Changing a Mindset

Have you ever wondered why, after having done all you are able to do to stand strong as a believer, you fall back to old patterns and habits that take you down spiritually?

Some I have worked with have been attacked in the area of lust. Others have been attacked by destructive thinking patterns. Still others suffer great problems with hate and anger that manifests itself at the oddest times... like right after a beautiful time of prayer or spending long periods in the presence of God himself.

Take a look at Moses. Even after spending quality time with God - each day in fact - he still hits the rock (instead of speaking to it) and blows his opportunity to go into the promise land. It happened because he was mad as *&%$. His anger broke opportunity. Later I will share more of this.

For a long time Satan has known our patterns and our habits. His Fiery Darts, delivered by his warriors, are shot at strategic times to penetrate the deepest and do the most damage. His fiery darts likely helped to build and strengthen the habit and pattern in you over these years. Our own enjoyment of the habit keeps it close to us and away from others to see. As an enemy warrior his intent for now is to maim as many as possible so that they will not die - but rather require others to carry them..... thus for everyone shot with a Fiery Dart - it takes two to carry them - making sure that three are out of the battle as a result.

In the Second World War the soldiers used "hard point" bullets for that very reason. The bullet would go right through the enemy's body part - producing great pain and leaving the soldier wounded. The wounded man would require another two of three to carry him off. Or when the fellow soldier would show up to help - the enemy would have another target to hit. Soft point bullets go through but kill instantly.

Sorry about the gore with that illustration. But there is actually far more gore in the body of Christ - the church - than in any other area. Satan is on a rampage to destroy and maim as many as possible. He doesn't want the church going a head.

A Powerful Tool For Men and Women
A few years back an older man shared a story with a group of us younger men. He told us that he had discovered a secret that would help us to stop from falling back into old habits. When we heard him make this statement it was an attention grabber.

Here is his plan of attack.

1.) Make a list of 6 people that are close to you. Keep this list close by - in your purse/wallet, on the refrigerator door or wherever you can get it quickly when you need it. After a short time you will have it memorized - but the action of taking it out is powerful to get you to take the action step.

2.) Recognize when the first Fiery Dart of the enemy is fired. You already know when that is. For years now you have gone through the same pattern. The Dart is fired and sticks deeply into the mind. You then begin the slide towards destructive thinking. When the second Fiery Dart hits - you likely already are making plans to enjoy the pain cycle again.

3.) Immediately when the first Fiery Dart hits - take out the list of 6 people and begin to pray for each one. "Lord wherever John is today, bless him with your presence and let him do great damage to the kingdom of Satan. Lord wherever Ed is today, bless him with your presence and let him do great damage to the kingdom of Satan...." And so on... until you come to the end of your list.

4.) You will likely find that the second Fiery Dart doesn't come. Satan will back away if the response is prayer. Even if he does continue to the attack and more darts are fired - the presence of the Lord's helpers will become so strong that you will be amazed. There is victory.

Let me share this simple diagram.

In the diagram at the left you can see Life is going along quite well until a Fiery Dart is fired from Satan. Almost immediately we "Fall back" or down. It is only a matter of a short time when we begin to find away to take up the old habit. Then we "Act out". After the acting out stage the "Guilt resulting from acting out" is real - we feel remorse and promise God that we will never do it again. We promise to read our Bibles more and promise our families everything.

But the next Fiery Dart comes when Satan feels it should be there. He knows our cycle and the weakness that we suffer so often.

It is often the case with all of us... when we fail - committing sin - we pray for ourselves. We feel terrible with the conviction of what we have done. Most of the time, it is unlikely that we will ever open and talk to someone else about our failures or the even figure out the reason that we failed. But when we pray for another brother or sister - fellow Christian Soldier - we are standing together - side by side on the battle field of life. There is a new victory.

The prayer pattern shared by the older man with us younger men came from Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6:18-19 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, (NIV)

Notice: This portion of Scripture comes right after we are instructed to put on the whole armor of God - Ephesians 6:10 - 17. This tells about our enemy and how we must prepare ourselves to handle the battle that we will face. We are doing nothing as a Christian Warrior until we pray for others.

Have you noticed that the defeated church is always defeated when the church members begin fighting each other. Satan will fire darts getting people to react and fall. Instead of supporting each other we fight and fall.

The same thing is true about marriages, family relationships and you name it.

Do I use this secret prayer? Yes. And it works - but I have to work at it.

How are you doing right now? Let us know.

Consider this example...
In one setting... we have a group of men that meet each other from week to week in our church. They all work in different jobs and some were retired. From time to time they meet for breakfast together.

They all had issues that they were dealing with. At times they seemed to be able to take on great feats for the Lord and were strong spiritually. Other times some would drop off the radar screen in defeat. Something was happening to make them stop their forward motion spiritually. I was no different than they were. As a pastor I also found that I was affected deeply with issues in my own life. Old temptations (the Fiery Darts Paul talked about) were there leading to failures personally that no one knew about. Other times situations came along to rob me (us) of the victory that we should have had. Together we decided on a new course of action based on Paul's encouragement to the Ephesians to pray for all the Saints everywhere with all kinds of prayer in the Spirit.

Each of us knew the Fiery Darts that would take us down and out. We had recognized the First Fiery Dart when it came. We knew that by the Second Fiery Dart we were either preparing to slip away or maybe beginning to be more interested with the thing or situation that we were being presented with. We also recognized that this was part of the old habits in our lives.
We made a commitment to each other that the six of us would pray for each other regularly. We especially committed ourselves to a special part of prayer for each other. When we recognized the First Fiery Dart was being fired at us - we immediately began to pray for the men in our group and on our list. The prayer was simple - something like this...

"Wherever Ted is today Lord, let him do great damage to the kingdom of Satan. Let him stand strong in his purpose today."

Then... "Wherever Larry is today Lord, let him do great damage to the kingdom of Satan. Let him stand strong in his purpose today."

And... "Wherever John is today Lord, let him do great damage to the kingdom of Satan. Let him stand strong in his purpose today." and so on...

The men began to share how they became even more aware of how and when the Fiery Darts were being fired. They also noticed that when they began to pray, it took some effort but almost immediately they realized that the second or third Fiery Darts never came their way. If the Fiery Dart would cause a man to pray rather than start the "Fail Cycle" - why would Satan's forces send off the next volley?

The men became aware of changes taking place in all areas of their lives. Old habits began slipping away with new and better ones replacing them. Habits in prayer were so much better than ones that they had developed in pornography and/or lust. Words of Anger that lashed out at others were replaced with words of thanksgiving and they became men of praise. These are only a few examples - your group will have more.

One man shared that as a secretary came into his office to ask him for a signature, his mind was flooded with lustful thoughts about her. He was stunned by the thoughts that filled his mind. Immediately he began praying for the other men on his list. When he told of what happened next his eyes lit up, "It was like a black cloud began to lift from above my head and mind. I continued to pray for all the guys and the thoughts were gone. Before when that kind of thing happened to me I would let the thoughts keep coming and I let them become a part of my whole life. If I saw the woman again the original thoughts flooded back.... they even came to me when I was with my wife."

The men began to walk in a new victory. Yes there were new battles to fight. New Fiery Darts or maybe Old Fiery Darts that we were unaware of from the past were brought back.

WARNING: As you improve, winning some victories and are able to begin to understand the cycles that you go through, you will begin to know a victory over the immediate problem - WARNING other challenges will begin to show up. One habit is likely an extension of other habits. You didn't begin to be involved in Pornography one day. Another habit was there before Porn. You didn't decide to commit adultery one day, lust was there before that episode.