Episode 5: How to Fight in a Spiritual Battle

How to Fight in a Spiritual Battle

Hello this is Don Carter. Welcome to the internet of the Mind podcast. Thanks for joining us.

The internet of the mind is about the role our subconscious mind plays in constructing the world in ways that best suit our internal functioning and how we can change our internal functioning at the biological level in order to improve our external functioning, bringing more Serenity and success into our lives.

Today's podcast is  a special edition. Many of you know I am a holistic practitioner and an integrative psychotherapist. I believe change must occur on the biological, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual levels.

We are living in unprecedented times and have been for quite some time. While there's every reason for Faith and Hope, Love for one another seems to have dwindled. There is a darkness that seems to be growing darker. And most of you who know me understand that I believe there is no darkness only the absence of light. I've been feeling led to share my opinions about these ideals in the hopes that they may help bring more light to these dark days.

In today's program I will be sharing some personal testimony about my own journey of recovery as well as my professional experience and knowledge I picked up along the way. 

I can only speak of what I know, share what I have seen, and teach what I have learned. For me, all of this has come through the lens of Christianity. It is my sincere hope that, even if your lens is different, somehow these observations of mine will be useful to you.

In January 1986, 37 years ago, I gave my life to Christ because I could no longer live the way I was living. I was alcoholic and suicidal at the time. I had no idea what God would do with my life. In fact, I was afraid of what he would do with my life. Turns out He knows me better than I do. He put my feet on a path to become the therapist I am today.

During this 37-year journey I had to reconcile my personal values with my professional training. That meant to me I had to find a way to blend science and spirituality. All this time later I can no longer think of the one without thinking of the other. What I'm about to share comes from that background.

Part 1, Material and Spiritual Physics

Back in the 1990s, a man named Bill Gillam was a tremendous help to me in blending psychology and spirituality. Bill was a PhD clinical psychologist and also an ordained pastor. He said, we are not physical beings with a spirit. We are Spiritual Beings in an Earthsuit, meaning if you take it off the planet it will die.

In the physical world, when broken down to its smallest element, everything exists of a mass of swirling electrons, protons, and neutrons - aka, energy. Protons are positively charged, electrons are negatively charged, and neutrons have no charge. Below the atomic level something is going on that defies the laws of physics. This is the line where we cross over into quantum physics, what I call spiritual physics. More on that in a moment.

So when you look around in the world, everything you see is actually nothing more than energy; a swirling mass of electrons, protons and neutrons. That's why I like the saying, "All the world's a stage, men and women merely players." If you could see the physical world as it really is at that level, you might think you're in the movie The Matrix because everything is energy. In fact, over a long enough period of time, everything you see will eventually decay into a pile of dust. That's because that swirling mass of energy causes friction which eventually breaks matter down. Dust to dust. That's right, even our Earthsuits are made of energy and will decay to that level.

Below the atomic level, something unexplainable is going on. Protons having a positive charge are all clustered together in a space called the nucleus. They are there with the neutrons which have no charge. The nucleus is not even a structure, it's a space. In that space like positive charges (protons) are contained. In material physics, like charges repel each other! Swirling around that space are the electrons with their negative charge. Here again, like charges should not be having anything to do with each other and should be exploding apart. 

Science has no idea what holds those like charges in place except to say it is some kind of energy they call the weak nuclear force. This is the edge of quantum physics. And here's why I like to call it spiritual physics...

In Chapter 1 of John, the Bible says, "By Him (Jesus) everything was made, and without Him was not ANY thing made that was made."

A few versus later it says, in Him is the Light of life." (Light is energy) A few versus later it says, "And He is the Light that lighteth EVERYONE who comes into the world." (whether they believe in Him or not makes no difference)

In Colossians 1:17 it says, "And he is before all things, and by him ALL things consist."

In Chapter 14 of John, Jesus himself says "I am the Light of the world. Anyone who believes in me will not walk in darkness, but have the Light of life!" Having been suicidal, I know what it is like when that Light dwindles and darkness abounds.

