Have you ever had someone accuse you of something that was not true? Have you ever accused yourself of something that was not true?
Either way, whether from you or another, any false argument launched against you can turn into a stronghold in your mind that will spiritually debilitate you.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
We all are susceptible to false arguments that control our minds.
There are recurring thought patterns, if left unchecked, will become the dominating argument of a person’s mind, to the point where they become what the argument says they are.
An Example: Madison
Madison was such a person. She was bound by fear. Some call it insecurity, which is a fair term. She was an insecure young woman who was preoccupied by the arguments that swirled around in her head.
The controlling opinion of man was a stronghold that seemingly could not be broken. Even though she knew God’s opinion of her, as understood through the Gospel, should be the dominating opinion of her mind, it was not.
She had learned early in life that performing for others was the way to be accepted. Her daddy taught her this by his passive parenting model and in the brief moments when he did say something, it was generally discouraging.
This helped to shape her as a people-pleaser. She was motivated to not disappoint others and incur their displeasure. She became all things to all people with the hope of being accepted.
In time, she became what others expected her to be. Though her early years with Christ were met with excitement, eventually the old argument came back. The stronghold was never broken.
She never learned how to take every thought captive. She learned how to be saved, which she was, but she never learned how to grow into a new creation. Her former manner of life, which was corrupt through her deceptive desires to be liked, still had control of her mind.
To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. (Ephesians 4:22-23)
She was still living the way she always lived and had not learned how to renew her mind according to true right living and true holiness. She was what I call an unbelieving believer–a Christian who still lives according to an un-Christian quality of life.
And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:24)
It’s a spiritual warfare.
Madison was in a warfare of the mind. It was her mind that was under attack. According to Paul, this was more than just a human, living in a human body, being attacked by the negativity of other humans.
Though that was true, it was more than that. We live in a spiritual world where there are real demonic forces who are out to destroy the knowledge of Christ that resides in us.
The evil spiritual world cannot utterly destroy us because Satan is not God’s evil equal. But there are demonic forces who would enjoy nothing more than to derail a child of God from making God’s name great in this world.
Paul called this a spiritual warfare in this passage. He tended to view his Christian life as a life of spiritual warfare. Knowing where the main battle comes from is huge when you go to war.
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. (2 Corinthians 10:3)
Do you know you are in spiritual warfare? Do you know there is a relentless spiritual battle happening in this world and you’re part of it? You’re not a sideline reporter, but an active participant.
And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. (Job 1:12)
What Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 10 is not new. Spiritual warfare has been going on since Adam and Eve took their first bite of disobedience. The Devil tried to knock them off and he succeeded to a degree. He and his are trying to circumvent the work of God in your life too.
Do you know you have weapons to fight these spiritual battles—weapons that are divinely empowered? Do you know these weapons are designed with the power to destroy the strongholds in your mind?
Madison did not know this. One of the tricks of the evil ones is to disorient and deceive you. This is what Satan did to Eve. This is what was happening to Madison. She had bought the lie.
She believed there was something wrong with her. Owning her faith and living as a new creation in Christ were nice theological words that had no effect on her life. She was so wrapped up in her own fear, she did not know how to live in the freedom and good of God’s Gospel.
What is a stronghold?
The forces that are against you in the spirit world are no different than the forces that are against you in the physical world, in that they both desire the same thing—to take your mind captive.
The real question is how are you going to respond and fight against the forces that are against you, regardless of what the forces are. You have the power resident within you to fight against the strongholds that seek to take your mind captive.
These weapons of warfare are the divinely empowered truths of the Gospel. The real deal for you is whether you will use these weapons to destroy the strongholds—arguments and arrogant opinions raised up against God as revealed in Christ.
A stronghold is an argument you believe that contradicts the person and power of Christ. A stronghold is a thought fortress of arguments that take you captive and hold you as a prisoner. These fortresses are designed to negate the person of Christ and His power (the Gospel) in your life.
Madison had bought the lie of insecurity or fear of man (Proverbs 29:25). Her fear ensnared her to a life of bondage, as manifested through people-pleasing, peer-pressure, and worry and anxiety about what others thought about her.
She was overly focused about nearly everything regarding herself. She second-guessed her thoughts, questions, and comments. She doubted her choices and actions. She anxiously controlled how she looked in public and what she wore.
Satanic forces could not destroy her soul, but they could influence her mind until her usefulness in making God’s name great was marginalized. Taking every evil argument captive and making it bow to the name of Jesus was an illusionary theological pipe dream.
What sinful thought fortresses are in your head?
God is truth and His purpose for coming to this world was to transform us so we could walk in His truth. The Devil’s job is to disrupt the truth God provides and motivate us to believe a lie. He hopes to set up deceitful strongholds in our minds.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 4)
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. (John 16:13)
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17)
What lies keep the Gospel from dominating your thought life? What strongholds have been setup in your mind, that hinder the sanctifying work of God in your life? What sinful thought fortresses reside in your head?
