Teachings                                                                                                                                               Galilean Pastors
TAKE CAPTIVE EVERY THOUGHT
  
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
 whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or admirable think about such things.--Phil. 4:8

    Think on things above--the High road.  When we think, most often it causes action and actions cause results.  Now the results are directed by our thoughts.  So if what we are thinking is noble, pure, and righteous our actions and ultimately our results will be noble, pure, and righteous. (Phil 4:8)  Another way to put it is “where our thought life goes there we will be also.” 

    To do this, it takes training.  We are so used to letting our thoughts roam, very seldom realizing that we need to control them.  Paul says in 2 Cor. 10:5 to take captive every thought.  Paul didn’t say, ”don’t think,” nor did he say,“to take captive some of your thoughts,” he said to take them captive--all of them.  In other words, if a thought pops up in our head we must be conditioned enough to realize we had the thought and analyze the thought in a nanosecond.  Is this thought beneficial to God’s purpose or my own?  Is it destructive or selfish, does it encourage and build up, or does it degrade and tear down?  We must decide what thought we have, take it captive if it’s not of good intentions, or free the good thought of encouragement to build up God’s Kingdom.  Remember acting upon that thought causes results that we will have to deal with later--whether good or bad.  We need to examine whether it is beneficial or non-beneficial to the kingdom.

    Paul did not say, “do not think,” he said to take our thoughts captive.   If we were to put a bird in a cage it would be in captivity and would be there until we free it.  If we were to leave the bird in the cage without ever feeding it, the bird would soon die.  It is the same with our thoughts.  If we feed a thought it will keep growing, sometimes out of control.  If the thought gets out of control that little thought can become destructive, not only to you but also to your family, friends, acquaintances, job and so on.  The thoughts may continue long enough that they become uncontrolled, creating bitterness, resentment, selfishness, anger, etc.  These out of control thoughts can result in unforgiveness and, ultimately, in sin. 

    A perfect example of this is to see someone of the opposite gender,  in my case a woman.  She is very beautiful and attractive.  My thought life has just been engaged and there is nothing wrong with that so far.  She is beautiful and attractive, a creation of God, move on.  If I choose not to move on, that “thought” becomes a problem.  If I harbor that thought and feed that thought toward the woman my thoughts can only turn from noble to self-gratifying thoughts, moving into  sin.  Depending on where you are in your walk with the Lord, depends on the standard for how far you will take your thoughts.  If your thought goes beyond, “she is a beautiful creation of God,” the thought is probably starting to wander off the noble path.  I’m not only talking sexual thoughts, but thoughts like, “I wonder how many face lifts she has had?” or “I bet she hasn’t worked a day in her life to be able to look that good.”  I have actually heard other women say that about other women, I believe this is called jealousy.  Those types of thoughts could actually go on forever if we keep feeding them.
 
    If you are single, (or not) you may think “is she married, or spoken for?”  “Would she possibly care to get to know me?”  “What kind of man is she attracted to?”  Your thought life could actually take that woman or man and put them into your life to the point that you are married with four perfect children, two girls and two boys, a perfect dog, and a perfect job.  All of this without you ever saying hello.  If you are married, that thought should not even enter your mind!  Women are not immune from this type of thought life at all.  How many women watch soaps, read romance novels, or talk to a girlfriend about their husband?  Your mind has been engaged and off you go.  STOP!  There is nothing of God in any of those thoughts.   

    I can easily speak on the example given because I was a single man in the military.  (I’m not saying all military men are like I was but for the most part they are, it is the macho thing to do.)  I would let my thoughts drift, feeding them and letting them go much further than they should.  Who would they hurt?  They’re just fun thoughts.  I thought they were fun thoughts, but God did not see anything but destruction in my life.  This is not the purpose God had intended for me.  I never had the nerve to walk up to the beautiful lady and introduce myself to her, but I certainly did in my mind, and then it was off to the races.

    It was easier making this woman to be who I wanted her to be in my mind, rather than dealing with reality.  I never gave her the chance to say shoo  fly, you bother me, or, on the other hand, she may have said “yes, I would love to go to dinner with you.”  But being where I was with God, or you might say, my choice to be absent from God, my thought life had nothing to do with being self-controlled or noble.  The fact is, I probably thought that I was self-controlled by my choice of thought.  My way of thinking was, if the woman would say no for any reason, my mind would start to work, justifying the rejection, ending up who knows where, possibly a pity party and broken pride balloons all around.  If she were to say “yes,” my thoughts could travel to the end of the evening and past, conjuring up thoughts of an evening that should not ever happen, but now I have placed this innocent woman into my filthy thoughts.  Is there any good coming out of this kind of thought?  Except maybe to say I can use it as an embarrassing ministry illustration?  Nothing throughout these thoughts can be used to glorify God.  They are all self seeking and shameful.

    I used myself and the total lack of control to suit my selfish desires, with total disregard for anyone else.  By my choice to travel down a sinful path I gave birth to other sin in my life.  Simply because of my failure to  capture my thoughts and starve them to death.

