Under Renovations: Captured Thoughts.

2 Corinthians 10:5-6 says, “We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One. Since we are armed with such dynamic weaponry, we stand ready to punish any trace of rebellion, as soon as you choose complete obedience.”

This passage uses such strong words. Words like demolish, break through, capture, prisoners of war, insist that it bow and punish. This verse is a forceful verse. The wording is precise and it makes it clear that we are in a war. However, this war is not like any other war. It is a war that happens on the inside of us. This war is in our minds.

We have been talking about the work of the Holy Spirit in reforming our minds. Although it is the Holy Spirit who does all the hard work, we also have a role to play. Part of our role is to be aware of our thoughts. We need to pay attention to the things that go through our minds. We are to keep stock or take an inventory of thoughts and assess where they are coming from and where they are going.

In our verse today, we are instructed to demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God. Sometimes we allow our thoughts to run wild and we romanticize things that in actual fact are rebellion against God. If we find ourselves daydreaming about random things that do not align with the word of God, we need to demolish those daydreams.

If you find a thought pattern that tries to convince you that God doesn’t love you or that God is not on your side or that He is working against you and He is the reason behind your pain and suffering- you must break through it. God is good. There is no darkness in God. There is no evil in God. God is unquestionably good, all the time. He cares about your well-being. He cares about your pain and your suffering. We do not understand everything that happens in the world but the very last thing we should do is point an accusing finger at God.

Growing spiritually takes owning your part in your problems and running to God for help. You cannot do that if you are pointing an accusing finger at God. Let’s get our minds right. Let us capture like prisoners of war every single thought and insist that it bow down in obedience to Jesus Christ! God is not offended when you do this. I know some think if they are taking all thoughts captive, they may take a God-thought and insist it bow in obedience to Jesus and offend God. Quite the contrary. You make God proud. It means you take the battle seriously and you are giving it all you have. God is three in One but He is One. He doesn’t offend Himself.

You will find that when you go through the process of forcefully taking every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus (because I tell you now some thoughts will put up a fight), God can more easily work in you. He will help you to move away from thought patterns that are destructive and He will help you learn to focus on thought patterns that are life giving.

Don’t expect the enemy to come at you openly and with blatant destructive thoughts. He is sneaky. Be on guard and be aware of every thought and take it as a prisoner of war and demand it bows in obedience to Christ. As we do this inwardly in our minds, we find that we begin to change and transform externally in our attitudes and responses to people and situations. We begin to mature in our walk with Christ. But it all starts in the mind.

I’ll leave you with this, Romans 7:25 says, “I give all my thanks to God, for his mighty power has finally provided a way out through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One! So if left to myself, the flesh is aligned with the law of sin, but now my renewed mind is fixed on and submitted to God’s righteous principles”. The renewed or transformed mind is always submitted to God.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.