- Lies you tell yourself: I have to be perfect. I must be happy. I need people to agree with me. I can’t shake my past. I deserve better than this.
- Lies the world tells you: You must be true to yourself. You are number one. I’m only human; everybody does this.
- Lies you say in your marriage: It’s your fault. If I had not married you… You make me so mad. Why can’t you be like so and so? I wish I was like so and so.
- Lies that distort the Gospel: I must earn God’s love. God won’t protect me. God does not love me. I can do what I want and God will forgive me. If I were more spiritual I would not struggle like this. God will only bless me if I obey.
- Lies from the questions we ask: Does God really hear me? Does God really love me? Has God abandoned me? Why does God not stop the pain?
When these types of thought-fortress-lies continue to roll around in your head, they will take your mind captive and will move you out of line with the Gospel. This will ultimately reduce Jesus to become less than what He should be and the Spirit’s power in your life will be reduced to less than what it can be.
Fighting the fight with God’s truth
It is essential you arm yourself with God’s truth to overcome. You cannot arm yourself with fleshly weapons. If you do, you may feel as though you have won the battle, but you have not. Or, you will win a particular battle, but lose the ultimate war for your mind.
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Fleshly weapons come from your own strength. Here are a few that are commonly used to fight some of the lies listed above: adultery, porn, alcohol, anger, medication, compulsive shopping, unforgiveness, bitterness, and gossip.
There are plenty more. Anything that is sinful is a fleshly weapon enlisted to fight a spiritual battle. None of them will work. They will further enslave you while creating more dysfunction in your relationships.
Spiritual warfare looks different. Spiritual warfare is contextualized in the Gospel. The Gospel is the person and the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf. He is the one you need for this battle.
I’m going to take each lie noted above and run it through a Gospel filter. I’m going to lay the Gospel hammer on it, to crush its head (Genesis 3:15).
1. Lies you tell yourself–I have to be perfect.
You do not have to be perfect. In fact, if you try to be perfect, you are rejecting the righteousness of Christ, choosing to hold up your own righteousness as the answer. Not accepting Christ’s righteousness is another Gospel—your own gospel of self-atonement. Not admitting the truth of your imperfection makes you a liar (1 John 1:8).
2. Lies the world tells you–You must be true to yourself.
You must be true to Christ. He is the one you live for, not for yourself. Living for yourself is the lie of the world, a self-centered, anti-Christ way of thinking. You are to die to yourself and fully trust another who knows better than you do.
3. Lies you say in your marriage–It’s your fault/I deserve better.
You will never be happy if things always go your way. You will implode through your continual imbibing of self-centeredness. You’re called to be content as you learn how to be sufficient through Christ rather than your fleshly desires (Philippians 4:11-13).
4. Lies that distort the Gospel–I must earn God’s love/God won’t protect me.
Jesus Christ died for you on the cross. He, who was in the form of God, took on the form of a servant to rescue you. There is no greater love than a man who will lay down his life for another. (Read Philippians 2:5-11; Romans 5:6-9; John 15:13)
5. Lies from the questions we ask–Does God really hear me?
The answer is similar to what you just read in #4, plus a true understanding of a theology of suffering. We are called to suffer, but if you equate suffering to God distancing Himself from you, then you don’t understand God the way you should (1 Peter 2:18-25).
Madison’s battles were not primarily against the people in her world. Sure, her daddy did her a raw deal. She’s had some other bad things happen to her–caused by others.
Her battles go much deeper than what has been done to her by other humans. She is in a spiritual battle with the evil influences in this evil world. When Satan tempted Christ there would not have been a temptation if Satan could not have come through with what he was offering.
The way we are tempted is when our desires are influenced by Satan and the temptation is real because he can give us our evil desires. This is John’s definition of worldliness in 1 John 2:15-16. It’s our desires that are influenced by evil forces to love things in this world.
When your desires cooperate with evil influences, you can rest assured a stronghold will be setup in your mind. When those lies take your brain captive, then your body will follow suit.
When most of your life is immersed in the things of this world and its influences, then you will be influenced, controlled, and captured by the things of this world–and that warfare will be in your mind.
A Gospel-informed mind can easily take renegade thoughts captive to obey Christ. Take the battle in you seriously because your enemy takes it seriously. We should be influenced by the Spirit to desire the things of God. (These are my sermon notes, put in narrative format. You can listen to my pastor’s sermon here, preached 06.03.12. It’s a good one.)
