Sin is an agent that has the power to poison because it is poison and lethal.  It infects and will destroy and bring death.

We who have devoted ourselves to serving Jesus Christ through His forgiveness of sins and the New Life He gives us- cannot expect to live lives of ‘… righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ‘Rom 14: 17b when we continue to live practicing sin through our lusts.   ‘For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.’ Rom 14:18.

He has forgiven our sins and we are promised His Life and peace; Rom 8:6 but when we decide to walk in sin we have no such things; Heb 10:26.  We must instead understand that everything He has provided for us through the work on the cross– is so we would NOT continue to walk in our sins to be slaves to sin.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴ by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 1 Pet 1:2-4

We can wage war in battle to win if we get this one thing down and that is to crucify our flesh; Gal 2:19-20 or reckon ourselves as dead; Rom 6:11 – die to self.  When we resist the lust of our flesh we can then submit to the leading of the Holy so we may walk no longer according to our carnal mind.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Romans 8:6

Because we do not see the unseen spirit world we tend to live like it does not exist.  Where in truth, this world has more going on in it than the world we see!  You can’t see sin, you see only the effects of it.  Just like you can’t see the Holy Spirit of God, you can only see the effects He brings.

In the world today, we have given names and treat them as conditions and illnesses where sin has been legalized among us.  Mental turmoil and anguish have been one of these areas. While the world calls it Mental Illness the bible sheds another view.  We learn that fear is a large part of this torment and that it comes as a curse to those who rebel against God –

The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. Duet 28:28

In contrast, when we walk according to God’s word He gives us a sound mind;

For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind. 2 Tim 1:7

As blood-bought saints of God, we receive the Prince of Peace to be our Peace and His name is Jesus.  When we experience fear, anxiety, or confusion this is an indication that we must go to Him and examine ourselves and ask God to search our hearts and reveal to us where we have gone off to our thinking.

Today, anxiety and depression have become a new normal among us.  We take the world view of our condition in accepting its diagnosis for our anxieties and depression, call it an illness, and look for its treatment.  The thought of looking at it as a sin issue (unbelief) will offend some, but no less true.

The Good news of the Gospel is that we are free! We are washed by the blood of Jesus and no longer walk according to the world or its philosophies, nor of its psychology or remedies and prescriptions.  And in so doing we have peace of mind.

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You. Is 26:2

We learn from scripture that mental torment is (most often) the result of harassing spirits where it is God Himself who sends out mental tormenting spirits upon people.  He sent a spirit of ill-will in Judges 9:23, a spirit of distress in 1 Sam 16:14, a lying spirit in 1 Kings 22:22, and a spirit of confusion in Is 19:14.  The commonality between them all is disobedience to God.

We are told that not all thoughts that we have are to be kept – but only the ones that line up to God’s Word; 2 Cor 10:5.  That timidity or fear is a spirit; 2 Tim 1:7.  We who walk by faith in Christ are to believe what the bible says, and that Jesus is greater and His death and resurrection have proved this.  And we have the power of Almighty God in us to deal with ‘mental illness’ according to His word, provided we obey His word.

If we do not have His Peace ruling in our lives – we need to be asking ourselves some questions and seeking freedom in Christ, freedom He died to give us.

Peace I leave with you, The peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27