Think Right for Victorious Living
Jesus said, “It’s the thought-life that pollutes. From within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, wanting what belongs to others, [covetousness], wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and all other folly. All these vile things come from within; they are what pollute [people] and make [them] unfit for God.” (Mark 7:20-23, TLB).
The secular world as it is today was re-created by men whose hearts were apart from the Spirit of God. These men were subject to satanic influence, so when they spoke what was in their hearts, Satan’s influence permeated the world. What we see around us isn’t what God created it to be, but rather, the result of man’s influence by the words he speaks. The words we speak come from our heart. Whatever is in a person’s heart, whatever is in their thought-life, will come out in words. No wonder God says in Matthew 12:36 that “He will call every person to account for every idle word spoken.”
When the Spirit of Christ is in us, God gives us His thought life through His Word. Reading God’s Word isn’t a contest for time or length. It’s taking in the very life of God through His Word. God gives us the mind of Christ in and through the Word of God.
As we begin to think God’s thoughts, we’ll begin to speak God’s words. As we speak God’s words, our world is re-created. The ingredients of heaven are love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance or self-control. As you know, these are the Fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23. These fruit within us come out through our words and are reflected in our world. Because of the indwelling of the Spirit of God, the kingdom of God is within us, and the very Word of God becomes our thought life. The Spirit of God becomes the anointing, the life of God within us.
When we stand strong in faith for thirty days, and then step out of faith, that one lapse could nullify thirty days of believing God. The devil knows that, so he is constantly trying to get you out of faith.
When we’re standing in faith for something we want, we can’t afford to think negative thoughts. We must always anticipate that God will take care of us. If we want our faith in God and His Word to work, we can’t allow the pressures of the world that constantly bombard our ears, eyes, and mind to affect us.
What we believe is a result of our thinking. If we’re thinking wrong thoughts, we’ll be believing wrong which leads to wrong confessions. We won’t be able to make the right confession until our thinking is right and in line with the Word of God since we can’t believe beyond our actual knowledge base of the Bible.
In 2 Corinthians 2:16 we’re told to have the mind of Christ, and the only way to do this is by studying God’s Word, believing it in our heart, and acting on it.
The Word also teaches us in Philippians 4:8, to think on whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, or whatever has virtue or praise. We need to realize that thoughts can come into our minds from two different sources. The devil puts many thoughts into our minds from outside ourselves; however God’s thoughts come from inside ourselves — from our spirit man into our minds.
As you stay in close fellowship with the Lord through prayer, meditation, and study of His Word, you will learn to distinguish the source of your thoughts. Of course, evil thoughts are form the devil. On the other hand, God is love, and love thinks no evil, and sees no evil.
Many times scriptures referring to the mind confuses people; however in scriptures referring to believing, many think they believe, and they do with their minds, but not in their hearts. We must focus on the positive confessions instead of the negative confessions. When we get a clear understanding of the power of positive confession, it will make a great improvement in our lives and in our thinking.
Hebrews 3:1 says that we should consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession or confession. The dictionary defines confession as “affirming something we believe; testifying to something we know; and witnessing to a truth that we have embraced.”
It’s important we do what Hebrews 4:14 tells us to do “Hold fast our profession [confession] of faith. It’s necessary that we have a continual confession of redemption from Satan’s dominion and a confession of the fact that he no longer rules us with condemnation, fear, or disease. We are to hold fast to our confession because our confession is Satan’s defeat. Jesus defeated Satan nearly 2000 years ago, but what Jesus did for us legally must become a vital, living reality in our lives.
Let me give you an example of the legal side of redemption. People pray God, save this man or heal this woman. However, in God’s mind, He’s already saved and healed them. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself; therefore, Jesus doesn’t have to die again to save anyone. He already died once, and He doesn’t need to shed His blood again. Legally, God has already done everything He needs to do to provide our redemption!
If people deal exclusively with the legal side of redemption, they won’t actually experience the power of God in their lives because they become cold, dead and formal. Under the New Covenant, we have much more than just the forgiveness of sin; we have the New Birth and have become new creatures in Christ Jesus. If we sin after we’re born again, we don’t have to be born again to be forgiven because 1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”
As we confess our sins this thinking is in line with God’s Word, and believing what the Bible says. Confession creates a reality of salvation in our spirit.
Think back to the way you were presented the Gospel message of salvation. If your thinking was straightened out from the beginning, and your believing and confessing were made right, it will be much easier for you to stand strong and not waver in your Christian walk. However, if you weren’t given sufficient instructions, the devil will take advantage of what you don’t know. He’ll defeat and rob you of what God has already done for you because you don’t know God’s Word, and you don’t know how to hold fast to your confession of faith. The devil will camouflage situations and try to make you feel that you’re not saved when you make small mistakes.
The same is true with healing. Remember that our confession is Satan’s defeat. Hebrews 4:14 says, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Jesus is our great High Priest who is seated in heaven and is representing us to Father God saying “I died for them. I took their sins, I redeemed them. I became sin for their sin that they may become the righteousness of God in Me. I took their infirmities, bore their sicknesses. I delivered them from the authority of darkness. I created them as new creatures.”
In the Greek translation of this verse it says “Let us hold fast to saying the same thing.” Our confession will either imprison us or set us free and is the result of our right or wrong thinking.
We must know what God has done for us in Jesus, believe it and confess it because our confession is what creates the reality in our lives. We must know what God has done in us though the Word and the Holy Spirit. We must know what Jesus is doing for us now in His present day ministry at the right hand of Father God, plus we need to know what the Word of God will do for us through our lips or what God can do through us by the help of the Holy Spirit.
When our thinking is not right in line with God’s Word, our believing will be wrong. Then our talking will be wrong and we’ll be confused and defeated. We need to realize what the Word can do through our lips. It’s not only what we know personally about Jesus that counts; it’s what the Word says you already are “in Christ” that counts.
Have you read something in the Bible and know what it says is true concerning Christians, but the promise doesn’t seem real to you? It may be healing, prosperity, or revelation knowledge. Have you ever acted as if it were real? Have you ever told someone that it’s real? Have you ever confessed it to be real in your life? If you’ve answered no to any one of these questions, do you think the Bible has lied?
If you want the promise to become a reality in your life, you must confess it into reality before it becomes manifested in your life. According to the Word, it is already so, but make it real in your life by confessing whatever promise you want manifested in your life. When you confess what you are in Christ, claim it, and walk in it, you are appropriating the reality of what is legally yours.
We should all be God minded and the only way we can achieve this is to think God’s thoughts, think His Word, and confess that it’s true by putting it in your mouth on a daily basis.