Also in Chapter 1 of John. It says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God" And a few verses later, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

So even Jesus Christ Himself had to have an Earthsuit to come into the physical world. The Bible is full of examples demonstrating that in order to enter into the physical world, evil spirits and demonic forces have to hijack someone's Earthsuit. In one example, when Jesus drove legion out of the host, they begged to be sent into the Earthsuits of a nearby herd of pigs. The pigs subsequently committed suicide by running off a cliff into the sea. I guess the darkness was more than they could bear!

Part 2, There's No Such Thing As Negative

I often find myself contemplating questions of existence. At one point I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that it seems that every positive in the universe has a negative opposite. Even God has a negative opposite, the devil. (Although they are not equal, as the latter what have you believe. God has no equal)

It occurred to me that in mathematical terms positive means addition and negative means subtraction. Then I noticed if you subtract something from devil you have evil. If you add something to God you have a good.

That reminded me of something that Emmett fox once said. Emmett was an engineer turned biblical scholar. He saw a lot of the world through an engineer's lens. He said, "There is no darkness, only the absence of light. There is no cold, only the absence of heat. Negative 459.67 degrees F is absolute zero, meaning it can get no colder than that. That is the total absence of heat.

If you follow Emmett's formula, there is no negative only the absence of positive. For example, there is no sickness only the absence of health, there is no hate only the absence of love, there is no pain only the absence of comfort, there is no greed only the absence of contentment, there is no depression only the absence of joy, and there is no fear only the absence of faith.

There are a few caveats to keep in mind: First, just because it feels bad doesn't mean it's negative. When we lose something or someone important to us we go to the painful end of the feelings continuum. This is where we can grieve, cry, and give testimony to the importance of that loss. Grief is a healing process and therefore positive. The negative would come in if we complicate the grief by medicating it with alcohol, drugs, or distraction of some sort. 

Secondly, one could ask, does that mean that there is no devil, only the absence of God? The short answer to that is no. The Bible tells us that Satan does indeed exist, but it's on a spiritual level. Since we are Spiritual Beings we can be influenced by other Spiritual Beings. But as already mentioned, they cannot come into the physical world without hijacking someone's Earthsuit. And  Satan, the father of lies, takes every opportunity to do just that!

Being the father of lies, he is very good at deception. He uses what I call rational-lies that look true, sound true, and feel true. Especially when we real-ize them. More on that in a moment.

SIDE NOTE: But take heart, as children of God you have protection! Here is one example, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7 KJV)

So how do these rational lies work? By way of explanation, let's look at 2 Timothy 1:7 where Paul says to Timothy, his protege, "For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." That short passage is chock full of information!

First of all, it implies that there IS a spirit of fear but that it did not come from God. What's the difference between a spirit of fear and of healthy fear? Healthy fear would have us avoid touching that red thing on top of the stove. A spirit of fear will tell us while crossing a bridge, "this bridge could collapse at any moment and you'll end up drowning in the water below!" 

The odds of that happening are minuscule, almost non-existent (with the exception of the West coast where the odds might go up a tiny bit.) Yet we experience terror every time we cross a bridge if we have a bridge phobia. This is a spirit of fear; a little minion sent by the father of lies to steal our joy or peace of mind. He wants to get us off the path and out into the weeds.

And we know that Satan has more than one soldier. So just as there is a spirit of fear there's also a spirit of lust, a spirit of greed, a spirit of envy, a spirit of depression, of low self-esteem, of toxic shame, of anything negative that will get you off the path that God has set before you!

What is the antidote to these spiritual minions that whisper rational-lies into our ear? Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you! How do you submit yourself to God? By focusing our awareness on the Truth instead of rational-lies. 

The truth in this case is found in that same passage (2 Timothy 1:7) he did not give us a spirit of fear, "... but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Being created by God means he gave us a spirit that is our spirit. No one has a spirit just like yours. In addition to that, this passage says he gave us three more spirits. A spirit of power, a spirit of love, and a spirit of a sound mind. The spirit of power in my opinion is the almighty God, the spirit of Love is the son who gave his life for us, and the spirit of a sound mind is his holy spirit who I think of as Jesus without his Earthsuit.

But, like doubting Thomas, we have grown to trust the physical reality so much that we are like color blind people in a beautiful garden when it comes to the spiritual reality all around us. We don't know our own spiritual strength! And that makes sense since we can see, touch, taste, feel, and hear the substance of physical world that we grew up in. 

