Think Like God | Take Your Thoughts Captive

As Believers we understand that we are meant to think like our God. At least, to a point… but do we take our thoughts captive? Do we choose to daily accept the truth of God? And do we see ourselves and others through God’s eyes or a false narrative?

Join us as we discover how we are meant to think like God and what it means to take our thoughts captive!

The Need to Take Our Thoughts Captive

When a lie is whispered in our minds long enough without being checked, we begin to think it is true. This is why it can be hard to know when we are not thinking like God because, unless it is a very new pattern of thoughts, it becomes familiar. And this familiarity only grows when we fail to take our thoughts captive…

But how do we recognize that our thoughts have gotten out of sync with God’s when it has become our ‘new truth’? How do we know when we need to take our thoughts captive?

God is the answer… His truth allows us to take our thoughts captive. Revealing what is real and earnest, and what is destructive and false. 

Taking Our Thoughts Captive

No matter if our thoughts are strongly out of sync with God’s or not, there is still a need for EACH of us to take our thoughts captive. Our thoughts are one of the first areas where we are attacked…

“…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

—2 Corinthians 10:5

We’ve all had those days where we’re going along and everything we think seems to take a negative turn… or we begin to entertain thoughts wholly different from how we usually think.

Perhaps we are naturally generous and loving in our thoughts toward others, but suddenly find that we are silently judging everyone we encounter.

Perhaps we are usually filled with joy and positivity, but begin to pull away from that joy and view the world through a negative lens.

These are sure signs that our thoughts are under attack. Yet, instead of taking our thoughts captive—standing in God’s truth and warring against the thoughts with His truth—we often begin to attack ourselves. We begin to think that there’s something wrong with us, that maybe we’ve not just turned off God’s path, but jumped off without a parachute! Yet the reality is that the enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy, and one way he does that is by planting lies in our minds…

Thankfully, God has told us to take our thoughts captive. He has warned us about the lies of the enemy and given us the authority and strength to turn from those falsehoods and return to the thoughts and ways of our God!

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

—2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)

When we take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ—to His mind and ways—we become more than conquerors. We return to who God created us to be in Him; a people created in His image and for His glory!

But we do not have to wait until we begin to, or even accept, the lies of the enemy. We can take every thought captive the moment it comes by choosing the truth of God instead of indulging the lie or condemning ourselves…

We can turn from the lie, speak God’s truth, and battle in the opposite spirit!

What Taking Thoughts Captive Looks Like

“…consider the example that Jesus, the Anointed One, has set before us. Let his mindset become your motivation.”

—Philippians 2:5 (TPT)

There are a number of tools and ways that God has given us to take our thoughts captive and think like He does. A few of these include:

• Holy Spirit
• Prayer
• Tongues
• God’s Word
• Worship/Praise
• Testimonies—ours and others—of God’s goodness, power, and ways
• Positive Thoughts
• Thanksgiving
• Fellowship
• Love
• Joy
• And Many, Many More!

When the enemy tries to plant lies in our minds, or if we become out of sync with God’s thoughts, we can lean on the tools that God has given us and take our thoughts captive.

Sometimes this is done by battling in the opposite spirit; thinking the opposite of what the lie in our thoughts spoke.

Sometimes this is done by quoting Scripture that reveals that the thought was a lie; standing on God’s truth.

Sometimes this is done by remembering testimonies where God’s truth was made manifest… thereby destroying the ability of lies to prosper.

Sometimes this is done by being edified through fellowship with people who speak and stand on God’s truth, drawing our thoughts away from the lie and into God’s truth.

Sometimes this is done by praying to God, telling Him that we recognize the lie, that we repent and come out of agreement with it, and then ask that He would once again have His thoughts overtake ours—that we would have the mind of Christ in us.

Sometimes this is done by turning our attention to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to impart God’s truth in us…

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

—Philippians 4:6-7

These are only a few of the ways God provides for us to take our thoughts captive, but a common thread within them is our need to recognize that there is a lie within our thoughts; that our thoughts do not match up with those of our God… 

And to recognize this we need to have a relationship with God. We need to read His Word, seek fellowship with likeminded Believers, spend time in prayer, etc., and then walk out what God imparts to us…

Takeaway

All of us are a work in progress. We all have areas where we can improve. But by taking our thoughts captive we can become tuned to the mind of Christ. We can begin to think like our Creator, and by thinking like Him… we can begin to behave like Him.

It is time for us to stand on God’s Word and ways. To take our thoughts captive as we decide that God’s thoughts HAVE to be in us. We HAVE to be in sync with our Creator!

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

“Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.”

—Philippians 3:12-16