"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." {Romans 8:6}

The Holy Spirit says in the book of Romans, "...be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Paul said in Ephesians, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

And in Philippians, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus..."

Peter stated, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation: Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."

The old saying is that the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach. The Devil knows that the quickest way to conquer a man's mind is through his heart. It is not strange, then, that the world's counsel for every dilemma of life today is, "Follow your heart."

Many Christians have heeded the world's advice, and have found it a recipe for disaster.

"What do ye imagine against the LORD? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time." {Nahum 1:9}

Many Christians today heed the world's advice to "Just follow your heart?" Therefore, they read their Bible if they feel like it. They pray if they feel like it. They go to church if they feel like it. They volunteer to help in the work of the ministry if they feel like it. they will share the Gospel only if they feel like it. Their marriage is built on their feelings, and it's predictably rocky. Their child rearing is based on their feelings, and the kids are, or will be, rebellious. They know little of commitment and nothing about perseverance. They know little of joy and nothing about fulfillment. Their Christian growth will be stunted, the probability of their backsliding is great, and the potential of their actually being given over to a reprobate mind is dangerously high. They are modern Christians, the children of Laodicea. (If you don't understand my reference to Laodicea, please study carefully Revelation 3:14-22.)

Every sin is a conscious act that allows Satan greater control over you. That is why, in your spiritual warfare, the battlefield is the mind. That is where Satan will focus his energies. If he can overthrow your mind, or even just neutralize its opposition to his will, then he has won control of you.

"Why do the heathen range, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 'Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.' "

"So built we the wall: and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work." {Nehemiah 4:6}

Your mind can follow the Lord to its delight, or can follow your heart to its destruction. It's wonderful when a mind that is set to serve the Lord takes control of a Christian's life, instead of allowing the heart to rule by default.

Isaiah said, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD forever: or in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust." Note that trust is a logical response, based on facts; not an emotional response based on feelings. We decide whether or not we will trust God.

Jeremiah said, "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth."

Note that hope is a logical response, based on facts; not an emotional response based on feelings. We decide whether or not we will embrace hope, or abandon it.

"And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid." {Mark 5:15}

The Bible says about Nebuchadnezzar, "But when his mind was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him..."

You must decide if your mind will be ruled by the Holy Spirit, or by your erratic emotions.

Paul said that he busied himself "Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations..." Later he remarked: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God: but with the flesh the law of sin."

If you are a Christian who makes your decisions and lives your life by following your heart, you are described many places in the Bible. David said of you, "...the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all imaginations of the thoughts; if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever." Solomon warns you that: "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him..." One of those seven things that is so hateful to Jehovah is "An heart that deviseth wicked abominations." Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord spoke out against "...This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart..." Jesus Christ addressed a man who followed his heart, and took the safe and easy route in his service to the Master, as "Thou wicked and slothful servant..." Peter said of so-called Christians whose beliefs and practices are based on their feelings: "These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever."

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." {Jeremiah 17:9-10}

You must not allow your heart to control your mind. Your heart will inevitably lead you astray. The moment your mind quits fighting for supremacy over the heart, you will begin to live according to your feelings --- just like you did before you got saved. You will be attracted to things that feel good, look good, or taste good --- or to things that promise you those sensations in the future.

Meanwhile, the Bible addresses your mind, and tells you what you are to like and dislike. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."

Your flesh is enticed by the lust, and it recruits your heart with promises of pleasure. Your heart goes on a campaign of subverting your mind to pursue the object of its lust. If the mind agrees, your spirit will be alienated from the Father. That does not mean that your eternal salvation is lost --- praise God that your eternal Home is secure! --- but temporal fellowship (here and now) with God will be lost.

If the mind rejects the heart's demand for self-gratification, but allows the heart to retain that lust in its imagination, the temptation will surface again later and must be fought all over again. That is why so many Christians today are ultimately being defeated by sins of the flesh.

"And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel." {Joshua 24:31}

The Old Testament book of Judges is a powerful treatise on spiritual warfare. You have to be just as merciless toward the sin that lives in your heart as Old Testament Israel was to be toward the trespassers who were living on their land. You will either be a "Book of Joshua Christian" or a "Book of Judges Christian". The book of Joshua records the warfare and victories of God's people, and their high testimony is recorded in Joshua 24:31. The book of Judges records in the subsequent generations the complacency and confusion of God's people, and the book ends with these ominous words. "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."

Are you a "Book of Joshua Christian", or a "Book of Judges Christian"? You better make sure that King Jesus is ruling your life through your mind, or that usurper the Devil will rule your life through your heart. If the mind insists on doing the will of God, and brings the heart into subjection, then God is pleased. Fellowship with the Lord is strengthened, and a reward is laid up in Heaven. but if your mind surrenders to your heart, the heart will begin to rule your mind, and may well continue to do so for the rest of your life. God is displeased, and your fellowship with Him will be strained --- perhaps even broken. Eternal rewards will be forfeited.

"For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it." {1st Peter 3:10-11}

A heart-ruled life is described in the book of Ecclesiastes. It's a pitiful picture of a miserable man. "And I gave my heart to seek and search out wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. ...And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. ...I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. ...I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. ...And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. ...Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit."

Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit teaches us that good days come from refraining the tongue, hating evil, doing good, and embracing peace. But those action choices that must be initiated by a mind that is given to the control of the Holy Spirit. If you're waiting for the heart to "feel like it" first, it will happen inconsistently at best -- certainly not enough to create a good life.

"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." {Hebrews 3:12}

Notice that unbelief springs from an evil heart. The evil heart usurps the authority of the mind (which has already surrendered to it). The Christian who has developed an evil heart of unbelief has allowed himself to grow weary of fighting his natural impulses. The mind becomes docile, while the heart dominates such a Christian's life. Being driven by his emotions, this unbelieving believer will be vacillating and unfruitful, frustrated and unfulfilled. "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." {James 1:8} The heart of unbelief is evil because it does damage to the life of the one it controls, and tends to adversely affect the hearts of others, influencing them to behave according to its own perverse example.

If in your battle against the heart, you allow yourself to faint -- that is, to quit struggling against your emotions and natural desires -- you'll fall into the arms of the enemy. You will lose your desire to "...stand against the wiles of the devil." {Ephesians 6:11}

You may some day become exasperated with the demands of Biblical Fundamentalism, and get offended at the tendency of our preaching to expose your sin. Someday you'll leave a hot, Bible-preaching church that promotes high standards of personal conduct, although you won't yet feel comfortable in a spiritual atmosphere that is decidedly cold. So you'll settle for something that's lukewarm. You will have entered the shadowy realm of Laodicean Christianity (Rev. 3:14-22), in which good and evil, right and wrong, spirituality and carnality, light and darkness, and Christ and Belial are forced to co-exist. The world calls it diversity; it is actually depravity.