By Jason Charles on 6/7/2018 (6 years 171 days ago) Theology & Religion
With so many secularists and materialists in the world today who naively believe there is no such thing as a spiritual world, I thought I would give one easy exercise that any person can do that will prove to themselves that there is indeed a spiritual world that impacts everything we do.
Take Every Thought Captive
In 2 Corinthians 10: 3-5 the Apostle Paul, speaking to the Church at Corinth reminds them that we do not live in a purely materialistic world, and the evidence of such is our own internal thoughts.
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 Corinthians 10:5
Let’s focus in on that phrase, “imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.” That word “imaginations” is the Strong’s NT word G3053, and it comes from the Greek word λογισμούς which is a form of the root word λόγος or Logos; which most Christians are familiar as being defined as “word” in scripture. So, the word λογισμούς can be translated as your inner words, inner reckoning, or inner thoughts as the Strong’s entry perfectly describes.
Paul then goes on to say, bring every single thought captive, and bring each thought into the obedience of Christ. In context of the passage, he is instructing us to do this as a means to pull down internal, spiritual strongholds of the mind. The words he is using are words of war. We must “take captive” of every thought as if they are foreign agents that must be analyzed and interrogated as to what side they belong. Most people are wholly unaware of this raging internal battle throughout their entire lives, and unawareness of the battle means you will inevitably be on the losing side due to your ignorance.
If you have an enemy, that enemy wishes you ignorant of the battle plans, stratagem and tactics he is using against you as means to destroy you before you become aware that you are even at war. The moment you wake up to this war, and surprise attack, then, for your enemy it becomes that much harder for them to attack you and destroy you. What I am trying to do is make you aware of your enemy’s clandestine methodologies, and give you the means to defend yourself, and thwart that attack every single moment of your life. It truly is that relentless upon analyzation.
The Exercise
To prove to yourself that your very mind is a spiritual battleground, and that these thoughts that float through your mind are evidence of a supernatural war going on inside of you daily, I want you to do one thing. I want everyone reading this article to take the next week, and instead of taking your internal ramblings at face value, I want you to become very much aware of every single thought that goes through your mind. Everything.
The vast majority of your internal thoughts will consist of normal phrases and thinking, that help you go through your daily tasks. They organize this world, they draw upon your knowledge and experience to allow you to manage your household duties, your job, daily tasks, etc. But what I want you to be looking for is the ugly stray thoughts, the ones that seem foreign, and outright appalling to your core nature. It is these thoughts that do not feel like they originate from you that absolutely need to be held captive and interrogated as a means to reveal their true nature and source. I have talked to many people about this phenomenon and almost everyone agrees that they have lines of thinking that absolutely feel, foreign and contrived, almost injected into the stream of consciousness as if from some other dimension. I would venture if you also were to analyze your own thinking you would find the same to be true.
Here are some examples of foreign, invasive thoughts that may pop up while going through normal daily interactions that reveal them to be aberrant plants of demonic agents.
Example One: You are grocery shopping, and as you walk up to the counter to check out you are greeted with a smile by the cashier who has a noticeable facial deformity like a droopy left eye and cheek. You smile back and as you look down to rummage through your purse or wallet to retrieve your debit card for payment an ugly thought flashes through your mind. It says “Why would they put such an ugly person on the front cash register?”
Seize that thought: Recognize the way that thought makes you feel, you are embarrassed and try to quickly pass it off and bring your mind to other things, right? But the truth is, it wasn’t your own, and that one thought taints the entire transaction from that point on, always drawing you back to the ugly facial deformity and the hurtful internal judgement that you made about that person.
Example Two: You are at work and are having trouble with a particular problem regarding your job and seek to enlist the help of your supervisor. You walk into his office, and he simply tells you I am busy and need to make an important phone call right quick without hearing you out on the issue you were having earlier. As you turn around to walk back out the door a murderous thought goes through your mind saying, “I hope that jackass dies!”
Seize that thought: Your next thought should be why the heck did I just think that, he did nothing wrong, only told me to give him a moment. Yet in that instant a violent thought wishing death upon him just manifested itself. Know that this thought is not your own, it is the enemy, who wants to dehumanize that person to such a degree that you wish them dead.
Example Three: You are having a rough patch with your significant other, who refuses to see a situation in the same way that you do. As you are defending your position and asking that person to come to reason a disgusting thought comes to mind that startles you saying, “Why do I put up with her, I should just rape her until she submits!”
Seize that thought: You can’t believe that this thought crosses your mind, and immediately you feel guilty for even allowing space in your heart for such a thought seeing it doesn’t represent you at all and is hideous in nature.
Conclusion
I have written on this issue of internal thinking and the demonic, spiritual agents in the past, I call Thought Demons. I want people to understand that their internal world reveals a dark side to our nature and universe that is without question out to destroy us. There is no escaping these thoughts, they are easily recognized for what they are, demonic agents seeking to control your behavior with vile suggestions.
Imagine what happens to people that only believe in an materialistic universe, thinking we are only advanced monkies with the dark nature of beastly animals. They would accept these thoughts as their own and wouldn’t even question them as something foreign or spiritually wicked in nature. Then think about how the acceptance of such thinking will shape every decision they have for the rest of their life.
The ability for the enemy to control the decision-making process of humans and inject these kinds of wicked thoughts into the human mind is seldom talked about in this light, but anyone person can learn to recognize these foreign thoughts and rebuke them with a little practice. I encourage you to analyze everything that goes through your mind, if it is of a negative nature and you realize it is having an impact on how you are perceiving any given situation it is time to wrest back control and give it back to Christ as the Apostle Paul suggests. Take those thoughts captive and replace them with spiritual songs, encouraging Bible verses, and thoughts that refocus those stray thoughts on good things. Too many people allow those evil thoughts to become whirlpools of negative thinking that drag them into states of depression, bitterness, lust, envy, jealousy and evil intent that will change your life for the worse.
The enemy wants us to embraces our animalistic, demonic side, and he does that by injecting wicked thoughts that people take to be their own. The only way to stop this is to recognize the enemies of your soul, their tactics, and combat them as prescribed in scripture. Read more on Thought Demons Here, you must understand this war, your life depends on it. I promise if you take my advice and do this exercise it will change your spiritual life for the better.
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. Philippians 4:8
If you do not believe that these disgusting, stray thoughts prove a spiritual dimension exists in each one of us, then you must be a naturally wicked person for having such thoughts then, right? Either or, you need Jesus to combat this phenomenon. Relying on anti-psychotics or anti-depression medication actually inflames the situation and opens you up to this spiritual realm and the enemy's attacks even more. The packaging on these drugs literally say may cause suicidal and homicidal thoughts, so go figure, exactly as the enemy would have us, more susceptible to his control.
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