What Do I Do With My Thoughts

Have you struggled with the same tormenting thoughts? Do you feel like you're the only one who thinks a certain way? What does God say about how you are thinking. Today's episode Chole is going to cover different thoughts that she struggled with, how to get rid of them, and replace them with what God says about her. Every lie the enemy speaks to you, is just a counterfeit from God's promise for you. You do NOT have to continue to live with thoughts of anxiety, unworthiness, depression, anger, hopelessness, shame, pride, or fear of any kind. Instead of saying "I'm sorry, Lord", learn what it means to truly repent before Him.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Hey everyone, welcome back to Generations of Grace podcast. We're on, I believe, episode twelve today. And I was just writing down in my notebook and just learning on different things on what to share with everyone, because the whole reason that I believe the Lord has called me to do this was to share things that He has showed me and through my testimony and how I can help others in doing that. Maybe there's some things that you didn't know or haven't learned as a Christian yet, or you're not a Christian and you're wanting to learn more. You're just not really sure where you stand with it. And you can even struggle with certain things that I'm gonna talk about today without being a Christian. And if you are a Christian and you struggle with these things, it's okay, just don't stay in that, in that route. And we're gonna learn on our thoughts and versus God's truths and promises. So a lot of thoughts that come in can be from the enemy, or they can be your own thoughts. If they're from the enemy, they're lies, and we don't, we shouldn't have to identify with those lies or hold on to those lies. You as a Christian, you have the authority from Christ to get rid of those lies, to get rid of those thoughts. You no longer have to identify with that. A lot of this is learning about who God is and your identity in Him. You don't have to be stuck in the continuous anxiety, depression, anger. Um, I'm gonna go through in some more I wrote down a bunch of thoughts that I had struggled with in my entire life. I don't believe in these lies anymore, I don't identify with these lies anymore. But I do know that for a while a lot of these thoughts were placed in my head and I accepted them, and I began to think that that's a part of who I was. But it was the complete opposite of what God's promises are for my life. And it's the same thing for you. Know that you are loved by the great father, you are his child, and he wants to take care of you. And so I want to remind us today of the different truths and promises that he does have for you to replace those lies from the enemy, where you can control your own thoughts through his power and authority. So as I started writing these down, I was looking through my phone on different notes, and when I'm praying, the Lord gives me words different times, and I always write them down because I never know when I need to go back on them. And this one was actually from 519 of 2024. It says, So when I was praying, this is what the Lord was telling me. The same way you were crying so hard, you could hardly breathe, is what most people feel daily. They don't know how to move forward, they don't know how to continue their lives, they're ready to just quit. This happens so much because people don't know me. I need you to tell people about me. They need to know me. They need to know my love. After you were done crying, you took a breath of fresh air and felt completely relaxed, and tears immediately stopped. They will feel that when you start sharing who I am and my love. I love you, my daughter. So as I was praying in this, I was I believe just interceding on behalf of others that were feeling this, and I was just bawling, and I couldn't understand why, because nothing was wrong. I was just praying in the spirit, and all these tears started coming down, and I wasn't exactly sure what was happening. But then towards the end of my prayer, like I said, it said, after you were done crying, you took a breath of fresh air and felt completely relaxed, and tears immediately stopped. That's exactly what happened. And I was like, Whoa Lord, what was that? And that's what he shared with me was I was one of those girls. Was I never wanted to kill myself, but in that part where I said they're ready to just quit, I never actually got to that point. I struggled with the thoughts coming in and attacking me, and like, well, I wouldn't have to struggle with this if I wasn't here anymore. But I never got to the point of either harming myself or anything. It was just thoughts, and I know some people it gets worse than that. But I knew that I had gotten in this where I had so much anxiety and anger and pride and just unworthiness that I wasn't exactly sure. I didn't understand how God could be so great and loving if I struggle with these thoughts and nothing was happening. But it's because I didn't actually learn who my God was. I didn't actually learn the love that he has for me and what he says about me. I just took those thoughts that came in my head and just said, Well, that's that. I guess that's who I am. And everything that I heard from around the world and in movies and songs and all these things, but that's not what God says about me. And so that's why I struggle with it for so long. But I'm here to tell you that you don't have to continue in that cycle of struggling with that. There is a way, if you continue to seek the Father, he will reveal himself to you. And all that, just crying every day or