In the previous blog post: walk in the dominion that God has given you, the walk of አዲሱ ፍጥረት was discussed. The dominion (ሥልጣን) that has been given through Jesus Christ was discussed as the consequences if you, እንደ አዲስ ፍጥረት, don’t walk in the dominion that God has given you. In this article the mind will be discussed and how important it is to take authority over your thoughts. Because if you don’t take authority over your thoughts, your thoughts will take authority over you and rule your life. Let’s have a look at what the Bible says about the mind. How can you take authority over your thoughts?
Your mind determines your course in life
All the works and actions of people derive from the mind. As it is written in Proverbs 23:7: As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
The way a man thinks about himself (or herself), makes him (her) the person he (she) ነው።. Out of the mind and the way a man thinks, man acts. Therefore we can say, that all behavior, actions, and speech derives from the mind.
The mind acts also as a filter. When your mind is ‘clouded’ or ‘corrupted’, or to put it in other words, when you have a ‘wrong’ mindset and therefore a wrong way of thinking, then everything you perceive with your senses (ተመልከት, መስማት, feel), will become affected by this wrong mindset.
The mind of a person is therefore very important and determines the course of life.
The old man and his thoughts
Before you became ዳግመኛ መወለድ, and before you became አዲስ ፍጥረት, you were the አሮጌ ፍጥረት; ኃጢአተኛ, and lived as a sinner. Your spirit was dead and you were led by your flesh and your carnal mind; your thoughts. The lusts and desires of your flesh and your mind ruled over you. They determined what they wanted you to do, and you obeyed them. You acted upon your thoughts. You were a slave of your flesh and your thoughts.
And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: በእነዚህም መካከል እኛ ሁላችን ደግሞ በፊት በሥጋችን ምኞት እንመላለስ ነበር።, የሥጋንና የአዕምሮን ምኞት መፈጸም; በተፈጥሮም የቁጣ ልጆች ነበሩ።, እንደ ሌሎች እንኳን (ኤፌሶን 2:1-3)
Your carnal mind was against the Word of God, and therefore enmity against God (ሮማውያን 8:7)
Your mind was carnal and was controlled by the darkness; by the prince of the power of the air. Because that was your source. Your mind, and your thoughts agreed with the thoughts of the world, because the ruler of this world (ሰይጣን) was your father. You belonged to him, he reigned in your life, and you obeyed him. Because of the fact that the devil is the adversary of God, every thought he put into your mind was against the Word of God.
አዲሱ ፍጥረት
ከዚያም ቅጽበት መጣ, that you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Your sinful nature was exposed by the Holy Spirit and you ንስሐ ገባ of your life as a sinner. You became ዳግመኛ መወለድ ሆነ አዲስ ፍጥረት. The new creation is in the beginning still a baby, and oftentimes still subjected to the flesh (አካል እና ነፍስ). Because your flesh has been fed for years by the darkness, and reigned, since your natural birth, in your life.
All those years your mind was fed, and led, by the world system. Al those years, your flesh, including your mind received input out of the natural world (through nurture (the way you were raised), ትምህርት, መዝናኛ, (ማህበራዊ)media, ወዘተ.).
Your whole mind has been polluted with the knowledge of this world. Their your mind is in line with the mind of the ruler of this world; ሰይጣን.
አዲስ ፍጥረት ስትሆን, you still think like the world. The only difference is, በኢየሱስ እናምናለን. But your mind and the way you think have not changed yet. Your thoughts still line up with the world and not with the Word.
ነው, ስለዚህ, time to አእምሮዎን ያድሱ, and to start nurturing your spirit, so that your spirit will mature. It is time to stop walking after the flesh and start walking after the Spirit, as a የእግዚአብሔር ልጅ.
How do you nurture your spirit and ensure that your spirit and the Holy Spirit, will reign in your life? እንዴት ነህ አእምሮዎን ያድሱ, so that your mind will line up with the mind of Jesus Christ; ቃሉ? መልሱ ነው።, by the Word of God, through prayer, and by praying in the Holy Ghost.
የ mission of every newborn Christian, is to become a son of God and walk after the Spirit. Just like Jesus.
For to have the mind dominated by the sinful nature is death, but to have the mind dominated by the Spirit is life and peace (ሮማውያን 8:6 (K.W)
Renew your mind with the Word
Your mission and purpose as a new creation, እንደ ቃሉ መሆን ነው።; የሱስ. Your ‘former’ and ‘current’ way of thinking, doesn’t define who you are, but the Word defines who you really are. The Word is the mirror for the new creation.
