Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

A soldier is a disciplined person. He is trained to obey instructions and to defend his

changed mind, different action

territory even at the expense of his own life. The first thing the army does when a soldier enlists is to retrain the individual to act and think like a soldier.

The way we have been brought up determines how we think and subsequently how we operate, that is, how we behave. The process of change takes time and effort; this is why soldiers are taken away from the distractions of everyday life to develop the mindset that the Army requires. Our default position is to do our own thing. We know what is going on in our own lives and we have the answers to fix it! WRONG. 

On enlisting in the army of the Lord Jesus Christ, we divest ourselves of the things of the ‘world’ or the things of the ‘flesh’. Don’t get me wrong here, we do not hibernate or retreat into living as an ascetic; we try to the best of our abilities to live a life that is ethical, honest and adds value to those with whom we come into contact with.

This is exactly why we need to have our ways of thinking transformed. The apostle Paul reminds us that we must be transformed, in our thought life, by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2). Once the mind as the control centre for the body is transformed, then the rest of the body will fall in line.

As followers of Jesus, the soldier metaphor allows us to envisage the necessary steps we need to take on a daily basis. Unlike those being led by Joshua at Gilgal, we are not enlisting in a physical army, but in a spiritual one.  Our fight is not a literal one but one of faith. The problems we face must first be confronted in the spiritual realm, I use realm here not to suggest that we have to go out there somewhere, since spirits are all around us, but to engage our minds. An example of this is found in scripture with the man who lived among tombs (Luke 8:26-39). On the surface Jesus could have attacked the man, however, Jesus saw the demonic spirits who had possessed and were oppressing him. So Jesus spoke directly to the demoniac and not to the man. The spirits left him and he was in his right mind (Luke 8:35).

Today be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And remember that all things are possibly with God!

Read 2Timothy & Luke 8:26-39.