Healthy Thinking (Part 2)
By Ryan Bridgeo
Avery County
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
We know from these scriptures, that we are supposed to take captive every thought. We know that we have the power to pull down strongholds in our minds. We also know from Romans 12:2, that by doing so, it will bring transformation to our lives. But how do we do that? How do we take captive every thought? How do we make it obedient to Christ? How do we get our minds from one thing and onto another?
A thought, plus an attached emotion equals an attitude. Attitudes influence what we do and say. Once we recognize a thought, or attitude, that is against the truth of God, or the reality of God, we take it, grab it, and we put it in prison. Now it really doesn’t matter where the prison is, but you are moving it out of your thought life. One way to help discover our bad thoughts is by listening to what we say. For out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths will speak.
Our imaginations are immensely powerful. When we see something in our minds, it can trigger the same type of emotions as it would if we saw it happen in real life. For example, a movie can excite us, inspire us, scare us, make us sad, etc. Having a bad dream can cause our hearts to race just like it would if it happened while we were awake. Daydreaming about something negative will cause negative emotions and reactions. These negative daydreaming-type thoughts and others need to be cast down.
Since our imaginations are so powerful, I try and positively use mine. When I have a thought that isn’t from God, like a negative thought, a fearful thought, a perverse thought, a judgmental or critical thought, etc. I first recognize that this is not my thought. It might feel like mine, but it came from the evil one. Kenneth Hagin used to say, “We can’t stop a bird from flying over our heads, but we can stop it from making a nest in our hair.” We need to actively take captive these thoughts.
When these types of thoughts come to me, I close my eyes and use my imagination to picture a crane grabbing that thought and lifting it out of my brain and setting it down inside of a prison. I often use my arm and hand as if it were the crane and go through the motions of grabbing that thought, lifting it up and out, and setting it down in my imaginary prison. I sometimes even make a beep, beep, beep sound like a big crane does when it is moving. This always helps me. You can also imagine that thought disappearing like a puff of smoke after an explosion. You could pretend to dig a hole and bury it. Doing this type of thing helps create triggers in our brain to not allow such thoughts.
Once we remove the thought, we need to introduce a new thought, that agrees with God’s perspective and meditate on that truth. A new thought could be a scripture verse, a creative song, a good memory, or anything Holy Spirit-inspired. If you are not sure what that is, you can ask the Holy Spirit and He will help you. He will not make you change your thoughts, that is your job. But He will help you with new thoughts if you ask Him to.
Another way to quickly remove a negative thought is by singing. Let’s say you have a negative thought or perhaps a negative accusation against a family member or a friend. You know that you should not be thinking this way. But what do you do? Well, you can start singing. I have done this before, and it really helps. One time I was really struggling with thoughts. It felt like I was getting bombarded from every direction with one negative thought after another. I started to sing something like, “I don’t have to think about these things, I can choose to bring an offering.” I made up my own lyrics and worshipped Jesus. The thoughts instantly went away, and my peace was restored.
You see the left side of your brain deals with logic and reasoning, like science and math. While the right side of the brain handles creativity, like art and music. By singing the song, you are taking your thoughts on one side of your brain and focusing on the other, and it brings relief. My wife does this in her kindergarten classroom. When her children are distracted and not paying attention to her instructions, she starts singing the instructions. Before she knew it, the kids were singing the instructions along with her and doing what she asked them to do. This process switched their thoughts from one side of their brains to the other and it helped them follow instructions. This process will help you too.
But this process must be intentional. You must do these things on purpose and for a purpose. The purpose is for a transformed life. So, use your imagination for good. God gave it to you. Think about the things of God and experience His presence and peace. Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” And Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Meditating on the right thoughts and speaking the right things will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success.
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Ryan Bridgeo is the Pastor of Plumtree Church in Avery County, NC. If you would like to know more or how you might become involved in this ministry please reach out to Pastor Ryan at pastor@plumtreechurch.com or call 828-765-6919.
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