Be Careful Little Mind What You Think

We’re still covering the vast subject of taking our thoughts captive because it is a vast problem among believers and non-believers alike. I have a friend that is going through a very rough time in her marriage. She shares with me and there is a well established pattern and habit of negative thoughts spinning in her head. When I bring this up, she dismisses it with a confession of ownership. "That's what I think and I can't do anything about it." The enemy doesn't have to do a thing in her marriage, her thoughts are her own worse enemy; the job is taken! Sadly, she and her husband share this refusal to change the way they think. They are on a two way street to Splitsville because of it.

Thoughts can be cancerous to our lives. Let’s use physical cancer as an example. We ask for healing and deliverance from cancer. If it was caused by smoking and we refuse to give up the smoking, we can’t blame God if the cancer comes back because we gave it a place in our life and access to come back by our continued sin against our bodies. It works the same way in our minds. We open the door with cancerous thoughts and invite sin into our lives.

In like manner, we can cast a devil out of someone, bind the devils operating in their life, but unless they change their system of thinking, satan will soon have the same access back into their life that he had to begin with. When we were sinners, satan owned us. Our minds and world view thinking were filled with landmines that were meant to produce destruction in our lives. Once we are born again, his authority and place in our lives is removed, but he still has a system of thinking placed inside our minds that has to be broken down and replaced. Until we renew our minds with a new way of thinking, we are still giving access to the devil in our lives. We have to be disciplined by the Word and the Spirit to stop getting mad and holding grudges or fighting back and doing/saying things we did before.

It isn’t the first thought that gets us, but thinking on it. It isn’t the first look that produces lust and sin, but the second look. It’s continuing to look that produces lust and sin. It is a process, not one glimpse. James 1:14-15 “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” The first look wasn’t what did it, but being drawn in and giving in to the temptation which entices us leads to sin. If we nip it in the bud by taking our thoughts captive, it will have no power over us. If we immediately yield or submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, he will flee (James 4:7).

These days it is hard to never see that which we shouldn’t because of our society. We cannot watch TV, movies or look at magazines without running into pictures meant to entice. But when we reject the temptation the enemy throws at our minds, we overcome. If we give in and begin to think evil thoughts, we will sin. It doesn’t matter if it is lust, anger, covetousness, or whatever. Wrong thinking leads to sin. Taking our thoughts captive and casting down evil imaginations keeps us from sin. It is simple in theory, but sometimes hard to do.

The reality is that the devil works through our thought lives and none of us are immune or exempt from his efforts. If he can get us to think cancerous thoughts, he can get us to sin. It’s that simple. If someone says something mean or cruel to us or does us wrong, it is natural to strike back, to get upset, and angry. It is godly, spiritual maturity to forgive and let it go, like water off a ducks back. That ability doesn’t just come overnight but takes time, like a child growing up and becoming a mature adult. When we come to Christ, no matter our age, scripture calls us babes in Christ. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” (1 Peter 2:2). We have to grow up and learn the ways of God and become mature by renewing the thinking in our minds and learning to shut the devil out of our thought life.

Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:” satan understands this and he cannot do anything in our life unless our flesh cooperates with him. Let us look at the verse before and after so we get the whole context. Proverbs 23:6-7 “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” Notice the context. We confuse the person with what they say. We are not what we say but what we think. A man, through guile and subtly can deceive and manipulate as so many wicked men and politicians do today. Don’t confuse what they are saying with who they are. Sometimes men will speak peace with their lips, but war is in their heart. Psalm 55:21 “The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.” Man/Woman can be very deceitful.

What we are thinking on the inside is who we really are. When someone comes up to you and asks, “How are you today?” and you answer “Great, everything is fine” but inside you are thinking, “What a lousy miserable day! Why do you ask, you don’t care anyway?” Now, which is the real you, what you said or what you are thinking? As we think, that is who we are. We must pay more attention to changing the thoughts we think! It doesn’t matter what we say and confess if inside our hearts we don’t believe it. We can confess the opposite until we are blue in the face, but it will not change anything in our life.