    If we feed our thoughts about another man or woman eventually we will end up at the door step of adultery, making this woman or man something he/she probably is not, and putting our self in a sinful thought pattern, having to repent and ask for forgiveness.  Just think, it should not  even have gotten that far, if only we had self control.  Proverbs 25:28--Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.   

    If we allow the lack of control to persist in our lives, the more desensitized we become making it easier to justify our thoughts giving birth to more thoughts of the same nature, going further and further each time.   Possibly one day taking action on that thought, causing results that will create more sin in our lives.  Possibly now having to deal with hurt, pain and destruction in your own life, as well as others, leading into a cycle of bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness all over again.  But now it has spread to others, causing pain and destruction in their lives--and the destruction spreads from there.  Just think all of this destruction because of one out of control thought.  It has now gone full circle, but now we have pulled someone else into that sinful life we have chosen to live.  Simply because of the choice we have made--not to take captive our thoughts, choosing to feed the thoughts we have, letting them grow, and possibly releasing them to do their destruction in someone else's life.  Our thoughts may never get this far at first, but keep feeding them,  they will.
     
    Everyone who is reading, hearing or studying this teaching, has their own experiences of how they struggle with their thoughts, maybe not to the degree that I illustrated but sin is sin and an uncontrolled thought life will lead to sin, even into greater amounts of sin.

    I have used these examples simply because they are easy to relate to, but how about thoughts on lust, covetness, jealousy, envy, anger, deceit, gossip, pride, and so on.  Are any of these profitable for our walk?  Do any of these build up, or just tear down?   

    Maybe yours isn’t adultery, but how about covetness.  Has there ever been a time when you’ve coveted someone else's car, job, home, lifestyle--having the thought “If only I had that job how my life would be different.  I could do this or that, I would even do this differently and the end result would be much better than he or she has done.”  How do you know?  You don’t, you’re just feeding that out of control thought.  If you can do it better, apply for the job, get the job and do the changes to make it better.  If you don’t get the job, your miserable thoughts are all you have.  Let them die.

    Maybe you think “if only I had their money and lifestyle, I would do this or that” and then your mind races off once again, out of control into an area where God has not intended you to be.  If you had what you were coveting you would more than likely be coveting something else bigger and better.  We need to understand that we are to live in reality, doing what God has created us to do, with what God has given us.  Stop trying to live someone else’s life. 

    Maybe God wants us to have all these things, but first we must check our motives (our heart).  If your motives are not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy the chances are they aren’t from God.  You can only know the will of God if we seek Him every day, not just when we want something to please our selfish appetite.  Paul, in Ro 8:7 says, ”the sinful mind is hostile to God.”  We need to be aware of where our thoughts are and take control of our thoughts. 
       
    Our desire should be to draw closer and closer to the Lord, not dwelling on thoughts that we have created in our minds.  If God wants us to have that other person’s car, job, home, or lifestyle, He will make the way for us to have it, until then your focus should be on the Lord and where He wants us.  Not where we want to be.  Our whole purpose of being a Christian is to serve the Lord, and to do it right where we are, not where we want to be.     
   
    I’ve actually heard someone say “if only I had that job or that car, or that motorcycle, I could really minister to that group of people.”  But do you minister to the people where you are at now?  If not, you probably wouldn’t there either.  We should be content where we are and see the blessings in it.  Paul says in Php 4:11,”to be content whatever the circumstances,” by doing so God can and will use you right where you are, and He will move you as you grow in your walk with him.  Think of it as a a spiral traveling upward, the more we learn, the closer we get to the Lord, creating more growth, getting closer to the Lord, and on and on, spiraling upward in the knowledge of the Lord.
 
    This is what it means when Paul talks about the whole measure, Eph 4:12-13--to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

    God’s timing and your measure of faith set the guidelines to what God can, and will do with you at that time.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (Jas 4:8)  Gaining the personal relationship that God so desires will take you to places your mind and thoughts could never take you on your own, but now it is actions not just thoughts.
 
    We need to serve Christ rather than our selfish desires.  We have the mind of Christ, it is up to us to receive the mind and use it for the benefit of His kingdom. "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Co 2:16) 

    The only way we will know His thoughts is through His word, and a personal relationship with Him, and realizing that it is not our understanding but His we are to lean on.  Otherwise not depending on anyone or anything except the Holy Spirit.
   
    I have heard too many times the phrase “the devil made me do it.“  Stop giving the devil so much credit. The devil may have tempted you but you chose to act.  A good rule of thumb is, “The devil can only take what you give him.”  So we need to set our thoughts on things above.   “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3:2)  And fix your thoughts on Jesus.  Heb 3:1--Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.

    Paul  in Php 4:8 gives a guideline of what we are to do with our thoughts, and how we are to apply them to our lives, causing results--positive results--that the Lord can and will use.  “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”  Take captive every thought and you will be free to serve God with all your heart and all your mind.