Home > Blogs > Post Content

''The Battle for Your Garden (A friend shared this with me, I think you might appreciate reading it as well) (124 hits)

Monday, October 27, 2008 • Print Article
• Leave a Comment
The Battle for Your Garden
Dr. Creflo A. Dollar
There is a very real spiritual battle that is going on in the life of every Christian and it revolves around your spiritual "garden," which is the ground of your heart. The enemy is constantly seeking to overtake Believers' lives by planting the wrong kinds of seeds within them. He does this through thought injections that are designed to create wrong images in their minds. As a soldier in the army of the Lord, it is your responsibility to vigilantly guard your heart and mind with the Word of God. This will keep the weeds out of your garden and ensure that the seed of God's Word grows up in your life to produce an abundant harvest.

Every day, Christians are barraged with images, words and suggestions that try to sway them away from the truth of God's Word. Whether it is a news report that glorifies the work of the enemy, an ungodly television show or even a billboard that promotes an ungodly lifestyle, there is no escaping the fact that we live in an environment that is determined to plant the wrong seeds in us. But God has given us His bag of seed that we must plant in our hearts. It will grow healing, deliverance, financial wealth, joy, peace, happiness and all kinds of promises from God.

The key to making sure your garden stays "weed-free" is to guard it. You must continually keep scriptures before your eyes, in your ears and coming out of your mouth. Satan is on a mission to try and dominate your life and all he does to accomplish his goal is get you thinking about his suggestions. Though they may sound good, don't take the bait.

It is critical that you become a custodian over your thought life and refuse to accept the enticement of the devil. Adam and Eve fell prey to his schemes in the Garden of Eden because they failed to guard what God had entrusted to them. Satan showed up in the form of a serpent and made a suggestion to Eve. His question, "Hath God said...?" planted a seed of doubt in her mind as to the validity of God's instructions to her and her husband. Although God had already told them that if they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they would surely die, Satan challenged God's Word. Isn't that what he is doing today in the lives of Christians? God has said one thing, and he comes with a contradictory statement to try and get us to doubt or question whether or not God's way is best.

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of the devil. Once they "took" his thought injection, they began to be moved by their emotion, noticing that the fruit looked good and appealed to their hunger cravings at the time. Their feelings led them to act in a way that separated them from their connection and fellowship with God. Their decision to disobey ushered a curse into the earth. They allowed the devil to pollute their garden simply by accepting his thoughts.

You may be wondering how you can avoid being infected by the enemy's thoughts. Although you may not be able to stop the thoughts from coming, you don't have to accept them when they come. The Bible gives clear instructions on how to handle ungodly thoughts when they show up. Second Corinthians 10:4,5 says, "(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Your weapon against negative thoughts is the Word of God! When those suggestions come to your mind, open your mouth and confess God's promises in faith. This is what it means to capture your thoughts and cast them down. There is no thought or imagination that can stand against the Word. It is the final authority in your life.

Don't ever get slack where guarding your heart is concerned for the issues of your life flow out of it (Proverbs 4:23). Be a good custodian over your thought life and feed your spirit the Word of God on a continual basis. When you do, you will protect your garden and see the promises of God become a reality in your life.

Dr. Creflo A. Dollar is the senior pastor of World Changers Church International, 25,000 member church in College Park, Georgia. He is committed to changing the world one person at a time, and his award-winning "Changing Your World" television broadcast reaches nearly one billion homes worldwide. Visit www.CrefloDollarMinistries.org to learn more. Click here to browse and purchase Books, CDs, and DVDs by Dr. Creflo A. Dollar!

© Creflo Dollar Ministries all rights reserved.

Posted By: Alonzo Wilson
Monday, October 27th 2008 at 2:55PM
You can also click here to view all posts by this author...

Report obscenity | post comment

Share |

OMG! This is absolutely true. When I try to explain to people why I surround myself with gospel songs primarily and I am very, very selective in what I will watch, read, etc., they don't get it.

What happened to me was my experience with my Bipolar. It occurred to me after extensive therapy initially that the evil seeds I was exposed to returned to haunt me when I slipped into blackness with Bipolar.

What I was told was this: "Find God. Find the light and move towards it." Well, it was silly to me at first, but when I had the very next episode, I tried much to focus on the light. What was the light?

It was the songs playing in my mind. It was the scripture verses. It was God. Does that make sense? It pulled me out of the blackness. There was soo much joy. So I began surrounding my environment with God. Not just to get out of the blackness, but it was healing. It brought me so much inspiration to do better. I found my purpose because of it I know.

Then God showed me His face. I thought I was dead, maybe spiritually dead....but it was sooo supernaturally charging that I see it today as if it is still happening in slow motion. Oh, the joy. Oh the valuable lesson to keep the weeds out.

People get caught up in carnalism (I may have made that word up) but it is true. When I was blessed with my current home, I fell deep into gardening. My grounds are covered and full of vines and branches. My connection to God. My knowing that He pruned me. I wrote this poem about vines and branches in 2002. In 2006 when I saw this home, I knew it was from God. I moved in during the winter so when I went out in the yard in the spring to begin gardening, I had to cry as I opened my eyes to where he placed me. The vision was in 1993.
We often expect God to manifest one way, then He reveals to us His purpose for us and the joy is beyond carnal understanding. When I saw all the vines and branches snaking all around my yard, I simply cried. What else could I do. But I knew, just knew that because I chose to weed my spiritual garden and tend to it regularly, God continued to bless me abundantly with wellness.

God is real. His garden is real. We must indeed keep the weeds out and it is really not that hard to do. Here are two poems from my book, that testify to this. And guess what, I learned during the summer through meeting neighbors that the yard was so "dead" for many, many years before I moved in. My neighbors told me, and still do, that I have the most beautiful garden in the block!

When I had an episode while living here, I believed the world had left me. With Bipolar those "thoughts" become your reality. So I was deeply depressed and scared. I thought I was the only human on earth. Well, I went out back in my yard and just sat under the sun talking to God and thanking Him for the beauty of the colorful flowers. Then I heard a car pull up. Then I heard my daughter's voice. She was calling me and she walked around the house and said, "I should have know I would find you here. You wanna go to lunch and a movie?"

Now, understand the joy because I was in a manic episode and believed I was alone in the world. So imagine the joy and relief discovering that first my daughter was alive and cared about me to come and then that there were people still in the world. Go ahead and laugh, I'm crying as I type this.

To me, God sent her right on time because I saw the "light!" If I were not "weeding" as I sat there, would I have won that spiritual battle. That is really how I view my mental illness. A spiritual battle. Ok, please enjoy the poems and be blessed for sharing this wonderful post.

MY VINES AND BRANCHES

Planted
By my Father
Pruned to sprout fruit
Chosen by the Almighty One
Jn 15:16
Copyright© 2002 Agnes B. Levine

******
Sweet Weeds
(aaauh-choo!)

Hues of
lavender love
tangled in loden hate
fire ants travel wickedly
nipping evil leaf tips
sweetened goodbyes
that cry

making
violet spikes
weep poison tear drops, too
on droves of ivy near my arm
that ants are immune from
or do they itch
as well.
C2007

Agnes B. Levine
Author of: "Cooling Well Water: A Collection of Work By An African-American Bipolar Woman" ISBN 0975461206 Winter 2008 Release Pending
www.myspace.com/coolingwellwater (Subscribe Now)

Founder/President: Levine-Oliver Publisher, the Exclusive publishing home of Swaggie Coleman. Visit Swaggie's Voice© at: http://swaggiecoleman.blogspot.com and win prizes!

Monday, October 27th 2008 at 5:17PM
agnes levine