The Rules of Engagement

The Rules of Engagement

We can assume that the father was confident in the promises of God and knew the truth of 2 Corinthians 1:20: “No matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God” (niv). The promise he must have held on to was, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). This allowed him to release his son into the world to be taught and rescued by Jehovah-Adonnai. In the end, the son was not overtaken. The Bible says that “he came to himself” (Luke 15:17). He finally came to his senses. His mind was restored. His soul was redeemed. The battlefield of his mind was reclaimed for the kingdom. S taking C laim O ver the B attlefield of the M ind Achieving the kind of victory that was won in the previous story requires discipline. To get this discipline, the first thing is to know what thoughts qualify to legitimately be in your mind. Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatso ever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” If your thoughts are not true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, do not allow those thoughts to take root in your mind. The second thing is to remove the thoughts that should not be in your mind. According to 2 Corinthians 10:4–5, we have the power in Jesus Christ to pull down the strongholds Satan tries to erect in our minds and cast down “imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedi ence of Christ.” Let us break down the divine strategies that God gives us in the above text: 1. You must pull down thoughts that do not qualify. This action denotes an entire demolition, a clearing away and annihilation of something. It also denotes the conquering of opposing forces and hostile partisans. Francis Frangipane said, “The pulling down of strongholds begins

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