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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Citadel of Decision

Every human brain contains at least 10 billion nerve cells which connect to all parts of the body.

Only 1 square inch of our 64 inch brain capacity performs any conscious function.

I'll be back in a moment to talk about the world's most amazing telegraph system and its operator.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz of the Amazing Facts Broadcast, Facts Which Affect You.

Today we are going to look into the most amazing secret of the Christian's victory over self.

You know self is the greatest enemy any person has ever encountered.

If we can overcome in this 1 area, every other victory will be gained as well, and eternal life will be assured.

From the very first sin of Lucifer to the sin that is being committed this very moment, self is the great deadly enemy.

Now let's notice that it is the hidden factor in every life that leads to defeat or victory.

Sin invariably originates in the mind, defiling the will and conscience.

Philippians 2, 5 says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Sometimes we speak about giving the heart to Christ, but actually what we mean is we give the mind to Him.

God operates through the will of the individual.

His power in us can save and sanctify us.

Satan also works from the inside to destroy us, just like God works inside, the devil does too, and he will operate through the will and mind to gain control of the person.

We consider too little about the operations of our mind and how to surrender them to heavenly rather than carnal influences.

Now how does Satan manage to move in and subdue an individual?

In Romans 6, 12, and 13 we have a very significant Bible statement, Romans 6, 12, 13, "...let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Now friends, this is talking about the citadel of our will, the private sanctum of the heart.

The devil failed in heaven in his attempt to capture the universe.

The death knell of Satan was sounded at the time of his defeat at the cross.

But 1 last resort remains as far as Satan is concerned.

In only 1 other place can he possibly conquer and rule, and that is in the human body, in the mind of an individual.

In 1 Corinthians 3, 16, 17 we find this description of the sanctuary of the soul or the body.

1 Corinthians 3, 16, 17 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Now put with that 2 Thessalonians 2, 3, and 4, Let no man deceive you by any means.

For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Now of course I realize that this is speaking about the great Antichrist who is going to be set up as a counterfeit God in this world and be worshipped by men.

But we have discovered that the body also is the throne room of Jesus Christ.

God is to rule the individual from that sacred citadel of the human mind, and the devil is going to come along and try to set himself up in that sacred temple of the body to control every individual.

Now what is the throne room of the body anyway?

There is no doubt at all that our destiny will be subtle at last by the decision centered in the incredible brain.

The more we study about it, the more amazed we are, and the more persuaded we are that this is really the secret.

Here is the control center of all thought and decisions.

This is the central control point of the will, the conscience, and the reason.

In Proverbs 23, 7 we read, For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Now somebody has said, We are not what we think we are, but what we think we are.

Yes, there is a powerful influence on the body through the processes of thought.

Some tremendous secrets of the mental processes have been discovered.

Have you ever wondered how memory is able to summon instantly and at will those hundreds of mental pictures of places and people from years gone by?

We are told by the scientists that our body is similar to a wet cell electric battery generating a direct current of about a tenth of a volt.

Roughly speaking, this is just about what an ordinary flashlight battery would generate.

The electric charge is created by two-body chemicals, sodium and potassium, operating on nerve tissues that are bathed in fluid, mostly water.

Now the nerves are these thread-like fibers extending to every part of the system, and they carry impulses to and fro and from the 4 message centers of the brain.

Did you ever hear anybody talk about the wrinkles in the brain?

Well, actually, friends, there is a covering spread over this cerebrum, and the electric process that enables us to think is not a continuous steady current of electricity, but a rhythmic pulsation that spreads like sheet lightning over that brain covering.

When we are asleep, these pulsations are very slow, in fact they almost disappear entirely, but the slightest stirring of the mind will speed them up again to hundreds of times per second.

In reality then, the whole body is like a vast telegraph system with electrical connections here and there throughout.

For instance, if the finger touches a hot stove, there is an incredible mechanism which flashes a signal to the brain, and there the problem is weighed and a decision is made.

Then an appropriate message is telegraphed back through those nerves ordering the muscles to contract and get that finger off the hot stove.

From the eyes alone, 300, 000 separate private telegraph lines reach back to the brain.

When you look at a red rose, thousands of separate, distinct messages are transmitted to the brain pertaining to the size, shape, color, and details of that flower.

In the brain, those signals are rearranged in some fashion unknown to man to give the impression of actually visualizing the scene.

Hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling are all experienced in this same way.

Electric signals are wired to the brain and there the actual functions take place.

In a certain sense, then, we can say that the brain is like a train dispatcher who sits high up above and gives orders to avoid collisions and short circuits.

Now friend, as long as God is in control of this central control point, we are absolutely safe.

But if Satan ever gains control, you can imagine what might happen.

Collisions will take place, lines will become crossed, the nervous system, in fact, will simply go to pieces.

The body will move only as the brain directs, and so Satan could actually control our conduct and action if he ever acquired full authority in that brain.

Now friends, can't you see how vital it is to guard the avenues of the mind?

Those avenues are the 5 senses, of course.

This is the only way Satan could ever get in.

He can only reach the brain center of your life through sight, sound, and all the other physical senses.

Thought patterns are also developed through these senses.

You really might think of your mind as a plastic pliable surface.

Every time you think a new thought, it cuts a groove on that surface, and when you think the same thing over and over again, or even 1 like it, that groove is cut deeper.

Soon it becomes just like a wagon rut on an old country road, and it is almost automatic that the thought patterns fall into that rut.

Once these thought grooves are established, thoughts just tend to slip into them whether you are good or bad.

If you wish to establish new patterns, you have to exercise the will and place decision blocks before those undesirable grooves and begin cutting new ones.

Now we come to the most exciting part of the whole thing.

Science can now measure the electric currents that sweep over the brain.

These thought processes are triggered by electrical energy just like physical exercises.

They have even discovered that sometimes these electric currents are positive and sometimes they are negative.

They have learned that anger and impurity under conditions of great excitement actually generate a negative charge of electricity which disrupts and weakens the electrical energy of the brain.

Physicians understand the relation of the mind to the bodily health.

They understand that ulcers and other diseases, especially the nerves, are caused by the improper function of the thoughts and of the brain.

Notice this text in Proverbs 16, 24, "...pleasant words are in honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health of the bones." In other words, happiness and cheerfulness will help build up the electric power of the brain.

Now we can understand perhaps something else.

Whatsoever things are pure, and honest, and just, and good, think on these things." Of course, The Bible admonishes us to think upon themes that are noble and elevated and pure.

Only by this mode of thought can the bodily health be as God intended it to be.

Hunter, a famous English heart specialist, recovered from a severe heart attack himself.

After his recovery he was talking to another doctor and he said, My life is in the hands of any rascal who chooses to annoy me.

And sure enough, right after that he got very angry at somebody and dropped dead as a result of it.

So the emotions, the thoughts have much to do with our physical well-being.

Another text in Proverbs 17, 22 reads, A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones.

Yes, and the marrow of the bone, red corpuscles are made.

When a person is angry or depressed, the body can't really manufacture those red corpuscles.

People can get sick and die just because of a broken spirit.

And this, of course, is a part of Satan's great work.

He seeks to discourage and harass people mentally so they will not have the will to think positively.

Sometimes electric shock treatments are used to try to build up this electrical energy of the brain that has been depleted by discouragement or depression.

Citadel of Decision

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