From Guest Speaker
by Daniel Blash on August 02, 2015
Scripture documents the story of the Prodigal son in Luke 15:11–24. After the son had gone away from home and squandered his living, he found himself among the swine. We’re told that he “…came to himself, [and] said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father…” (Luke 15:17, KJV).
Minding the Battleground
God has given us a place in His family. When we mess up and fall short of what God has asked, we have a hard time accepting the truth that God loves us and will forgive us. Just like the story of the Prodigal son, God has His arms open—ready to welcome us home when we turn back to Him.
When we struggle to believe God’s truth, this is a struggle that happens in our minds. The devil will use our minds as the battleground to lead us away from our calling in God. We need to fight through his lies and our own doubt, and believe in the report of the Lord (Isaiah 53:1)!
Changing Our Minds
When we make up our mind to live for God, we will soon realize a change is not only needed in what we do, but also in the way that we think. The average person has 50,000 thoughts that run through his/her mind on a daily basis, and 35,000–40,000 of those thoughts are negative. God has called us to think on the good things (Philippians 4:8) because what we think about is who we are (Proverbs 23:7)! We need to adjust our thoughts put on the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16).
Surrendering Our Minds
It’s easier to surrender our actions to God because our actions are visible to the church body. No one, but God, knows what’s going on in our mind. Therefore, it’s much harder for us to surrender over our thoughts and our emotions to the Lord.
When something bad has happened to us, it’s easy to think that we’re justified in thinking poorly about the person who did us harm. But, God tells us that we are to love our brothers and sisters and to forgive them! If we lend ourselves over to these negative thoughts—and allow the devil to do a work in us—before long, the devil will have rule over our behavior. If we want to have positive thoughts, we need to put good thoughts in our minds—this can be found in reading the Word of God, in prayer, and in fellowship with the church.
Changing Our Emotions
Scripture tells us that we are not to have the spirit of fear, but of peace, love, and a sound mind (II Timothy 1:7). When God’s presence comes in, He has dominion over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). But, when the things of life trouble us and cause us to be afraid, when God’s presence comes in, we won’t allow the fear go away. We hold onto the fear! When the Spirit of God’s presence shows up—with all power and might—our emotions should change. We don’t want to ever leave the same way we came when we’ve had an encounter with God!
Choosing Revival & Renewing
Instead of hanging on to the negative thoughts, we need to let them go. We can either choose to have revenge or to have revival in our life, but we can’t have them both. If we choose to hold on to the negative things, it will eventually cost us something. Let’s give our minds, our hearts, and ourselves over to Christ today. Once we let go of the negative thoughts, we can have peace, joy, and victory in the Holy Ghost!
