In 2 Peter 3:1,2 the apostle tells salvation seekers to “stir up” their pure minds by studying what he, the other apostles and prophets wrote.  By filling our minds with God’s Word we force out all other thoughts, thereby cleansing our minds.  The Apostle Paul spoke to this Truth, telling the church that God sanctifies and cleanses her “by the washing by the water by the Word” (Eph. 5:25,26).  Note that it was for that reason that Christ died.  His death provided the Holy Spirit to true believers so that they could be cleansed by continually feeding on God’s Word, believing and obeying it.  This is not possible without the Holy Spirit, which believers can receive only because Christ died.  By filling the mind with the holiness and purity of the Word, no sinful thoughts can stay in it long enough to “conceive” and grow into sin.  Read James 1:14,15.  The Word is a purifying agent.  In 1 John 3:3 the Apostle tells us that we must purify ourselves even as Jesus is pure.  Just as a continuous flow of water cleans a dirty glass, a continuous supply of God’s Word cleanses the mind.

Peter continues in verse 2: “That you may be MINDFUL of the WORDS which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and (mindful) of the COMMANDMENTS of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior.”  To cleanse ourselves and remain in a cleansed condition we must STUDY THE INSPIRED WORD diligently (2 Pet. 1:21/ 2 Tim. 3:14-16).  This requires WORKS, which consist of studying and obeying THAT WORD.  There is no other way.  We can only be “mindful of the Words” of the prophets, apostles and Jesus Himself if we diligently study those Words upon which the New Covenant Church was founded and upon which she continues to stand (Eph. 2:20).  Those in God’s church stand individually on those Words.

King David–the man after God’s heart–meditated on His Word “day and night” (Ps. 1:2).  In Colossians 3:1,2 Paul tells us to SEEK those things that are above and SET our affection on those things.  Like David, the true seeker of God and His Truth will follow His instructions found in Joshua 1:8 where we are told to meditate on the Book of the Law day and night.  David said: “O how I love Your Law.  It is my meditation day and night” (Ps. 119:97).  We are commanded to speak of the Law when we rise up and when we lie down, when we sit in our house and when we walk by the way (Deut. 6:7).  In Psalm 19:14 David prayed that the thoughts of his mind and the words of his mouth would be acceptable to the Lord.  In Psalm 139:23,24 he prayed: “Search me, O God, and know my heart.  Try me and know my thoughts.  See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in THE (ONLY) way everlasting.”  THE ONE AND ONLY WAY TO SALVATION (OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD) IS EVERLASTING–ETERNALAL.

In the spiritual war in which God’s true saints are engaged, ground zero–the battlefield–is the mind where they are continuously in a life-and-death struggle to resist the devil’s powerful messages of temptation called the “spirit of disobedience” (Eph. 2:1,2).  In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul adds that we must cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.  In 2 Corinthians 2:9 he tells us to be obedient to God in all things.  This does not come naturally.  We must WORK at it.  Otherwise, Satan will manipulate us into believing that, because of Christ’s death, we can sin and get away with it.  I have been told this by a seminary student and an ordained minister, both of whom were professing “sinners saved by grace” who represent billions of fellow churchites whom Satan has seduced using his “spirit of disobedience,” which is the “spirit of antichrist” (1 Jn. 4:3).

The process by which Satan works in the mind is best presented by the Apostle James in 1:14,15.  We cannot help but be hit with Satan’s “fiery darts” of temptation.  The study of God’s Word builds up a plate of “armor” around our minds that enables us to ward off his temptations, not allowing them to gain a foot-hold in our minds.  Without that armor we are low-hanging fruit for Satan.  Adam and Eve did not meditate on the Words God said to them.  This made them easy pickings for the Serpent of Eden.  Because they paid more attention to the Serpent’s words than God’s Words, they could not overcome him (the serpent).  Instead, they were overcome by him.  Jesus said that only those who overcome Satan in the same way He overcame him would sit with Him on His throne in the next life (Rev. 3:21).  L.J.