Day 23 of Illumination: Thoughts contrary to our sovereign Lord must be cast down and taken captive

“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,”

‭‭II Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

In the book, Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan, 1678), Christian, the main character, becomes aware that where he is living will eventually be destroyed. In order to escape the wrath of God he sets out to make it to the Celestial City. Sadly, his wife and children make fun of him for wanting to leave their home. He finally decides that he must go, even if it means leaving them:

“In my dream the man began to run. He hadn’t run far from his own door when his wife and children noticed what he was doing and cried out to him. ‘Come back! Come home!’ The man put his fingers in his ears and ran on. ‘Life! Life! Eternal life!’”

Here, Christian is literally running for his life and closes his ears to his family’s calls to stay.

Now, this story is an allegory, but correctly portrays the struggle toward our ultimate goal. The above quote, in describing Christian as putting his fingers in his ears while running on, illustrates what we must do when bombarded with thoughts—whether from within or without—contradicting the imperative of fleeing sin (and the destruction coming with it) and pursuing an eternity with the Lord.

“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭12‬-‭14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

As we journey from this realm to the next, our quest toward spiritual enlightenment will be greatly resisted by the enemy of our soul. One of the things he uses to thwart us is to contradict God’s word. Now, it’s important to understand that these thoughts (contrary to God‘s word), although often coming from outside sources, may also come masquerading as our own thoughts.

In the case where thoughts contrary to the word of God, or contrary to the new life in Jesus Christ, come masquerading as our own thoughts, one of the worst things we can do is to accept the thought as our own and fall into shame or confusion as to how such a thought could have come across our mind.

“And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Remember, the devil even tempted our Lord. But notice, Jesus did not get sidetracked by the temptation, but rather, met it with the word of God. I’ll offer another quote from The Pilgrim’s Progress:

“I focused on the fact that what God says is indeed best. It doesn’t matter if all the men in the world are against it. So seeing that God prefers his religion, seeing that God prefers a tender conscience, seeing that those who make themselves fools for the kingdom of heaven are wisest, and that the poor man who loves Christ is richer than the greatest man in the world who hates him, I turned to Shame and said, ‘Depart, you who are an enemy to my salvation. Should I listen to your words which are contrary to my sovereign Lord?‘”

This is such wonderful advice! In this case the enemy was “Shame.” But where ever words or thoughts come from contrary to our sovereign God, they should be rejected.

In our opening scripture we see that Paul is talking about casting down arguments, and taking every thought contrary to God‘s word, into captivity. Here, he is actually referencing the thoughts and words of other people; but the same applies to contrary thoughts coming from within. They must be taken captive (rendered powerless) by the word of God.

Please remember, as you seek a deeper walk with the Lord so as to know what you need to know, to be able to do what you need to do, you will not avoid the fiery darts of the enemy’s words. And, sometimes, the enemy speaks from within.

We light a twenty-third candle of illumination today by knowing this:

Whether they come from within or without, thoughts contrary to our sovereign Lord must be cast down and taken captive.

#25daysofillumination