"THE TRUTH IS..." Casting Down Imaginations
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh; (For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but (are) mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds); "Casting down imaginations (or arguments), and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge (punish) all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled" (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). Herein we are made aware of a very sneaky enemy - our own thoughts - which determine the strength of our faith – or the lack of it - and our walk of obedience – or disobedience - to Christ. I have heard Christians argue that, "to think a thing is not a sin, rather, if you resist the thought you have overcome the temptation without sinning.” I believe this is true if we kick the thought out of our head immediately and do not consider it, or if we rebuke it immediately with the Word of God. The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is a good example of this. Although He was a man who had just finished a 40-day fast, and though He was thirsty, hungry, weary and weak, He did not give in to the temptations Satan brought to Him. It was the warfare against this devil with the Word of God, and the authority of the righteousness in Christ Jesus, that won the battle in the earth and in the heavens for that day. When Satan fled, defeated, angels came and ministered to Our Lord with food and drink, great joy and restored strength for the long walk home. The next day He went to a wedding in Cana where He feasted and danced and had a great time with His friends. On that day His ministry was born when He turned the water into wine. And to think, just the day before, he had a choice – entertain the temptation to turn the rocks into bread or suffer the hunger one more day for the Glory of God. I have heard good preachers and excellent teachers say that Satan sends thoughts into our heads as well and that, if he is behind the thought, we are not guilty of the lust or envy that he urges upon us unless we give in to it. I can agree with that. So what we have to do – after we have repented of every mean and accusing thought and cleansed our minds with the blood of Jesus – is to ask the Holy Spirit to put a guard over our minds and our hearts. We all know we are observed continually by a great cloud of witnesses, by the Holy Spirit and by angels who record every thought and word of every man woman and child for the records that are kept in Heavenly places. One day, the books will be opened, the records will be reviewed, and we will be judged by what is written there. If we have been redeemed and born again, the old sins of the old nature will not be in the records, they have been forgiven, erased and are forgotten. But what we have done for Christ – or against Christ – since we were redeemed – will be evidence for or against us for eternity. It is of the Word that when one of us suffers, the whole body suffers. When one of us carries a stain, the wedding dress Is sorely soiled. And Christ cannot allow a stain to soil His Bride. He will remove the spot, the stain and the wrinkle that threatens to ruin His Wedding Day, and He will remove them before the Bride enters her chamber... Let us remember… We are created in the image of God who is the triune Spirit, Soul (mind) and Body, with a free will to make choices! He showed His frame to Moses and the scriptures tell us he has arms, legs, feet, a face with eyes, ears, a mouth that speaks with the thunder of His power, and the white hair of His Glory. He wears the regal robes of finest linen, a crown of purest gold, and His rod and His staff comfort the weary. He can sit, stand, walk, talk and hear our faintest thought or prayer. Because He created you and me as triune beings, each of us with a free will, we cannot say we were forced or unwillingly indoctrinated into any ideology. We cannot say we were tempted above measure, we cannot say we had little or no choice, we cannot say we were taken captive and lied to. We can only confess we have always had a choice and that we will always choose of our own free will. We have the Holy Scriptures available in this country - it has always been so. There is no excuse for anyone who refuses or does not take the time to search out the truth and follow the truth-giver. I speak of the truth-giver who is the Word of God made flesh. They that seek will find, and great will be the treasure of their find. They that trust to every wind of doctrine that blows across their mind, specifically those that listen to the warm fuzzy assurances of the Laodicean lukewarm and compromising preachers, and especially the twisted promises of the prosperity preachers, are wading into deep abominations that are the curse of the uninformed. God says, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." His knowledge is a saving knowledge and it can only be found in His Holy Bible - and no where else - in no other book - in no other ideology framed by men - and certainly in no religion framed by man. Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is a living faith. It is a belief in, and commitment to, Jesus Christ. There is nothing religious about it. Only the uninformed (the Biblical illiterate) and the unbelieving (those with closed minds and hearts) call it a religion. Let them alone – they bring the shame of a self-inflicted ignorance upon their own heads… Our Father gave us His Word and that Word came to us in the flesh. In His holiness and in His compassion, He dwelled among us and gave His all for us, for our undeserved redemption and our eternal resurrection. He gave it all, nothing withheld, and He gave it out of the purest love that ever moved among men. “Well,” you say, “but He was God…” “Are you sure?” “Yes – He was God.” Yes, He was, and He is, and He always will be God, the Creator of Heaven and earth and the seas and all that are within them, even you and me. And we are His, made from the beginning in His image, born again of His Spirit, made again in the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus. So - let's get to the root of these weapons Paul talks about and determine how they operate in our Christian life. To begin with, the weapons of our warfare are stored in the mind where our thoughts are born and either dismissed or cultivated. Of course, you would be remiss if you did not remind me that the eyes often "see" the images first and sends the thought to the mind. And you are right in saying so. However, this will not make much of an argument to the blind man who has no eyes to see with. In his case, he will rely on the images born of his imagination - or memory - depending on the circumstances of his affliction. Sometimes the eye does not need to see a thing - sometimes memory is the agent that brings a thought to the mind, be it a memory of guilt, a memory of shame, a memory of lust, a memory of special love or a memory of a deep hurt we just never managed to swim through. The mind catalogs and registers the thought and transmits it immediately to the heart where it is nourished by proper or improper emotions. Once the heart receives the image - and the accompanying negative or positive emotion, the mouth opens to whisper the moment, which is recorded by our spirit that lives forever. And it all happens in the flash of a nanosecond… It brings the remembrance of a special blessing or it brings another stain to the heart and to the spirit that can only be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. You see, one cannot engage in warfare with the enemy if he has muddy thoughts - because - muddy thoughts contaminate the eyes, the heart, the spirit and the walk of obedience to Jesus, which In the long run afflicts the flesh. Paul is telling us to cleanse and discipline our minds that we may rise to our authority that is above the wickedness we fight against. And that we may gain the fullness of the mind of Christ. If we say we have the mind of Christ, if we say our mind mirrors His mind, we need to act like it, talk like it, walk like it and fight the devil like it. What he is telling us is that it is what is in our mind (our thoughts) that determines whether or not we effectively pull down the strongholds that war against us. First we need to know the Word. It has to be registered in our memory and it needs to be written on our hearts. And it must not be entangled with the thoughts of the world wherein we become frustrated and are hindered from our task. A mixture will not do. It has to be pure faith, a living faith in Christ Jesus that moves us in the confidence of our righteousness and right standing, in the confidence of His Word and the Almightiness of His Spirit, to boldly confront the enemy and destroy his works. And what is the secret according to Paul? “…bringing into captivity EVERY thought to the obedience of Christ…being ready at all times to punish all disobedience with the obedience that is now – finally - fulfilled in Christ.” In other words, our learned and willing obedience will be in a position to punish and banish any disobedience that may knock at the doors of our flesh. When we are judged at the judgment seat of Christ, just after the rapture, it will be a judgment upon the works we have done. It will not affect our salvation, for if we were not already saved, we would not have been raptured from the earth. Rather our works will be tried by fire to see what rewards we may have coming to us. All dross and works of pride will be burned to ashes and only those things that were done for Christ alone will remain. The things that remain will bring rewards to the faithful but, unfortunately, many saints will lose their rewards if they have sought to gain the approval of men rather than God. Jesus tells us what to do – feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give water to the thirsty, visit the sick and those in prison, and share the gospel with the lost. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (child of Adam). He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned (condemned)” (Mark 16:16). After this judgment, Jesus will take the scroll from the hand of the Father and begin to break the seals, and the Tribulation on this earth will begin. In the meantime, while we anticipate that day, let us be about our Father’s business in the diligence of the discipline of our thoughts and the cleansing of our hearts and minds to the obedience of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In such a world as we live in today, this will not be an easy task, but if we commit our efforts to Christ alone, and not unto family or friends, not to the church or even to our own satisfaction, if we are diligent and sincere, we can walk in this world as Jesus walked, cleansed and free of this world’s contamination, and free to follow Christ “wheresoever He goeth…” Joan Krempel
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