Think About This

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:” Proverbs 23:7.

Yesterday I touched on taking our thoughts captive. It is too big an issue in our lives not to spend a little more time talking about it. Joyce Meyer has a book titled “Battlefield of the Mind” which addresses this. Christianity and living the Christian life is a war that goes on between our ears. And is a matter of our thought life more than it is a matter of the devil and demons and what they do. I’ve said all along the devil gets credit or blame for things we bring on ourselves. He sits back smiling and laughing as we bring turmoil and trouble into our lives with the thought occupying our minds. We have to remember that our flesh is fallen; the will of the flesh is in unity with sin and therefore satan. That is why it is called the sin nature. It is our nature to sin. You don’t have to train a child to sin, you have to train them not to sin, not to take what isn’t theirs until it’s paid for and so much more. Scripture tells us and we know from our own lives, that a man acts and does in accordance with how he thinks.

That is why the battle is in the mind. The devil has worked through the world to influence us to think according to a mindset that is contrary to God and the Bible. We call it a person’s worldview. Wicked men hate God and don’t want to admit there is a God, because they don’t want to be accountable for their actions and lifestyle. To justify themselves, they work extremely hard to train the younger generation to think their way, amoral, immoral, anti-god and try to convince them there is no God. Heaven forbid our children think there is a God and He will hold them accountable for keeping the Ten Commandments. After all, that might affect their behavior. Of course it would! Which is why, generation after generation, more people live with no conscience or morals. It has been destroyed by indoctrination and brain-washing. Those same folks accuse Believers of brain-washing when teaching faith.

2 Corinthians 10:5 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”  

The Bible doesn’t say “take every demon captive” but “take every thought captive." When we are born again by the spirit of God, we do not belong to satan. We still have mindsets and ways trained by a worldly mentality we need to destroy and replace with a mind renewed by the truth of God’s Word. Only then will we act and think in a manner acceptable to God.  

We have to acknowledge we cannot change our lives by changing our behavior. Dealing with behavior is a temporary change at best. Scripture says, “As a man thinketh…” We have to change our way of thinking and our thought patters if we are going to change our behavior. When our thinking is lined up with God’s Word, satan is sealed off and has no entrance into your life. He will still come with accusations thrown at us, hoping to penetrate our minds and thinking because it is the avenue where he gets power in a person’s life. If we think evil thoughts, angry thoughts, hateful thoughts, vengeful thoughts, lustful thoughts, any thoughts contrary to God’s Word, we act sinfully. We don’t go out and do sinful acts we didn’t first think and meditate upon. We don’t seek out porn without first desiring it in our mind. We don’t take a gun and shoot someone unless there are murderous thoughts in our mind. We think harshly about someone before say hateful things to them. It all starts in our minds. With so much opportunity for sinful thoughts in our heads, the enemy doesn’t need to do more than watch the sin show we provide when we let those thoughts run free.

Why is it that after we “come to Christ” we are still doing wrong things and have bad habits? It’s because when saved, we have been washed by the blood and cleansed from our past sins, but that doesn’t renew our mind, change the way we think or habitual pattern of thinking. That can only be done with 'the washing of the water of the Word.' Until then, we still have an attitude and spirit built by a old system of thinking.

Ephesians 5:26 “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,” and the sanctification of the Spirit as He speaks to them and corrects them,

Isaiah 30:21 “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”

We can repent and be redeemed, but we are like a fish that has been caught for the kingdom of God. The Lord cleanses us when we change our thinking and renew our minds with His Word and His Spirit. We must allow and desire His correcting us in our daily walk. We have to ask the Lord to teach us “His ways” and show us “His paths” for us to walk in. Here’s the kicker…He is faithful to do His part always; we, however, must do our part as well and it all starts between our ears.