feeling unworthy and all alone and like you have to do it all by yourself. You don't have to stay like that. He's here to reveal himself to you if you just seek for him, ask him where he's at, he will show you himself, be willing to repent. So, what I did after reading that and just has spending some time with the Lord is I heard someone say on a video where they I don't remember exactly what it was to a T, but they wrote down like lies about something and then truths about something, and the Lord brought that back to my attention on like do that. I was like, Oh, okay, good. So I wrote down, like I said at the beginning, all kinds of different lies and my own thoughts that I used to identify with or struggle with a lot. And these were all different. I'm 24 now, and so these were all like growing up into preteen teenager years, but I want to say majority of this was my teenager years. And I wrote down all kinds of different things, but I began to realize that the lies that I wrote down and the thoughts that I wrote down that I struggled with were a lot of them were related to each other. So I then started to like categorize them together. So for example, I'm just gonna go through the first section of things that I began to realize oh, those actually go together hand in hand. I'm going to say them and then we're gonna back it up with the truths, the what God says about you with scripture and testimonies, and just go from there. So in the first category, I have different thoughts of alone, unworthiness, sad or hopeless, fearful, approval from others, and that also goes into like people pleasing and different things like that, like wanting to avoid confrontation. Just that I hope I get to heaven and question my salvation a lot. I was terrified of am I doing enough? But I'm here to tell you that when you are truly saved, you're not going to be questioning that all the time. If you're seeking for the Lord with your whole heart and laying your life down, boom, you're gonna get there. But just don't. If you have constant anxiety about that, one deliverance could be an option. Two, just continue to seek the Lord. You don't have to hope to get to heaven and do all the religious actions of, did I keep all Ten Commandments today? Well, I don't know. What if I'm sinning and I don't even realize it? Well, is God gonna send me to hell because I thought that maybe I said something wrong today? Listen, that's condemnation from the enemy. Rebuke it in Jesus' name. You do not have a check list, a big to-do list on how to get to heaven. It's about your relationship and your walk with Jesus Christ. It's about laying your life down and living for Him. There's this thing that's been just saying in my head constantly about your whole life you were trying to bring God with you. Meanwhile, you're actually supposed to be following Him. And that breaks down every religious bone in my body because it's am I am I just living my life however I want to? And just hoping God comes along and I'll seek him whenever I feel I feel like I need to. No, that's religion. It's you need to lay your life down and follow him. If you're going in your direction and hoping that he comes, that's not a relationship. God doesn't want that from you. He wants you to follow him because his ways are better than our ways, because he loves you so much. And some other thoughts that went into that was I thought poverty was equal to humility. So I thought that being broke meant that I was actually being a good Christian like I was supposed to, because I wasn't doing anything for myself at all. And then I also thought that anxiety was normal. I thought that everyone has anxiety. It's just something you deal with. Some is worse than others, but you just learn to manage it in your own way. Lie. That is a straight up lie. So some different scriptures that I put with that was Joshua 1.9. I say with my kids all the time. You are commanded to be strong and courageous because God is with you wherever you go. You are not alone and you will never be alone. You are strong and courageous, not because of who you are, because of Christ within you. First Peter 5-7 talks about humbling yourself. You cast your anxieties on him. Don't be prideful. Have faith in God because he cares about you. He's not some big bad God up there waiting for you to mess up and screw up so he can strike you down. And all right, well, that's another one. Glad they're off the face of the earth. Let's see who else we can get to come with me. That's not who God is. He cares about you more than you care about you. He loves you so much. He, Jesus Christ has already died on the cross and taken all of that upon himself. All you have to do is just say thank you and walk in that. Thank him that he has already taken that from you because he has. And that's just something that we have to realize and understand. Isaiah 35, 4 talks about how God saves. There is no fear that you can be strong. And all these are just summarized, so I don't have all of them written down word for word, just because we have several. Matthew 10, 19 through 20 talks about. So, in the part where I was talking about my thoughts on just being fearful and approval from others and nervous about what others are going to think about me, and unworthy and loneliness. Matthew 10, 19 through 20 talks about how God gives you the words to speak. You don't need to be anxious about what you're going to say. Holy Spirit will give you the words of what you need to say in every every case. You just have to have that ear ready to hear what he has for you and a willingness to obey what he tells you to say. You don't have to be fearful of standing up for God, being