Battles are Won or Lost in the Mind

The Teachable Woman Podcast

Your Mind is a Battleground

[00:00:00]

Rev. Michele Owes: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Teachable Woman Podcast. I am Reverend Michele Owes. I am with Mrs. Reverend Diana P. Cherry, and we are Teachers of Good Things. Mrs. Cherry, say hello to our podcast family.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Hello, podcast family, women who are receivers of the good things that we teach and men who are receivers of the good things that we teach. Remember, we can teach good things, but if the good things we teach are not making a difference in anybody's life, we're teaching for naught. So do what you know to do. Be a teachable woman and a teachable man of God.

Rev. Michele Owes: Amen. I love that. And please share what you have [00:01:00] learned with others. Share our podcast with others who may need to go back and, as we say, re-listen and share. So again, we're excited to have you with us. Mrs. Cherry shared some enlightening things in our last podcast. She told us that we had a right to think correctly.

Rev. Michele Owes: We have a responsibility to think correctly, and we have a reason to think correctly. I shared in our last podcast that I don't know that anyone's ever laid it down as our responsibility to think correctly. We know we have a right, and we all feel like the way we think—we have a reason for our thinking.

Rev. Michele Owes: Now, lay the axe at the root of the tree and say: You have a responsibility to think correctly, because our thinking affects the lives of others—not only ourselves, but the lives of others. So today, we're going [00:02:00] to learn more about thinking correctly. We're going to learn about what to do to cause us to get in a better frame of thought, if you will. In Matthew 22:37, Jesus said unto them, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." Right there, those are the thoughts—the thoughts of the mind. And if we're loving Jesus the way that we should love Jesus, then our thoughts should align with our love for Him. When our thoughts are out of alignment, we find that the third part of the Trinity—the flesh, if you will—our Trinity being the mind, the body, and the spirit—the body portion wants to rule, wants to be in command, wants to tell us what to do and how to live. But the spirit man has the right answer because the [00:03:00] spirit man is hearing from God. So, Mrs. Cherry, take us away for today.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Well, I tell you, I thought about it today, and this title came to my mind: I was the queen of "stinking thinking." I had really bad thinking, and I thank God for His Word, and I thank God for my husband's teachings, and I thank God that innately, I have always had the ability to submit, and to submit to my husband. And the teachings that he taught, I took them very personally. One time, he taught a message called Thinking Correctly. And he taught another message called Pulling Down Strongholds. But in Thinking Correctly, he shared—and it spoke to him so clearly—you don’t know how to think right. And [00:04:00] so that message turned into about a four-part series on thinking correctly. And then, he taught a message on pulling down strongholds. In teaching about pulling down strongholds, he referenced 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 for his scripture reference. The scripture says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: My husband and I used to teach this a lot in premarital classes, or in [00:05:00] marriage enrichment or couples counseling. We taught a lot about thinking and thoughts. My husband said that you need to bring your thoughts into captivity. Well, my overactive mind envisioned that in my head, I had a place where I could keep a cage because thinking starts where? In the mind, right? So I started developing this habit of always thinking something that wasn’t right, like, "Why is she looking at him like that? Why did he hug her so long?" You know, women—we go there. Even pastors' wives, we go there.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yep, yep.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And every time I would get a thought that I knew did not glorify the Lord, I would take that thought. When he said, "bring it [00:06:00] into captivity," to me, that translated into capturing it and putting it in a cage in my mind. And so I literally used to envision my mind having a cage, and all those queen-of-bad-thinking, stinking thoughts that I had—I would capture those thoughts and throw them in that cage. Then I would examine them, and I would say things to myself like: "Now, does that glorify God? Are you really pleased with how you're thinking? What if somebody knew what you were thinking? Would you want the world to be able to see and hear your thoughts?" For me, it revolutionized my ability to help myself think correctly. And then the Word of God says that after you punish that thought, after I would bring it into captivity, I would look [00:07:00] up scripture that was contrary to that nasty thought, and I would punish that thought with the truth of God's Word through scripture. Then, the Word of God says, "Have a readiness to revenge or to punish that disobedience." I didn’t want to be in prison forever. I didn’t want to live my life, you know, having to keep opening and closing a cell lock. So, it helped me. It changed me. It changed my ability to stop being such a stinking thinker. As a result of that, I’ve taught so many messages on the importance of thinking, the importance of renewing your mind, the importance of having the mind of Christ, and the importance of knowing what thoughts can do to you, and sometimes for you. Because thoughts can be beneficial, but I spent a lot of time [00:08:00] examining my thoughts. When he gave an assignment on "Think about what you're thinking about, monitor your thoughts for a week," I mean, I took it very seriously, and I was like, "Good Lord, You couldn’t be pleased with me! There's no way—you’re a holy God, and I’ve got all these unholy thoughts!" Not sensual, just unholy and ungodly. So that teaching, and all of his teachings on thinking correctly, and the integrity of heart and things like that, made a big difference.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: In fact, I think I taught Integrity of Heart, but those teachings made a real difference. And that’s the other thing—I did not want to teach anything that I was not striving with all my heart to live. Generally, whenever I would teach on a Friday night, that would be part of my prayer: “Lord, help me to be the first partaker of this message. Help me not to stand as a hypocrite [00:09:00], teaching things that I know I’m not striving to live in my own life.” And so, that was my public prayer, Friday after Friday after Friday. You’d have to be some kind of really hard-hearted person not to receive the chastisement that God would give you if you weren’t doing things correctly.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: I took that prayer very seriously, and I took the renewing of my mind very seriously. That’s how those teachings blessed me, and that’s why I know that change is possible. That’s why I know we have a right to think correctly, and we also have a responsibility to think correctly. We are Christians—we are Christ-like ones—and we have a reason to think correctly. God is so good to us. We don’t have a right, nor a reason, to be downright [00:10:00] nasty just to be nasty. I heard a political figure say today, “What I said might not be the truth, but if it’ll make people upset and make them consider the situation, then I don’t have any problem with saying it, whether it’s true or not.”

