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“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) The scripture above is talking about keeping your heart with all diligence because issues of life proceed out of it.

The scripture is not just talking about the blood pumping organ that you have. In most cases when the Word of God talks about the heart of a man, it refers to the mind of the spirit. The five senses that you have in the physical, you also have them in the spirit. Your spirit can also reason, feel, touch, hear and smell. Proverbs 23:7 says; “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he . . .”: a heart cannot think unless it has a mind of its own.

The scripture refers to the mind of the spirit where you have all the five senses active in your spirit. The theme scripture encourages one to guard his heart with diligence because issues of life flow out of it. Which means every issue about your life; whether it is education, marriage or career, all of these issues come from the mind.

The mind of the spirit has to be protected because every issue of life comes out of it. This is not what you think or reason physically, it is not about your physical qualifications, but spiritual qualification. Your heart, or the mind of the spirit is supposed to be guarded and protected, but the question is; from who or from what?

The most desired part of your body by the devil is your mind. The devil wants to control your mind and he knows that by controlling it, he will definitely control all the issues of your life. Therefore you have to protect your heart.

What the devil is trying to do now is to control your life by controlling the way you think. Whether it is the mind of the spirit or of the flesh, the devil is trying the best he can to gain control over your mind. Once the enemy starts controlling your mind he will start controlling your life at the same time.

Your mind should be guarded. “Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.” (Luke 4:2).

After Jesus had fasted 40 days and nights He was hungry and it was after He got hungry that He was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. The first temptation He got was to do with his condition, He was hungry and He wanted something to eat and the first temptation was coming to satisfy the hunger that was present.

The devil is not ready to tempt you unless and until your hunger is known. What are you eager or concerned about? What is your thirst and your hunger? Unless the enemy knows your hunger, he is not in a better position to tempt you. Once you become hungry and the enemy knows your hunger, he brings the temptation which falls in line with your hunger.

All the temptations Jesus received were through His mind. In Chapter 4 of the Book of Luke, the devil never appeared physically to Jesus and advised Him to turn stones into bread. The devil was not there physically, but he was influencing Jesus through His mind though it was written in such a way that you will think it was the devil saying it.

In actual fact, it was not the devil saying to Jesus ‘turn the stones into bread’. The devil influenced Jesus and He was having that idea Himself. It was Him who looked at the stone and said ‘what if I turn this stone into bread and eat’. It was again His mind of the spirit that answered ‘it is written that man shall not live by bread alone’.

It was His mind again that felt like worshipping the devil, the devil was not there physically. The same way that Jesus was tempted is the same way that we are also tempted. The devil was playing with the mind of Jesus; the temptations came in form of reasoning and that is exactly how the enemy is tempting all of us.

If a voice comes to you audibly telling you to go and drink beer you will never obey it. The way the devil does it you need to study how he operates for you to understand him. When the devil is addressing you, he does not speak from outside.

He will get inside of you and make you feel as if you are the one deciding to do something. If it is about drinking, you will start feeling like you want to have a bottle of beer. It will be an internal feeling of you thinking about it. There is no devil that can ever advise you verbally to go and commit adultery; he makes you feel like you want to do it yourself. You will begin to feel like it is your own feeling and yet it is the devil influencing your thinking.

It is not as if you want to sin against God, but the devil will just create a desire within you to begin to go after certain things. You will feel as if you desire to have something and yet it is not you. The devil knows that if he comes and tells you to go out there and steal you will never listen. It will come inside of you and you will feel like you want some money. It is a battle between the mind of the spirit and the mind of the flesh that is being influenced by the devil.

There has to be a debate between the mind of the spirit and the mind of the flesh. The mind of the spirit has to be much more powerful than the mind of the flesh. When you begin to think of doing certain things, you will not even feel the presence of the devil because he will not communicate with you as if he is outside.

He makes you feel like you have to do it yourself and you feel like it is part of your desires. All the people ever tempted by the devil have never seen him coming to them physically.