The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (20 page)

And that is why every time you hear preaching or read books that are Jesus-centered and not man-centered, repentance is happening. Anointed Jesus-filled messages and resources set you free from wrong thinking and calibrate your believing and thinking so that your beliefs and thoughts can be in line with God’s Word. And by now, you should know that right believing and right thinking always produce right results in your life.

How God Assesses Your Thoughts

We have talked about the breastplate of the high priest and how the Lord depicts us as precious gems close to His heart in chapter 6.
Here, I want to unveil to you the significance of another item the high priest wears—the gold plate that is around his forehead.

The high priest wears a gold plate bearing the words “Holiness to the Lord” on his forehead.

You can read about this gold plate in Exodus 28:36, 38: “You shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD… So it shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things… and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the L
ORD
.”

In the Old Testament, Aaron was the first high priest of Israel. The high priest of Israel is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
our permanent High Priest today. God instructed that this golden plate of the miter (headdress), which has the Hebrew words
Kadosh Le Yahweh
engraved on it, should always be on the forehead of the high priest. The engraving means “Holiness to the Lord,” and the high priest had to have it on his forehead always so that all Israel would be accepted before God. What this means is that even when Israel failed in their
thought life
, they were still accepted by God because He judged the nation of Israel based on their high priest. If the high priest was accepted, the entire nation was accepted.

Today we have a perfect High Priest in Christ. It’s not your thoughts that qualify you to be accepted by God. Under the new covenant of grace, God is no longer judging you based on your thoughts. God judges you based on His Son. If He is righteous, God sees you as righteous. If He is blessed, God sees you as blessed. If He is under God’s unclouded favor, God sees you as under His unclouded favor. If His thoughts are always perfect and filled with holiness unto God, God sees your thoughts as perfect in Christ!

You see, there are no insignificant details in the Bible. Now, don’t think that Jesus is dressed like an Old Testament high priest in heaven today. The garments, breastplate, and miter are just visual aids that God describes in the Bible to show us what is intrinsically true about our Lord Jesus and our perfection in Him.

Today when the devil comes to torment your mind, point him to Jesus. Jesus’ thoughts are always holy. Remember how the golden plate is always around the forehead of your High Priest and His thoughts are always filled with holiness to God. Look at Exodus 28:38 again: “It shall always be on his forehead, that they may be
accepted before the L
ORD
.” Therefore, even when your thought life isn’t always perfect, know that Jesus’ thoughts are always perfect. And it’s because of His perfection that you are
always
accepted in Him before God. God will never reject you because your thoughts are imperfect. He is looking at Jesus, and as long as His thoughts are holy, you are accepted!

Beloved, what great assurance and security we have in Christ! Our thoughts can waver, but His thoughts are always perfect. Believe that you are always accepted and approved because of Jesus. That’s what it means to bring every thought into captivity to the perfect obedience of Christ (see 2 Cor. 10:5), and in Christ you will always win the battle for your mind!

O
ne of the greatest battles people face in the battle for their minds is the wrong belief that God is angry with them. The devil knows that if he can cause you to believe that God is mad at you, he can keep you trapped in fear, defeat, and bondage.

I want to expose this lie from the devil and show you from God’s Word that God is not mad
at you
. He is mad
about
you! God loves you passionately, and He wants you to be fully assured and confident of His love for you.

To be victorious in the battle for your mind, it’s important that you believe with all your heart that God is for you and not against you. When you use the weapons of right believing to prevail against the wiles of the devil, the Bible calls this being strong in the Lord:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For 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.

—Ephesians 6:10–12

God wants you to be built up, established, and strong in His love and grace for you. Believe in His love and put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the enemy.

The Armor of God Is about Right Believing

When I was a young believer, whenever I heard about “putting on the full armor of God,” I would imagine Bruce Wayne putting on the armor and gadgets of his Batsuit. Click. He secures his utility belt. Click. He fastens his cape. Click. He puts on his mask. Because of all the books I had read, I even used to mentally go through the motions of donning the “armor of God” every morning, imagining myself putting on my helmet, my breastplate, and all the other pieces of armor before leaving the house. If I didn’t do so, I actually felt spiritually naked, and believe me, that’s not a good feeling to have.

But that’s not what the armor of God is.

The armor of God is all about right believing! The battle is for your mind, and it’s right believing that keeps you protected and safe from the enemy’s assault against your mind in the form of lies, negative thoughts, and evil imaginations.