We cannot see the spiritual reality being trapped here in the physical realm. But we can experience the spiritual reality through a spiritual substance called faith. According to the book of Truth, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb 11:1) "For by Grace are you saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Eph 2:8)

In these two passages we see that faith is a substance given to us by God. That makes it a spiritual substance. And we know that all spiritual THINGS are made of the energy from the Light of life. 

By semantics alone you can tell that faith is not a physical substance. Faith is not a noun because you can't put it in a wheelbarrow and push it around. It's not a verb because you can't put an 'ing' on the end of it! 

You can put a person, place, or physical thing into a wheelbarrow and push them around. But you cannot put an 'ing' on the end of a noun. 

For example, you cannot put an 'ing' on the end of sofa. But you can put an 'ing' on the end of couch-surfing because it's an action word. You cannot put faith in a wheelbarrow, AND you cannot put an 'ing' on it. You can only put an 'ing' on practic-ing or apply-ing the spiritual substance of faith that you have been given. I think of this substance as spiritual batteries charged up with the spiritual energy.

The Bible is a book full of Truth. I think of plugging into it to recharge my spiritual batteries in the same way we recharge our cell phones day in and day out. Sometimes we recharge our cell phones a few times a day. We need to recharge our spirit just as often! By doing so we build up our spiritual energy. Prayer and meditation are other ways to claim our free gift of faith. Keep in mind what happens if you don't take time to recharge!

Another good reminder that Emmett Fox gave us, "We cannot create one thing while dwelling on another!" At the subatomic level, Jesus is the glue that holds everything together. But man, being made in His image, can create things too with the building materials He supplies. If you look around the room you're in right now, you'll see a lot of things that were made by man. I will wager that you cannot find one thing in your physical realm that did not begin with a thought in someone's mind! Even YOU began with the thought in God's mind. We can only create whatever we dwell upon...

Part 3, The Real-ization of Rational-Lies

(See my video on the Flashlight of Awareness for more on this.)

As we have discussed, our earthsuit is our flesh. We need it to walk around and function in the physical world. Being corrupt (negative), our flesh can be considered our false self that is focused on self will, "I want what I want when I want it." One secular psychological model of personality (Freud) refers to it as the Id, a seething cauldron of sex and aggression. Another model (Berne) calls it the child ego state. I think of it as a kid in the candy store without parental supervision. 

Our false-worldly self, our Earthsuit aka, our flesh is where we experience negative things such as gluttony, greed, lust, wrath, pride, toxic shame, hatred, selfishness, addiction, and FEAR. And some of us grew up with physical or emotional trauma, abandonment issues, toxic shame, and other painful experiences which were recorded and encoded in the nervous system.

Our true self is our spiritual self. It is who we really are and who we were created to be. Being of God (positive), our true spiritual self is focused on God's will and it is where we receive the fruits of the spirit. 

In secular terms, Freud refers to it as the superego, and Berne refers to it as the parent ego state. Both identify this part of our personality as the location of ethics and values. So our true spiritual self is where we experience positive things such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (aka, fruits of the spirit Galatians 5:22)

Since we are Spiritual Beings, we have one foot in the material world and one foot in the spiritual world whether we're aware of that or not. This can be a blessing or a curse as we shall see.

Negativity cannot exist in the presence of God. That's why we need Jesus... With Him, when we are in our true spiritual self we can be in the presence of God. Negative can only exist in the flesh, i.e., in our Earthsuit. But if there's no such thing as negative, only the absence of positive, how can it even exist at all? I'm glad you asked!

Olympic athletes all over the world are breaking world records every year. How do they keep doing that? You would think that they have the science of building the body honed to perfection by now and that no further records can be broken. While this may be true for the body, advances in what we know about neuroscience have opened new doors to growth in a multitude of ways!

Olympians have been studying ways to improve their performance with their mind for a while now. In fact, many of the greats have used visualization intuitively for at least 60 years (Jim Brown, Michael Jordan, Rocky Balboa 😉 )

In one study, athletes were placed in a meditation room and helped to achieve a moderately relaxed state.  With monitors attached to their brain and body, they were asked to visualize, as vividly as possible, doing their event. All of the centers of the mind and body that were involved in doing the event, lit up as if they were actually doing their event!