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Now, how did we get to a place like this? How did we get to a place where we believe that a lie is okay? That we believe untruths that hurt thousands of people are okay? Our country needs real prayer from real Christians who realize that they can control what they think, what they say, and what they do. We all can control what we think, what we say, and what we do because we have grace—the omnipotent power of God that operates on our behalf to [00:11:00] strengthen us to do good and to be good.

Rev. Michele Owes: You know, Mrs. Cherry, it’s so interesting that you shared that about our thinking. It’s when we’re alone with our thoughts, and we think that God doesn’t know our thoughts as well as [what we say].

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: It’s how we get hooked on things—like watching things that we know we have no business watching. You know, this is how people get hooked on pornography. This is how people get hooked on these dark websites that promote things that are not in the will of God. This is how people get hooked on taking things that don’t belong to them.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Mm-hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: And finding ways to try to cheat older people out of their money or scam others. These are all thoughts that are out of control and have not [00:12:00] been caged. These are thoughts we gave time to because, in order to defraud someone, it takes meticulous thought. You’ve got to have a plan. In addition to that, when we allow ourselves to be pulled away from our relationship with Christ Jesus, these are thoughts that are out of control and unmanaged.

Rev. Michele Owes: So, using the cage as a natural example—a figurative way to take those thoughts that are out of control and put them somewhere where they cannot escape—we need to recognize when a thought is not good for us. This is not something we should be thinking or doing. It may seem right—every man seems right in his own mind—

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: —but really, it’s not right because we know it’s not in the will of God for us.

Rev. Michele Owes: It may feel okay because we saw it one time, but when we keep going back and going back, it becomes a thought that’s out of control and begins to take over. Instead of having our minds in tune with Christ, our thoughts start dictating how we respond to the issues of life.

Rev. Michele Owes: I think that’s a powerful example of what we can and should do with our thoughts.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Mm-hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: So thank you for sharing that.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: That’s wonderful. You know, there’s something that so many of us—myself included—have bought into, and it has caused so many young people to go astray. It has caused so many older people to go astray as well. It’s the overwhelming thought that caused me to lose my precious virginity. This [00:14:00] podcast is wide open, honest, and truthful. The thing that all of us have been plagued by at one time or another—especially to my young people, listen to this—there is never a time when “everybody” is doing something. Whatever “that thing” is, there is never a time when everybody is doing it. I know young people say, “Mommy, all my friends are doing it,” but that’s a lie. Not all of your friends are doing it. If your child is exposed to children who believe that “everybody is doing it,” then you need to check out who their parents are, and maybe you need to make sure your child moves away from that relationship. God spoke this to my heart recently: There is never a time when everybody is doing everything.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: I remember when my husband, Pastor Cherry, wanted to go to the movies as a child, but his dad didn’t allow them to go to the movies growing up. He said, “But Dad, everybody’s going,” and his dad replied, “Well, you’re not going.” Rev. Michele Owes: Hmm.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: We need some parents who will stand up and say to their children, “I’m not everybody’s parent; I’m your parent. Everybody can do what they want, and everybody can go straight to hell, but I’m your parent, and you’re not going to do it.” So, not everybody is doing it because you’re not doing it.

