Think About What You Are Thinking About

The Battlefield of the Mind

by Joyce Meyer

 Reviewed by Aaron DeWeese  

A drawing point for me to this book was that chess pieces were on the front cover.  I find it odd that someone chose to have the white king submitted, while the black king stands victorious over him.  What is this symbolic of?  Before I get lost in this, I'll move on. 

Joyce Meyer is either loved or hated, as are many TV evangelists - there are not many inbetweens.  I guess I fall inbetween.

This book is very simply written.  It is double-spaced and comes in at 278 pages.  The bibliography consists of the "Random House Unabridged Dictionary", "Strong's The New Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible", "Vine's An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words", and "Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary".  "Battle Field of the Mind" has sold over 2 million copies.  People are essentially simple-minded.  Isaac Asimov stated that his objective in writing, was to write as simply as possible, being as clear as possible.  Well done then, Joyce, good and faithful servant.

The contents of "Battle Field of the Mind" are broken into three parts:  "The Importance of the Mind", "Conditions of the Mind", and "Wilderness Mentalities".

The main message found here is to "think about what you are thinking about".  Various scriptures taken from the Amplified Bible, as well as King James, are spread throughout the book, validating Meyer's teachings on the mind.

Though I was not impressed with Joyce's writing style, I appreciated her insights, and her knowledge of the Bible.  Certainly, there are things here to think about, and think deeply about. 

Confessing not only covers our sin, but also helps us to recognize and analyze where it is that we are habitually falling into sin.  Socrates tells us "A life unexamined is not worth living."  The writer of Proverbs tells us "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he."  By examining our thinking, our minds, we are better able to examine our lives.  As Joyce states more than once:  "The mind is the battlefield."

All was well with Joyce and I until I came to chapter 10, within which she argues that reason is an abnormal way of thinking, and that reason leads to confusion.  I believe she takes Matthew 16.8, James 1:22, Proverbs 3:5, and 1 Corinthians 2:1,2 completely out of context.  Paul said he resolved to know nothing among us except Jesus Christ.  Without reason, we could not recognize Paul as being paradoxical - he is truly one of the most logical and intellectual writers in the bible!  Joyce's book here was written using reason, which, in the image of God, we were gifted with (granted she used a smaller portion of reason in her writing than say, Charles Spurgeon).  So, this chapter, in my opinion, needs to be completely trashed and rewritten.  Reason is not abnormal thinking.  It is a wonderful tool without which we would only have religion. 

Myer Pearlman states that "theology literally means 'a treatise or reasoned discourse about God'.  Theology, or doctrine, may be described as a science which deals with our knowledge of God and His relations to man.  We call theology a science because science is the systematic and logical arrangement of certified facts.  Theology consists of facts relating to God and Divine things, presented in an orderly and logical manner. 

Religion comes from a Latin word meaning 'to bind'; religion represents those activities which bind man to God in a certain relationship.  Theology is knowledge about God.  Thus religion is practice, while theology is knowledge.  Religion and theology should go together in the balanced experience; but in practice they are sometimes separated so that one may be a theologian without being truly religious and on the other hand one may be truly religious without possessing a systematic knowledge of doctrinal truth.  'If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them," is God's message to the theologian.  'Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth' (2 Tim. 2:15), is God's message for the spiritual man."

Is that not brilliant?  Bravo!, Mr. Pearlman, Bravo! 

Joyce Meyer, we do not need to fear reason - it will not lead to atheism, unless applied in earnest to atheism (which should then, if the logician is honest, in the very least, lead the atheist to agnosticism). 

We are to apply our Godly ratiocination to his Word.  I don't know how Joyce reasoned herself into such an unreasonable reasoning of reason.  I don't think it's just her.  I think that the Body of Christ is terrified of logic, and sees it as cold and terrible.  This is why they are called "religious folk".

After Chapter 10 of "Battle Field of the Mind" I truly began to appreciate the depth of Meyer, which at first appearance, to me, seemed shallow.  This is the beauty of the book - and the same beauty can be found in the gospel.  It seemed to me too, that by the end of the book, Joyce's vocabulary was expanding, and her prose growing sharper (I realize that she has written over 70 published books). 

There is a lot of information covered in the book that I'd like to get into.  Reading it once seems a shame, therefore, in this case, unlike the cases of many other books, a workbook would be preferable—I'll be keeping my eye out for one. 

Joyce points out many historical facts of the bible, including that it was an 11-day journey the Jews had to cross over into the promised land - God kept them in the wilderness for 40 years; in turn, her "Wilderness Mentalities" section was quite insightful. I think her favorite word at the time of writing this was "exhortative" — she used it much.  I too enjoyed the little tales of trials in her personal life, and the wisdom she gleaned from them.  I hear she is writing fiction now - which I'd be interested in reading.

I might point out another oddity in the book, which I found highly entertaining.  In Chapter 15, under "Meditate and Be Healed", Joyce states that:

 "My appearance has been changed during the past 18 years.  People tell me that I actually look at least 15 years younger today than I did when I first began to diligently study the Word and make it the central focus of my entire life." 

It is quite common knowledge now that Joyce Meyer has gone under the knife (I thought she was hotter before, as a friend told me I was the type that would always choose the before pictures on those infomercials, and he's right)...