Who is Taking Your Mind Captive?

Unlike the animal kingdom we have an amazing capacity to formulate complex thoughts, to remember minute details, and multi-task with tremendous accuracy while speaking, listening, and formulating our next thought. Our minds are the most astonishing gift from our Creator setting us apart from the rest of His creation. History proves that some of our greatest thinkers have separated themselves from the milieu of fruitless thinking and conversation that the masses are captive to. From the scribes of ancient Israel to the great philosophers in every Century they have held their followers captive. In today’s world, we have a new medium, no doubt designed by Satan himself, to hold the entire population’s thoughts captive to him. Each medium is saying come over here and follow me, from the professors of higher education to the news media, to Hollywood’s avalanche of movies, and to the algorithm of Social Media. We will examine how each of these mediums are holding your mind captive and how Jesus Christ’s call to follow Him exclusively will set you free to explore the endless possibilities of what your mind is capable of and the great joy of participating in His Kingdom work.

To truly follow Christ, not only needs our total submission to His will but our every thought must be taken captive to obey Christ. The Bible says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5). For most in today’s world, even for those who call upon the Name of Christ, this would be a most difficult task. “Every thought?” Yes, every thought. Look into any translation or the original language and it means the same. So, Christ must control our thoughts to obey His will or we will be left to the many devices in the world allowing Satan to control our thoughts to obey his will. When we submit to the will of Christ then the indwelling Spirit will lead us in all our thoughts. These beautiful thoughts will open our minds to the glory of God and His eternal Kingdom, to see things with our spiritual eyes that we never thought possible and to think His thoughts after Him in fulfilling His work on earth as it is in Heaven. Now, let’s look at how Satan is controlling the thoughts of the world’s population to obey him through many different mediums, then we will return to how Christ wants to control our every thought so that we will think His thoughts after Him.

Let me stress, that once the many mediums in the world control your thoughts, then in time, it will control your actions and your behavior. Cannot we already see this? Look at the teachings of psychiatry, for example, that began many years ago with some of the world’s great thinkers in Germany and then America. Now, this thinking has taken hold on almost every human mind in the world. Some have grown so accustomed to this thinking that it has possessed nearly every thought about their pitiful lives to explain their every emotional and psychological problem. Another example is how the News Media along with the algorithm on Social Media has captured the minds of so many in our day. Let’s be very clear that Satan wants every moment of your day. It’s rather ingenious how he takes your mind captive. He does this by tracking your interest from previous searches on the internet, posts on Social Media, or purchases from online stores, as long as those interests are not in God alone. Both the news sites and the social media do this to keep you online or continually coming back for their tailored information just for you. Satan doesn’t care if you buy their products, he cares more that he has captured your mind, your time, and is leading you further away from God. As long as he holds your mind captive to world events, politics, or spending money that you don’t have he doesn’t even mind throwing in an occasional Bible verse or spiritual song to keep you hooked. Doing so will give you the illusion that you are giving God some of your time. We must remember what God said, that He is a Jealous God and is quite unwilling to share His time with anyone or anything (See Exodus 20:5).

Another example of how Satan is holding the fallen world’s mind captive is the professors of higher education and the avalanche of movies coming out of Hollywood. The reason I lump these two together is that they both are teachers. They both hold the fallen world’s mind captive to teach them many things that are opposed to the knowledge of God’s truth. One teaches in the form of entertainment while the other one teaches to bolster your pride in obtaining a time-honored degree and promise of a higher paying job. How much people are having their mind-controlled can be observed at the number of times they can quote the talking points from a favorite professor or to the number of quotes they easily verbalize from their latest movies. Not only are they being taught lies that will affect their behavior and their belief system, but just think about the amount of time that they have freely given allowing their minds to be controlled. Although we have only briefly touched on a small number of mediums that are attempting to control your every thought, believe me, there are many more from sports enthusiasts, to paramilitary groups and everything in between to consume your time and control your every thought.

On the other hand, we as believers should allow Christ to control our every thought by thinking His thoughts after Him. So, how do we do this and more importantly why would we? Let’s answer the second part of the question first, why should we? The first part of the answer is that God created us and has re-created us in Christ Jesus to have a beautiful dynamic relationship with Him. The second part of the answer is to reject this relationship will expose you to the horror of a fallen world run by Satan and his demonic host. The Bible says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8). So, now we come to the part of how we allow Christ to control our every thought. We do this by learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit (See my Article or video entitled: “How to Follow the Holy Spirit”). We do this by reading His anointed Word allowing the indwelling Spirit to guide us. We do this by listening to more mature believers that can point the way. Finally, we think Christ’s thoughts after Him by giving Him all our time. This is most difficult when the world is already controlling so much of your time, but when we do, it will open up a whole new horizon of possibilities.

In time, you will learn to ask the indwelling Spirit about everything we read, everything we see, and everything we hear, is God in this? So much in the world is dark and dreary filled with violence, hate, and are disgustingly immoral. After a while, you won’t need to ask, you will just know and quickly move away from those mediums that are attempting to control your every thought. After a while, you will find yourself spending more and more time listening to the voice of God, so you can think His thoughts after Him. You will think beautiful and peaceful thoughts about serving others in the Kingdom. You will think thoughts that will glorify God where you will be led to express them in your writing, in your speaking, in your prayers, in your paintings, and your music. Every thought will glorify God. You will soon discover that everything you do will be in service to others to the glory of God. You will learn to live your life as if the Kingdom has already come. The Lord’s Prayer that says we should pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). This prayer will take on a whole new meaning. Oh, what joy it is to live every moment of every day for Christ allowing Him alone to take our every thought captive. Dear children, let me conclude by quoting the Bible that says, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). Amen

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