captive thoughts

I keep promising myself that I will soon get back to blogging on a regular basis. I think about it and then just put it off. It seems like my brain has a hard time formulating lucid thoughts sometimes. I just have so much going on. So much on my mind. So much happening in my life. I get overwhelmed and then I get frustrated and so I just don't write. But God has shown me so many little nuggets of wisdom that I feel compelled to share some of them. 

He is always teaching me. My prayer has been to keep a teachable heart. To keep a teachable spirit. I don't ever want to get to the point in my life that I don't desire a fresh Word from Him daily! He is so good to impart this to us if we just ask Him! So many times we think that God isn't working in our lives but the reality is we just aren't listening to what He is teaching. 

As believers, we have a hedge of protection around us when we are walking in obedience to our Lord. satan can't touch us unless God allows it and then it is only for a season and only for a purpose. Now, don't get me wrong here, I am not saying that God causes bad things to happen to us. I am just saying that because of the fall of man, satan is alive and scouring his way through this world looking to devour God' people at every turn. There are times in our lives, that God allows things to take place to teach us, to bring us back to Him, to build our character and our faith and to build our testimony so that we can then minister to others.

Through our sin and unbelief, we can abandon our refuge. Our place of protection. We can turn our backs on our Lord and leave ourselves open and vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. It is easy to do if we aren't keeping ourselves fed daily with His Word.

satan fights with weapons that aren't always visible. He certainly can use other people to whip us. He can use circumstances to try and defeat us. Most of the time satan wages war with us in our thought process. In our minds. We are our own worst enemy when we allow satan to captivate our minds. We must stay vigilant against the warfare that takes place in our thoughts! We must take every thought captive in Christ. 

If satan can't defeat us, he will seek to integrate us with sin. He will beckon to us and make it look attractive and even convince us that 'nobody will ever know'. The enemy is sneaky and deceptive and ready to kidnap us the minute we let our guard down.  Don't debate with the enemy. This is the first step toward defeat. He is devious and cunning and persistent in his attacks.

Too many times, people get saved and then they think that they are somehow safe. But once we have given our hearts and lives to Jesus Christ, we become a target for the wiles of satan. We must move from our unsaved, natural state into our saved and spiritual state. Our spiritual state is not one that is static in nature. It is one that is constantly moving and growing. As we feed ourselves the precious Word of God daily, we will grow and mature and begin to understand the spiritual. We will gain discernment and we will gain the ability to see deep beneath the surface of life and see truth. 

The more we seek Him, the better our spiritual vision becomes. We can begin to see the enemy moving in for attack and be on the defensive against him.  We will learn to recognize the spiritual warfare raging around us and be able to fight with what we have learned from the Sword of the Spirit. We begin to possess the mind of Christ and therefore possess His values and develop His desires for our lives. We learn to think God thoughts and not thoughts of the world.

Feast on His Word every day and begin fulfilling His purpose in your life. We are called to be holy. We are set apart by God and set apart to Him. We need reminded ourselves every day of our high and holy position as believers in Jesus Christ. We need to practice it in our daily lives. We need to be living sanctified lives that speak 'out loud' our convictions. If we continue to strive to grow in Him daily, the enemy will find himself being defeated in his attempts to derail us from our purpose. If we desire to be strong in the Lord, we must stay deep in the Word. Our only offensive weapon against the enemy is the mighty and powerful Word of God. 

"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 strongholds. 

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 2:3,4,5)