bold and courageous for God, being strong for God, because he's there with you always. It's not about you. It's about you being obedient to him and what he has for you to further his kingdom. Because he loves you so much. John 15, 15 through 16 says, friends with God, chosen by him. You can be friends with the Lord. There's a friendship within that you specifically are chosen by him. Oh, I love this verse so much. I don't know if I've shared or not. But I know when I was starting to seek him a lot and learn a lot more and not just take man's word for what the Bible says or what who God is and all that, I actually started seeking for myself. I remember sitting down and praying and saying, Lord, I'm here. I am not going to live for myself anymore. I choose you, no matter what, over my kids, over my husband, over myself. I choose you, Lord. And he told me, You do not choose me, but I have chosen you. And that goes back to John 15, 15, and 16, talking about how he has specifically chose you. Nehemiah 2 through 20 talks about whenever they were rebuilding Jerusalem, God made different servants to arise and build. He doesn't want you with nothing that goes into that poverty equals humility. That's a lie. God wants you to prosper. He wants you prosperous. He wants you to grow and be strong. Build his kingdom. He doesn't want you just beat down and broken and just hope hope things get by, you know. Like he wants you to prosper. Isaiah 54 talks about how when Noah had the promises from God, he had God's love. He was never alone, and there was perfect peace. And I actually want to read that verse, Isaiah 54, 10. It says, For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord who has mercy on you. The Lord our God has so much mercy on us, Golly. We do not deserve it. But he has given it to us because of his kindness towards us, because of his mercy towards us, he has made a covenant of peace with us. When those lies come in of, oh, well, you are anxious today. What if so and so says this? What if this happens in your environment? Well, then your faith is in your environment, not in God. So when those lies come, it's no, I rebuke you in Jesus' name. My God says that his kindness shall not depart from me. His covenant of peace will not be removed. It says that the Lord my God has mercy upon me. And even though I know that I've messed up before, he has forgiveness upon me because of his mercy that he's placed within his covenant. And Lord, I thank you for that. It's learning how to take those thoughts when they come in, knowing okay, is this my own thoughts? Is this my flesh, or is this the enemy, or is this God? Well, if it doesn't line up with the word, it's the enemy. And a lot of your thoughts have just been wired into either stemming from God's truth or the enemy's lies, and you identifying with which side. So a lot of your thoughts are from one of those or the other. And it's up to you to recognize where is that coming from. Okay, I'm gonna hold my thoughts accountable. I'm gonna hold my thoughts captive. The Bible talks about that. Taking your thoughts captive because thoughts aren't innocent. Satan knows that he can't always get to you through your actions, but he's gotta start somewhere. He's gonna start in your mind. And the more it just reminates within your mind, the more likely you're going to act upon it. That's why it's so important to take those thoughts captive and know who God is. Because if you don't know who God is and you don't know what God says about you, then you're not gonna know if those thoughts are from the enemy or from God. So it's so, so important to understand that. And more into the people pleasing and getting approval from others and justification from that. As we all know, I've talked about on here, I was big into sports and I was really good in school. I got straight A's and all that. I seen all that as like a reward in my worthiness. My worthiness was placed within those things. If I got a trophy, if I got a straight A report card, I don't know, like the higher my GPA, then I thought that I was doing something good. I really thought I was making something of myself by getting those things. But Romans 8:8 talks about you're not here to please man or your flesh, you're here to please the Lord. You cannot please man and your flesh and the Lord at the same time. It just doesn't go hand in hand. So I'm not saying it's wrong to play sports and get trophies. It's not. It's not wrong to get straight out of cars and feel good about it because it does. But if that's what your happiness is in and your peace is in and your joy is in, that's when it's wrong. Yes, please get good grades and work hard at your sports, never quit and don't give up. However, like I said, if you're putting that above the Lord, well, that's an idol. And you need to learn how to obviously don't quit school, but like learn how to put God before that and know that, like I said earlier, your joy doesn't come in your environment. Your joy comes from the Lord. It is the only joy that will remain and stay there. So as I continue to write down more things, I go into a new category. There's only there's less in this one. I'm sure there's more. This is just everything that I wrote down at the time. But I had more thoughts, so all those were like anxiety, fear, people pleasing, different things like that, loneliness, unworthiness. This flip side of it was kind of the opposite in a way. So I was very like I worked out a lot in my sports, and I was very strong and very fast and all these things, and so all that kind of maneuvered into a way of where like I believed if I had pain, it was kind of a strength in a way. So