Entry Points: Protecting Your Mind and Heart from Spiritual Attack

Entry points are strategic but vulnerable places of access into our inner being, such as our eyes and ears. Satan exploits our vulnerable weak points to gain the advantage, targeting these gateways to infiltrate our minds and hearts.

Understanding the Danger

These are strategic but also vulnerable places of access into our inner being, such as eyes and ears. The Bible's instruction is to constantly protect our heart more than any treasure for it is the source of our life (Prov 4:23). Once the enemy (or any undesirable influence) has gained entry, it is difficult to reduce its influence and eliminate its menacing stranglehold. The damage has already started, so "Don't give the enemy a foothold" for he will only increase his presence and consequently destructive power (Eph 4:27).

It is essential to have clearly defined standards of what you will allow and what you won't accept. "I will set no wicked thing before my eyes" (Ps 101:3). Already have your procedures in place before the time of testing. Have your mind so full of the good that there is no room for the evil (Phil 4:8). Walk with integrity and be self-disciplined to maintain rigid controls (boundaries) especially when feeling low and wounded in spirit as this is often when the enemy tempts with 'you deserve just a peek, this will pick you up'.

Adam and Eve fell for his plausible suggestion that God was withholding something good from them, and look at the result. Be aware of Satan's schemes for he prowls around like a lion, ready to take the advantage over anyone not alert and close to Jesus (2 Cor 2:11; 1 Pet 5:8). Do not think you can get away with a little 'secret' sin (Mt 10:28; Heb 4:13).

Guarding Against Attack

Through various wrong attitudes and actions, such as lust, unforgiveness and anger, we are exposing and weakening the resistance of the various points of entrance making ourselves prone to attack. "Like a city whose walls [of protection] are broken down is a man who lacks self-control" (Prov 25:28). "Sin is crouching at the door [ready to leap through at the slightest invitation]; it desires to have you, but you must master it" (Gen 4:7).

It is our responsibility to take authority over temptation. It is essential to guard the back door too! Satan is subtle and will target the places of least resistance. If our borders have been breached, we must repent, and sever the flow by cutting off the supply routes of the wrong, taking definite steps to walk in newness of life, reinforcing the desirable while dealing severely with anything that is not (2 Cor 10:5).

The Consequences of Input

Whatever we feed into our minds and hearts, be it good or bad, has the potential to be outworked through our lives. This is why we should set a watch over the various means of input and avoid every kind of evil (1 Thes 5:22). If we 'sow into the flesh', that is the kind of harvest we will reap (Gal 6:7-8).

The family line will also be affected as the repercussions of sin are passed on to successive generations (Ex 20:5, 34:7; Num 14:18). We don't comprehend the devastating power we set in motion in the spirit realm that will plague our lives and our descendants when we indulge in what is sinful, or speak destructively. Obedience to God is much better than repentance and the difficult task of cancelling what has been activated in the spirit realm (1 Sam 15:22). Abuse in a multitude of forms can occur in young lives before they are mature enough to understand and resist, yet unfortunately, their lives carry huge scars and baggage that blight their emotions and bodies.

It is a wise precaution to be accountable to others besides regularly monitoring the input into your mind. To a large degree, our bodies are the result of the food we eat, so our souls and spirits are the product of what they are 'fed'. "The entrance of your Word gives light" (Ps 119:130). Do I take seriously the need for vigilant guarding of the entry points into my life?

Do I control the input into my mind?

Reflection and Application:

What entry points in my life are most vulnerable to attack?
Am I maintaining clear boundaries and standards for what I allow into my mind?
Do I have accountability relationships in place to help me stay vigilant?
What steps can I take today to better guard my heart and mind?