Overcoming The Warfare of Thoughts
Event: Season of the Spirit 2025 (Day 3)
Theme: The Name and the Love of the Father
Date: Sunday, 4th May 2025
Speaker: Pastor Precious Gabriel
“He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.” (Proverbs 22:11). God is the king here, who is looking for friends but not everyone is qualified to be His friend. “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” (Proverbs 17:17). The “friend” here is a person who will become a friend of God; one who has the power to love at all times. To have the power to love at all times, one must be able to remit sins at all times (1 Peter 4:8).
God desires His friend to be well-exercised in forgiving his brother (Matthew 18:21-22). He also desires His friend to have a purity of heart (Proverbs 22:11). The purity of one’s heart reflects the kind of heart such a person has; it reflects his thoughts (Proverbs 23:7). It is possible to be pure in heart towards all men; every thought towards anyone should be pure.
“In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? [2] For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.” (Psalm 11:1-2). Whatever makes a man flee must be very dangerous. Many of us war with thoughts from season to season but those thoughts may not be our thoughts, rather, they are arrows of the wicked against our hearts and we must be able to judge them using the parameters in Philippians 4:8.
A soldier always wears a form of breastplate to protect his heart. In the same manner, we must also guard our hearts against the enemy at all times, otherwise we will be defeated (Proverbs 4:23). We can only find safety in the mountain (Psalm 11:1) but a pure heart is required to access it (Psalm 24:3-4). Therefore, we must be sensitive and fight against the enemy’s crafty arrows of thoughts using the solutions provided by the Lord.
“Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.” (Lamentations 3:51). We need our eyes to truly keep our hearts. “[8] A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes. [26] A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.” (Proverbs 20:8, 26). Although the wicked devises attacks against the righteous, we can scatter away all evil with our eyes and have victory over wrong thoughts if we can sit on the throne of judgement (Proverbs 20:8, 26).
Certain spirits are responsible for bringing these wrong thoughts. Thus, we must equip ourselves as kings with the doctrine being brought to us in this season. Our Lord Jesus is the King of kings (1 Timothy 6:15) and as men who desire to be His friends, we are also kings in making. As we are being made into kings, we will be able to sit on thrones of judgement and scatter away all evil (Proverbs 20:8). As we war against thoughts, we should not fellowship with the thoughts but fight them off immediately.