like these thoughts would come on trying to inflict pain upon myself, and that goes back in the beginning of I always had these thoughts of things, I never acted upon them. But certain things like that, like I thought pain was strength, and if I wasn't pushing myself to the fullest extent, then I wasn't like I wasn't worthy to be playing that sport, I guess. And I thought that I was better than others. Those thoughts would come in all the time. I thought fear was exciting in a way, like I didn't like to be scared, but I also thought it was very exciting and I wanted to pursue different kinds of fears within my life, such as like horror movies, spook housing, um, trying to figure out like magic, like and spells and stuff, if that was real and how all that worked, and different things like that. I wanted to take revenge upon people. Like I thought, not necessarily if they did stuff to me, because I was big people pleaser in a big doormat, but on taking revenge was like they did something bad to my friend or my family, why I have to get back at them. Well, my friend and family doesn't like them. That means that I don't like them. And know that all these things I'm talking about is past tense and lives from the enemy, and what my thoughts then started becoming because I didn't know how to take them captive. And then a big one I thought in this phase was I thought that I couldn't cry because it was a form of weakness. I thought that I couldn't show any emotions because it was a form of weakness. And I hung out with like a lot of a lot of guys between my family and friends and stuff, and so obviously that did not help with that. But yeah, I used to think that couldn't cry I couldn't cry because it was a weakness, and that got harder, as we all know, into my teenager years because your hormones and everything are changing, yet I thought something was wrong with me because I couldn't keep it together and I couldn't play to the best of my ability or focus to the best of my ability because I was too focused on trying to hide my emotions versus laying them at the feet of Jesus. So some different scriptures to help with those kinds of thoughts. What I did was I was I was looking at these thoughts and lies, and I looked up the opposite of them. So obviously, any lies presented to you, you're gonna want the opposite. So the God's truth and the promises for your life. So for like wanting revenge upon people or myself or however it was, I went to Romans 12, 19. It talks about don't avenge yourself. God will repay vengeance because it is his. So don't try to go out of your way and try to take justice into your own hands or however you want to word it. God is a just judge and he will repay. The vengeance is his. Don't take it in your own hands. You can't do any better than God. Okay. So um, Proverbs 11 2. Know that a lot of these thoughts and lies that were placed in my head, I thought it was also like disguised in my brain as humility. But in all reality, it was pride, and those are complete opposites. So Satan's not gonna come and put a lie in your head and be like, Oh hey, this is pride. Now I want you to take on to this. No, he will disguise it as something that seems good for yourself and seems okay as a Christian, but however, it's a lie and it's twisted and it's deceit. So a lot of these I thought, well, it's okay to have pain and I can be strong in that way. Like it's okay if I'm in pain because that means someone else is doing better, or like if I was emotionally upset, then that's okay as long as so-and-so gets their way. But in all reality, that's just pride. That's that's not taking it at the feet of Jesus or what he's already paid for it. That's just you saying you know better than him, and you're picking it up and trying to walk with it versus laying it at his feet, he's already paid for it. Proverbs 11, 2 talks about shame comes after pride. So a lot of people that do get prideful, they then struggle with anxiety and unworthiness and all those other thoughts I was talking about earlier. Because of the pride that enters, shame's gonna come right after that. But know that with true humility and not the counterfeit offer of pride, wisdom comes with that. Proverbs 29, 23 talks about how pride brings man low, but humility brings honor. And the whole world just has it completely flip-flop. Like they talk about how in the world, the more money, the more things that you have, the more people that you know, all that, you do get kind of an ego and prideful. And that seems to be for example, celebrities, it's just there's a certain honor to having that pride, but that's not what the word of God says. Second Corinthians 12 9 says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. I used to read that and think that okay, well, in order to have the Lord's strength, I need to be weak. So that goes into that pain equals strength. Actually, that was just a lie from the enemy. You need to get out of your own way with that and not make yourself a doormat. Don't be a people pleaser, don't think that the pain is making you stronger. The Lord wants you healed, the Lord wants you to have help. You don't have to be stuck in that. His grace is sufficient for you. When it talks about his strength is made perfect in weakness, it's not saying you have to hurt yourself or you have to be, you know, I don't know, endure some sort amount of physical pain in order for him to shine through you. That's not what that's saying, and that's how that was lied in my head. It's talking about how you need to humble yourself. Like I said, get yourself out of the way. Have humility because if you're still in the way trying to fix everything