How does a person go about taking a thought captive and making it obedient to Christ? This was the question I asked myself when I finally understood that God really expected me to do it. I took the matter to the Lord in prayer and asked Him to show me how to do such a thing. I needed specific instructions, not spiritual platitudes. As this matter became the key issue in my spiritual growth, God revealed a practical, simple way to do it.
The concept of taking thoughts captive must be understood in the context of spiritual warfare, because that is what it is. The enemy wants us to remain carnal and think in ways that will not glorify (reflect the presence of God in our lives) God. The enemy wants me to shake my fist at the rude drivers of the world and curse them. God wants me to love the rude drivers of the world and forgive them. This is the nature of the spiritual war we fight and our thoughts represent the individual battles we fight in that war. If we can’t win the battles of thought God will not be glorified in our lives.
As I prayed and meditated about taking my thoughts captive, God showed me that I must think of myself as a mere soldier in the spiritual war being waged. I am not a General. I am a Private on the front lines, sitting in my spiritual foxhole waiting for instructions about what to do next. One of the things a soldier must do is take prisoners from time to time. It is not the responsibility of the soldier to determine the ultimate fate of the prisoner. The responsibility of the soldier is to apprehend the prisoner and turn that prisoner over to higher authority. The soldier merely delivers the prisoner to a designated place of confinement. A higher authority manages the place of confinement and determines what will happen to the prisoner – what happens to the prisoner is not a concern of the soldier. After transferring the prisoner to higher authority, the soldier is no longer responsible for the prisoner and is freed to return to the front lines to await the next battle. I have learned the practical method of taking a thought captive is exactly the same!
As a soldier engaged in spiritual warfare I take up my post daily. I go to my spiritual foxhole on the frontlines of the war shielded by faith and armed with the truth of God. As a soldier in this war I come to understand that the war for me concerns the things I think. My thought life represents the individual battles I must fight. The specific thoughts I have that are not pleasing to God are soldiers of the enemy. My responsibility is to take them captive when they appear and deliver them to a higher authority. I am not responsible for what happens to those thoughts once I turn them over to higher authority. All I have to do is return to the front lines and wait for the next prisoner taking opportunity.
As I began to seriously take on my thought life, this model of spiritual warfare was the template I used to take my thoughts captive. Whenever I started thinking a thought I knew was not pleasing to God, I imagined that thought to be an enemy soldier. In my mind I put the thought in an enemy uniform and I apprehended the prisoner in the name of Christ. I literally said in my mind, “Thought of lust, anger, resentment, jealousy, ego, pride or self righteousness, I apprehend you in the name of Jesus Christ.” After apprehending the thought in this way, I mentally marched the prisoner at gun point to the protective custody of Jesus. Jesus is the higher authority to whom I conveyed the prisoner. I formed a mental image of a thought prison and I imagined the Lord standing at the door. I delivered the prisoner by saying, “Lord Jesus, I relinquish this thought of lust, anger, resentment, etc. to you, to do with as you please. Amen.” After surrendering the prisoner, I returned to the front lines to await the next battle.
As I began to follow this model and started taking my thoughts captive I was amazed at what happened. Sometimes, the Lord saw fit to release the prisoner I had just surrendered to Him and the prisoner would be waiting for me when I returned to the front lines. I did not let this bother me. I merely repeated the prisoner taking process. I did not concern myself with why the Lord did not keep the prisoner. I just accepted that it was my responsibility to recapture it and take it back to the Lord. Sometimes, I would have to take the same thought captive many times before it would remain in the Lord’s custody, but eventually the prisoner would be locked up and I would not see it again. This never failed!
When I first started taking thoughts captive it seemed like a full time job. There was an endless supply of prisoners to be apprehended and as fast as I would take one prisoner, more would appear. As I persevered in taking my thoughts captive my thought life began to change dramatically. God was faithful to remove them from my mind and replace them with His thoughts. Slowly and over time, I began to really experience a thought life that was more pleasing to God. My motives changed and I changed. Do I still have thoughts that are not pleasing to God? Certainly. What do I do about them? I take them captive and turn them over to Christ. Nothing has changed about the prisoner taking process. The thoughts that must be taken prisoner are just more subtle and they are more difficult to identify and judge.
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