“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV)
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV)
thedailylily.com 
Look how Message puts it: 2 Corinthians 10:5 (The Message) “The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”
Another way…Cast down imaginations, vain imagining…corrupting daydreams, (like Chickenfarmer taught in the bible study, last night @First Assembly of Edenton, NC. )…and every high thing, argument, philosophical posturings, half-truths that exalts itself….rearing its ugly haughty, boastful, prideful head against the knowledge of God in the earth and the knowing of a personal God, ‘personally’. Swat those thoughts dead like flies that buzz around your head. Take your armor and the Holy Spirit to yourself, into your heart to help make you pure and holy and choose to make your mind and its thoughts and ideas subject to and obedient to what the Lord Jesus Christ has taught us in His Word, like the Beatitudes, (sermon on the Mount) and the great and precious promises and the 2 great commandments….Love God, love your neighbor. God works all of these work together for the good.
I like the way the Message puts this Anonymous, “fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ”.
I often think about the scripture (Matt 12:36) that says we will have to give an account for every idle or careless word we speak so how much more so every idle, careless, loose, out of control thought that doesn’t line up with the mind of Christ according to this scripture.
Chickenfarmer said last night at bible study that we needed to renew our mind daily. She spoke about the mind and how it is a machine that is always thinking and taking in things around it. She challenged us to what we were thinking and what we were processing daily. What we take in through the mind will be pumped out by the heart through the mouth. So watch out for the signs the Holy Spirit puts before our mind – Danger! Turn Around! Stop! Don’t Go There! She also said to much clutter makes for a sick mind and body.
Scripture from Message of Renew Your Mind: Romans 12
Place Your Life Before God
1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
It seems to me that the application of the lesson by Chickenfarmer and the wonderful scripture by the Lord is challenging. So many times have I read and by the end of the day I’ve ignored the warning signs or not gotten rid of an obstacle that has always plagued me. Yes I have a few successes of telling Satan, “NO Satan, I am not going there today so get lost in Jesus’s name,” It takes a lot of work and focus to stay on the right side of the road with Jesus.
Fretful thoughts approach the mind, at first, DISGUISED as though they were legitimate, reasonable surmisings, considerations and justifications. But they are DECEIVERS!….illegitimate, and at the least, illogical! Oh yes, they come as PROPER “concerns and awareness” and seem to be things to be considered. But as they are allowed entrance, they IMMEDIATELY grasp a hold on the thought life, fueling it with suggestions, assumptions, lies, presumptions and anxieties. Thoughts of fear, rejection, anger, strife, revenge, outrage, lust …(see Galatians 5:19-22) They develop quickly and mature into battering rams that rage against the mind, ceaselessly, if they are not combated at the very beginning. Those who are familiar with this kind of mind affliction of some sort, or any sort, know what is meant here. It is nearly impossible to destroy these assaults on the mind and thought life if they are NOT quenched even as they approach our thoughts. They return time and time again trying to get a stronghold, like flies at a picnic, or mosquitoes in the garden.
It is imperative that we (and most of us know this principle) identify these deceivers in every situation where these is an opportunity for the assaults to be “fertilized”. We must swat them like mosquitoes and flies right away. We have the full armor of God, as Chickenfarmer taught in her Bible session, but WE MUST IDENTIFY these DECEIVERS, immediately and declare them in the spirit as FORBIDDEN THOUGHTS so that we CAN use the weapons of our warfare. WE, WE, WE have to do it. If a thought does not reflect the fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness and SELF-CONTROL, then it is an illegitimate thought against the true, intimate knowledge of God. And it (they) must be destroyed, immediately or they can and WILL take one down, for sure.
Thinking on these things, I believe I got in the spirit, STAMP THOSE EVIL THOUGHTS ILLEGAL WITH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST AS THE INK
Interesting thoughts and ideas being shared here.
How many times have we lost our ‘train of thought’? Spoken out of turn? Said ‘off the wall things’? Interrupted good conversation that would help in life with ‘foolish words’? Tried to be funny and saw how ‘sick funny’ can be when out of control? And, one of the biggest, I think, is, try to change a conversation because we realize we don’t understand or know a thing about the subject. A closed mind that is unwilling to learn is a real TRAP for the RAT that will destroy peace of mind.