yourself, then the Lord's not going to shine through that. He needs you to be willing to have that relationship with him and allow him to work within your life. Okay, and so that's just that kind of little section on more of pride and ego and stuff like that. And the last one, last little section of lies and thoughts that I wrote down was it was a lot about just being a good person and passive Christianity and just thinking that if I'm good enough, I can get to heaven. All those are lies. I thought that if you were, like I said, if you were a good enough person, you would get saved. Thinking that passive Christianity is okay. That is not okay, that is not who God has called you to be. When you see people out here that you love are actively sinning, claiming to be Christians, it's not okay to just sit there and stand by. You're held to a certain accountability. You need to hold people accountable out of love. It's not okay to tolerate sin and just think, oh, well, they're not hurting anyone. And they know they're doing it in all kindness of their heart. So surely it's okay. They can just continue in that over there if I'm not involved, and it's okay. No, you are held accountable. You are held accountable to hold others accountable. I used to think that deliverance is just for really bad people, or I thought that only certain kinds of people could cast demons out of other people. I didn't understand that God gives you the same power and authority all across. You don't have to take some certain degree or anything to be able to walk in the authority and power of Jesus. I used to think that the Bible was just history or fun stories to read as kids to help you have more confidence when you're older. I didn't understand this is for me today. All these things in here are for me today. I used to think that magic was just pretend on shows that I used to watch. I thought repentance meant I'm sorry. I didn't understand what true repentance looked like. And then the last one I wrote down was I thought miracles did not happen here anymore. I knew that they were real, I knew that the whole Bible was true. I knew that the miracles written down did happen then, but I didn't understand and I didn't know that they could happen here today. And so what I wanted to continue on in that oh, and there was one more. I used to think that sex was gross, and obviously, like as a kid, you do think that. But like I didn't understand as I got older. I was taught growing up, oh, that's bad, you don't do that. Like stay away from it, don't do that. Rather than God's promises for that and a covenant marriage and what all that looked like. Like I didn't understand this is a good thing that God has made. I think I touched base on it in one of the previous episodes, but that is a wonderful thing that God has made, but outside of the will of the Lord, it's not good. It's a counterfeit and it's not the real thing. However, within a marriage, it is according to his will for that to be something good. And it's just in that religious standard, it's just portrayed as gross, yucky, don't do that, it's bad. And you start to feel kind of shame for that when you do get married and start to do that, rather than this is a good part of the Lord's will for your life. And in Proverbs 28:1, where it's talking about how the wicked flee when no one pursues, but righteous are bold as a lion that goes into that passive Christianity, and how it's not okay to just sit around and just hope that God prevails, and while you're just sitting on your hands and not being a mouthpiece for him, you are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, and he is the head. You're not doing that by just sitting on your butt. Psalms 138-3 talks about how he has made me bold with strength. You are called to be bold once again. You have strength from the Lord. Where I go to talk about how I thought magic was just pretend growing up. I thought it was just on the shows that I watched and thought it was something fun to pretend to do and all these things. Well I didn't know was that magic is very real, spells are real. I did not know that what I was doing was actually opening a bunch of demonic doors within my life for evil spirits to start tormenting me. I didn't understand that because I was taught it wasn't real. And that's not a thing on them, like they didn't know. However, when you go to scripture, you can see how it is very real, even after Jesus was here. Acts 19, 19, it talks about how when everyone following Jesus at the time they all got together and said that they were practicing magic, but they got their books all together that they practiced magic from and they burned them. It is so very real, but I also know that Satan is defeated and Jesus Christ has already defeated him. We fight from the victory that he has already defeated him from. I know that another thing in the Bible where it talks about how we know that magic is real because whenever Moses was going to Pharaoh and the plagues were being put upon him because Pharaoh wasn't letting the Israelites out of Egypt, some the first two plagues that was sent upon Egypt, the magicians did the same things that Moses had showed them from the power of God. And so that lets you know that yes, magicians are real. People that practice sorcery, all these things are real, and it's not something to play with. It's very real. However, they couldn't do all the things that God was doing. There was a time, even whenever, I think it was the plague of whenever they all got boils and sores on them. The magip the magicians had to bow down afterwards. They couldn't even stand in the presence of Moses because of God's power working through