In Control Of Your Thinking Process

"... They capture every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5, CEV).

Martin Luther supposedly said that you cannot control a bird from flying over your head, but you can prevent it from making a nest in your hair!  We cannot be responsible nor even control what thoughts enter our minds--they could be from the devil, just as Jesus told Peter, "Get behind Me Satan!"  However, we must rein in our thoughts and get a grip on our thought life, which can only happen by the power of the Spirit to restrain.  Our thoughts and thought life are important indicators of our obedience to Christ.

David was concerned about his thought life when he prayed:  "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight..."  We can indeed control what we choose to meditate on and what words come out of our mouths, for Jesus said that which comes out of the mouth is what defiles a man (cf. Mark 7:15).  There is a correlation between our thought life and our spiritual life and obedience.  Paul says in 2 Cor. 10:5 that we capture our rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.  There is a direct connection here!

We need to do more than just get our thinking straightened out, in getting a Christian worldview--we need to get a grip on our thought life and be heavenly minded.  Proverbs 4:23 says that we should "keep [our] heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life."  Again, similarly, it is written in Prov. 23:7 (KJV) that if we "commit [our] works unto the LORD, [our] thoughts will be established."

First things first:  we dedicate our minds to Christ and commit to doing His will in an obedient life and God cleanses our minds and give us a pure heart:  "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things [including our thinking] are become new!" (2 Cor. 5:17, KJV).  "...but let God transfer you into a new person by changing the way you think..."  (Rom. 12:2, NLT).  ("Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.").

It is important to note that we are not to be so heavenly minded we are no earthly good.  We are not purely spiritual creatures, meant to live on cloud nine with our minds preoccupied and not to ever be ethical, practical, applicable, nor recreational.  We need to apply our thoughts to everyday situations and be a witness of our thoughts, not keeping them to ourselves--this is where sharing and witnessing come in.  One must conclude that if we only expose ourselves to junk we will exhale the same, just as the axiom goes: garbage in equals garbage out (GIGO).

Proverbs 1:7 says a fool despises wisdom and knowledge: The Bible emphasizes wisdom and increasing in knowledge:  "Knowledge is power"(cf. Prov. 24:5) according to Sir Francis Bacon and a fool feeds on trash, while the wise are hungry for the truth (cf. Prov. 15:14).  Why?  Because we become byproducts of what we expose ourselves to.  "A man is what he thinks about all day," said one poet.  It has also been said that "you are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are!"  We are basically the sum total of our thoughts and resultant thought life, which defines our character and personality.

We all need to take inventory of our thoughts and get regular spiritual checkups, and catch ourselves making mistakes in our thinking, like three thought wasters of time:  dwelling on the past with regret; misinterpreting the present with angst, and anticipating the future with worry.  If we are making a mistake in our thinking we ought to correct it and replace it with more therapeutic and healthy or balanced thinking--this is sound mental health!  All three (regret, angst, and worry) work together to rob us of our joy and steal time and energy and can lead to depression or melancholy--being in a depressed funk or in the doldrums, as it were.

Note that the psalmist complained to God of his mood swing in Psalms 42 and 43 and didn't even know why he was downcast and so glum. And in Psalm 143 the writer complains that his depression deepens!  Being discouraged is a form of depression as well as the blues, and everyone is vulnerable or susceptible--no one is immune, it's only being human--as the song by Neil Diamond goes, we're all subject to the blues now and then!  Thinking negative thoughts is destructive to mental health and we should always see the bright side and the silver lining behind the cloud--thinking negatively is a bad habit and there is always a positive spin on a problem--actually, earth has no ill or dilemma that heaven doesn't have the cure or answer to--it's a matter of faith and facing our problems with courage and seeing the lighter side sometimes.

In conclusion, bear in mind that the Word of God is capable of judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart and shows us what we are made of and our true selves, pulling no punches and sparing no reprimand where appropriate (cf. Heb. 4:12).  The Bible speaks to every attitude and frame of mind and addresses every issue we can face--Christ fully relates to us in every dilemma and fortunately intercedes for us.   Soli Deo Gloria!  