So the brain and nervous system does not know the difference between real and imagined! It simply knows what you show it in the movie theater of your mind - your mind's eye! (Medial Prefrontal Cortex, to be precise) When you entertain something in your mind's eye as if it is real, your brain and nervous system reacts as if it is real, so it might as well be real! Let me say that again... When we focus our awareness on a thought, belief, or idea as if it is real, we "real-ize" that thought, belief, or idea, whether positive or negative we make it real because our brain and nervous system reacts AS IF it is real and so it might as well be real! 

So, does this mean that when we feel bad, we are real-izing unnecessary pain? and when we feel good, we are real-izing pleasure? Yes and no! We cannot define 'positive' as feeling good, because sometimes positive feels bad. For example, sometimes we need to sacrifice short-term pleasure in order to avoid long-term pain. In these cases, "short-term pain = long-term gain." Likewise. we cannot define 'negative' as feeling bad, because sometimes negative feels good.  Giving in to temptations may give short-term pleasure but in these cases, "short-term gain = long-term pain."

Those of you have seen my videos on the Flashlight of Awareness know that I define 'positive' as Truth as confirmed in the "Book of Truth" - The Bible. I define 'negative' as "rational-lies" because they look true, sound true, and feel true, but they are lies! They might be lies we tell ourselves, lies the world tells us, or lies directly from the father of lies.

Here's one more bit of secular evidence that there is no negative only the absence of positive. I have basic, intermediate, and advanced training in clinical hypnotherapy through the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH). So I know that anyone who understands the subconscious mind knows that it does not process negatives. The subconscious deletes negations. For example, when you say "I don't want to smoke", it hears you say "I want to smoke". It does not process the negation. When I say don't think of a pink elephant, what pops into your mind? 

Negatives are processed at the conscious level. The brain has to do what you tell it not to do in order to know what not to do. And both telling it what not to do and knowing what not to do can only be processed at the conscious level. This is why it's so difficult to stop a bad habit or addiction.

Those of you who've seen my Iceberg model know that people who grow up in a less than nurturing family or an abusive family, carry the emotional wound of abandonment, the emotional infection of toxic shame, and the emotional scab of contempt  inside. It creates a free-floating mass of pain in the inner world just beneath the surface of awareness. This all sounds very negative, but negative does not exist only the absence of positive. 

I ask people who have a severe case of abandonment, shame, and contempt to describe it to me. They use terms like it's like a black hole, or a void, or a vacuum that just sucks a life out of them. People with the moderate case of it say something like it's an emptiness, ache, or longing. Those with a mild case of abandonment, shame, and the contempt say something like I don't know, it's like something's missing. 

All of these descriptions have to do with absence. That free floating mass of pain is a god-sized hole inside. But pain is also negative so what is it the absence of? Pain is the absence of comfort. This free floating mass of emptiness sets of person up to seek comfort and relief. They turn to something like food,  alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, work,  money,  success, fame, but nothing can fill it!

As you can see the emptiness sets the stage for an addiction or compulsion. The problem with looking to objects and activities for comfort is that they work - momentarily. It has been called the moment of atonement, I'm "at one with myself." But remember, short-term gain equals long-term pain! Sooner or later the dependence on an object or an activity to fill that void creates more emptiness. I abandon my money, my goals, my dreams, my family, my self-esteem, and I end up with more abandonment, shame, and contempt on top of all of that. And so I need more comfort and relief!

Because there is no pain, only the absence of comfort! 

The rational-lie driving it all becomes, "I need that object or activity to feel any comfort at all!" Indeed, the pain of withdrawal is what causes most people to relapse into their addictive process whatever it may be. So all these objects and activities become idols being worshiped in an attempt to find comfort to fill the emptiness that keeps getting emptier! And thus, the spirit of addiction is having a hay day these days!

That's why I think of the Earthsuit by itself as a kid in a candy store without parental supervision! And what a candy store it is these days... at least in America. Can you see why the spiritual 12-step programs seem to be the only way out for many with an addiction? Can you see why there are over two hundred 12-step programs for various types of addiction?