it because of all the boils on them and everything. So it goes to show yes, it's real, but it's not greater than the power of God. Moving on, like into that same thing with Pharaoh and how I used to think repentance meant I'm sorry. I thought repentance was I'm sorry, but that is not it at all. You can't just say, Oh, I'm sorry, Lord, yeah, I'll do what you say. I didn't mean that. And I can be emotionally upset about that and have my morals broken on that. But, you know, not really following you. I don't really know about that. I'm sorry, but we'll see if we can do better next time. That's not repentance. That's just a counterfeit of repentance. It goes to show whenever Moses was going to Pharaoh, every time a plague would happen, Pharaoh was like, Oh, your God is right, you're right. I'm sorry. I will let your people go, but I'll do it tomorrow. And the Lord would withdraw that plague. But as soon as that happened, Pharaoh chose to harden his heart and do this same sin that he was doing before and not obey the Lord. And how many of us do that? I know I did that for a long time. Was, oh, I'm sorry, I got caught, I'm upset, I'm emotionally upset, but I went right back into the exact same sin. That's not repentance. That's you saying, I'm sorry, and not following through with it. And Pharaoh eventually got, if you continue on reading, he got to the point where he had hardened his heart so many times and there was no true repentance. He was just getting what he wanted to because he couldn't endure the pain or the sufferings or the whatever it was from the different plagues. He couldn't handle those anymore, that he wanted temporary satisfaction from God to get what he wanted. And he had hardened his heart so many times that God eventually ended up hardening his heart and it led to Pharaoh's death. And that's what will happen to you if you continue. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I don't like to endure this on earth anymore and these struggles and things because I keep getting caught in my sin. But I'm sorry, Lord, I promise I'll change. I'll promise I'll change. It's not true repentance if you just keep apologizing and there's no heart posture change. You have to be willing to lay your life down and live for the Lord. It's not just a, okay, yeah, I said it, I did it, now I'm gonna live however I want. Like I said earlier, you're not just on the, all right, God, let's go live life. It's you have to actively follow Him. And when you do that, you're gonna be so satisfied so much more than you ever have in your entire life with peace and joy and love. And you won't struggle with those thoughts like you used to. You'll begin to understand that you are worthy and that you are a daughter or a son of the Most High King. Like there's nothing that can replace that, no matter what anyone else says, no matter what you think about yourself, no matter what lies come your way or what struggles come around to you and your environment, you have something to stand upon no matter what happens. And whenever I don't know if anyone's read those books about different martyrs across the world, but when I read those as a teenager, I thought, how in the world do they do that? There's no way that I could ever do that. I would like to think that I could say yes, um, I would serve Jesus with my whole heart if I had a gun to my head, but I don't know. Now I can definitely say that because I'm learning who he is. I'm learning who I am to him, and that there's nothing in this world, what happens around me in my environment, what people say, what people think, all that, it doesn't matter anymore because I know that I can stand on the rock. I can stand on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ and who he is, what he's done for me, and what he says about me. I know that miracles definitely happen. That was the last lie that I and thought that I had written down that I wanted to go into. Just if you read all throughout the New Testament and even the Old Testament, goodness, there are so many miracles. But I wanted people to understand, that's why I brought up the New Testament and in Luke, how it talks about so many different miracles happening after Jesus had Holy Spirit come and remain upon him. You have that too. You becoming saved, you have Holy Spirit within you, you have access to his power and authority in his name. It's nothing about what you can do. You don't have to do some big long prayer to do miracles. You don't have to say certain words, certain religious specific words to go and have miracles happen. You have to have faith in Jesus Christ. And so some different things that I had written down throughout the book of Luke, just to give examples, that miracles do happen. And then I'll share a testimony on something that I've seen before. Jesus does heal. It talks about how Jesus heals the paralytic. That happened several times. He healed the wither hand within the temple on Sabbath, he healed different diseases and such as the woman with the issue of blood and all kinds of different diseases like leprosy. He delivered people from torment from demons. He delivered almost everywhere he went, he was casting demons out of people. Like you can do that too. He raised the dead, he actually someone, where is it at? It's somewhere in Luke. How they were like act actively having this boy's funeral, and he walked over there, put his hand on him, and said, Arise from your sleep, or something like that. And the boy just caught up. Like, that's crazy to think about. That you can do that too, and nothing about you, but him working within you and through you if you believe. And then another one that a lot of