How about routines that block the movement of the Holy Spirit. Examples – A long time ago I would watch Dallas every night it came on. I wouldn’t go anywhere because that show was on – not to church – not to anything. Or one day I had a lot to do but was so upset by a family situation that I found myself pacing, pacing, and pacing the floor. I looked up and had wasted hours on the weary treadmill. Or how about planning and planning lesson plans in your head, fretting and fretting although I had a perfectly good plan in place already. Hours of waste – being an intercessor this surely takes time away from the Lord. Hours of time lost for the Lord’s work – if only I had taken those thoughts captive and focused on the Lord. What a RAT TRAP as you say Sara. Reprogram ourselves – set a plan – take a step – implement and Chickenfarmer said in 21 days you would have a habit and good habit for the Lord’s work.
Rena, I think we may be seeing a pattern of why it was necessary for God to give us the fruit of the Spirit which included self-control. (Galatians 5)
We sure need it and we have it. One only needs to practice it. I love this part of our scripture, “…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”…
I am back this morning hoping someone had explained to me how to make my thoughts be obedient to Christ….Hum, sometimes they are all over the place.
2 Cor 10:5 also tells us that we have to ‘demolish arguments and every pretension’. We may hear or read something and take it out of context or don’t get all the facts and put them correctly together in our mind so our thoughts formulate false claims about what was said or written. If I understand one of the definitions of pretension correctly (a false or unsupportable claim, esp to merit, worth, or importance), then we have built a pretension against the knowledge of God because it is not the truth. Then we go tell our pretensive story to someone else and we are misleading them. I have fallen into this trap and seen others do it.
This is a pattern that needs demolishing.
Maybe part of the answer to your question Sara is seeing the bad patterns/habits, want to stop and change them, and then do what you said above…practice the self-control.
I think I said in my comments that once we set about to demolish false & vain thoughts we have to learn to IDENTIFY them as they are approaching. I know, myself, when a thought that has tormented me in the past starts its little deceptive entrance into my mind. If we are serious about demolishing them then as soon as that thought rears its ugly head, I say NO! I know where that is coming from ! You are a liar. You are not going to torment me with your lies and half-truths and that takes self-control to do that. Once I have been taught that these thoughts are futile and against what Jesus and my teachers teach me, I have to TAKE CONTROL over that thing and refuse to think it. The blood of Jesus is an excellent weapon to assist me. The Word of God is an excellent weapon to assist me. BUT I have to want to DO IT; not entertain that ugly thing, tho it might be tempting to consider it just for a moment…NO! Cast it out, refuse to think vain-glorious thoughts; futile thoughts. Sing a praise song, speak the Word against it, a Scripture. I am in control of my own mind and with the help of the Holy Spirit I have to demolish it like the swatting of flies and mosquitoes.
Guess I was thinking down a different line. Like do bigger and greater things for the Kingdom of God! Faith that surpasses my thoughts. Like I can’t win 100 souls for the Kingdom in the next 6 months. I can’t build a building for retreats. I can’t love bent my faith and I need a rod of correction to unbend the bent mind so I can do greater things.
I really think little mice running around in the brain about my little love for self thinking doesn’t have much to do with this. When my thoughts are obedient to Christ I will show my numbers, buildings, etc. I will be bent on a vision and hopefully see the results. I want to see a building filled with true worshippers studying and learning and doing and moving on down the road….
To clear our minds we need to capture each thought and either use it for God’s glory if it be the will of God or squash it with the power of praise, prayer and scripture. This takes focus. We also must be aware that the mind IS THE BATTLEFIELD. We know that if our soliders in battle lose focus, tragic things could happen. Same thing with our minds. If we lose focus, tragic things can happen. My friend John, said “You can’t stop a bird from flying over your head but you can stop him from making a nest.” We can’t stop the thoughts from flying through our mind but we can stop them from nesting in our mind causing clutter of the mind.