Rev. Michele Owes: And it’s not my plan that you end up there, right? My plan is that you end up in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. So we’re working on that as we grow up, right?

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right. I just thought I would share that little tidbit: everybody is never doing it.

Rev. Michele Owes: Hmm.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: If everybody was doing anything, we would have unification in something, and we don’t have that in anything.

Rev. Michele Owes: Hmm. There you go.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: I think we’ve learned that the mind is the battleground of our lives.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And our thoughts either tighten something...

Rev. Michele Owes: They loosen something.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Exactly. The battles of our lives are won and lost in the mind.

Rev. Michele Owes: Right. If we ever felt that our thoughts were unimportant, know that our wins and losses come from the mind. And there’s never a time that we’re not thinking. Sometimes people say, “Well, what are you thinking?” And we say “nothing.” What we should really say is “nothing that I want to share.”

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: Because we’re always thinking something, and saying “nothing” puts us in a position where we’ve just told a lie, because we are indeed thinking something; we just don’t want to share it. So, “nothing that I want to share” is a more honest response. But the bottom line is that our thoughts are critical.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Mm-hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: Even our young people, when they sit down to take an exam and say, “There’s no way I’m going to pass this,” guess who’s not passing? Because their thoughts have propelled them toward failure. But if they say, “I’m going to do my best,” even if they didn’t study, they may come out of there with a decent grade, especially if they applied themselves.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Mm-hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: Our thoughts can tell us in advance whether we’re going to succeed or fail at something. We can hear something from the pulpit and know that God is walking down our street and up our sidewalk and is at the door behind us. If we find ourselves thinking, “I have to pray about it,” we’re already giving ourselves a reason to disobey God.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right.

Rev. Michele Owes: To me, it’s the Christian response to say “no.” That’s our polite way of saying, “I’m not going to do that.” We’ll say, “I gotta go pray,” but God has spoken, and you know it’s you He’s addressing. God is so clear that He’s got your address on blast, right? You know He’s talking to you. So, we don’t have to worry, but we do have to obey.

Rev. Michele Owes: We often reason with ourselves and end up reasoning ourselves out of obeying God. These are all the kinds of things that cause us to think incorrectly. But we have a responsibility to think correctly.

Rev. Michele Owes: I want to share that a lot is on the airwaves today. Anytime I turn on something rated PG, I often think it’s safe.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: But that is so wrong. There’s a language in some shows that we may not desire our children to hear. If your children pick up that language because of something they saw on television, whether at your house, at daycare, or at school, they won’t think they learned it from you.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Mm-hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: When they get suspended for using bad language, the last thing a parent wants to think is, “It’s my fault.”

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right.

Rev. Michele Owes: You may think, “I’m not that mother!” But sometimes, we choose shows that teach children to disobey us and disrespect our authority.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: Some shows depict children running the house while the parents act like children.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yep.

Rev. Michele Owes: We must understand that these decisions are in our children’s minds.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Mm-hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: When these thoughts are planted, the enemy desires to use them when, where, and how he can. He is very purposeful about how he places things in the lives and minds of our children.

Rev. Michele Owes: I want to stress the importance of being careful about what they hear and see. If you don’t want your child to be sexually active, please don’t watch sexually suggestive movies in their presence.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And watch what kind of clothes you buy them...

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: That’s important as well. They start at a very early age as they begin seeing their bodies as cute and adorable. If you dress them in revealing clothes, it makes a difference.

Rev. Michele Owes:

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes. Dress them like sweet little girls and sweet little children of God. That’s what they are. Don’t treat them like they’re grown when they’re still babies. We do them an injustice.

