There
are coffee filters when we run our water through to filter the coffee beans,
filters to help keep the dust out of the air with our AC/furnace, an oil filter
for our cars, trucks and buses when our engine is running to keep the dirt
out. Our liver in our body is a filter that filters out the impurities of
what we eat. We can live without a certain part of our liver, but not all
it.
My
daughter, and I were watching an episode of the doctor television show House,
and it was about a man’s medical illness that caused him to have no filter or
control of his tongue. For this man he had bit his tongue for years how
he really felt, because he loved his daughter and wife, but I believe it’s sad
that he even allowed these judging/belittling thoughts to build up in his mind
like a bird builds a nest. My sister told me that the “birds of paradise
can fly over our head, but they don’t have to build a nest in our minds.”
The mind governed by the flesh is death,
but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the
flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
Romans 8:6-7
I’m
glad that people do put a filter on their thought life, because I would hate to
go digging around in their minds and find out what they meditate on each day.
He
had a medical illness, but it goes back to if you can’t say anything nice about
someone, then don’t say it all. Most of the time when people have a lack
patience with another person they say offensive things because they are
inpatient with them, or sometimes it can be an insecurity in themselves that
they take out their job problems on another person.
We all stumble in many ways. Anyone
who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole
body in check. James 3:2
Many
marriage breakups can be traced to an unkind thought that leads to someone says
something unkind out of their mouth, and then next our actions speak very
loudly. If a person is “acting out” --- it’s what is going on in their
heart and mind.
A good man brings good things out of the
good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil
stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
Matthew 6:45
For out of the heart come evil
thoughts--murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile
them." Matthew 15:19
Dear children, let us not love with
words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18
Satan
can put a thought in our minds, but that does not mean we have to meditate on
it (allow it to stay) because like a cow chewing it’s cud and regurgitates the
grass, the thought becomes a part of our minds when we meditate on it (allow it
to continue and dwell in our minds), and it can dominate or become a part of
our life. It affects our attitudes towards other people and what comes
out of our mouth and then our actions.
The Pharisees were
meditating on evil, and wanted to kill Jesus. If we harbor (like a
ship harbor) resentment, bitterness and
jealousy, it usually comes out in words or actions eventually. Herodias
nursed a grudge against John the Baptist and she eventually got his head on a
platter.
So Herodias nursed a grudge
against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, Mark 6:19
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he:
Proverbs 23:7
There
is a another filter and It’s called what goes in our minds (garbage) and what
comes out of our minds (garbage) and the filter is called controlling our mouth
to the word of God. I believe the word of God is our filter. Is what
we say contrary to the word of God or does it line up with it?
May these words of my mouth and this
meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my
Redeemer. Psalm 19:4
But whose delight is in the law of the
Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. hat person is like a
tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose
leaf does not wither-- whatever they do prospers. Psalm 1:2-3
We
can take control over our thought life through the power of God when
thoughts are impure not to meditate on those thoughts. When thoughts come
against us about someone else that is an opportunity to pray for that person
and say “God bless them.”
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever
is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think
about such things. Philip 4:8
We
are all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account
of our life and one of these accounts will be our words. We will give an
account for every idle word we speak.
But I tell you that everyone will have
to give account on the day of judgment for every empty (idle) word they have
spoken. Matthew 12:36
I
believe most of the transformation comes through the word of God. When it
say, “From glory to glory he is changing us” –much of that is through the word
of God and then prayer. Prayer and praise in lifting up the bad
thoughts in our life to God…giving the thoughts over to God to help us overcome
them.
And we all, who with unveiled faces
contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with
ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Cor.
3:18
The Bible movie (reenactment of real life), the Pharisees
were always trying to trip up or catch Jesus in a fault or sin.
Rather than walking in mercy and love, they were fault-finders.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and
cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the
law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter,
without neglecting the former. Matthew 23:23
I
don’t want to be like the Pharisees and leave off justice, mercy and
faithfulness. They tried to catch Jesus by getting him to condemn the
woman caught in adultery, paying taxes, healing on the Sabbath, and telling a
person their sins were forgiven. Jesus was being “who he is” as far
as the son of God. To be anything else would have been living a lie
as far as he healed the sick, cured the lepers, walked on water, raised Lazarus
from the dead, and they even killed him and he rose the third day.
What
more can you ask for from the son of God?
Jesus agenda was not the Pharisees' agenda which was the problem.
Jesus told Pilate his kingdom was not of this world. We are all
going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of our
life and one of these accounts will be our words. We will give an account
for every idle word we speak.
But I tell you that everyone will have
to give account on the day of judgment for every empty (idle) word they have
spoken. Matthew 12:36
Satan
can manipulate our circumstances, and he knows our past history. He
manipulated Joseph’s circumstances that caused him to be sold into slavery by
jealousy of his brothers, and then later through Potiphar’s wife that made a
sexual pass at Joseph, but he refused. God turned around the outcome of
those circumstances into a positive in Joseph’s life. He turned around
what Satan did in his life to good. I’ve had a couple of incidents in my
life where people harmed me, but God turned it around for good. God
turned that negative situation around in my life.
You intended to harm me, but God
intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many
lives. Genesis 50:20
Satan
cannot read into our future per say. I’ve heard of familiar spirits that
know something about us, but what is neat is that the enemy can only go by our
past history and what we normally would do in life or whatever circumstance he
tries to manipulate in the future. If we respond differently to a bad
circumstance than it surprises the devil. I know I’ve surprised the enemy
many times the last few years in doing something different than what I would
normally do in life.
None of the rulers of this age knew
this wisdom, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory. 1 Cor. 2:8
It’s
great when the enemy cannot anticipate our moves like a Chess game and we do
something different. It goes back to like in computer programming to
change variables to get different results since insanity is doing the same
thing over and over expecting different results. (Albert Einstein)
I
find a saturation at different times with the word of God helps me. It
talks about letting the word of God dwell “richly” in us. For me it is
listening to the word of God on CD. I like to put it on in the car
and on every night before I go to bed and listen to it at least 30-minutes or
more each day. My spirit seems to “soak” it up like a sponge.
Let the message of Christ dwell among
you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through
psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your
heart. Col. 3:16
If
the word of Christ is dwelling in us richly, I don’t see how the devil can take
up space or residence in our thought life.
Neither give place to the devil.
Ephesians 4:27
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