Getting Your Thinking Straightened Out

"Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established"  (Prov. 16:3, KJV).
"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 [not a juxtaposition of thinking and obedience] (2 Cor 10:5, KJV).  
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee"  (Isaiah 26:3, KJV). 
"And be renewed in the spirit of your mind"  (Eph. 4:23, KJV).  
"...But we have the mind of Christ"   (1 Cor. 2:16, KJV).
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"  (Gen. 6:5, KJV).
"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think..."  (Romans 12:2, NLT).  
"In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"  (Colossians 2:3, NIV). 

|"The only system of thought that Christ will fit into, is the one where He is the starting point."  (Athanasius, Father of Orthodoxy)


Jesus is the One who searches out the thoughts and intentions of our minds (cf. Rev. 2:23, NLT), and only by letting the Spirit control our minds leads to peace (cf. Rom. 8:6b, NLT).  We are to let the Spirit renew our minds (cf. Eph. 4:23, NLT), because of the foolish base their thoughts on foolish assumptions, which is GIGO (cf. Eccl. 10:3a, NLT).  But we have the mind of Christ per 1 Cor. 2:16, and we have the power to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose (cf. 1 Cor. 1:10, NLT).  The believer's mind is not of confusion, for God is a God of order and not of confusion (cf. 1 Cor. 14: 33). If we demonstrate the mind of Christ the seeker will see that God is among us.

The Word has enlightened our minds and shown us the light, giving us wisdom in the eyes of our hearts (cf. Psalm 119:18; 1 Cor. 2:12-14).  We must strive to have all our thoughts fixed on Jesus (cf. Heb. 12:2), and when our minds have stayed on Him we have peace (cf. Isa. 26:3).  Our thoughts shall be established if our plans are of the Lord (cf. Prov. 16:3, KJV).  We must, nevertheless, "keep [our] heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life" (cf. Prov. 4:23). We, therefore, strive to have the meditations of our hearts and the words of our mouths [and thoughts of our minds] to be pleasing to God (cf. Psalm 19:14).

We must not lean unto our own understanding of things and events, but wholly lean on Christ to show the way and make us know His will (cf. Prov. 3:5). For we walk by faith, not by sight (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7).  We are in a constant battle to fight the onslaught of satanic thinking and we must know the word and power of God to fight with our weapon of choice, the Word of God (cf. 2 Cor. 10:4-5; Eph. 6:17).

Why worry about our minds?  We are to love God with all our minds too according to Matt. 22;37 and Mark 12:30.  It is important to be enlightened and know the scoop because zeal without knowledge is no good and vain (cf. Prov. 19:2).  The wise feed on truth, while the fool feeds on folly [trash]"  (cf. Proverbs 15:14).  God seeks to change the way we think by renewing our minds in His image (cf. Romans 12:2).

The conclusion of the matter at hand is that Satan plays mind games and is a deceiver that controls and influences our minds with corrupt worldviews that influence every academic discipline and facet of our lives:  from ethics to politics, to psychology, to history, and even philosophy and theology! We must be prepared to meet the challenge and call him out on his stratagems, not being ignorant of his schemes and tools to advance them (cf. 2 Cor. 1:11).  The only offense is the pattern taught in the Word, to learn to think the thoughts of God after Him, and interpret the world (cf. 1 Chronicles 12:32) according to His divine viewpoint.  To sum up, let me quote Prov. 27:19 (NLT):  "As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person." Soli Deo Gloria!

As A Man Thinks

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..."  (Proverbs 23:7, KJV).  

"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life"  (Prov. 4:23, KJV).

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Phil. 4:8, ESV).  

"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind [muster all your intellectual resources]..." (1 Pet. 1:13, NKJV).

"Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established" (Prov. 16:3, KJV). 

"A man is what he thinks about all day long." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"The most important things in life are the thoughts you choose to think." --(Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic writer)

The most important aspect of our personality is the thoughts we allow and choose to occupy our time and mind; we can't always control what enters our minds, but we don't have to entertain and meditate on the wrong ideas.  The computer principle of GIGO applies garbage in equals garbage out! Mark 7:21, ESV, says, "For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts...." The  Word is a judge of thoughts and the intents of our hearts (cf. Heb. 4:12).

David prayed in Psalm 19:14 that the words of his mouth and meditations of his heart would be acceptable to God.  They say that we aren't what we think we are, but we are what we think!  When we fill our minds with holy thoughts, the feedback is holy and we reap what we sow! Our mouths betray what's on our minds and in our hearts! Our own thoughts either excuse us or blame us by virtue of our conscience (cf. Rom. 2:15).

We make the decision not to offend with our tongue--to use expletives or take God's name in vain--no matter how commonplace.  New Agers fill their minds with mantras (a name of a Hindu deity), yoga (union with God), or TM (transcendental meditation), and these seem to work for them, as their nomenclature for meditation is not what God instituted, and biblical meditation or thought digestion (on the Word) is the lost art of Christians.  New Agers say that it relaxes them and puts them in a good mood, to empty their minds, but real meditation is focused thinking with a purpose on something, not just letting random thoughts preoccupy our minds.

