Take All Thoughts Captive by Tim Mather

Take All Thoughts Captive by Tim Mather

So how does the first lev­el of Spir­i­tu­al War­fare work? Imag­ine a police­man or a secu­ri­ty guard. Here comes an unin­vit­ed per­son toward the entrance of the facil­i­ty you are assigned to guard. Just like that cop:

  1. HALT the thought as it comes into your mind. Keep your mind alert to the schemes of the enemy
  2. Then, SEARCH the thought for its ori­gin and its pur­pose. Where did it come from? Why is it there?
  3. If its source can­not be deter­mined, or if it is clear­ly in vio­la­tion to the Word, take it CAPTIVE to Jesus Christ that its pow­er may be bro­ken. This is accom­plished by sim­ply pray­ing, “Jesus, I give this thought to you. If it is from you, bring it back to me. If not, then please take it away.”
  4. Make the thought OBEDIENT to Christ. Sub­mit it to Him by ask­ing Him to take it from you as many times as necessary.

Ear­ly on, this process may seem time-con­sum­ing and bulky. But with prac­tice, you will be able to deter­mine the source of the thought very quick­ly. It becomes part of your regen­er­at­ed nature to search out every­thing attempt­ing entry into our minds. Every time a thought is thwart­ed in its attempt, anoth­er poten­tial strong­hold is avert­ed. When there is no accu­mu­la­tion of thoughts, there can be no stronghold.

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