There’s an aspect of our lives we must control if we’re going to live this year in victory. We must have mastery over our minds. None of us knows what the coming year will bring. We must command our thought life—and not the other way around.
How we think is important. “The thought is father of the deed,” the saying goes. A thought must be in our mind before we act on it. The Wright brothers would never have flown the first plane if the idea hadn’t first been in their minds. But some thoughts can be deadly.
God destroyed an entire world because “every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). A generation was eradicated because of its thought life. Wickedness springs from our thought life. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” says Proverbs 23:7. We must master it.
You’ve heard: Sow a thought, reap an act; Sow an act; reap a habit; Sow a habit; reap a character; Sow a character; reap a destiny.” Galatians 6:7 agrees. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” What you choose to believe, you will do. You don’t act upon things you don’t believe but upon what you do believe. How can we gain control of our thoughts?
First, you must be saved to have a converted, regenerate mind. Just as a computer file might be corrupt and only print out gibberish, an unregenerate mind corrupts our thought life (2 Cor. 4:3-6) and wars against God (Romans 8:6-7).
But God, who “…commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). We who are saved can now have a new mind, the mind of Christ.
Second, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Your heart is the center of your thought life and the seat of your emotions.You cannot master your thought life separately from your heart.
Third, love the Lord with single minded sincerity. He must be number one in your life.
Fourth, prepare for warfare. Not a war of the flesh, but a battle for control of your mind (2 Corinthians 10: 3-4). This is where the rubber meets the road every day. Satan wants to control your mind and thoughts, because we act upon what we believe. He uses your mind as a battlefield.
But Paul says we can take back the strongholds Satan has established. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” Our weapons are the Word of God, prayer, repentance, the blood of Christ, the authority we have in Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who indwells us. That’s an armory!
Use your weapons. Take back conquered ground. Legally you can move Satan out with the authority of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.Tell him, “In the name of Jesus Christ, by the authority of the Word of God, God has forgiven me, and you have no authority. You are trespassing, and in the name of Jesus, be gone.”
Then focus upon Him with a single-minded focus. Submit yourself to God. Recognize the satanic strongholds in your life. Screen your thoughts; take every thought captive. When that thought enters your mind, you’ve got about 5 seconds to take it captive, or that thought is going to take you captive.
No one can think two things at one time. If you’re thinking what’s right, you can’t be thinking what’s wrong. Refuse to let it into your mind.Bring your mind back to Jesus Christ and enthrone Him. Take up the weapons God has given you.
You may think this is just sanctified psychology. But It is the Word of God.
Then you can say with the apostle Paul, “We have the mind of Christ.”
Do you have some stronghold-demolishing work to do? Take up that battering ram of the Word of God. You cannot do it in your own strength. Submit, call upon Him, and get to it.