If we look around in our life, if we don't have God at the center of it, there is something else that we worship. Even if it's socially acceptable such as work, or career. Or maybe it's a relationship, or a hobby that I pursue to the exclusion of everything else. It's all an outer reach for inner comfort. But it doesn't quite fill up that emptiness. Look at all the people who should have "had it made" according to worldly standards. They had talent and looks, accumulated money, fame, fortune, everything anyone could ever want and followed all that with suicide. Elvis Presley and Howard Hughes are just a couple of examples. Not only were they not happy, they were desperately unhappy.

If we keep real-lizing rational-lies long enough they will steal our joy, killing us emotionally at a minimum. At a maximum, they will kill us spiritually as well as physically.

Having been on the brink of death in all three areas 37 years ago I can testify to this fact. It wasn't pain that motivated me to reach out. It was the comfort I found in the thought of death that scared me. I had a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old at the time and I swore I would never do to that to them. My mother left this world that way so I know the pain of an absent parent and I know what happens when one chooses to leave that way. Suicide leaves a legacy and becomes an option in families. It became an option for me and it took two of my younger siblings later on.

When I hit that horrible bottom and reached out for help I found it in a treatment center where I was introduced to one of those 12-step programs. They called it the kindergarten of the spirit. That's my favorite way of looking at it because since then I've been on a learning path. And the more I learn, the less I know! 

I thought I had it all figured out before I started this journey. It's so liberating to know that having things all figured out is not possible, nor is it required. In the next section I want to close with a few more of the things I've learned on that path along the way.

Part 4, How to Fight in a Spiritual War

We all struggle in this broken world. Maybe we are fighting with our self, fighting with others, or fighting the world in general. One of the most important lessons I have learned is that my struggle is not me against me, or me against others, or me against the world. In fact it, is not my struggle at all - it is a struggle is between good against evil.

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Eph 6:12 KJV)

If you look around in the world today, what do you say there's more of, good or evil? Most people I ask that question to say more evil by far. And it seems that evil doesn't even try to hide itself anymore. It stays out in the open right in your face! I believe I know the reason for that. When we see blatant injustice or downright evil, we get mad. We may even entertain revenge fantasies or curse the people engaging in it. In other words, we get in a very negative state. 

When you think of the energy each of us allows to run through our brain and nervous system being pumped out into the world around us, consider the effect that has on the collective energy already in the world. 

Since we are spiritual beings, the energy we emit into the surrounding physical reality is picked up by other spiritual beings, ie our collective spiritual consciousness. Not only does the energy coursing through our nervous systems affect our own Earthsuit, it affects the Earthsuit of everyone around us.

If there is more evil energy than good energy, when we get into that negative state and pump that negative energy out into the world, we add to the evil energy and take away from the good energy. And the enemy laughs.

When we are fighting a spiritual battle, we need to use spiritual weapons. We need to follow the instructions in the book of Truth on how to deal with enemies. The most powerful spiritual weapons in the Bible faith, hope, and love. The most powerful of these is love. Jesus used love to defeat Satan at the cross. 

In Luke 6:35 we are told, "But love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be the sons of the most high, for he himself is kind to ungrateful and Evil people." (KJV)

Matthew 5:43-44 says, "You have heard that it was said, 'you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you; that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust."

I know! Right!? These spiritual weapons go against our physical Earthsuit nature. One would be considered weak in worldly terms, as if they brought a knife to a gunfight. It's like leaving ourselves exposed to anything the enemy wants to throw at us. But faith, hope, and love are our offensive spiritual weapons! We also have some very powerful defensive spiritual weapons when we put on the full armor of God outlined in Ephesians 6:10-18 (Berean Study Bible)

"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For  our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,  against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness,  and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

13Therefore  take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you  will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To  this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the  saints."

Recently I had occasion to wear this Armor of God for 6 weeks when my wife was in the hospital with double pneumonia on a ventilator. I clung to these words and many others during that time. She was on the ICU with a diagnosis of covid along with 10 other people. All 11 of them were intubated on Christmas Day. On January 13th Angie became the lone survivor of that group. Many miracles happened over that period of time.

