your thoughts are just as important as your actions. Some people think, “I thought it, but I didn’t do it”. Matthew 15:19 (NKJV) ¹⁹ For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.  –  Jesus once said if you thought it in your heart, you’ve already done it. Temptations and contemplations are like magnets. Closer they get to each other, the harder it is to pull them apart.

I.            MANAGING TEMPTATIONS AND CONTEMPLATIONS

1. Situation Selection – You have to avoid situations where temptation is present. Look at the situation, know yourself, and then avoid it.
   1. Sometimes we try to act like we are stronger than we are.
2. Situation Modification – Sometimes we can’t avoid situations, but we can modify our engagement in it to protect our lives.
3. Distraction – Diverting your attention. The temptation is there, but we divert our attention elsewhere. This means that we put my attention towards something positive.
4. Reappraisal – We must ask the question, is it really worth it? Is our reputation and wellbeing worth taking this chance?
5. Response Inhibition – I now look more deeply at this thing, than I used to. What I thought was good, no longer looks the same. Carnal flesh will make things look better than they really are.

II.            THE BATTLE OF THE MIND

1. Challenge Your Thoughts
2. We have to tell our thoughts, “You won’t govern me, I will govern you!” 2 Timothy 2:22 “Flee also youthful lust; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”- When you’re a God chaser, you try to apply his word to all aspects of your life.
3. You try to make sure everything you put into your spirit aligns with God’s will.
4. Bring Your Mind Into Submission
5. At some point you’ve got to bring your mind into submission of the Spirit of God.
6. God’s word is the answer to combating the temptations of the enemy.
   1. Philippians 2:5-11 “5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” – Jesus made himself of no reputation. He humbled himself and came to us as a man. He who was of the Word, came in flesh and humbled himself.
   1. Jesus even realized that in doing this, His spirit must be stronger than his mind.
   1. My spirit must be stronger than my mind. Some of you want to go one way, but God wants you to go another way. Your spirit must be strong.
7. Consider the Fruit
8. Will power is not the problem. Our willpower overrides what we know to be right. Your willpower can be the difference between your breakthrough or your breakdown.
9. Discipline comes in at the Will to do what you are supposed to do. We know to do it, but we need to be willing to do it.
   1. Its about your mental state. When your spirit and your mind are properly aligned, your mind will always be in order and your Will within your spirit, will always be motivated to do what the Lord wants you to do.
10. Fight Back
11. The war in your mind is not passive activity. Every day you wake up, there is this war in your mind. We all have mental battles all the time, especially now.
    1. 1 Corinthians 15:2 “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” – You’ve got to hold fast to God’s word. I have to have His word on my mind and my mind on His word.
    1. This keeps me in a disciplined state, that no matter what comes in my life or no matter what lie the enemy puts into my head, the word of God is what immediately comes into counter it.
       1. If there is no word in your life, then you have nothing to counter what comes at you.
       1. I have to come to a place in my life where I believe in his word completely.
12. We often buy into false images. 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;” – Every day you wake up, you have to deal with imagination. The root word to imagination is “Images”. These are pictures that the enemy tries to put into your mind and your spirit.
    1. When false images come into you mind, you have to cast them down. When images develop in the dark room of your mind, bad things happen.
13. The moment where fear or bitterness comes in, you have to say, I apprehend you this very hour.

III.            HOW TO NAVIGATE WHAT YOU CAN’T CONTROL

1. Stay in Your Reality
2. Focus on what you can control. I might not be able to control what happens to me, but I can control how I respond to it.
3. Stop living a false reality. Stop living something that is not your truth. Be honest about where you are.
4. Have practical honesty. Be honest that your situation is out of control. When something is out of control, it’s out of control.
   1. This is like an alcoholic saying, “I can stop anytime I get ready.”
5. You can’t allow fear to get into the way. Accept your current situation, but don’t allow it to paralyze you.  How many people do you know that are still crying over something that happened to them in the past?
6. Make peace with yourself. When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with your situation.
7. Self-Assessment

1 Corinthians 10:23 (NKJV) ²³ All things are lawful ^[a]for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things ^[b]edify.

1. You have to know yourself and know what situations you can put yourself in.
2. It may be legal, but it may not be good for you. Weed may be legal, but if you have an addictive personality, then it might not be good for you.
3. If You Can Not Figure It Out, Wait and Rely on God
4. Jeremiah is honest about his situation.
   1. Lamentations 3:21-26 “21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. 26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” –Jeremiah recalled to his mind. You can’t bring something back to your mind, that wasn’t in your mind in the first place.
   1. Because of the Lord’s mercies, we are not consumed. Every morning God’s mercies are new. God prevents the enemy’s plan for us every day.
5. Put your trust in God and settle yourself in the Lord.
   1. John 14:15-18 “15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” – God will not leave you helpless.

IV.            BIBLICAL EXAMPLES

1. Jeremiah
2. The word of God came to Jeremiah’s life early, to discipline him. This is why he was able to recall God’s word to his life.
3. You can have a moment, but don’t let that moment arrest you.  Jeremiah 1:4-10 “4 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” 6 Then said I: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak 8 Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord. 9 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. 10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”
4. Before you even go there, God says he wants you to know He never sends you where you to a place that he hasn’t equipped you for. You need to say, “I am not going down the road of fear and activity”.
5. Jesus
6. Jesus has a moment, when he was tempted in the wilderness.
7. We often think Jesus was physically taken to different places and tempted. Matthew 4:1-4 “ 1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”  – Jesus is exhausted and tired and hungry and that’s when the tempter usually comes.
   1. The devil only took Jesus to places in his mind. This wasn’t physical. The devil doesn’t have power of Jesus. This was mental.
8. Jesus kept responding with the word. The only thing that will help during temptation is the word of God.

V.            THREE WAYS TO MAINTAIN A DISCIPLINED MIND

1. Understand Deliverance
2. Deliverance is a process. It takes discipline. When some people say they quit smoking, they have to stay at it. It is not a onetime thing.
3. Deliverance isn’t a one-time experience.  Luke 4:13 (NKJV) ¹³ Now when the devil had ended every ^[a]temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.  –  The devil comes in shifts. The devil needs something else to go into. He might leave, but he will come back greater than he was before.
4. Starve the Old Nature
5. If you have problems with your faith to combat tempation, then you have to do something different. Luke 16:10 “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.” – Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
6. Escape the enemies snare. Psalm 124:7 (NKJV) ⁷ Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the ^[a]fowlers; The snare is broken, and we have escaped. – You got to be willing to starve your old nature. If you starve it, it will die.
   1. If you keep feeding your old nature, it will get stronger and stronger. If you don’t feed it, it will die.
7. Feed the New Nature
8. There’s a new you. Occupy your life with the things of Christ.
   1. Colossians 3:10 “and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”
   1. Proverbs 13:4 “The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing;” – It puts us in a better position to hear from God. The real cure to temptation is discipline.
9. When your mind and you heart is disciplined and you have the word as a core value, then you will win. You need to develop your appetite with the word of God.
10. We can’t promise temptation won’t come, but if you are in the word of God, we can promise that you will overcome it.