The Mess of Our Minds: How To Take Our Thoughts Captive To The Obedience Of Christ With Three Tactics
I want to share with you a topic that I go through with my clients. It’s a Biblical concept that I believe gets glossed over and unless we put systems into practice, and are taught how to do so, we can really go down a mental path that serves nobody well. This is the topic of holding our thoughts captive.
The Bible scripture that comes to mind about this topic is 2 Corinthians 10:5 that says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” There are others that I will share as we go on. So here’s my beef is when you become a believer, if no one comes along side you to discuss these very important things that truly give the believer power as we deal with the perils in this life it can be exceedingly easy to become discouraged. As the believer we already victory because of what Yeshua did for us on the cross. We are now royalty with a Holy inheritance. That doesn’t mean there is not work to be done. Yes, Christ died for it all. We are indeed forgiven for past, present, and future sin.
That’s just it though, sin is still present, even though we are forgiven for it. We aren’t in Heaven yet. So while we are still walking on this earth we are still being perfected and refined. We are still under attack spiritually, and while the ultimate victory is ours through Christ, that doesn’t mean we cannot be targeted by our God’s enemy Satan or his workers otherwise know as demons. The question is not even if we will be targeted, but when? The number one way he will attack is through our minds. Now I do not believe for a second that like some would have you to fear a demon behind every door. In fact, we are called to do the very opposite, and not fear. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, ” For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
The truth is though the spiritual battle is real. Knowing all of this gives you a leg up. The beauty is we have authority. Luke 10:19 says, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” If we don’t realize we have that authority though then we can be convinced that we have been defeated. So there are war tactics we need to be aware of while here on this earth so we can be armed. Ephesians 6:11 says, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” I wish I had been taught these earlier on my walk with the Lord.
Tactic Number 1: Understand How Why And How to Read The Bible Daily
Every believer should own a Bible and read it daily. If you cannot afford to purchase a Bible, there are many churches who will gift you one. Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” The Bible is the Lord’s love letter to His creation. It is there we can best get to know the Lord Our God. He reveals Himself and His plans. When we allow ourselves to not be knowledgeable about the Word of God, then we do not know truth, and we can simply just go along with the crowd, which is usually opposite of the way we are to go. I’ll be honest I really struggled with reading scripture at first. I never knew where to read or how much to read. I needed some guidance. One tip I received that proved to be very helpful was to get a One Year Bible. To this day, it is the same Bible I read. It took the self-inflicted guilt away and gave me a plan. Everyday you read the OT (old testament) with part of one book including a psalm and a proverb and part of a book in the NT (new testament). When we know what God’s Word says then we cannot be fooled, and we are able to make sounder decisions. I also recommend joining a good solid bible study. This can be an invaluable way to dig into what the Bible really says since some is very heavy reading. It teaches you to stay in context and be able to see when others are cherry picking scriptures to suit their own needs. If your local church does not offer one, I highly recommend Bible Study Fellowship. You can attend in person or online.
Tactic Number 2: Understand How the Lord and the Enemy Talks to You
Did you know that all the thoughts you hear are not yours? When I first heard this I thought it was ground breaking information. I honestly had no idea. This is why knowing what our own voice, the voice of our Good Shepherd, as well as the voice of the enemy sounds like. The Holy Spirit talks to us through our spirit, but so does the enemy. I have learned the sound of my voice sounds more like a mom checklist or things I’ve been repeatedly purposely thinking about that serve some type a purpose or achieve a goal. It’s usually positive, uplifting, or fun (at least to me). Not that I can’t go negative, but it is something I’ve worked hard over the years to overcome. Usually the negative thoughts, if they do wind up on repeat and becoming my thoughts, typically didn’t come from me to begin with, usually someone else’s words. That leads me into the voice of the enemy. These thoughts always have a negative connotation with directly or indirectly. By indirectly you may be encouraged or have a thought to do something your flesh may want to do, but is not best for you. I’ll talk about what I do with these thoughts once they enter my mind. by the way, I don’t consider a negative thought to be an assessment of a situation. It’s okay to be realistic and honest with what we are going through. The voice for our Good Shepard is easy to pick out. This is because His words will never contradict Scripture, be condemning, or harmful in any way.
Tactic Number 3: Understand How To Handle Your Thoughts
As these thoughts come into our minds before what I like to call “owning a thought” we first need to take inventory to where we think it’s coming from, us, the Lord, or the enemy. As time goes on it will be easier to decipher who is saying it. Then we need to decide if we agree with the thought. By the way, it’s okay to disagree with a though that we agreed with yesterday. I then begin to ask myself a series of questions about the thought, such as who is that thought serving, uplifting, or edifying? This is a great filter because you can tell right away if the Lord said it or not. Sometimes I straight up tell myself outloud that thought really isn’t serving anyone well, let’s try again. Another good question is if I act on that thought, how will I or those close to me feel afterwards? It’s a will I be able to look myself in the mirror kind of question.
I hope you were blessed by this information and that this helps you in your walk with the Lord Yeshua. Let me know if you need prayer, or have any questions.
Love and grace, Marie
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