I sat with a glass door between her and I for three of those 6 weeks staring at the monitors 9 hours a day. I have a little black book with my favorite prayers and bible passages. I clung to Jesus and that little book. I prayed, studied the bible, memorized the first chapter of John, and then prayed some more. About a week into it after memorizing the first 16 verses of John, this prayer came to me and I prayed it over and over again...

"Dear Lord Jesus, you are the Light of the world and the Light of Life! Thank you for allowing us to come to you asking for anything in your name and it shall be given. Today I'm asking that you light up every cell, every fiber, every muscle, every tissue, every organ, and every bone in your daughter Angie. And Lord I ask that you let your light so shine that it drives away any darkness, disease, discomfort, and demonic spirits that may try to steal our joy! It's in your name I pray, Amen"

After isolation and when she came out of the medically induced coma, I gave that little book to her. She swears to this day that little book is what got her through that horrible experience. I was good without it because I had burned most of it into my brain by then.

During our whole ordeal, many times nursing staff commented how amazing Angie was doing. There were some periods of touch and go, especially after a failed attempt to extubate her after 7 days. During our two week follow up with the pulmonologist, he showed us her CT scan with both lungs full of pneumonia and barely enough room to breathe. He said he was amazed that she survived and that he had never seen anything like it. His words not mine!

There were a few times I had to wait in the visitor lounge. It was heartbreaking seeing all the families going through what they went through. After it was all over Angie had survivors guilt for a while. But what helped her the most was being reminded that we had our turn sitting in the ICU and lost people we loved. This was our turn for a miracle and we got many of them! We know that Angie was saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves but a gift of God! But we also know that these promises and spiritual weapons we are advised to use are indeed very powerful!

This story would not be complete without my mentioning Psalm 91. Anyone who knows me knows that Psalm 91 is my most favorite passage in the Bible. That doesn't discount any of the other passages, it's just that I have a special fondness in my heart for Psalm 91 because of the role it has played in my life, and in my ability to help others.

Psalm 91 is all about protection from unseen danger as well as danger you can see coming. The first verse summarizes the whole Passage. It contains both a promise from God and the condition required to received that promise.

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty!

The promise says to anyone who becomes eligible, he or she "Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." I don't know about you, but I believe God means what he says. And when he uses that word 'Shall' it's a promise and he means it! "Abide" means to live, breathe, have your residence there. Since it is approximately 125° in the heat in Israel, anything that casts a shadow becomes protection. So 'under the shadow', means 'under the protection'. God has several names, they use the best one for the context in which it is written. In this case, the writer chose Almighty. 

So the promise is those who meet the condition "Shall live under the protection of the Almighty." The condition says, "He who dwells in the secret place of the most high." 

'Dwells' is the same as abide. Where is the secret place? Is it down the street? Around the corner? Up in the clouds? No, it's right in the middle of your forehead. It's called the medial prefrontal cortex or the Mind's Eye! No one has access to your mind's eye except you and another spiritual being you meet there. In this case it is the Most High!

I memorized all 16 verses of Psalm 91 years ago. But it wasn't until recently that God showed me something about that first passage. I woke up one morning and it hit me... there are TWO secret places in my mind's eye. There's the secret place of the Most High, and the secret place of the wannabe most high! 

When I am running the Truth through my mind's eye, and therefore through my nervous system, I am in the secret place of the Most High. Now I am eligible for the promise of being under the protection of the Almighty! I don't have to real-ize the Truth there because it's already real! 

But when I am realiz-ing the rational-lies of the enemy, I am in the secret place of the wannabe most high and therefore not eligible for the promise of being under the protection of the Almighty! I'm out in the weeds exposed to "the roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8)

When fighting a Spiritual war, we not only need all available offensive weapons (Faith, Hope, and Love) and defensive weapons (Full Armor of God), we need a safe place of protection to rest and reset for the next battle! God knows that so he gave us Psalm 91:2...

"I shall say of the Lord He is my refuge and my fortress; he is my God in whom I will trust!"

These are just a few of the spiritual offensive weapons, defensive weapons, and place of refuge available in the book of instructions given to us by God.

The Biblical scholar, Emmet Fox wrote a whole essay on Psalm 91 breaking it down into language we can understand and apply to our life today. I have included a PDF of that breakdown. Click here to download it.

Thank you for listening or reading this far! I hope my testimony and experience has been helpful.