Take Thoughts Captive
Women are most often considered to be highly intuitive and emotional. The adversary will use these attributes, along with everything else in his arsenal, to hinder you from coming into the full power of God.
Because your thoughts can be easily influenced, you must be discerning as to the source of them. Once thoughts are conceived, they can take on a life of their own.
Through Christ, we come to know the power of God and are able to begin using our spiritual authority to break the bondages over our souls. You and I have the responsibility and power to process our painful memories, control our emotions and purify our thoughts.
As the apostle Paul wrote: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 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” (2 Cor. 10:3-5, KJV).
We need only to reflect on the scene between Eve and the serpent in the garden in order to see how important it is to gain control over your thought life (see Gen. 3:1-24). Thinking precedes and determines conduct. Therefore, controlling your thinking is a choice you must make.
It is the power to choose that will keep us on course as individuals. The ability to make wise and proper choices requires prayer, reasoning and experience. Our rational, human nature includes our ability to judge, to deliberate and exercise our free will. But if the will is controlled by anyone other than the Holy Spirit, it is not free.
An intimate, ongoing relationship with the great Shepherd is vital to achieving restoration. To be restored requires faith and the willingness to act on God’s Word. And it results in rest and refreshment for your mind and your body.
Some people think faith, wishing and hoping are all the same. But with this concept, we would be expected to muster up enough mental power to achieve the things we desire.
But true faith means faith in God. Since God is unlimited in His power, it eliminates our need to compromise or make excuses. Our faith is based on God’s character and His truth not on our emotions or ourselves.
Nevertheless, you must be an active participant in your spiritual recovery. Since prayer is the expression of your faith, a committed prayer life is essential. Preparation for the warfare of life requires that you make a conscious decision to deal with self. Spiritual change will also require repentance and a continual renewing of the mind by the Word of God (see Rom. 12:2) and commitment to a consecrated lifestyle.
Restoration confronts your fears and feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. “Casting down imaginations” means invalidating those negative thoughts, images and disqualifying statements about yourself that are inconsistent with the Word of God—with who God says you are. In the process of restoration you learn to follow the Holy Spirit’s direction and cooperate with Him.
When memories surface that may have caused you incredible emotional or physical damage, you can set boundaries that will enable you to maintain a sense of your true identity, which God has defined.
Desire the Word
To have dominion over your mind requires unrelenting warfare. But you alone are responsible for your actions. I have made it a personal goal to challenge my mind, to continually learn new things and exercise discipline over my mind, will and emotions.
The apostle Peter tells us: “Desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow (1 Pet. 2:2, NKJV). Perpetual spiritual infancy is unnatural. But infancy must pass on into maturity by means of orderly development.
Renewing the mind by the Word is a spiritual discipline which, when practiced consistently, produces a certain mental attitude where the mind begins to rid itself of negative thinking patterns. Unless your mind is continually being renewed by the Word, your soul remains hostile to God, challenging His authority and engaging in open warfare against Him.
The battle for your mind, will and emotions is won by the Word of God. The extraordinary experience of revelation knowledge happens when the mind apprehends the will of God and allows the impartation of new spiritual principles, thereby, encouraging new desires, inspiring new hopes and establishing new goals.
God wants to demonstrate His power and presence in and through your life. With a mind renewed by the Word, you can learn how to release greater spiritual authority in the face of opposition.
A renewed mind is a major part of the soul’s prosperity (see 3 John 2). God imparts His truth to us through His eternal decrees and brings to maturity the many components of the soul’s expression under the authority of His Word.
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