Jan 27, 2018
Sounds easy right? We have to control our minds.
A reminder and a message to control your thoughts, reading the Book of Exodus, reading the kudos sent to me to continue, THANK YOU! financial tips for tax time. Prayer for your salvation.
One of the most important things in our lives is the control of our minds.
Our thoughts are powerful. They can harm us or do us good. The Bible says, “As [a person] thinks … so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Many people have troubled minds.
We are barraged daily with the news, what President Trump said or did, how the country is split on it, our divisions, crime, murders, child abductions, natural disasters, Football and hockey, celebrity gossip, scandals, we talk too much about bad tv, and not about what is good. We secretly worry about our finances, retirement, our spouses, health, jobs, sexual fantasies, escapes, and stuff that if it were on a loud speaker would shame us to the point of suicidal thoughts. How do I know? I hear it. and lately, it gets me down. It hurts my spirit. It hurts me because i know God sees it WAY more than I do.
I hear people quoting horoscopes, and connecting with them as if astrological signs otherwise known as witchcraft could help them, connect them to a good spouse, help mate when it is of the devil.
Maybe not from you but from good people that have allowed evil to grab ahold of them. Nobody does it intentionally. We get lost a little at a time. We don’t have that much time actually.
The works of the flesh are listed in Galatians 5. I’d like to quote them for you, because they talk about the mind. When you follow your own wrong mind, your life will produce these evil results: “impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, spiritism Spiritism is the belief in the existence of nonphysical beings, or spirits, that inhabit a spirit world. In the belief of spiritism people often try and contact the spirits, which can include people who have died. The contact is for various reasons: to learn about the future, to influence the outcome of future events, and to gain knowledge. Mediums are used in such attempted contacts. Often times a séance is used to contact the spirit world -- people gather in a circle in a dimly lit room while a medium guides the people in an attempt to contact the spirit world.
Of course, the Bible teaches us that there is a spiritual world which is comprised of both angelic and demonic forces. We are forbidden from Scripture to practice spiritism because it opens up the individual to demonic oppression.
- Deut. 18:10-11,“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcere, hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group–and there will be wrong doctrine, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing” (Galatians 5:19-21, TLB). Paul went on to say, “I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21, NKJV).
Scripture has several things to say about the mind: First, the Bible says that the mind is naturally at enmity with God (Romans 8:7). A person’s mind is against God. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians that before they came to Christ, they were “alienated and enemies in [their] mind” to all things relating to the true knowledge of God. Because of sin, the mind is an enemy of God (Colossians 1:21). Such a mind will not obey the law of God. You may say you believe in God, you may say you love God, but you don’t obey God. You live like an atheist.
If you continue without repentance, the Scripture says that God will eventually give you over to a “reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28, KJV) to do those things which are not right. The word reprobate carries with it the idea of having been rejected. What a terrible thing it would be to be rejected by God. There were many people who followed Christ in His day, but the Bible says He saw their hearts, He saw their minds and what they were thinking, and He rejected them. There is a point beyond which you cannot return, where your heart is so hard that you can no longer hear the Holy Spirit. Your mind is so hardened that it becomes reprobate, and the Bible warns against having this kind of mind.
John 8:11King James Version (KJV)
11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
John 3:17King James Version (KJV)
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Jude 1:23
And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Romans 1:27-29King James Version (KJV)
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
How do you have your mind transformed? By repenting of sin and receiving Christ into your heart. The Scripture says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). The mind of Christ can, through the Holy Spirit, control your mind, your thoughts, your intents and your actions, if you submit to Him daily.
That doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes, but it does mean that you can have the mind of Christ. Do you have a mind controlled by Christ? Do you have a renewed mind? Do you know that all your sins are forgiven, and that if you died right now you would go to heaven? If there’s a doubt in your heart that you are totally and completely Christ’s, you must do three things: First, repent of your sin. Jesus said, “Unless you repent you will … perish” (Luke 13:3).
Second, by faith receive Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for you. When He died on that cross, He took your sin. Something terrible and glorious happened when Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). In that moment, God the Father laid upon His Son your sins and mine. Because Jesus bore our sin and death for us, God can say, “I forgive you.”
And instantaneously you can start a new life. It happens in an instant, but there is a lifetime of decisions and commitments to make that relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every day I make a commitment concerning thoughts in my mind, what I’m to read, the discipline of my time, my prayer, my Bible-reading, my relationship with my family. Whatever it may be, I say, “Lord Jesus, I want Your mind in this matter.”