That’s right! The next part of approaching the problem of our “thought-life” and self-control is like what Gary is teaching in his lessons on, ‘Knowing God’. One of the sub-titles is… THINKING GREAT THOUGHTS OF GOD. Because we DO have a great, the greatest GOD, we can have great thoughts of Him, REPLACING the trash that tries to take over our minds, whether thoughts of evil, helplessness, inadequacies,etc. But we have a great God and can demonstrate His greatness in how we think about Him, being bold and showing it, concerning Him and ‘not allow other things to take over our minds’. (notes taken from Gary’s teaching).
I can’t stop readying how message presents this scripture. Anony. posted above. It’s so real and practical. I would like to invite us to read it again and think about the tools….
I like the part of Anonymous’ quote from MSG Bible about ” every loose thought, emotion and impulse” brought into the structure that Christ is building. That just about pigeon-holes the Hamster-syndrome of fluctuating emotions, loose-cannon lips and impulsive behavior.
Sara, you wrote on “self thinking above”. When we allow our minds to self think, we create a mirage image in our minds. We allow our minds to see false truths. When we allow our minds to Christ think, we see truth. We see things as they truly are. We have to be careful not to let “I” blind our Christ thinking minds. We must remember that we are on God’s TEAM. There is no “I” in TEAM or GOD. So as we allow our mind to Christ think our “I” becomes smalled (i) and Christ becomes larger. We see truth and not mirages. We also must remember that God’s team is the winning team.
As I read the anonymous blog, I picture Jesus driving a huge bull dozer in our mind. Tearing down barriers and clearing the ground of every obstruction. Sweeping out every loose thought. Once the rumble is cleared out of out minds, He begins rebuilding. He begins rebuilding God’s temple in us. We are accountable for the up keep.
Hey, CF! I like your comment…there’s ‘no I in TEAM and GOD’.
But there is an I in “CHRIST and that’s where we SHOULD be, in ChrIst! Good ThInkIng.
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7…Now, how does a man think in his heart? When we read the verse in context we began to see it is motive… Proverbs 23:6-8 “Don’t eat with people who are stingy; don’t desire their delicacies. 7) They are always thinking about how much it costs. “Eat and drink,” they say, but they don’t mean it. 8) You will throw up what little you’ve eaten, and your compliments will be wasted.)
Sara’s explanantion on motive seems to tie in and clarify from Anonymous
“The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation,”.
Chickenfarmer that’s a good point about upkeep. How often we see a brand new or renovated building and people come in and trash it, abuse it and don’t take care of it…back to where it was or worse.
It appears that in the spirit, the Lord is speaking to His people in many places about responsibility and accountability. He is concerned that those whom He calls His own are becoming careless and inappropriately handling the wonderful things He has given us; clothing, food, shelter, jobs, transportation. Jesus DOES care about how we keep our homes, our cars, our wardrobes, our workplace and our CHURCHES. Here in the USA, the work ethic has changed considerably since our parents’ and grandparents’ era and God can’t be pleased that His children are becoming lazy and developing a slovenly attitude of heart and mind about many, many things with which we deal every day. In our dress, in our conduct, in our communication, in our work ethic. Some of us are NOT doing things and working as unto the Lord. And if we are, He can’t be very happy with our spotted offering, “one-eyed sacrifices” lame and blemished gifts at His altar of Praise and Thanksgiving.
Proverbs 24: 30-35 says, “I went by the house of the hater of work and the field of the man lacking sense and heart. Thorns had come up everywhere & the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.””
With all the wonderful things God has given us and created for us, we thank Him and praise Him and look carefully at how we handle all these wonderful possessions.
Lord I repent for taking all Your bountiful gifts for granted as if You owed me something or that I deserved any of them. I know that only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ the spotless Lamb of God can I receive all these wonderful things that You have provided for me for life and godliness plus the greatest gift of all, Jesus and His salvation and eternity with You and Jesus in Heaven. Please forgive my cavalier attitude about all these glorious possessions that You have given me and I thank You from the bottom of a newly grateful heart, cognizant of all You have done for me. I regard anew these gifts and charge myself to acknowledge you in all things by the way I handle them and my attitude toward them knowing that they are from You. And I will strive to do the right thing. Thank You my Lord and Savior and Father God. In Jesus Name.
