Another book, Victory Over Darkness, admonishes us to 'every thought captive to Christ.
At the doorway, the outer perimeter of your essence, should you meet the adversary and take his seductive lures to Christ at the first instance. The longer we ponder how shiny and beautiful, this thing of evil will appear less so to the point of not seeming evil at all.
This is why the more we sin, the easier it gets. We ought not get used to those greased skids.
I like the post! Neil Anderson in his book "Victory Over Darkness" is correct to admonish us to take 'every thought captive to Christ' - but how well do we do it? We don't think we really are doing that, do we? Have we now obtained that level of avoiding sin?
Indeed, Paul wrote that he took every thought captive to Jesus Christ, and that actually goes back to verses in the OT. This bit of information is in fact the main thing to helping us discern good and evil. It is what practicing using your spiritual senses is all about!!
We get thoughts, that is to say we get info put onto our spirits by various spirits. So to figure out what is happening we need to take those thoughts to Jesus Christ, our Lord, and it is written that if you ask for bread He is not going to give you a stone (the Law was on stone), and if for a egg you are not going to get a scorpion - the point being that if we ask God for something good, like an answer to question about where a thought is coming from and an explanation, we are going to hear from the Lord our God Jesus Christ, who also happens to be "The Teacher". It is written that they will all be taught of God - but we have to listen and ask our Teacher questions!!
So the great importance of taking our thoughts captive to Jesus Christ.
2 Co 10:5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and
we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
1 Kings 8:47 if they take thought in the land where they have been taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of those who have taken them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly';
2 Ch 6:37 if they take thought in the land where they are taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have committed iniquity and have acted wickedly';
The Lord wants us to talk to Him about what is going on around us in the heavenly/spiritual realm. Yet we have this flesh on us and don't tend to consider God and the battle that is taking place around us and which is influencing us.
Now there is an interesting thing that happens when you try to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ. You find that the more you try to take every thought to the Lord, the more you find you don't take every thought to the Lord. And thus you find that you are far more a sinner that you could have ever imagined!!!
That explains why we read, "‘We have sinned, we have committed iniquity and have acted wickedly';" at the end of the two verses above!!!
It is why Paul also wrote:
Rom 10:7 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I
would like to
do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
Of course, trying to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ does not make you more of a sinner, but it very much does make you more aware of what a sinner you are!!! And that makes you more aware of how much you need Jesus Christ - thus causing you to seek Him more, but then making you aware of how far you are from doing and saying only what the Lord tells you to do. Thus you become more aware of the mercy and grace the God pours out on you!!
Therefore the one thing you don't go about doing is telling others that you are not a sinner in need of Jesus Christ - because you more aware of your need for Jesus Christ and thus you keep turning back to Him.
Rom 7: 24,25 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
That is how a real Christian, who has spent years talking back and forth with the Lord feels. You feel your tie to sin, you feel your unworthiness, you understand how our Lord Jesus Christ is there for us with His grace and mercy, and you realize that the only logical thing to do is to keep turning back to Him as you can - which is the closes you can get to taking every thought captive to Jesus Christ, but also the awareness that you are far from doing that.
Phil 3:12,13 Not that I have already obtained
it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of
it yet; but one thing
I do: forgetting what
lies behind and reaching forward to what
lies ahead,
Forgetting what lies behind (our sinful nature) but reaching forward to what lies ahead (eternal life with Jesus Christ) - means we keep trying to take thought captive to Jesus Christ, even thought we know we don't do a great job of it. We still strive for it, and thus it is what we want for other too!! Which is why we preach Jesus Christ as the Word of God, meaning that if anyone hears His voice and opens the too to Him (starts taking their thoughts captive to Him) then He will come into them and eat (discuss things) with them and them with Him.
That is what I constantly try to do - turn people to Him, including myself - by taking our thoughts captive to Him and hearing what He has to say about them!
Is 1:8 “Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.