people are familiar with is him feeding the 5,000. There's a lot more in there. Those are just some that I quickly wrote down. So know that you as a Christian, you have the power and authority of Jesus Christ to take your thoughts captive. If you have struggled with these things that I've talked about today, or you are continuously struggling with them, know that as a daughter or a son of the Most High King, you can take those thoughts and throw them in the trash by your words. You can't cast down a thought with a thought. You have to verbalize, rebuke that thought out loud, and replace it with the truth. Do exactly what I've done here today. Write down your lies. Write down your thoughts. Things you have believed. Even if you don't know if it's a lie or not, go ahead and write it down and go and replace it all with scripture. Find the scripture for it. If it if it aligns with the word of God, praise the Lord. That's one you get to hold on to and stand on as a promise. If it does not, then you need to rebuke that. You need to find the truth to replace it and continue until it gets easier. And then continue to stand on the promises that He has for you. What God says about you. There is nothing that can take the love of God from you. You belong to Him if you choose to. So know that this isn't something that you have to continue to struggle with. Know that you can be saved through Jesus. It's not some religious checklist that you have to do. Know that as you continue to seek the Lord, He will reveal Himself to you and have a repentance heart. Don't let that pride or ego come in the way between you and Him. I've done it before and others have done it before, but you don't have to continue to do that. All these are in the past. They may try to come back, but you don't have to let it. It's your choice what you allow into your life. It's your choice what you allow into your head, in your mind. The battle is in the mind. So a lot of that also, I know I've talked about it before, but a lot of that is also about what you watch, what you hear, who you associate yourself with. You may that goes in that passive Christianity. You may think it's okay to hang out with so and so that are actively sinning, and you're just, oh, well, it's okay, that's just two they are. Surely they'll come around eventually. If you're constantly around a group of people that are blaspheming God or sinning, that is not a good environment to be around because that's going to be put in your eyes, it's going to be put in your ears, that's going to go down in your spirit, you're going to lose that war in your mind rather than standing upon the truth, standing upon the promises that the Lord has for you. Know that you don't have to cry every single day. No, you don't have to struggle with that anxiety every single day. Know that you don't have to struggle with that shame every day that you is probably stemming from pride and you don't even realize it. So do what the word says. And you'll have a lot more peaceful life. And I'm still learning. I'm not perfect at this. Thoughts come in, I have accountability partners that hold me accountable, and they're like, eh. You think maybe you're trying to gossip about that? You think maybe that's I mean from some anger versus standing on what God says about it. Hey, what do you think God says about that situation? Find someone that's gonna help you. And so I just want to pray for everyone with these thoughts. And I hope you guys leave learning some more scriptures that you can stand upon, learning how to take thoughts captive, that you don't have to believe in every single thought that comes in, and that you have power and authority as a cre as a Christian. Alright. Lord, I thank you for this bliss day that we've come together and been able to learn more about your word, Lord God. I thank you that you give us tools and resources to be able to learn more about you, that we have a whole book of completely of your word that you have shown us and teach us from, and that we have the freedom in this country to be able to seek you, to talk with you, hear from you, go to others and talk about you. Lord, thank you that we can to take our thoughts captive and send them away if they don't belong. If they're not from you, Lord. We don't have to identify with these thoughts anymore. There are no more fear, no more anger, no more anxiety, no more pride, no more religion, Lord. We're done with that in Jesus' name, Lord, for we come to you and we want to be filled with you to have a convicted heart, to have a repentance heart, not to harden our heart, Lord God, but to be purified, Lord, to be burned just as gold, to be purified before your presence, Lord God, because you have called us to be holy for you, for your grace is sufficient for us, Lord. So thank you that we have strength within you, that we do not have to do things on our own, but that you are right here with us wherever we go, that you make us strong, you make us courageous, you make us bold as lions, that we don't have to rely on our environment. We don't have to rely on words from other people, but we can just walk in that relationship with you on earth, Lord God, that we have such a boldness, such a such courage to be able to walk within your kingdom and share it with others, Father. So forgive us when we mess up, Lord. Just give us a conviction heart, a repentance heart to come truly before your feet and lay it all down before you, to learn how to walk in the fullness of your will in our lives, Lord. Not to just save, be saved and get to heaven, Lord, but thank you for showing us how we can walk more within your will on this earth. Thank you, Lord Jesus.