6 Steps to Maintaining a Healthy Thought Life – 07-30-15
The Message Outline:
As God deals with the root systems within us- the spiritual battle is intensified by the enemy within the soul. The more negative roots that are exposed and dealt with by God, the thought life that was formerly bound in negative structures needs to be re-established on the truth, and re-grounded in Christ, who is their stability.
Hebrews 4:12 For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.
We are triune beings; we are a spirit, which has a soul, and lives in a body:
The spirit man.
The soul of the man. Each three have unique memory banks.
The body of the man.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
Negative emotions and memories that come to the surface after periods of time, are a sign of spiritual structures and root systems that the Lord wants dealt with, and it’s corresponding thoughts also needing to be cleansed.
Your thought life affects all 3 parts of your being:
Your spirit man is attached to the eternal heavenly realm (when you are born again through Christ.) Your body is grounded to the earthly temporal realm. Your soul processes the information of both realms.
Is your spirit peaceful or troubled? Is your soul at rest, or is it stressed? Is your body in harmony or sick?
Jude 1:2 May mercy, [soul] peace, and love be multiplied to you.
6 Steps to Maintaining a Healthy Thought Life:
1. Recognize:
Recognizing (discerning) the true source of the thoughts will also give you the purpose and intent of it. Thoughts that come to you either come from the source of Light, from our own nature, or from the darkness. Thoughts contrary to the Scriptures, or to the Spirit of the Lord are to be recognized and dealt with accordingly. The Holy Spirit will reveal its source.
Amos 4:13 For behold, He Who forms the mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what is his thought, Who makes the morning darkness and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord, the God of hosts, is His name!
1 Chronicles 28:9 And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father [have personal knowledge of Him, be acquainted with, and understand Him; appreciate, heed, and cherish Him] and serve Him with a blameless heart and a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and minds and understands all the wanderings of the thoughts. If you seek Him [inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him as your first and vital necessity] you will find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever!
Romans 8:6 Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].
2. Grab:
Take the negative thought captive, grab it’s influence within your soul, and acknowledge it’s presence & violation.
Deuteronomy 15:9 Beware lest there be a base thought in your [minds and] hearts, and you say, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and it be sin in you.
2 Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
3. Loose:
Loose it, and it’s effects from your soul: From the mind, from the will, from the emotions, from the memory bank.
Ephesians 2:2 In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God]. 3 Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God’s] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind.
4. Flush:
Flush the fruit of it, the root of it, and the memory of it, with the Blood of Jesus, to purify the soul from it’s effect.
Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Psalms 33:10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nought; He makes the thoughts and plans of the peoples of no effect.
5. Release:
Release the Love of God to fill the soul with Light and Life, and to restore the harmony and balance of the spirit, the soul, and the body. (Our word, thought, and deed)
Deuteronomy 6:25 And it will be accounted as righteousness (conformity to God’s will in word, thought, and action) for us if we are watchful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.
Colossians 3:15 And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always].
6. Replace:
Replace the negative thought that was just removed with scriptures to build a healthy spirit, and stronger soul.
Philippians 4:8 For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]. 9 Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace (of [untroubled, undisturbed well-being) will be with you.
- Susan O’Marra
- 07-30-15
