Everyday we have thousands of thoughts pass through our mind.  But, did you know the thoughts you entertain will steer the direction of your life.  Most people don’t realize the importance of having a pure thought life.  

  1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you wholly. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

  Notice it says, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.  The Lord wants us to live in peace. 

  Philippians 4:7 says, And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

  However, the peace of God and the peace of the world are two different things.  Peace is not the absence of problems but the presence of Christ.   You see where your focus is that is where your faith will be.  God’s peace is His life in you.  God’s peace means no matter what comes your way you will walk through it knowing everything will be alright.  It is hanging onto to:

  Romans 8:28 which says, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

  I like that. It says no matter how bad it may be God is in there working for my good.  That’s why Jesus said I leave you my peace not the world’s peace that is dependant upon circumstances.  God wants to sanctify you and me wholly.  The word sanctify means to separate to and separate from.  The Lord wants to separate us completely from evil and all that pollutes and separate us unto Himself.

  The problem is a house divided against itself cannot stand and if your mind and body are telling you something different from your heart, then your house is divided against itself.  Sooner or later that house is going to fall.  That is why many are taking nerve pills of every shape and color.  But no pill or therapist can help on an external basis if your house is divided against itself. 

  For years, the church has dealt with the issue of the body and to a lesser degree the spirit.  The church can tell you how to get born-again and all the dos and don’ts but there are a multitude of believers that are in constant turmoil because they have not been taught they can control their thought life.  We must watch our thoughts they become words.  We must watch our words they become actions.  We must watch our actions they become our character.  We must watch our character it becomes our destiny.  The bible talks over and over about the thought life. 

  The devil knows the mind is the gateway to the spirit and that is why he wants to control what we think.  The way we think affects the way we feel and the way we feel affects the way we believe.  The mind truly is the battleground.  It is the place the devil puts most of his resources against us.  So many people come to church Sunday after Sunday say and do the right things but they and God know what is really going on inside their mind.  Sooner or later those thoughts we entertain will manifest in our lives.  Can we win this battle for our mind?  Emphatically yes!

  2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 

  There are three important words in this passage of scripture thoughts, imaginations and strongholds. That word stronghold is very interesting.  It really means a fortress.  A fortress is something that holds someone captive.  There are many types of strongholds, fear, lust, envy, sickness.  We don’t just wake up one day and have a stronghold.  It begins like this.  You first have a thought.  Then the thought moves to an imagination.  I call them word pictures in the mind.  Then the imagination moves to the stronghold that holds us captive.  Another way I describe a stronghold is a prison our mind constructs out of lies.   

  2 Timothy 1:7 says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

  The word sound means healthy.  God wants us to have a healthy mind.  We can think good thoughts.  We can think pure thoughts.  You don’t have to think lustful, bitter, hateful thoughts. 

  Philippians 4:13 says, I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

  Over the next few months we will be looking at the mind and how to be set free and how to stay free.  Remember when Jesus died on the cross He set us free from the power of sin but until we reach Heaven we will have to deal with the presence of sin.  That means bad thoughts.  Let me leave you with this to think on.  Just because a thought comes to your mind does not necessarily mean you have sinned.  The question is whose thought is it?