“One of the great battlefields to spiritual maturity is the thought life. Whether in the spiritual realm or the natural realm, the truth is nothing controls us without our permission. Our thinking process is vital to our victory. If you are born again, yet still think the same thoughts you once did, then it’s a good sign your mind has not been renewed. And until your mind gets renewed you will never be able to enjoy your salvation. It’s amazing, many seem to be born again everywhere except their minds.”
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By James Holland, Sr.
One of the great battlefields to spiritual maturity is the thought life. Whether in the spiritual realm or the natural realm, the truth is nothing controls us without our permission. Our thinking process is vital to our victory. If you are born again, yet still think the same thoughts you once did, then it’s a good sign your mind has not been renewed. And until your mind gets renewed you will never be able to enjoy your salvation. It’s amazing, many seem to be born again everywhere except their minds. This is why there are still Christians that are still judgmental, condemning, prejudice and unforgiving. They have no real peace and no real joy. We need a renewed mind, a “mind of Christ”. It seems that most of the things that destroy our victory are wrong attitudes and wrong thinking processes.
Satan uses the little things to destroy us, and we normally assist him quite well. If you want to be miserable, it is real easy to do. First of all, be easily offended all of the time. Secondly, always be negative. Then finally, be critical about everything that is going on. See how much joy you have. God wants us to be victorious in our walk. To do this we must have victory in our minds. It is true we can’t control all of our circumstances; they are like the wind blowing so we must learn to adjust our sails and go on in spite of our circumstances. Satan always magnifies what we don’t have. He always seeks to magnify the negatives of life, while totally ignoring the positives. If this is the way you think, then you need to let the spirit of God renew your mind. Of course, we play an important part in this process. We must put the word of God in our mind through study and through teaching and ministry. Paul said, faith cometh by hearing the word of God. It doesn’t matter what God is trying to release in our lives, if our thought life is not right, we will never enjoy any of it. We must not become passive in our thinking. To be passive means to be un-opposing, to receive without resisting, and to submit to wrong acts.
James tells us to resist Satan and draw nigh unto God. The word “resist” means to stand against. We need to be careful that we are not resisting God! We are to resist the devil. Resist can also mean the “quality of not yielding”. We are not to yield to Satan.
Paul writes in Ephesians 4:26-27 not to give place to the devil. To give place means to give him room to operate. Don’t allow Satan any room or any territory to operate in our thought life. Until we can learn to resist some things we will have a very miserable life. People that do not have a renewed mind will always simply act on mere impulse and emotions. Developing the spiritual mind is a battle, you have to pull down some things and build up the right things in your mind. You have to press through things. Don’t let Satan tell you that you have it worse than anyone else does. Anybody that gets anywhere in this spiritual walk has had to press and fight their way to the point of victory.
Paul tells us to put on Christ, to put on the armor of God. Not merely drag it in and out of a church service, but put it on and wear it. We must fight our way out of the bondage of wrong thinking, walk in the spirit, and feed your mind with good stuff – with God stuff! Learn to act on the word of God, not your emotions. The truth is whatever we think and talk about is what will grow in our life. In the fertile soils of our minds is where we plant the eternal seeds of destiny.
So make no mistake about it. Whatever we feed our minds with will have tremendous impact on our actions. So how’s your thought life?
The above article, “How’s Your Thought Life?” is written by James Holland, Sr. The article was excerpted from the sixth chapter of Holland’s book The Battle for Spiritual Maturity.
The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
