"Stinking Thinking"

Not long after I rededicated my life in 2001, I found out that the mind was a battlefield and I realized that mine was a MESS!  Thankfully, Pastor Ramon and Marsha began teaching me about strongholds and about renewing my mind.  A stronghold is an area in which we are held in bondage due to certain way of thinking. The Bible says in Romans12:2  “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”   Bottom line: I needed to get rid of my “stinking thinking” and replace it with God’s way of thinking.

 Well…. I was deeply rooted in fear and all of fear’s buddies:  worry, reasoning, anxiety, stress, insecurity and doubt.  Fear had a stronghold in my mind and it needed to be destroyed!

 2 Corinthians 10:4,5 says “for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

 That’s exactly what I began to do, to take those thoughts captive and combat them with the Word of God!  I became very familiar with just about every scripture that had to do with fear.  I began confessing and meditating on them.

But I wanted immediate results and it just wasn’t happening for me.  I began to get discouraged. Marsha said, “Misty, did you get in this mess overnight? No, you’ve had “stinking thinking” for many years now and you can’t expect it to it go away over night.”  She gave me two options:

I could stay where I was and continue to be miserable for the rest of my life or I could get free from the bondage by making the proper changes…. obeying God and attacking those negative thoughts with the Word.”  I chose to break free!

 Now this has definitely been a process for me!  It’s taken me years to get where I am today and to be honest with you, I still have a little ways to go.  Those that have known me for some time can testify of the wonderful changes in my life due to confessing the Word of God. I can tell you that each day is better than the day before, as long as your making strides in the right direction!

Think of the stronghold in your mind as a brick fortress and every time you speak the Word a brick shatters off that wall.  Now keep in mind, that if you have a negative thought and do nothing with it, then that brick is replaced!  You don’t want to build back up what you’ve already knocked down!  So… you need to obey the Lord, take the bad thoughts captive and speak the Word over and over again until the walls are shattered and you have broken free!