We don't fool God with our veneer, for He sees through the facade and demands an ingenious, sincere, humble, reverent, and honest prayer life.  We are to pray without ceasing, which means we can be in a quasi-meditation all day long, as we enjoy fellowship with the Godhead, walking in the Spirit.

Our minds are like gardens that are either well-cultivated and conducive to good fruit or run wild and full of weeds, bearing only foliage.  The presence of fruit indicates the presence of a fruit tree, bush, or vine, and God is constantly pruning us, that we would produce more.  The branches that are unproductive, or fruitless, are cut down and thrown into the fire, so to speak.  Cf. Jeremiah 17:9 which says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?"  Yes, we shall know them by their fruits (cf. Matt. 7:14), and Jesus was right on when he said that evil thoughts proceed from the heart of man (Matt. 12:34, KJV, says, "...for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh")--nevertheless, think no evil (cf. 1 Cor. 13:5).

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"  (Gen. 6:5, KJV).  Cf. Proverbs 4:23, which says, "Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life."  Paul exhorts us to "let the word of Christ dwell" in us richly--part of the process of learning to think godly thoughts, and most importantly to "take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ," as Paul commands in 2 Cor. 10:5.  Being spiritually mature implies thinking with a divine attitude, worldview, and viewpoint--thinking godly thoughts per 2 Cor. 10:5, ESV, which says, "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ."

We are to be "transformed by the renewing of our minds" (cf. Rom. 12:2) and to "be renewed in the spirit of [our] mind"  (Eph. 4:23, NKJV).  Paul tells us what sort of things to entertain our minds within Phil. 4:9, basically to "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus"  (Phil. 2:5, NKJV).  We also need to constantly gird up the loins of our minds, or get into gear and stay focused and the result will be a sound mind per 2 Tim. 1:7. and set our minds on things above (cf.. Col. 3:2), not of the worldly realm or domain of Satan. 

God gives us a new mind, as well as spirit, emotions, and will upon salvation--the flesh profits nothing though, and it will be redeemed in heaven into glory! I am a firm believer in positive thinking and trying to see the bright side or the light side of a crisis and that we can rejoice in all circumstances, because of our filling in the Spirit and we are never alone.

Rene Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am!"  He should've started with God in the picture, not himself--he's being introspective and making himself the center of his world.  He is really saying that we have the innate ability to arrive at knowledge apart from God, whereas we wouldn't know anything apart from the revelation of God and that He chose to reveal.  Thinking requires a thinker, ergo entities!

It makes more sense to use the biblical concept:  "In the beginning God...."  The only system of thought that Christ will fit into, according to church father Athanasius, is the one where Christ is its beginning premise or the beginning presupposition!  When you rule God out of the equation, you enter the sphere of chaos, for, without logos, there can be no cosmos or orderly universe with a purpose, and science wouldn't be possible with the laws of the universe and make any sense (cf. Job 38:33).

This is why Secularists deny the supernatural: a Creator-god, a Lawgiver, and a Judge--they don't want accountability or to let a Divine Foot in the door, trying to desperately explain everything without God in the picture, no matter how bleak an outlook it is.  Communists go so far as to declare:  God does not, cannot, and must not exist!  Indeed, it's atheism that's the primary handicap and problem of Marxism.

In summation, it is vital to get our thinking straightened out and to learn how to think with a divine viewpoint the way God would--i.e., biblically sound thinking!  Christianity applies to all of academia and to every discipline and the problem is that Christians are losing the war of ideas and isms by default--they succumb to pressure and don't realize their position is defensible. All in all, in the final analysis, "[Be] careful how [we] think; [our] life is shaped by [our] thoughts"  (Prov. 4:23, GNT).
Soli Deo Gloria! 

Thought Control

The heart in Scripture refers to the innermost being of man, his affections, will, and intellect.  In Psalm 19:14, David prays that the thoughts of his heart be acceptable in God's eyes.  Man is whatever he thinks about all day, some poet has written.  Another has said appropriately, you aren't what you think you are, but what you think, you are!  Jesus said  (cf. Matt. 15:19) that "out of the heart comes evil thoughts." The lips reveal what's on the heart, that's why David prays that the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart be acceptable in God's sight.  In Psalm 139:23, David prays, "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts." We keep no secrets from God. Proverbs 23:7 is pertinent:  "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Jesus said that all is open and laid bare to Him whom we must give account.  In other words, God wants us to get our thinking straightened out!  We are to love God with all our minds, too.

