As Christians, we are “new creatures”, old things are past away, all things are become new. II Cor. 5:17
While we are created new, born again, instantly by God when HE reveals HIMSELF to us … we grow day by day into the image of Christ, to the image of the Word of God by doing the Word of God in the issue at hand.
As we live in this world, we are continually cleansed and kept by the Holy Spirit bringing to our minds the Word of God.
Destructive thoughts come from our own fleshly desires and from devils who fight against the Word of God and the way of God.
We overcome daily by hearing from the Spirit of God and choosing to go as directed by the Spirit in various scriptures of the Holy Bible.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit will remind us instantly of a scripture to counter a destructive thought when the destructive thought comes into our minds.
A woman I went to school with, usually sends me birthday card yearly. In one card, she told of her husband and daughter and grandson and all their plans for the coming Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
Immediately, the Holy Spirit brought this thought to my mind:
"You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God."
I responded in a joyful way ... "That's right!"
If it hadn't been for the Holy Spirit bringing this to my attention, I believe I would have been a little depressed after reading this woman's note for I have no husband, no daughter, no grandchild ... and I had no plans at all for Thanksgiving Day nor for Christmas Day. I was alone at my house.
Col. 3 ... If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with HIM in glory.
*****
Other times, when troubled, we have to turn to God in prayer, asking HIM for help in the matter and sometimes we have to wait months or even years before we know what to do.
I built a house once and unknown to me the house would not fit on the lot by the plans we had.
Without discussing it with me, the contractor just cut down the size of the attached garage and the size of the kitchen.
The kitchen was really a problem.
When my mother and I were in there at the same time, we would get in each other's way and become annoyed.
What to do? I asked God.
Each time this happened, I would pray again, asking God what I could do. I could see nothing that could be done about this.
Approximately 4 years after moving into the house, I went into the kitchen one day and it was as if a "light" went on in my head and I knew how to deal with this problem.
There was a walk in pantry in this small space. I had an attached garage at the kitchen. All I had to do was have pantry built in the garage and move the refrigerator to the area in the kitchen where the pantry had been. This moving of the refrigerator opened up the walk area and even allowed about 5 more feet of cabinet!
It cost very little to do this.
James 3:17 ... But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
*****
Destructive thoughts are often generated from our own flesh.
Gal. 5 ... Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
I Cor. 10 ... There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
If you have committed adultery or fornication, it is probably because you wanted to commit adultery or fornication.
If you really did not want to do this, and you prayed to God for help, God would have helped you and made a way of escape for you that you would have been able to bear the temptation without sinning.
Even before I was born again, God helped me when I cried out to HIM, and I did cry out to God before I was born again.
If we really want to do these works of the flesh, God will probably let us do them.
II Thess. 2 ... because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
*****
2017, a woman in our little church group told of a dream and then went on with a very glorified, puffed up interpretation of that dream.
Another woman praised her and said, "Wonderful message." I read the dream and interpretation and replied, "What message?"
(There was no message of edification for the church. It was just vain, religious nonsense.)
The bubble burst!
Everyone woke up.
The woman who had said "wonderful message", told me she had prayed about the message and waited on God before responding and she thought she was following God when she praised the woman who presented the dream and the interpretation.
I turned to God and asked, "What happened?" and I had the thought come to my mind that this woman wanted this to be a wonderful message and she was led by her own desire for it to be wonderful.
The focal point when we turn to God should be: "What do YOU think about this?"
If you want to deceive yourself with vain imaginations, God will let you.
*****
So many church people are fleshly and full of religious vanities which have no real substance.
I used to hear such all the time at the church I attended as various people would proudly speak "prophecies" of great flowering words which no one could remember an hour later.
When something is of God, you can't forget.
So much spoken "in the name of Jesus", is not of God but is out of the imagination and ego of the one who is speaking who desires to be great in the eyes of the church.
And in these church groups, judgment has vanished and people have no fear of speaking vanities therefore empty words are rampant in the group.
Here is what was supposed to happen in the gathering of the church.
Paul said ... I Cor. 14:29 ... Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
But we are so far from what Paul said the church was to be that we can't even recognize it now and sin in the churches flows freely.
It is the end time apostasy that Paul said had to happen in the churches before Jesus returns.
Paul even said Jesus couldn't return "unless" the apostasy happened in the churches. II Thess. 2 (NASB) ...
Paul even said Jesus couldn't return "unless" the apostasy happened in the churches. II Thess. 2 (NASB) ...
So knowing this, we can see why this is the way it is in today's churches and we are not as grieved as we were before we knew.
*****
Jesus said ... Jn. 18 ... My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
In approximately 2015, the Holy Spirit kept bringing to my mind the following: "in the air"
This is in a section of scripture in I Thess. 4 ...
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep (dead), that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with HIM. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (precede) them which are asleep. For the Lord HIMSELF shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Jesus' kingdom is not of the present world, this present earth. This present heaven and earth will be destroyed by God and there will be new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
II Peter 3 ... But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to HIS promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of HIM in peace, without spot, and blameless.
The apostle John also witnessed to this new heaven and new earth and new Jerusalem.
Revelation 21 ... And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
If we believe these scriptures, why fret over this present heaven and earth which God Himself will destroy.
The present Jerusalem is just a city of men. The new Jerusalem is the heavenly city of God for HIS people.
The current Israel, the nation, will be destroyed by God as the other nations of this earth are destroyed by God.
The present Jerusalem is just a city of men. The new Jerusalem is the heavenly city of God for HIS people.
The current Israel, the nation, will be destroyed by God as the other nations of this earth are destroyed by God.
Many destructive thoughts will vanish when we quit focusing on this present heaven and earth and possessions and flesh of humans.