Is Your Brain Being Held for Ransom?

"I don't know how it happened.  It was a typical day and I was prepared to spend quality time with my Savior.  My plan was sound - 1. put on worship music 2. place bible and note pad in front of me and 3.  pray and ask Holy Spirit to teach me. As I headed to my office, I caught a brief glimpse of a snack that could be consumed with little preparation.  I kept walking.  Then I remembered an important call I did not return.  The pull to change my plans increased.  As I pass my bedroom, I remembered I had laundry to do.  Now I was thinking about a snack, a call and my laundry.  My brain was slowly being hijacked away from the things of God" (excerpted from the dangerously redeemed mind).

I was doing my usual flipping through the channels thing when I stopped on a medical talk show.  The doctor and his guest were teaching people how to gain more will power.  The guest made a statement that caught my attention.  She said, " temptation hijacks the brain."  In this particular instance, she was talking about food temptations, but it applies to all temptations.  Some are indeed tempted by food, others by alcohol, drugs or other narcotics.  Many are tempted by fame or notoriety, money, position and power.  Some of those things in and of themselves are not bad, but when they are temptations, there is a root of evil involved.

To be tempted is simply a desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise.  You are enticed away from the usual or proper course of action. As believers, we are to be led by the Spirit of God.  There is a constant battle between the flesh and the spirit.  The bible says there is enmity between  the mind of the flesh and the Spirit of God (Romans 8:7).  When we yield to our flesh, our brain has been hijacked by the enemy and that leads us to sin.

James 1:14-15(NKJV)
¹⁴But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  ¹⁵Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

James 1:14-15 paints a vivid picture of the route of temptation.  When we yield to the desires of our flesh, our brain is hijacked until the desire is fully conceived and satisfied.  Death is the result of the enticement to sin.  It is an immediate death to the God-desire within you.  Eventually, it is total spiritual death and separation from God.

It is why Jesus warned us in Matthew to watch and pray.

Matthew 26:41(NKJV)
⁴¹Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Though our flesh is weak, we are not to be dismayed.  Our trust or freedom doesn't come from our flesh, our will power.  God Himself has paid our ransom.  Jesus suffered and was crucified to pay the ransom demanded by our sin. 

Mark 10:45(NKJV)
⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Since our debt has been paid, we are free.  Our brain doesn't have to be held hostage.  Payment has already been made and we can walk in our freedom.  So when you feel yourself being lured away from the course God has establish for you, resist it.  Declare you are led by the Spirit and not by the flesh.  He has given us a way of escape.  USE IT!

1 Corinthians 10:13(NKJV)
¹³No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

James 4:7(NKJV)
⁷Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.