The antidote to negative and
destruction thoughts is a combination of prayer and focusing on that which is
brought to your mind by God after you ask HIM for help.
Many people try to cling to a
scripture without prayer. Sometimes they
try to be their own God by hunting a scripture to “stand on” in order to get
what they want in this life.
As a young Christian I made this
mistake.
I wanted to marry. I certainly expected to marry.
I never considered the will of
God. That was my own will for myself.
In the prayer group I was
attending at one point, all the women were praying for me to find a husband.
But my best friend heard something
as she prayed for me on this matter. She
heard, “MY grace is sufficient for her.”
Donna told me what she had heard. But I didn’t want to hear this!
Another woman in the prayer group
made the following statement one day. “Of course she will marry …” Then this woman added, “If it is the will
of God …” But then she went on to
say, “But of course it is the will of God for her to marry.”
So we continued to pray, except
for my best friend. I think Donna likely
stopped praying about this after she felt she had heard from God.
I began to have serious “Satanic
attacks” … depression … and such.
One day, I had the following
scripture brought to my attention.
II
Peter 2:20 (NIV) … 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for
doing wrong and endure it?
I saw immediately the source of my
problem was my own desire of my flesh to have what other people have.
So our problem may not be thoughts
from the devil. It may be desire from
our own flesh.
The source of problems could be
desire for fame or recognition. Often
people desire money or riches.
There are many sources of
problems.
Sometimes thoughts are brought by
spirits of antichrist who try to get us to reject the way of God … saying to
us, “It’s too hard … The cost to you would be too great … God wants you to be
happy on this earth so of course God would want you to do this thing (often
when it is opposite to instruction giving in Bible) …
Concerning the thoughts from the
devil …
James
4:7 … Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you.
This is exactly what God has
taught me about TAKING THOUGHTS CAPTIVE …
Submit
yourselves to God … Pray, taking the problem to God in prayer. Seeking the help of God.
Resist the devil with that given to you
after prayer...
The apostle Paul spoke of breaking
down “strongholds” …
II
Cor. 10… 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:4
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to
the pulling down of strong holds;)
God knows exactly where those “strongholds”
lie in our lives and God knows exactly how to tear down those “strongholds”.
And the methods we use are mighty
through God, not through worldly ways of man.
We do not clean out closets to get
our flesh to forget.
We do not go shopping to change
our moods as many of the world do.
Our weapons of our warfare are not
“carnal” (fleshly, worldly)
but are mighty “through God” … And as we go in the way of God we will end up
like Job … whose end was better than his beginning!
Job
42 … 12 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning:
And so it is with all people of
God who deliberately choose to go in the way of God as they live on this
present earth.
Our end is better than our
beginning!
There is a labor involved in
applying the Word of God and choosing to go in HIS way.