Rev. Michele Owes: Exactly. You were talking about thoughts, and Pastor used to define a thought as a device designed to manipulate your intellect.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: As you said, all battles are fought and won, or lost, on the inside—in the thoughts of our minds. Every spiritual battle, every moral battle, is fought in our minds. We think, “It couldn’t be that bad; I won’t get caught; I won’t get pregnant from it; it’s just this one time.”

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: We reason it out.

Rev. Michele Owes: We plan it down to the last detail in our minds, and there’s a battle going on. Those battles are fought in the mind, and they’re either won or lost there. We must be very aware of what we’re thinking about.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes, we really do.

Rev. Michele Owes: Exposure affects our thinking.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: It does.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes, it absolutely does. So, we just wanted to share that with you today to encourage us all to think about what we’re thinking about. Sometimes, we go on autopilot, busy with our days while our children or teenagers have access to things we may not know about, simply because we’ve placed devices in their hands and trust that what they’re watching alone is age appropriate.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: Sometimes they end up in places that aren’t age-appropriate and don’t even know what they’ve seen enough to articulate it.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: What they’ve seen or that they ended up in the wrong place. The enemy is always purposeful in what he tries to do. We may find shows that we think are safe for them; maybe the first two episodes are innocent, but after that, it’s a trail to nowhere.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: If we’re not watching them, we don’t know what’s being said, and we’ll find ourselves saying, “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know when this took place.”

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right.

Rev. Michele Owes: We sat them down in front of that television or device, thinking it was safe, yet they were somewhere unsafe. So please, I know you love your children; I know you love your teenagers.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: We’re playing the long game here, talking about the value of a person’s life.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Hmm.

Rev. Michele Owes: Sometimes, the trajectory of a life can change in an instant. We could have been right there, present, and still not know what happened. But we want to give ourselves a fighting chance to win the battles that will be waged in the mind. We want to do this thing right.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: We want to strengthen our children with good things and encourage them to do good things.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: I do hope that you will join us as we continue our conversation next week. We’ve talked about how our thoughts are impacted, and we want to continue exploring how to effectively protect our children and guide their thoughts.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: You know, when we talk about these things, it’s also important to remember that we’re living in a culture that constantly bombards our children with messages that contradict our values.

Rev. Michele Owes: Absolutely. So many external influences can pull them away from the teachings we want to instill in them.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right. And it’s not just television; it’s social media, music, and even the conversations they have with their peers. All these elements shape their perceptions of the world.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes, they really do. That’s why as parents, we have to be engaged and aware of what they’re consuming.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Exactly. We have to have those open lines of communication. When they feel comfortable coming to us and discussing what they see or hear, we can guide them through it.

Rev. Michele Owes: Communication is key. If we make our homes a safe space for dialogue, they’re more likely to come to us with their questions and concerns.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes! And when they do come to us, we must listen without judgment. We need to approach these conversations with love and understanding.

Rev. Michele Owes: Definitely. And we can’t forget to teach them discernment. Helping them understand the difference between acceptable and unacceptable can empower them to make wise choices.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes! That discernment is vital. It’s about teaching them to think critically about what they’re exposed to.

Rev. Michele Owes: Right. And sometimes we have to help them process their feelings. If they encounter something that makes them uncomfortable or confused, we need to be there to help them sort through those emotions.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Exactly. We want them to feel like they can come to us with anything, whether they’re upset or just curious.

Rev. Michele Owes: And as they grow older, we have to give them more responsibility gradually. It’s a balancing act between protecting them and allowing them to explore their independence.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes, independence will look different for every child. It’s about knowing your child and understanding their maturity level.

Rev. Michele Owes: Exactly. And as they navigate this world, we need to instill in them the foundation of faith and the values that will guide them through tough situations.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Absolutely. And even when they make mistakes, we have to be there to support them and help them learn from those experiences.

Rev. Michele Owes: Right. We don’t want them to feel like failures; we want them to see mistakes as opportunities for growth.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes! And sometimes, it’s in those moments that they really learn the most.

Rev. Michele Owes: For sure. As we continue to support and guide them, we’re also helping them build resilience and character.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: That’s right. And that’s what we want for our children—to be strong, confident, and capable of making good choices as they grow.

Rev. Michele Owes: Absolutely. We hope you’ve found this conversation helpful. Join us next week as we continue discussing how we can equip our children to navigate the complexities of life.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes! Thank you for being with us today. Let’s continue to encourage one another in this journey of parenthood.

Rev. Michele Owes: Until next time, take care and stay blessed!