The Healing of the Mind
The greatest problem in America is not a food crisis or an energy crisis or a political crisis. The greatest problem in our nation is the American mind. The pressures of life have come, and the mind has become the battleground. Millions of Americans hover on the borderline of emotional and mental illness. The biggest problem which God’s Spirit deals with me about is the mind, the nervous system, the emotions. What are we going to do about these problems? What can we do about them? Is there any hope?
Well, you can go to a psychiatrist. You can take tranquilizers. Or you can do what much of the population does every evening–you can have a cocktail, and then another. You see, people have to do something to relieve the pressure that is on their minds. Every few seconds something pushes another person over the line, and they wind up under psychiatric care or in the care of a physician. Worse than that, many of the people never receive help of any kind. They’re embarrassed, they’re ashamed; they don’t want to talk about it. It’s terrible to have a mental problem and to hide it in the closet, hoping it will go away.
One of my beloved friends whom I love and respect very much had this tremendous battle. She called me one Saturday morning weeping and crying. That’s what made me want to go into research on the mind and emotions, to see if anything can be done. As she cried, I began to share with her from the Word of God. Look at what Paul is telling us here in Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” That word let assumes that you understand you are the subject of the sentence. You let the same attitude and purpose and humble mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.
When someone is having emotional problems it is so easy for others to very tritely quote the Word of God. Though we stand on the Word and confess it and quote it, we must learn how to act on the Word. There’s more to it than just saying to them, “Let this mind be in you.” Well, they would if they knew how! How do you let the mind of Christ be in you that was in Christ Jesus? What’s the key?
In I Corinthians 2:16, Paul says, “But we have the mind of Christ, the Messiah, and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of his heart” (Amplified Version). This is a statement to–of all people–the Corinthians, the folks who just couldn’t quit talking in tongues! The emotional Corinthians. He made some very positive faith statements about these people that we think were “far out.” He said, “You have the mind of Christ, Corinthians.” How do we know what the mind of Christ is?
Look at Luke 4:1-4. Jesus was full of and controlled by the Holy Spirit. He had just received the Holy Spirit at the Jordan River; then He went out into the wilderness and began to fast, and you know what happened there. Notice what happens when the Holy Spirit is in control. The Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness, but He was tempted of Satan.
Who is the author of sickness, disease, harassment and doubts? Satan. Where does he come first to most people? Into the area of the mind. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be worrying all the time. He is the author of worry and frustration. And that’s what begins this emotional state of being victimized by Satan–the “What if?” syndrome. “What if I die with cancer? What if I lose my husband? What if I lose my children? What if I lose my job?”
Do you know what kind of mind Jesus had? His mind was controlled by the Spirit. A mind that is controlled by the Spirit is filled with the Word of God. When Satan tempted Him to cause a stone to turn to a loaf of bread, Jesus replied, “It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4).
Several years ago, my own mother had an emotional problem, and had to seek a doctor’s help. He told her, “Once you’ve had this problem, it’s as if all the elasticity has gone out of your nerves. They will never snap back. You will have to be careful the rest of your life to not be under pressure. You must avoid anything that would upset you.” After that, she had surgery on her eyes, and again her nerves were a problem. I remember that Mother couldn’t even walk through a store with me without sitting and resting, and I was very concerned. Her nerves were very, very bad.
In 1966, Kenneth Hagin came to Dallas. He got up and said, “Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 1l:23). Do you mean to tell me that I can act on the Word of God and it will work in my life? I had been looking for that all my life. When I heard that, I got my mother, my father, my husband, everybody, and said, “Come on and hear–God heals; His Word is true!” I didn’t know how to make it work, but I sure did tell everybody. And little by little, we began to be spoon-fed the Word of God.
We didn’t get it in a day, or a week or a month. It has been years of feeding upon the Word of God. First of all, we settled in our hearts that God is God. His Word is true, and He means what He says. His Word is for us, and it will work. It took my mother through blindness for one summer. All she could do was put those faith-teaching tapes in the tape player. Twenty percent vision was all she had left. “No cure,” the doctors said. But she listened to the Word of God, and she sees today. She kept saying, “I will see.” She kept acting like she could see, and she did see. Nothing is impossible with God!
Recently we had another attack on our family. My mother works very hard, and I’m so proud of all the work she does and what she has accomplished. One day I was coming in from out of town, and I just sensed in my spirit that something was wrong with my mother. I walked into the office, and when I saw her face I could see the tentacles of that demonic oppression had attached themselves to my mother. I knew we were in for a round. But praise God, I knew His Word! It was the greatest fight I have ever had over my mother’s mind. In the past I had said, “I’ll do something to get her away for two or three days.” For that person you love, you tend to carry them around on a little cushion. You do need to be careful, but my spirit had had it from Satan for the last time on that subject.
I declared out and out warfare against the devil, and I was determined to win it this time. I said, “We’re not going to put up with this anymore!” I told her, “Mother, this is not just an attack against you; it’s an attack against this ministry.” Then we prayed, and we bound that thing and said, “In the mighty name of Jesus, we’ll not have this.” She did not get any better; in fact, she cried more. I tried every kind of talk; I tried pep talk, happy talk, joyful talk, victory talk. The more I talked, the more my mother cried.
That was Monday. We went through it again Tuesday. I went home Tuesday night, and into the night I fought the good fight of faith. I had a mental image of my mother cringing in a mental institution. I heard her whining and crying; I saw her pulling at herself. I had never seen that before, but I saw it that night. I took the guilt and responsibility of that thing and gave it to God, and then prayed in the Spirit. Satan would again show me that vision of my mother, and I would come back with the Word of God.
“It is written, Satan, it is written: by His stripes she has been healed. She’s well, she’s whole, and I bind you in Jesus’ name.” Then Satan would show me my mother cringing and crying in a mental hospital. After about an hour of that I realized I had to change that mental image of my mother. I had to see her according to the Word of God, with the mind of Christ. I began to see my mother speaking and teaching and preaching. I saw her dynamic and self-assured. My mind kept trying to see her the way she was when I left her that day. But I made myself see her dynamic and powerful and full of the Word of God. I went to sleep with that image. I got up the next morning and began to pray, and the Lord said, “Go call your mother.”
I got on the phone and began to talk faith. “Praise God, Mother, you’ll never go through that again!”
She said, “I know it, I got victory last night!” The same hour I was in my bedroom fighting that image of her being in a mental institution, she was at home sitting up in bed. She realized she had to fight it herself. We can stand together in prayer with people, but ultimately, folks, you’re going to have to stand on your own for your own mental health. Philippians 4:8 tells us, “For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind, winsome, and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things–fix your minds on them” (Amplified Version). Everything is pure and lovely and wonderful and good, seeing my mother up teaching the Word of God.
I said, “Mother, what did you say when you began to fight the devil?”
She said, “The thing I said more than anything else at midnight as I sat up in my bed was, ‘I resist you in the name of Jesus, Satan.'”
The Bible says to resist him and he will flee (James 4:7). So her part was to resist him with her mouth. She also said, “No weapon that is formed against thee (me) shall prosper” for my righteousness is of the Lord (Isaiah 54:17).
She also quoted I Peter 2:24: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” That is past tense. I have been healed, and I am healed!
Let’s testify: “Praise God, I have the victory! I have it because Jesus paid for it! He defeated Satan and therefore I can use His name!”
Then she said the number one thing that has helped her through the years is Philippians 3:13, 14: “I do not consider, brethren, that I had captured and made it my own, but one thing I do–it is my one aspiration: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward” (Amplified Version).
At midnight I got the victory; she got the victory; we all got the victory! Praise the Lord for the victory that is in Him and His Word!