Captivated Thoughts
In this Article we will look at an interesting point that we so often gloss and pass over, and we will look at this wonderful verse in Scripture. This one is found in 2 Corinthians 10:5 “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;”
Thoughts can be “Captivating,” as well as “Captivated.” In the first word, our thoughts are controlling and manipulating us, where as in the second word it usually refers to our mind taking the control back and taking the thought “Captive” or a Prisoner. Well it is a sort of who controls who situation. If you take it in the mind of the original writer and hearers, we get something very powerful, and they often saw it and very regularly, a line of Prisoners captured, shackled and chained together and being marched off down the road. These can be criminals, or just Foreigners/Enemies, who have been conquered or captured and are being re-located as forced labour, or they could easily be Artisans, Craftsman, Educators, who are captured and are going to up skill the conquerors.
Daniel and his friends were in this group, Babylon captured Israel, so Babylon went for all the craftsman and to the University and hauled them all back to their domain so that they could learn from them and to train them with their methods to make them even better scholars and craftsman, thus the victors would have better machinery, Jewellery, Arts, Crafts, Weapons and Technology, so that they could be much smarter, better and harder to be defeated by anybody else looking over their way.
We get this concept from Ephesians 4:8 “Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” This is a quote from Psalms 68:18, and we get the idea that what was once ruling (sin); is now enslaved. Our thoughts that used to control and dictate, have now been enslaved under the wonderful power of Jesus Christ and the infilling Holy Spirit, so sin and death are now chained and in shackles. There has been a war and the sin ruler has been dethroned and along with his supporters imprisoned, so God is now the victor and ruler.
The Apostle Paul writes eloquently on this subject in Romans 7:23-25 “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Paul knew things were very wrong, what he wanted to do, he just didn’t seem to do, and what he had no interest in doing, well he was actually doing that all the time (Romans 7:23-24), so he was in essence crying out to God for an Army of Holiness to come and invade his territory, to conquer the usurper, to release him from this predicament, (sin), and to drag sin off the ruling position and to replace it with a new ruler, Jesus Christ.
Paul knew what the source of sin was (his sinful flesh) and he knew that the best way to defeat it is with Scripture/The Word of God/Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
When Jesus Christ was confronted with a situation/temptation, he often responded with this phrase, “It is Written,” or “how readest thou?” which turned the tables and made the enquirer quote the Scripture. We have this admonition in 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Or Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.” Or James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” We each have a choice to make.
Here is an interesting quote; “The apostle sought to teach the believers how important it is to keep the mind from wandering to forbidden themes or from spending its energies on trifling subjects. Those who would not fall a prey to Satan’s devices, must guard well the avenues of the soul; they must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing that which will suggest impure thoughts. The mind must not be left to dwell at random upon every subject that the enemy of souls may suggest. The heart must be faithfully sentineled, or evils without will awaken evils within, and the soul will wander in darkness. “Gird up the loins of your mind,” Peter wrote, “be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; . . . not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” {AA 518}
Dear Reader; let each one of us resolve from now on to be proactive and to immediately take the control back and to conquer and then to imprison all that is not Holy and of God, be Spirit Lead, and fast to react against the evils stirring from within our flesh, so let us be Spirit Filled and Spirit Led, now and for always.
