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HELEN SANDERS
5-19-2020
CASTING DOWN IMAGINATIONS
All temptations from Satan will start in the mind. He will put a thought there and it may look good on the surface but underlying the good is evil that will bring harm. The thought is not the sin. It becomes sin when we put the thought into action that it becomes sin.
In II Corinthians 10:5 (KJV) it tells us we must be “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” The Amplified Bible makes it even clearer. “We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ.”
The question is, how do we do this?
I want you to picture a fat pregnant sheep full of wool. It can barely walk. It is encumbered from the weight of the wool and the pregnancy. This fat, pregnant, full of wool, sheep is walking and falls down. In this condition, the sheep cannot get up from the ground. The sheer weight of the pregnancy makes it difficult, but the added weight of wool makes it impossible. As the sheep lays there struggling to get up it fights to rise, and a gas builds up in its chest called bilirubin. This gas will kill a sheep if it continues in this position because it will build up and eventually smother the sheep. This position the sheep is in is called “cast”. The only thing that can save this sheep is if the shepherd finds it and uprights it. If the shepherd doesn’t find it and upright it, it is a certain death sentence. It cannot get up on its own.
In applying this principle to our lives, God wants us to take thoughts that enter our mind and deliberately “cast” or throw them down to die on the ground. We must deliberately do this. We have to say “no” to the thoughts and “yes” to the shepherd that wants us to walk uprightly. Once we “cast” these thoughts down, we must choose to not entertain them again, or we will be like that sheep and the thoughts will destroy us. It takes practice to do this, but I can assure you that it works. I have had to do it in my own life, and I know it will work for you.
Once a thought comes in, we then determine if it came from God or came from Satan. Many thoughts seem pleasant to begin with but can bring harm if entertained. Thoughts from God will never entice you to sin. We learn what sin is through reading the Bible. A friend told me that he had once stopped his vehicle on the expressway to take off his jacket. He got out of his car and the traffic was very heavy. A thought came to him, “why not jump in front of a car and see how it feels.” It lingered in his mind for a moment, but then he realized that Satan was trying to kill him. He refused the thought.
This is what you must do too. You can’t entertain any thought that is contrary to God’s Word. Take the ungodly thoughts and throw them down like the sheep in the cast position. But instead of rescuing the thought, (like the sheep) let the thought stay cast down and die. Don’t pick it up. Leave it cast down. I guarantee if you practice this, you will get victory in your thought life and your spiritual walk with God!
GOD BLESS YOU
RUSSELL AND HELEN SANDERS
SPIRIT OF LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL
www.spiritoflifeintl.org
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