MG, a light, joyful, and hopeful heart is one that gives thanks with a grateful heart. I think I can tell just how grateful my heart is by the way I care for the resources in all areas of my life that has been freely given to me by the mercy and grace of God. I have heard from my parents that to be wasteful is disgraceful.
That’s right. Some of us have set aside and utlimately ignored the instructions of our elders, parents, grandparents concerning our worldly possession and the keep-care of them. But despite the “anything-goes” attitude of this age, they were right, like your Mother and mine taught us. And we would all do well to heed those instructions and regard them as a light shining in a dark and squalid place (the world).
My mother had a saying that she scolded me more than once with….’haste makes waste’. Too often I get in a hurry to finish a job and the haste leads to carelessness and mistakes which leads to waste. Bad. Good stewardship is important to God.
Mother also had this advice about careful attention to the work and things we have been given to do. “Once a job has once begun, never leave it ’til it’s done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.”
Great advice, Debi. Those little poetic reminders help ‘train little ones in the ways that they should go. When we become adults we should not depart from them.’ Proverbs 22:6
Put it all together and we have a marketing package!
I’d like to insert the footnotes for the scripture in 2 Corinthians 10:5. Read with me: “Paul uses military terminology to describe this warfare against sin and Satan. God must be the commander in chief, even our thoughts must be submitted to his control as we live for him. Spirit-empowered believers must capture every thought and yield it to Christ. When exposed to ideas or opportunities that might lead to wrong desires, you have a choice. You can recognize the danger and turn away, or you can allow unhealthy thoughts to take you captive. You capture your fantasies and desires when you honestly admit them to the Lord and ask him to redirect your thinking. Ask God to give you the spirit of discernment to keep your thoughts focused on his truth.”
I’,m reading a book by Spurgeon who says in order to give an eviction notice to Satan in our minds we need to pray – “O God, help me. O God, for Christ’s sake drive out the old Dragon from my soul, I implore you.” He says that as Satan draws closer to his demise that he will hinder a believer anyway he can. He is to me like heat lighting in the mind. He lights up a thought that had no connection to anything you were thinking. You have a choice pull it into the mind or just dismiss it – it’s up to us. Spurgeon says Satan most definitely will hinder a Christian anyway he can. The way he works in the mighty prayer of a warrior is he often taps you on the shoulder and says don’t spend anymore time on that prayer. I wonder how many times he has used that one. I wonder how it has hindered the ministry of Jesus Christ. Apparently this tactic has worked a lot as he keeps on using it. Thank goodness he is not the victor but Jesus Christ is. Satan also accuses us all the time, like, “Your no worth to God, You can’t be a spokes person for God, etc. This list of things Satan has used goes on and on. Know who your enemy his. Spurgeon says if Satan can’t get you that way he may bring problems with people all around you. This list goes on. Thanks to the body of Christ that intercedes for one another. Thanks to thedailylilies. They bring strong truth, strong prayer, strong praise as bulwarks to Satan. How about you?
Have no fear about these awlful things that try and do at times attach the mind. The great physician has a cure….”You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3, NKJ
Thanks for sharing this scripture in Isaiah, Sara. I’d like to share the footnotes for this verse, read with me: “We can never avoid strife in the world around us, but when we fix our thoughts on God, we can know perfect peace even in turmoil. As we focus our mind on God and his Word, we become steady and stable. Supported by God’s unchanging love and mighty power, we are not shaken by the surrounding chaos (see Philippians 4: 7). Do you want peace? Keep your thoughts on God and your trust in him.”
When those “things attempt to attach themselves to the mind” it is a battle to loose those thoughts. Lay them at the foot of the Cross and do not take them up, again. Whoops! There it is again. A vainglory thought. A useless, time consuming, mind piercing, brain piercing thought. It has no value but to cause frustration or sadness or vanity or confusion even if it is to the one who is thinking those thoughts. Push them back down at the foot of the cross, again and again and again. Fill their places with praise. Push them down and then praise God for the victory, for His mercy , for His love, for His benefits, for His HELP!!