The battle for our minds is real. If you have any doubts about this, all you have to do is turn on the television, read the news or scroll through the social media of your choice. It’s all there.
As children of God, we have a responsibility to steward our minds, the property between our ears. We have to renew our minds daily, uprooting the lies planted by the one who only wants to steal, kill and destroy. Our minds are prime property that must be fenced into the kingdom realm, because if there’s one thing we know, there’s a lot of real estate fraud going on there. So how are we to keep our “property” locked, guarded, fortified and well kept? The Bible provides the answer to this question.
Habbakuk 2:1 says “I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer.”
Nehemiah 4:9 says “But we prayed to our God. . .and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves..”
Luke 21:36 says “Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”
Proverbs 4:23 says “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
Isaiah 52:2 says in part “Remove the chains of slavery from your neck. . .”
That last verse in Isaiah 52 is profound to me because it tells us clearly that we have a step to take. What is it that is enslaving us? Keeping us captive? What we’ve seen personally is that when provoked by fear, people often respond by trying to take control. What this looks like to everyone around them is bossiness, superiority, self-righteousness and selfishness. What it really is amounts to being a slave to sin. How many times are we told in the Bible not to fear? Can we reasonably say that God has told us NOT TO FEAR so when we do we’re being disobedient?
I read an article recently about a man in Philadelphia who, in addition to his house, owned an apartment building as part of a real-estate investment. One weekend he went to this apartment to retrieve something he had stored there and found himself locked out. The building had been vacant for 16 months for remodeling, but he found the building padlocked. His investigation into what was behind this was that someone had filed false documents to transfer ownership of the building to someone he had never even heard of.
And this is not the only scam of its kind. How do criminals do this? First, they prey on property that has been unoccupied for some time but is still in fairly good condition. They start the process by getting a physical description of the property from city hall and check to see if there are any overdue real estate taxes (evidence that the owner may have died or moved away). If everything looks favorable, they fill out a blank deed from an office supply store and forge one document after another until they are finally able to file a new deed and have the house transferred to their name. Those who are most vulnerable to this scam are the elderly who moved in with family or into nursing homes, as well as investors who aren’t paying attention to their property.
Are you paying attention to your “property”? If not, what scam is the enemy running against you? Is it obvious to anybody that you are a Christian, or have you decided to blend in with everybody else? Would it be easy for the enemy to claim you for his side?
Are you keeping your property occupied with the things of God? Does it look like His spirit is abiding in you? Are you carrying and maintaining your weapons and clothed in your armor?