Photo credit: jetheriot
This article also appears on RickThomas.net: “How to take every thought captive.”
this real good trusting God to help me thanks
This is an excellent article and I much appreciate it. I have a question though and perhaps I missed it in the reading. I know we are to take our thoughts captive to Christ, but exactly, how do you do this. I read Scripture and am memorizing and reciting God’s Word back to myself. When i come up against thinking, thoughts or behavior and realize things are off, how do you actually take them captive. I sometimes mentally picture collecting them (my way to capture) in a garbage bag and dumping them at the foot of the cross.When I notice my brain spinning off, I pray, and come against them with the Truth of God’s Word. Beyond that, not sure where to go on the taking my thoughts captive and making them obedient to Christ. I somehow feel I am missing something sometimes as I continue to struggle so often. I am gaining ground again. Agh! In part, I think I know what I need to do to gain victory in a certain area of my life. It requires me to stop running and turn to face it head on. Stand firm when all I want to do is run and avoid. Sigh! Enough said.
Hey there. I think the methods you’re describing are really good! It takes a long time to change your mind, and you have to keep doing the right things over and over over.
Some people find that journaling 20 minutes each day is also helpful, as you allow yourself to put the thoughts down and then you can tell yourself throughout the day, I already dealt with this.
I think it sometimes can help to PHYSICALLY do what you’re mentally doing right now. You could try to write the thoughts down, then take the papers away and burn them.
You might also find that exercise can be helpful, or hobbies that engage your mind in other ways–puzzles, games, photography, drawing, reading, etc.
Having said that, sometimes we do have chemical processes that interfere with thought-stopping. Anxiety disorders–like obsessive-compulsive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder–can include intrusive thoughts that you just can’t get rid of, no matter how hard you try. If you think that you’re experiencing something like this, especially if your thoughts are troubling you a lot and you find yourself having difficulty functioning as a result of the intrusive thoughts, then it’s time to talk to a doctor about medical interventions.
Blessings, Kay
Lauriebeee – exactly what I struggle with. How DO you do this? I also struggle with ‘giving it to jesus’. What does that mean? HOW do you give a problem to jesus? What does that look like practically?
What a great question!!! Yes! We so often quote those Bible words “take every thought captive”–and then…. How do you DO it in practical terms?
The problem is, most of us have been pretty well trained to ignore what we think! For example. We “know” the Bible says that God loves us, so we just parrot that in our heads–BUT, we may not actually experience that truth in our hearts. And, if that doubt ever comes up, we shove it away with all kinds of rationalizations and spiritualizations and busy-ness and denial, so that we don’t have to actually deal with what we actually believe. We don’t take our thoughts captive–we just shove them away.
I think the way you can tell if you’re living with a lot of lies is a lack of peace in your own life. You’ll have lots of anxiety and striving and need for approval. You’ll struggle with bad habits and you’ll obsess about those bad habits and feel a lot of shame about them. You’ll have turmoil in your close relationships, or just a lack of closeness. You’ll be worried about whether people like you enough. You’ll need to do a bunch of STUFF all the time to keep the lid from flying off Pandora’s Box and wrecking your life.
So. I think you have to stop being in control of all that, and let your life be wrecked if need be.
Practically speaking, I’d go to a group like Celebrate Recovery, where people are all about giving up control and letting Jesus take the wheel. Then you’d open your mouth and tell the truth about the struggles you’re having, and let people love and care about you even when you aren’t perfect. Because that’s what Jesus does, and He’s left us here with the Body of Christ so we can experience love together.
And then you see what happens next. Lots of times, redemption.
And I’d read some books by Brennan Manning and Henri Nouwen, and maybe even Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies.
Let me know what you think! Kay
God bless you! Thank you! These are the exact same lies I tell myself about my marriage. Begone, unbelief!
Thank you Rick for the reminder that we are wrestling against pricipalities and powers that wage war in our minds. Jesus has put theses powers under His feet! praise God. Our job is to take our thoughts captive and stand on God’s promises. I could really relate to Madison and her need to please others, it’s a struggle sometimes. Your article came at the perfect time as I recognised that the thoughts I had in my mind (after I had an argument with my husband) were quite negative and lies of the enemy such as “he doesn’t respect you….” I had to stop and ask the Holy Spirit to guide me in God’s truth. I came across your article at this time. You are a blessing Rick! Keep up the great work!
Thank you for your post. It’s a great encouragement for me today. I will keep standing on God’s holy and living word until I see the light of the new day dawning. Thank you and blessings to you.
This is wonderful information. I work as a counselor and help people with thoughts like these all day. However, as someone who has struggled with depression, anxiety and people-pleasing, I have to be vigilant about these thoughts recurring in my own mind. I have to renew my mind daily as well. Praise God for His word and His grace!
Yes. This advice is so important for those who battle anxiety and depression.
I have a believe that this was not written by you but the spirit of God does. this look like light in the darkness. Great tool to win the battle.
I was diagnosed with schizophrenia a while ago. I sometimes hear voices. I sometimes think God is distant too but but I sometimes quote scripture and talk about the bible to some peoples annoyance.
I believe people can be saved from their problems.