How to Put on God’s Armor

Let’s go through the whole armor of God (see Eph. 6:10–20), and observe how right believing in all that Jesus has done will always lead us to victory.

Let’s begin with the belt of truth. When the devil comes against you with his lies about you, gird your waist with the belt of truth. The devil cannot deceive you if you are established in what God’s Word says about you. He can only make inroads into your mind when you don’t know or are unsure about what God’s Word says. That’s why I encourage people to study God’s Word for themselves and to listen to messages that are full of God’s grace and truth. Fill your mind and heart with truth and you’ll surely defeat the enemy.

Secondly, we already know that the devil will try to attack you with all kinds of accusations and condemning thoughts to make you feel guilty and lousy about yourself. That’s why when you are established in the gift of righteousness, his attacks against you will not prevail. All the devil’s fiery darts of accusations are ineffective against the breastplate of righteousness that guards your heart from all fear, guilt, and condemnation.

And when he comes against you with thoughts of fear, doubt, and confusion, stand strong and defend yourself with the shield of faith. In apostle Paul’s time, a shield would refer to the kind of
huge shield that was used by the Romans. So don’t imagine a tiny little shield. This shield is as big as a door! See your faith as a mighty shield and picture this—as long as your shield of faith is up, you are untouchable. No matter how many fiery darts the devil may pitch at you, ALL of them shall be quenched. Too many Christians are taking up the shield of doubt and quenching the blessings of God instead. Don’t let that be you—
face your future with boldness with the mighty shield of faith
.

Now, the enemy will also come in to try to steal the joy you have because of the gospel of peace, which is depicted as shoes here. But when he comes, the God of peace will surely crush Satan underneath your feet.

Another area the devil likes to attack in your mind is the area of your salvation. When you find yourself under attack, be sure to have on the helmet of salvation. The word “salvation” comes from a beautiful Greek word
soteria
. Now, don’t make the mistake of understanding salvation as just the gift of eternal life. It definitely includes eternal life, but the word
soteria
actually means so much more. It is an all-encompassing word that means deliverance (from your enemies, diseases, depression, fears, and all evils), preservation, safety, and salvation.
¹
So put on the helmet of salvation by meditating on Jesus, and be filled with God’s wholeness, protection, healing, and soundness. Let His
soteria
insulate your mind against the enemy’s lies.

Lastly, you have also been equipped with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Wield the sword of the Spirit by praying in the Spirit and speaking out God’s Word into your situation. Declare His promises and the truth of His grace over yourself and
your circumstances to guard your heart against thoughts of hopelessness and fear.

My friend, in the same way the battle for your mind is not physical, the whole armor of God is also not a physical armor. Rather, it has everything to do with what you believe in Christ. When you believe right, there is nothing the devil can do with you. Every evil strategy he has against you will surely fail. So be strong in the Lord’s love for you. Believe that God is for you and not against you. His truth, His righteousness, His faith, His gospel, His salvation, His Word, and His Spirit are all weapons of right believing to protect you against all the devil’s attacks.

Being “Undevourable” before the Roaring Lion

The devil doesn’t want you to be strong in the Lord’s love for you. Instead, he wants you to question God’s love for you. To accomplish this, one of his key strategies is to try to make you think that God is mad at you.

God’s Word tells us that the devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he
may
devour. I thank God that it says he is “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). This means that he cannot just devour anyone. He must look for those whom he
can
devour. Some of us are “
undevourable.”
There may not be such a word, but
it certainly describes a great place to be when the enemy is on the prowl for his next victim.

I want to teach you how you can become “undevourable” to the devil. The secret is found in the preceding verse, 1 Peter 5:7—“casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” Can you see it? The secret to being “undevourable” is to be carefree and not be bogged down by anxieties and worries! It is to laugh a lot, enjoy your life, and to take no thought for tomorrow.

To the legalistic mind, this sounds terribly irresponsible. However, in God’s mind, your greatest responsibility is to rejoice in the Lord always and not worry about your past failures, your present circumstances, and your future challenges! Why? It’s because of what God’s grace has already done for you. And it’s because the One who has the power over death is caring for you and watching over you right this minute.

If you want to see victory over the enemy’s attacks, then learn to relax, to let go, and to release every oppressive thought, worry, and care into Jesus’ loving hands. Believe with all your heart that He cares for you and that you are not alone in this journey. You have a constant companion in Jesus on this great adventure called life.