What we think and speak has a profound affect on how we live our lives. As we have been discussing, our brain is involved in everything we do; in every decision we make good or bad.  If we believe our life has no meaning or purpose, we will live our life thinking we are worthless and what is the point of living. If we believe we are failures, then we will not even try to succeed or to move forward in life. If we believe we can’t lose weight or break an addiction, we will live defeated and not even try. Thoughts are powerful bringing either life or death to us. The Lord has told us in His Word that the power of life and death is in our tongue (Proverbs 18:21) and as a man thinks so he is in his heart ( Proverbs 23:7). The truth is that God has fearfully and wonderfully made us (Psalm 139). He knitted us in our mother’s womb ( Psalm 139) and put His Spirit in our bones (Ecclesiastes 11:5). God has put eternity into each one us. He created us for greatness in His image and His thoughts towards us are good (Psalm 139:17-18). If God’s thoughts towards us are good, should not our thoughts towards ourselves and others be good? Is that not what Paul was saying in Colossian when he said “set your mind and keep it set on things above”? Paul is telling us to set our minds on the Kingdom of God and what He says about us who have asked Jesus into our hearts. Our thoughts have power! Our words have power as well. James Chapter 3 tells us that with our tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God’s image. Blessing and cursing from the same mouth! This should not be!

Proverbs 16:24 Gracious words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

There’s that word “bones” again. Words are healing to our bones or our immune system. The saying,  “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”  is so untrue. Words do hurt. As children, we come into the world thinking we can do anything and become anything.  It only takes one negative statement to but a damper on our dreams. It may be a coach who says you are too small to play basketball or a parent who says you will never amount to anything. If we believe these words, we will not even try to succeed in life. Believing a lie empowers it. Satan knows this very well. He attacks us in our thoughts trying to get us to believe lies about who we are and about who God is. He attacks us in our hearts with offences such as rejection, shame, and guilt. These thoughts and hurts permeate into our soul causing unrest and ultimately the possibility of illness. The Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

3 John 2 Beloved, I pray that in every way you may succeed and prosper and be in good health (physically), just as (I know) your soul prospers (spiritually).

Friends, Satan is attacking us in our minds, hearts and soul and he is doing it through thoughts and words. Satan starts his attack as soon as we are born and many times before we are born. You may remember the study from John Hopkins that found that stress hormones pass though the placenta. Why does Satan start so early? He knows you have been created for a divine purpose in the very image of God. If he can get you to believe a lie, you won’t fulfill your divine purpose.

To live the abundant life, we must learn to recognize the lies of the enemy and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ ( 2 Corinthians 10:5).  We start the process by first learning who we are in Christ and believing who God says we are. We can with the help of the Holy Spirit train our mind to think life and our mouth to speak life. The Lord began teaching me this many years ago. I lived in fear and condemnation all the time. I did not know what the Lord said about me as a believer and ,worse yet , I did not know He loved me. I did not know the Word of God and knew nothing about grace. I knew nothing about how Satan worked and that I had believed him over God.  I was getting my self-worth from what others had said about me and my performance. When my performance was not where I thought it should be, I would beat myself up for weeks. I was never good enough, pretty enough, or rich enough. I believed the lie that Robert McGee brings to light in his book, The Search for Significance:

self-worth = performance + opinions of others.

The above equation is the lie the enemy would have us all believe. He would have us believe that God only loves us when we are performing rightly. The truth is that all of us fall short and none of us can earn salvation. He loves us and showed that love through Jesus. Jesus came to reveal the Father’s love for us. The Father’s love is received not earned. It’s a gift. I realized I had been trying to save myself which left me insecure and full of fear.   I began the journey to learn who I was as a child of God. I had such a stronghold of fear that was keeping me in bondage. I made a desion that I was going to believe God over the devil. I began to believe that God is who He says He is, can do what He says He can, that I can do all things in Christ, and I am who He says I am. I began to think and speak scriptures on who I am as a believer everyday. I mediated on  God’s love for me and that He would never leave or forsake me.  I began to understand God as a loving Father who desires and longs for a relationship with His children. I began to understand that the enemy comes to condemn, but the Holy Spirit comes to empower and lift me up. Little by little as I sought Him in prayer, worship,  and meditation on His word , I began to see the beauty He had created in Me and the purpose for my life. In the weeks to come, we will learn to train our minds to think life and our mouths to speak life. We can learn to practice being in “His Presence” by meditating on Him for He is in us and goes with us wherever we go. We are never alone.

Hebrews 13:5  … for He (God) Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you, nor give you up nor leave you without support. (I will) not, (I will) not, (I will) not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let (you) down (relax My hold on you)! (Assuredly not!)