The Abundant Life "Girting Up the Loins Of Our Minds"

We are going to continue our series on the abundant life. We have seen that there is life that overflows that Jesus has purchased and paid fordr us to walk in. Its going to take getting rid of our excuses and knowing our righteousness with him. In the last blog we talked about the robbers of righteousness. In this blog we are going about another biggie in recieving this abundant life. Girting up the loins of our mind(1 Peter 1:13) Notice here that The Lord says out of the mouth of Peter the words mind and loins in the same sentence. Why? Its because the loins are the reproductive areas of the body. Thoughts will produce other thoughts. The bible declares that two million of the first generation of belivers died in the wilderness as result of their thinking. The bible declares As a man THINKITH so shall he be(Prov 23:7) There is a saying that goes "The greatest battles have not been fought on the ground air or sea but between our ears"! This is indeed the bullseye of the enemies target! I have heard this illustration given from the Lord nin and through bro Dickow The enemy is like a hobo riding on top the train of our thoughts. All he needs is one to gain access. We get forfeit our inheriance to the abundant life by small minded thinking. The bible says casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god and bringing every thought into captivity under the obedience of Christ(2 Cor 10:5) Now notice the pattern THOUGHTS IMAGINATIONS STRONGHOLDS. When we fail to quickly take thoughts into captivity they will turn into an imagination. What is an imagination? Its like a word picture that begins to play out into descriptive detail. Noahs generation was impacted and influenced by them! Jesus said as the days of Noah so shall the return of the son of man be(Matt 24:37) We have a society dealing with strongholds attempting to label them as disorders. We have to win the battle of the mind and that will not happen by popping a pill! The bible says in the book of Genesis that whole earth in that day became full of violence. Why? Every imagination was evil continually(Gen 6:5) God provides us a tremendous list in order to examine our thoughts. This list is much like a pilot recieving the checklist for the plane. Its found in the book of Phillipians. Whatsoever things are honest lovely pure and of a good report think on these things(Phil 4:8) Back to the earky generation of believers. God gave them the land but it was already inhabited by giants. When they saw them they made the statement WE WERE LIKE GRASSHOPPERS IN THEIR SIGHT(Num 13:33) It was their thinking that defeated them. We read in the book of Josua that the ginants in reality were more afraid of them! The good news is we CAN BE TRANWSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF OUR MINDS(Rom 12:2) The word cast in 2 Corinthians comes from the greek word EKBALO which means to hurl down. How do we take a thought captive? We do it using something greater than a thought. WORDS! Words have more authority than thoughts. Its us speaking them oit that gives them life. The Lord said in and through Bro Hagin 'Thoughts not put in word or action will be still born" We must absolutely refuse to speak out thoughts that attempt to exalt themselves against the knowledge of God!!! However to do that we must have the knowledge of god. Its found in the word of God. Its one reason that he says gis life is LIFE TO THOSE THAT FIND THEM(Prov 4:22) Jesus said SEARCH the scriptures(John 5:39) THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD OFFENSE! In order to posses this abundant life we have to think like God thinks! Have this SAME MIND IN YOU THAT WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS(Phil 2:5) We have the MIND OF CHRIST(1 Cor 2:16) Finally the THREE R'S Recognize. We have to be instantly alert to when one comes that is not the word. this is the enemy attemoting to infiltrate our thoughts so he can into our lives. Next REJECT. Third and finally REPLACE. We find God giving Josua a command after he took over after the death of Moses. Let not this book of the law depart from your mouth MEDITATE on it day and night and you'll make your way prosperous and will have good success(Josua 1:8) Than in the book of Psalms We delight in thy law we meditate day and night and we'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters our leaf will not wither and whatever we out our hands to shall prosper(