Take Control of Your Thoughts

2 Cor 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;

These words have taken on new meaning for me and I would like to pass it on.  Some of you know that I get up around 4:00-4:30 and seek God's presence and study His Word before I go about my daily routine.  I have been doing this for almost 10 years.  This has served to stir a greater desire for His presence.  I have increased in my knowledge of HIM and have become keenly aware of His presence more and more in my daily life.  As a result, there are times during the day when He will drop a golden nugget of thought into my spirit.  Some of you have probably experienced the same thing.  It may be any time during the day and frequently, for me, it his been a word of wisdom the very first thing in the morning.

Almost a week ago, He dropped such a nugget my way.  In essence, here is what rose within me.  When we take control of our thoughts, satan loses control over our lives.  And, when we take control of our thoughts, we take control of the will of God for our lives.  I have studied and preached from 2 Cor 10:5 many times but on that particular morning, it took on newer meaning for me.  I saw something new in that verse that challenged and changed my actions.

We find the words of Jesus, "Get thee behind me, Satan" in two instances in the Word of God.  One is recorded in Luke 4:8 where Jesus directly challenges the master deceiver himself as Jesus goes through temptation.  That is a message in itself.  Instead of giving place to the enemy and his thoughts, we should directly tell him that we will not obey his suggestions or even entertain the desire in our minds. 

The other instance was when he confronted Peter with the same words.  As recorded in Matt 16:23 and Mark 8:33, Jesus turns to Peter and says, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savourest not the things of God, but those that be of men."  In the first place, Jesus had been meditating for years and years about God's will for His life.  He KNEW that God had appointed Him to die for our sins and was convinced that God would raise Him up from the dead.  Jesus NEVER gave credence to any other thought.  Any time that He thought about the will of God, He always thought about His suffering, His pain, His death but He really, really, really got excited about His resurrection.  As He continued His thought process, He thought about the joy (Heb 12:2) that would be His as His atoning blood would once again allow Him spiritual fellowship with those that He loved.  He thought about it over and over and over.  He prayed it to His Father, over and over and over.  He thought past the nasty now-nows and into the sweetness of just a few more days. 

Peter, on the other hand, looked at just the happening itself and not the future consequences.  He had heard and thought about Jesus dying.  He had heard and thought about Jesus being arrested and beaten.  He had heard and thought about the shame and what seemed to be defeat for the Jesus movement that they worked so hard to get cranked up.  Like us, he concentrated on the nasty now-nows and DID NOT meditate on the WHOLE Word of God.  That's why Jesus correctly labeled that thought and statement from Peter's mouth as a message from Satan.  Because, it was.  Peter held on to an imagination and a high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and Jesus rebuked the imagination and not Peter.  The imagination came from the devil using the front of human emotions and thoughts.  Peter learned better.

Paul learned better also.  Paul learned that no matter what happened to him, God had a plan in all of it.  He was beaten, jailed, kicked out of synagogues, kicked out of cities, shipwrecked and in danger almost all throughout his ministry.  But, Paul KEPT his mind on God's will for his life.  Paul's mind did not run through the mud of the nasty now-nows.  Instead, his mind stayed on the glory of God that God promised to pour out through him or through any faithful child of God.  According to Phil 4:8,9, Paul knew that controlling his thoughts would produce an anointing that would bring about the glory of the Lord.  It did and millions of souls found Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.  And, souls are still being added to the church daily by the fact that Paul, like Jesus, controlled his thoughts and controlled his Godly destiny.