Mastermind: Taking Thoughts Captive

You are what you eat

We dove into this concept a little in our last series, but I want to take the time to dive into the concept of protecting your mind. All of you are destined for greatness and that makes you a target. Here’s the issue:

You don’t know your greatest potential, but Satan does.

And he wants to stop you from ever getting your full potential. His entire job is to get you off track, frustrate you, and make you under estimate yourself. Add this to the fact that we are naturally bent toward sin and we work against ourselves.

The battlefield of both your flesh and the demonic world is your mind because whatever gets your mind gets you.

The bible tells us that our mind can be:

Confused, frustrated, destroyed Deut 28:20

Closed Job 17:4

Hostile toward God Rom 8:7

Anxious and restless Ecc 2:21-23

Fearful Isaiah 32:4

Dismayed, troubled Isaiah 41:10

Dull 2 Cor 3:14

Blinded 2 Cor 4:4

Depraved, Corrupt 2 Tim 3:8

All of these negative things. All sin starts with a Lie. It’s a why the Bible says that Satan

John 8:44 (ESV)

…for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Every sin birthed in our minds is tied to a lie that we are allowing ourselves to believe.

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 ESV

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

This warning stems because of the lies being told. The town of Corinth was led by a group of false teachers that were actively coming against Paul and the message of Christ that he brought. So instead of attacking those who were attacking him Paul decided to take time to teach the Corinthian church how to defend their minds and what they believe. This road is harder, but more fruitful.

The word warfare here is from the greek word

Strateia- Strategic campaign

There is a strategic campaign set up by Satan and dominions against the knowledge of God and the war is fought in the minds of people.

The term captive in V 5

Aichmalotizo- aggressively bind up as if a prisoner of war

It isn’t this idea of just surrounding it. There is a purposeful force when taking these thoughts captive.

So how do we captivate our thoughts?

Guard Your Mind.

There is an old addage- Garbage in Garbage out. Or the other one that says you are what you eat. The idea is what you are what you consume. That includes the things you let in your eye gate and your ear gate.

God build walls around our brains and our thoughts. We determine what gets into our minds and what stays in our minds, but you cannot live a life consuming junk and expect to physically and emotionally healthy.

One of the biggest things we need to understand is the

Why?

Why am I draw to what I am drawn to? Why do i prefer to watch the movies and TV shows I watch. Why do I prefer the music I listen to? There is power in being self aware.

Proverbs 15:14 NLT

14 A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash.

Realistically there are 3 types of foods in this world

Super foods- which are rich in compounds and considered beneficial to a person’s health.

Junk food- Food that is high in calories and low in nutritional content; something that is appealing or enjoyable butof little or no real value.

Toxic foods- those that have no nutritional value or are actually toxic to consume in large quantities.

This is the same concept for our thought life.

Philippians 4:8 ESV

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

These are the superfoods for our brain. It would be nice if there was an exhaustive list, but these are things we have to press into and figure out for ourselves. But things like the bible, worship, biblical, theological books that draw us closer to God.

Junkfood are the TV shows we watch that aren’t harmful, but don’t add value to our life. Books we can read that aren’t helpful but not harmful. Video games and such.

1 Corinthians 6:12 ESV

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.

Toxicfood are those things that draw us away from God. Eat a majority of our time, take away from what God has called us too or are actively sinful.

Psalm 101:3 (ESV)

3 I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.