Jerry sensed God speaking to him as he listened to the missionary speak of short term missions opportunities to a foreign land. But as he started to fill out the response card, inner voices flooded his mind, “Who do you think you are? They’re looking for mature, experienced Christians; not a spiritual baby like you. Plus, you don’t know anyone and you’re lousy at relationships. Remember the last time you stepped out in ministry – how those people treated you?” And Jerry put down the card and went home.

As whole life worshipers, we want to live for Jesus. Our worship is more than a song; it is the giving of our lives to the Lord. So, we want to do His will, to be obedient to His call. That is a huge part of our worship to Him. But sometimes we get circumvented from doing that. God tells us to step out and we freeze. God tells us to control our tongue and we lash out. God tells us to go left and we veer right. We want our lives to be “Lord, I’ve come to do Your will” (Psalm 40:8). But it ends up looking like Romans 7:15 – “What I want to do, I do not do. And what I hate to do, I end up doing!”

We must remember that there is a realm that is at war with the things of God. There is an enemy out there who is working insidiously and conscientiously to keep you from responding to God in whole life worship. He is powerful, but not greater than God – far from it! We need not fear Satan for the Lord is with us and protects us in every possible way. However, we need to know the enemy’s schemes for they involve our free will (ability to choose and make decisions) and God, in His great love, leaves that area of our lives to us.

One of Satan’s schemes is speaking to our mind. It’s interesting how comedies on TV or movies depict our consciences. On one shoulder is our guardian angel, telling us what the right thing to do. On the other shoulder is the little devil, trying to tempt us to do the wrong thing. I remember Flip Wilson’s character “Geraldine” who always justified her wrong doings by saying, “The devil made me do it!”

While it is not true that the devil makes us do it, he does get into our head – and we should take that very seriously. One of the ways he gets into our head is to replay “stuff” from our past. It seems that whenever God calls us to move ahead (to take some steps of faith, to change our behavior, actions or attitudes), Satan turns on that recording. What’s on that recording? Negative experiences from the past, condemnations, memories of past sins and failures, abuse by others, ungodly vows or promises that you made to yourself, hurts and wounds, fears and struggles, lusts and cravings, lost dreams and broken hopes. You name it and Satan probably has it recorded for playback (on DVD or DVR or YouTube) with your name on it. And right when you are about to follow Jesus – click – there goes another recording, designed to keep you from taking another step forward.

Romans 12:2 (one of our foundation verses for Whole Life Worship) tells us to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” We can overcome the enemy’s scheme to control our lives through those old memories by renewing our mind. In this case, we need to  delete the old recordings.

To delete the old recordings we need to shine the light of Christ on the source: the enemy. My friend, Neil Cole, says that if you want to chase cockroaches out of a room, just turn on the light. When I sense that Satan is playing some “old recordings” in my mind, I ask Jesus to take control of my thoughts and to silence the enemy. I’ll usually say it aloud so that the enemy hears my words and knows I mean business (as does Jesus). I have experienced incredible results when I do this.

Sometimes our old recordings are so familiar to us that we need the help of other trusted, mature followers of Jesus. Letty and I have asked brothers and sisters (sometimes professional Christian counselors) to listen to what we are going through – revealing the contents of those old recordings – and asking them for their counsel and prayer. Your small group or accountability partner is a great sounding board to reveal the lies of the enemy. We can aggressively pray for each other and help one another get back on track in following Jesus.

The point is that we need to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) so that we can be free to serve and worship the Lord with our whole lives.

What are some old recordings the enemy plays back in your mind?

What are some ways you can combat these thoughts through the power of Christ?