Who Controls Your Thoughts?

 

 

"For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, "Eat and drink!" But his heart is not with you" Prov 23:7  

"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit."  Matt 12:33

"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?  So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.  “Matthew 7:16-18

 

"He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart." Ps 15: 2



 I. WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK UPON:

     1.   Behind every sin are thoughts. (Prov. 23:7)
    2.   Sin is first conceived in the mind, then acted upon.
    3.   Our thoughts take the form of internalized sentences, or self-talk.
    4.   We twist truth in the mind. (cf Psa. 51:6)
    5.   We talk within ourselves about every thing of any significance to us.


 II. WE BUILD A “TREASURY” BY WHAT WE THINK UPON:
1.   The treasury of our heart is totally under our control. No one else has access to our minds or hearts. We are accountable for all the choices made in our thought life.

2.   What is IN... will in due time... COME OUT. No one can put anything into our thoughts or hearts but US. We are accountable for all that is in our hearts or our inner treasure.

3.   We build a belief system over time about everything of significance. This is a  predominate part of our heart content.

 

  • A belief system is what we hold to, accept, have made our standard of truth.

  • A belief system includes all that we have accepted in our hearts. The things that we believe or accept about any given truth or concept becomes our belief system.

  • For example whatever we believe about marriage, or dating, worldliness, etc., is solely dependent upon all the things we have accepted as truth.

  • Our belief system is the total of all the things we have heard and pondered and accepted as truth within any given area of thought. (II Cor. 10:3-5)


4.   We build automatic responses by what is in our hearts.

5.   Our habits, patterns of reaction, or inner programming becomes ours!

6.   What we have put in -- will come out!

       a.  Garbage in -- Garbage out,
       b.  Truth In -- Truth out   - Lies In -- Lies Out,
       c.  Anger In -- Anger Out,
       d.  Resentment In -- Resentment Out,
       e.  Envy, Unkindness In -- Envy, Unkindness Out,
       f.  Criticalness In  --  Criticalness Out.
 


 III. WE WALK IN THE “FLESH OR THE SPIRIT” BY THE CHOICES OF OUR THINKING: (Rom 8:5-8; Gal. 5:16-17, 24)

1. We mind or obey with our ”minds” the things of the flesh, or we mind with our “minds” the things of the Spirit.

2. We make the choice of a walk in sin, in the flesh sin-nature, or we make the choice to walk in the control of the Holy Spirit.

3. No one has access to your mind or makes your choices -- BUT YOU!

4. Out of the flesh (Rom. 7:18; Gal. 5:19-20; Eph.4:17) or sin nature comes all kind of sin. Lust, jealousy, pride, envy, evil thoughts, strife, etc., all come from the heart (See Mark 7:21-23.), and the decisions we make about our walk.

5. The Holy Spirit, if we yield to Him, would produce:

    a. His fruit, Gal. 5:22-23
    b. His power, Acts 1:8;
    c. His love, Rom. 5:5
    d. His control, Eph. 5:18

IV. WE ARE IN A MENTAL WARFARE-- AND SATAN WANTS TO CONTROL US:

 

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.II Cor. 10:3-5.

1. Our enemy defeats us in the “arena” of the thought life. (From this comes our attitudes.)

2. We are to recognize sinful imaginations, evil thoughts and desires that come from the lusts of the flesh.

3. High things must be cast down -- high things of philosophies, psychological beliefs, and all ideals, ideas, teachings of the world that are contrary to truth.

4. We are to bring every “thought” unto obedience to Christ. (John 15:9-11)

5. We have “idols of the heart” they are produced by our thoughts.... as we  build desires... reactions... affections, etc.

6. We build a programming of sin within... or habitual sin practices.... in mind, emotions or affections as well as behavior.


 V. WE MUST MAKE THE CHOICE -- TO:

 1. Choose Right Thoughts -- (Phil. 4:18; Prov. 23:7; 4:23)

2. Cleanse Your Thoughts -- (Psa. 139:23-24; Psa. 19:14; 51:10)

3. Fill Your Hearts with the Word of God -- (Phil. 4:8; Psa. 1:1-3;  Matt. 12:33-35