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Soul Dance (excerpt): Redirecting Your Thoughts

by Tonja Taylor  
10/07/2022 / Christian Living

The LORD tells us to set our minds on things above, and He means it. 

Sometimes (and He knows this), it's easier said than done!

However, the struggle is worth it. Ask me how I know!

Anyway, let's go back to the Garden of Eden. God's Plan was for man to never experience evil, but only good. 

Enter the deceiver, the devil, disguised as a serpent (which, as several ministers have stated, obviously must have talked then, as most likely did all the animals, so Eve would not have thought it odd that a snake was talking to her--and in such a smooth, sickeningly persuasive way), who tricked Eve into doing the one thing God said not to do. Then, Adam chose to do what Eve did. 

However, you and I would have probably done the same thing. As much as we want to--and as I did for decades--we can't judge. 

The LORD commands us to think on good things--which is for us, not Him!--and we want to obey the LORD. When we are born again by faith in the shed blood of Jesus on the cross (John 3:14-17), then God is our Father Who adopted us on purpose to pour His lavish love upon us! Halellujah!

He is the best Father, and of course He wants us to be happy as we love Him back, and serve Him. (We serve Him because we love Him, not to earn His affection!)

The problem is that every human is born with the sin nature, and until we truly believe in Christ Jesus as our Savior and LORD, we do not really have the power to overcome these negatives! The devil loves to create "wrongholds" of offense and anger and strife and bitterness and unforgiveness and impurity, and whatever other mess he can--and if we don't know that he is the author of all lies and murderous thoughts and actions and strife and fear and every other wrong, anti-Christ thing, then we think it's God doing it to us, or that it's just us or whatever!

Wrong!

Even as true Believers, we can still have these "wrongholds" in our lives. When we do have Jesus living in our hearts as the Holy Spirit, He alerts us to these wrong things. We can feel condemned (which is never from God; He convicts, but Jesus broke the power of condemnation off our lives at the cross over 2,000 years ago, when we were pronounced righteous by our faith in the blood of Jesus on the cross (ONLY by our faith in the blood--and God gives us the faith, and Jesus gives us the blood! We can do nothing and are nothing and have nothing without God and His goodness!), because we want to please God and live and act and speak and think right, but when there are wrongholds, they can trip us up. 

Instead of acting like God (Who is love, peace, joy, and all the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), plus every other good thing!), we can act like the devil. 

The LORD tells us to take every thought captive that exalts itself against God. That means refuse to keep thinking about any thought not from God.

So how do you know the difference? You must know the Word of God. 

None of us know it all. It is an eternal learning process. However, the more of God's Word (which is His will, His way) we know, and the more we apply it to our lives, the more victorious we are. 

This often involves repentance--asking God to forgive us for thinking, speaking, acting, planning wrongly. We ask Him to forgive us, and to cleanse our hearts (Jehovah Mekkadishkem is the LORD Who cleanses and sanctifies us, Who helps us to desire to be holy and live holy; to discern rightly between the clean and the unclean, the holy and the profane, and to choose the clean (life) and the holy! Ezekiel 44:23) and help us desire to do right, and to follow His ways, and learn more of them. 

He always answers these prayers, for they are in His perfect will (I John 5:14-15)! 

We repent, then we take true action to change what we need to change to operate as God would.

Sometimes it can take a while to truly forgive and forget the past. We can ask the LORD to help His love and respect for others rise up in us, and to truly forget the past. 

Most of the time, when we are hurt by others, it is because we expect them to act or speak a certain way, and they are not trying to hurt us. We must quickly realize this, and release our expectations and opinions (judgments) of others to the LORD. Our hope and expectation come from Him alone!

5 Therefore, since we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

² Through Him also we have [our] access (entrance, introduction) by faith into this grace (state of God’s favor) in which we [firmly and safely] stand. And let us rejoice and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the glory of God.

³ Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and  rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.

⁴ And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation.

⁵ Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.--Romans 5:1-5, AMPC

HALLELUJAH!!

 

 

Through books, courses, presentations, service, prayer, worship, and more, Tonja and her husband live to exalt God. Her series for girls, P.O.W.E.R. GIRL ADVENTURES, is now out (books I-V), along with LEGACY; YOUR HOLY HEALTH: VISIONS OF THE KING, and more. See the "River Rain Creative" YT channel.

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