Your whole life, you were controlled by the darkness, by the world. You were fed with lies, that blinded you to the Truth.
አሁን, the time has come, to lay down these lies and to put on the Truth; በሌላ ቃል: to renew your mind with the Word of God.
The Word of God will expose all the lies of the world and of the devil.
The spirit in you must reign over your flesh. This means including your thoughts, ስሜቶች, እና ስሜቶች (that go against the Word of God).
When your spirit doesn’t take authority and doesn’t start to reign over your flesh, your spirit shall be subjected to the flesh and you will still be controlled by the flesh; ጨለማው.
The devil works in the mind
One of the biggest territories of the devil is the mind. The devil knows how important the mind is. The devil knows that the mind controls the behaviour, actions, and speech of people. That’s why the devil wants to reign in the mind, and control the mind of man. ስለዚህ, man will remain the devil’s slave and do exactly what he wants (እንዲሁም አንብብ: ‘የእግዚአብሔር ፈቃድ vs የዲያብሎስ ፈቃድ'').
The devil doesn’t want you to find out the Truth. Because when you find out who you really are in Jesus Christ and what dominion (ሥልጣን) has been given to you, you will become a big threat to the devil and his kingdom. That’s why the devil wants you to stay ignorant of the Word and have a lack of knowledge.
The devil wants you to stay carnal and keep living after your flesh. He wants to control you through the lusts and desires of your flesh and your mind; your thoughts.
አዲስ ፍጥረት ስትሆን, the devil and his army do not have any legal right anymore to occupy your mind. ግን…. they do have the ability to occupy your mind.
The devil and his army will take every opportunity to stay in control of your mind. He has one mission and that is to bring you into captivity and bring you back into darkness and destroy you.
The devil and his army are fallen angels. They can;t read your mind; your thoughts, but they can fill your mind with their lies.
The devil sends his angels with a mission to attack your mind with lies, and to control your mind with thoughts of destruction, worry, ጭንቀት, ፍርሃት, suspiciousness, jealousy, pride, ምቀኝነት, negativity, አመፅ, self-rejection etc.
The instruments of the devil
Besides these attacks on the mind, the devil also uses instruments from the visible world: like education, (ማህበራዊ) media, መዝናኛ; tv, ፊልሞች, computer games, መጻሕፍት, ወዘተ. to invade your mind. These instruments will ensure that you will stay in his power and will stay controlled by evil spirits. How can you see if people are controlled by evil spirits? By their actions and their addictions.
As soon as you can’t live without these instruments, you are addicted (smartphone addiction, tv addiction, gaming addiction, book addiction, internet addiction, social media addiction etc.). When you are addicted, you are controlled by the forces of darkness.
It is therefore very important, that when you become a new creation, to be careful with what you look at, watch, and hear, and with what ‘things’ you feed your mind with.
If you don’t አእምሮህን ጠብቅ and keep feeding your mind, with the things of the world, you will become like the world. By feeding your flesh, you will ensure that your flesh stays strong, and keeps reigning in your life.
አዎ, your flesh will stay in control of your life. But when you feed yourself, with the things of the Kingdom of God; የእግዚአብሔር ቃል, ጸሎት, መጾም, speaking in new tongues, ወዘተ. then your spirit will become strong and shall reign in your life. When your spirit reigns, you shall walk after the Spirit.
Taking authority over your thoughts
በኤፌሶን 2:3 Paul wrote to the saints at Ephesus, not only about their position in Christ, but also about their former lives and how they were led by the lusts of their flesh, የሥጋንና የአዕምሮን ምኞት መፈጸም. This is also a truth for today. Because before you turned to Christ, and became a saint, you were a slave of the will of your flesh and mind (your thoughts). Your flesh and mind instructed you what to do, and you automatically obeyed.
But… now that you’ve become a member of the Body of Jesus Christ, you no longer walk according to the will of your flesh and mind. Because you have laid down and buried your flesh through the ጥምቀት በውሃ ውስጥ. The flesh is death, so the flesh can’t be in control anymore.
If your flesh is still in control, it means that you haven’t laid down your flesh yet. You haven’tአሮጌውን ሰው አስወግዱ, but is still alive.