Why are thoughts so important to our walk?  They are to be godly and have a divine viewpoint.  We are not to think like the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (to conform to the image of Christ), according to Romans 12:2.  It is not sufficient to be content with Bible knowledge if it doesn't sink into our minds and make them in the image of Christ and to learn to think like He thinks, "we have the mind of Christ [Scripture]"  (1 Cor. 2:16). Our minds are finite and Christ's is infinite and we will never peg Him nor have a handle on everything He thinks, but we are to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (cf. 2 Pet. 3:18).

The devil likes to destroy our thinking process with lies from the world, and only the study of Scripture can prepare us to fight them.  "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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 Cor. 10:4-5, NIV, emphasis mine).

Your worldview is your mental outlook (how you interpret the world around you and its events) and it must be Christian or what is known as the Judaeo-Christian worldview, as opposed to the Secular Humanist or Postmodern ones so prevalent in academia today.  It is a sad fact, for instance, that the average teen believer now actually believes truth is only relative and there is no "absolute truth." Jesus came to bear witness to the truth (cf. John 18:37-38).  "...Everyone on the side of truth listens to me" (John 18:38, NIV). Jesus claimed to be the incarnation, embodiment, or personification of the truth and He claimed you will and can know it:  "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" (cf. John 8:32). Man's learning can be called "true," but only Scripture is "truth." That's why truth transforms and has the power to change lives. That's why Jesus said:  "Sanctify them by the truth, thy word is truth"  (John 17:17, KJV).

This is where we must take our stand and show our colors--there is knowable absolute truth and we are responsible for it, as revealed in Scripture.  No one can claim ignorance and no one has an excuse (cf. Romans 1:20).  Just like Paul said in 1 Cor 13 that when he was a child he thought as a child, and so on; it is time to think like a man of God and this doesn't just imply being content to be impeccably correct theologically (it is far more urgent to have your heart in the right place), but thinking like Christ as it relates and applies to the world around us  (i.e., "to understand the times" per 1 Chronicles 12:32).  Our thoughts are vital, for Christ must first be in our minds before He can be in our hearts, likewise doctrine.


At the Ocean Grove Conference Center in New Jersey the inscription over the speaker's platform reads:

SOW ...                           REAP
a thought                           an act
a habit                               act
an act                                character
a character                        a destiny

IT IS OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE TO PUT A PREMIUM ON THOUGHT CONTROL.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Clear-thinking Prophets

"... But we have the mind of Christ"  (1 Cor. 2:16, ESV).  

Every generation has its voice and witness from God to warn His people and to interpret the times with divine viewpoint and insight.  We are all to "gird up the loins" of our minds and take heed to the signs of the times just as Jesus exhorted us.  Our attitude towards the world, our nation, and our entourage must be interpreted in light of God's truths.  The sign of the unbeliever, as well as practical atheist who believes, yet doesn't act like it, is that God is in none of his thoughts!

By way of definition:  Prophets aren't necessarily seers or those who speak for God and foretell, but those who tell forth the Word of God, and testify of needed messages from God to illuminate His people--to build up or edify the body of Christ as is so desperately needed.

What manner of media and news we expose ourselves to says a lot about our priorities and values. Our attitudes are shaped by our thinking, whether it is godly or not; influenced by the world-system or the Bible.  We need to have our mindset formulated by a Christian worldview and not the secular ones that are so predominant.  The world will squeeze us into its mold if we don't watch our step and keep in step with the Spirit and are clued into basic universal, objective, and absolute truths of Scripture.  We must rein in every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ per 2 Cor. 10:5.   If we are not careful and let the world influence us instead of vice versa, we will experience the phenomenon of GIGO or garbage in equals garbage out!

We must learn to "think on these things" referring to what is noble, right, and praiseworthy per Phil. 4:8.   After all, we are what we think about all day and we aren't what we think we are, but what we think, we are! (sources unknown).  Very few believers actually are equipped to discern good and evil in the events of history and current events, and we are to seek out these modern-day prophets (one was the late Charles Colson).

Ignorance is never an excuse unless we never had the opportunity to know it, and it's ignorance, not knowledge that binds us.   Humility is the order of the day, as we are to have the same mindset as that of Jesus Christ (cf. Phil. 2:5).  If you don't know the prevalent worldviews and the propaganda they disseminate, you are vulnerable to becoming its victim and being bamboozled by lies and deceit.   We are to be infants in evil, but in our thinking, we are to be mature (cf. 1 Cor. 14:20).

Unfortunately, the leading epistemology of today is relativism, whereas truth is only relative:  This is depicted in Alan Bloom's book The Closing of the American Mind.  This is antithetical to the absolute and objective truth of Scripture and one must be ready to oppose it wherever it arises.  Soli Deo Gloria!