I hope the Lord will make you clear that the mind is the battlefield and that we need to take the responsibility always to repent, to turn our mind to the Lord. Even when we go to the department store, Satan will utilize many things to attract our mind. Right away, then, we have to repent, to turn our mind to the Lord. This is the principle that we must apply to our daily life. To repent, to turn our mind to the Lord, is a significant step in constantly being saved. We must learn this. If you would ask me what is the most practical lesson I have learned in all these years, I would say that it is to turn my mind to the Lord all the time. Much “information” may come to us, with criticism, opposition, and many matters. All these things just attack and distract us from the Lord. We must learn always to turn our mind to the Lord. In the morning we must repent, at noon we must repent, and in the evening we must repent again. We must repent all the time, and to repent means to turn our mind to the Lord.

We must learn the lesson always to set our mind on the Lord. We should not argue, and we should not discuss. The more we argue and discuss, the more we are distracted from the Lord. We should simply turn our mind to the Lord. Someone may come to us asking us to explain this or that. If we have learned the lesson, we would never answer. We would simply say, “Brother, let us pray.” Sometimes the subtle enemy would lead the person to say, “I know that it is your way to tell me to pray. What does it mean to pray?” If we try to explain the meaning of prayer, we are caught. Rather, we should learn to turn our mind to the Lord and help others to turn their mind to the Lord.

The more we quarrel, the more we have to quarrel. We can quarrel until this time tomorrow. I and some brothers once had a ten-hour talk with one person. What did we accomplish? Later I regretted this to the Lord and to myself. I was foolish to waste the time. I should have just gone to sleep. There is no need to talk, argue, and discuss. It only brings in more opinions, more attacks, more poison, and more death.

We all have to learn this basic, practical lesson: always to turn our mind to the Lord. Then when our mind is turned to the Lord, it will be renewed. Consider our repentance when we were saved. How much renewing we received just through that one repentance! The more we repent, the more our mind is renewed; that is, the more we are transformed. We should forget all the thoughts, arguments, and reasonings. These come from without, from the enemy. We must learn to turn our mind inwardly to the Lord. Then we will meet the Lord; spontaneously our mind will be renewed, and gradually our whole being, our soul, will be transformed.

It is in this way that our soul will be saved. Our soul today is fallen, earthly, demonic, and devilish. It is mingled with the devil; therefore, our soul needs purification. First Peter 1:22a says, “Since you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth.” The only proper way for our soul to be saved and purified from Satan is to turn our mind to the Lord. In this way our soul will be saved from mixture with the enemy Satan, and it will be transformed.

James 3:8 says, “But the tongue no one among men is able to tame; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Darby’s New Translation says, “Full of death-bringing poison.” Why can the tongue not be tamed and bridled? It is because the mind has too many thoughts. When the mind is full of thoughts, the tongue exercises to express something. The thoughts are like electricity, and the tongue is like the blades of a fan. When the electricity is flowing, the blades turn. The tongue is full of death-bringing poison because the tongue passes on the thoughts like poison darts. Many times when people talk with me-both believers and unbelievers-I just look to the Lord, saying, “Lord, cover me.” I do not want to have thoughts as darts coming into me. That brings the poison of death.

We must learn the lesson that in order to control our tongue, we have to turn our mind to the Lord. We cannot control our tongue unless we turn our mind to the Lord. When we have a real repentance, our tongue is “cut off”; it is circumcised. We may exercise much effort to control our tongue; without a real repentance, however, even if we control it in the morning, it will explode in the afternoon. When we have a real repentance, turning our mind to the Lord, this turning of the mind will silence our tongue.

This is not a mere doctrine; I am speaking something of experience. The more we turn our mind to the Lord, the more we will be persons of fewer words. We will not have much to say. If we have something to say, it will be something of the Lord, something bringing life rather than death, something full of life, not death. But when we are taken over in our mind by the enemy, then we cannot control our mouth. We need repentance. We can all agree from our experience that the more we turn our mind to the Lord, the more silent we are. We can only speak praises to the Lord and testify of His grace and mercy. We have nothing to say, however, about any other person. When we turn our mind to the Lord, we are silent in speaking but very powerful in praying.

All of the above matters are related to the mind. I am limited in my language and expression, but I look to the Lord to make this clear to you. This is a part of the spiritual warfare. In order to fight the battle in a better way, we must know that the mind is the battlefield today, and that we have no other way to protect and cover the mind but to turn it to the Lord all the time. We do not care about anything other than the Lord, good or evil. We simply care for one thing: the Lord Himself. Therefore, we turn our mind to Him. Then we are protected. In addition, we are renewed in the mind, and our soul is transformed. Spontaneously we will be circumcised in our mouth, and we will be silent. The tongue will be absolutely controlled, because the source is gone. The “electricity” is cut off at the source, so the “fan” stops turning. We must learn this lesson. Then we will be powerful in the spirit.

Remember that our soul is fallen, demon-like, and devilish. Therefore, our soul needs to be saved by our turning our mind-the leading part of the soul-to the Lord. We always must turn our mind inwardly to the Lord. Then our mind will be renewed, and the entire soul will be influenced; that is, it will be transformed, and our soul will be saved. Why must we read the word? It is because the implanted word, the word planted into us, helps us to divide the soul from the spirit, and the more the soul is divided from the spirit, the more it is saved. We should never let our spirit stay mixed with the soul.
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