You’ve become አዲስ ፍጥረት, and your spirit has become alive by the power of the Holy Spirit. You shall walk, and live after the Spirit and not after the flesh anymore.
You shall not be controlled by what your senses, and thoughts are telling you to do. But you do, what the Word of God tells you to do. You will take authority over thoughts, that do not line up with the Word of God and don’t let those thoughts take authority over you.
How do you take authority over your thoughts?
1. Get to know the Word of God
በመጀመሪያ, you must get to know the Word of God. Because how else will you find out, that the thoughts you have, don’t line up with the Word of God? The Word instructs you, to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed from the world, by the renewing of your mind with the Word of God. በ ብቻ አእምሮዎን ማደስ ከእግዚአብሔር ቃል ጋር, you will get to know God’s will and the truth. If you know the truth, you can attack the lies with the truth.
እና ይህን ዓለም አትምሰሉ: ነገር ግን በልባችሁ መታደስ ተለወጡ, ይህ መልካም የሆነውን ፈትኑ ዘንድ ነው።, እና ተቀባይነት ያለው, እና ፍጹም, የእግዚአብሔር ፈቃድ (ሮማውያን 12:2)
2. Meditate on the Word, ቀን እና ማታ
Let your mind be filled with the Word, and don’t let your thoughts depart from the Word. Let the Word dwell and be in your heart constantly.
ይህ የሕግ መጽሐፍ ከአፍህ አይለይም።; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, በእርሱ የተጻፈውን ሁሉ ታደርግ ዘንድ ተጠንቀቅ:የዚያን ጊዜ መንገድህን ታቀናለህና።, ከዚያም መልካም ስኬት ይኖርሃል (ኢያሱ 1:8)
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night (መዝሙራት 1:1-2)
3. Take every thought, that goes against the Word of God, into captivity with the Word.
You can only win the battle against your thoughts, out of the Spirit, by bringing your thoughts into captivity with the Word of God. Only the Word can beat the adversary. When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus didn’t beat the devil by singing songs, but He beat the devil with the Word.
When thoughts of worry arises, or other evil thoughts, bring these thought into captivity, to the obedience of Christ, by speaking the Word, and tell these thoughts: that God thinks thoughts of peace, and not of evil towards you, to give you an expected end (ኤርምያስ 29:11)
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 ቆሮንቶስ 10:5)
Take authority over your thoughts,
before they take authority over you
If you won’t take a stand, and don’t take authority over your thoughts, by bringing them into captivity to the obedience of Christ; ቃሉ. ግን በምትኩ, feed these thoughts, by thinking about them and meditating on them, which will result in believing these thoughts, then these thoughts will take authority over you and bring you into captivity.
The thoughts, that go against the Word of God, may seem harmless in the beginning, እውነቱ ግን ነው።, that they aren’t. They have a destructive character.
If you feed thoughts, that oppose the Word of God, they’ll lead you to negative thinking, ጭንቀት, worry, self-rejection, የመንፈስ ጭንቀት, mental illness, and maybe even suicide.
Eve didn’t walk in the dominion that God gave to man; ሰማያትን ሊገዙ, ምድር, and all there is within. She didn’t silence the serpent, በእግዚአብሔር ቃል. She didn’t command the serpent to be silent and to go away.
አይ, she let a thought of doubt enter her mind and acted upon that thought instead. Therefore she and Adam lost their position to the devil, and the devil became the master over man.
If you don’t walk in the dominion that God has given you, በኢየሱስ ክርስቶስ በኩል. And if you won’t take authority over your thoughts, then these thoughts will take authority over you. They will become your master.
God has given you all authority in Jesus Christ
Don’t pray to God, and ask Him to take these thoughts away from you. Because God has given you the dominion, the authority, to rule over them, በኢየሱስ ክርስቶስ. God has given you the authority in Jesus Christ, ቃሉ, to rule over your flesh, including your thoughts..
Therefore renew your mind with the Word of God, አእምሮህን ጠብቅ, stay in the Word (in Jesus), መንፈስንም ተከተሉ, ውስጥ the dominion that God has given you, through Jesus Christ. Take authority over your thoughts, before they take authority over you.
እንዲሁም አንብብ ‘የአእምሮ ሰላም እንዴት ማግኘት እንደሚቻል'', ‘Why do you have to renew your mind’ እና ‘Why do you have to guard your mind’
“የምድር ጨው ሁን”
