Bill Johnson - How the Devil Hides in Thoughts
A stone does not create a dwelling place, but repeated stones connected together eventually build a place where the enemy can hide unrecognized. What are these stones? They’re illegitimate thoughts. When I embrace an illegitimate thought that the enemy has suggested over my life and dwell on it, I meditate on it. What am I doing? I’m actually building a habitation for the enemy to dwell unrecognized. God, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Glad you showed up! Greetings to our Bethel family, both here and around the world. How many countries? We heard this last week that there were 127 or something like that—127 countries are signed up to receive Bethel TV content, so that’s kind of cool!
All right, well, I found this thing: «How do you decide who to marry?» written by children. We may want to start praying for these children after you hear the way they think. Alan, age 10, said, «You’ve got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming. That’s really important!» Kristen, age 10, said, «No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.» It makes you wonder what kind of home that child was raised in.
I love this one: How can a stranger tell if two people are married? Derek, age 10, responded, «You might have to guess based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.» That’s pretty brilliant. Lori, age 10, was asked, «What do you think your mom and dad have in common?» Her response was, «Both don’t want any more kids.» Lynette, age 8, was asked, «What do most people do on a date?» She said, «Dates are for having fun. People should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.» Oh, that girl’s been around!
All right, we’ll see you! Let’s make this the last one. How would you make a marriage work? Ricky, age 10, said, «Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a dump truck.» Let’s pray for these children. You know, it’s so funny. Open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12. We’re going to start there. I’m actually going to talk to you about a subject that I’ve talked about over and over again, and I sometimes wonder if maybe I don’t talk about this stuff for my sake, and you just happen to be in the room. I think that might be the case.
But I’m going to talk to you about the renewed mind again, hopefully from a little different angle. The mind is a battleground. We know that. Here’s part of our challenge: we know that we can do nothing without Him. Our problem is that we’ve learned to do nothing with Him. Acts 10:38 says Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Tomorrow, when God is with someone, the impossible is expected to bow. The renewed mind is a huge part of this journey.
Ephesians chapter 6 gives us a picture—metaphorically—of armor and how it protects the life of a believer: the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness. There’s also the shield of faith, and that shield of faith is to catch and extinguish the flaming darts of the enemy. So if you can imagine this picture: a soldier holding up a shield is to stop the flaming dart, the arrow from the enemy, from piercing them. Faith absorbs the illegitimate thoughts and suggestions of the enemy. If an arrow gets past the shield—gets past our faith—it actually wounds us. There’s a second tool that God gave us: the sword of the Spirit. It’s not a long sword like in the Three Musketeers; it’s actually an 18-inch dagger—maybe it would be used for hand-to-hand combat. But for sure, if an arrow gets past the shield of faith, it’s that sword, that word, that digs out the lie.
It’s important we identify the lies that come our way, but it’s equally important that we recognize the truth that is to replace them. Truth is not merely to be glanced at in a daily reading; it is to be memorized, to be prayed, to be meditated on. What happens with the lies of the enemy is that they always war against our identity in Christ, and I’ll try to show that to you in just a moment. Every lie that the enemy has ever suggested to you, every lie he has ever thrown your way, exists to war against what you know about Him.
When we entertain lies, we create an arena where the enemy’s thoughts are able to war against the mind of Christ. Now, the devil can never beat God, so don’t take this farther than I intend, but we create an arena where, when we entertain the thoughts of the enemy, in that moment, those thoughts war against what we know to be true about God and can actually undermine us. I’m not saying the enemy ever has power over the Lord—never! But what I am saying is that there is a season in which our thoughts and what we have determined actually affect the outcome of what God desires.
Mark chapter 7 is a kind of scary example where the Gospel writer is quoting Jesus, who says, «You, by your traditions, have made the word of God of no effect.» What’s more powerful than the word of God? Nothing! It is the most powerful thing in the universe, and yet you and I get to vote with what we meditate on, what we think on. When you empower a lie, you empower the liar. When you believe a lie, you empower the liar. So it is possible, in that moment, in that space and time through tradition, through misplaced religious values that are not built on the mind of Christ, that I can actually undermine the power of the word of God.
He said, «You make the word of God of no effect.» The truth has all of heaven behind it; a lie has nothing behind it except inferior demonic powers. But in that moment the lie is mentioned to me, because of the authority I have in Christ, I can empower the lie to undermine the word of the Lord over my life. Faith absorbs and extinguishes lies. Faith is anchored in the word of God. Discovering the nature of God, every lie is meant to undermine our position in Christ, undermine our sense of self-esteem, our sense of design and purpose.
Let’s get into this passage from Romans 12. If you have your Bibles, let me see them. All right, close enough! Romans 12:1 says: «I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.»
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, do not think of himself more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Let’s just read it again: «For I say to you, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, do not think of himself more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.»
I’d like to suggest to you that your thoughts, anchored in actual faith, are greater than what you could imagine. Your thoughts that are expressions of authentic faith are actually greater than your wildest imagination. But the difference is that thoughts anchored in faith are anchored in reality, while imaginations must be bolstered and kept in place. I know people who live to protect their self-esteem; they can’t receive correction because any bit of correction is a threat to their self-esteem. You see it with Saul and David: when the women started singing, «Saul has killed his thousands; David his ten thousands,» any good leader who’s secure in his own identity is actually encouraged by those he’s empowered to be successful.
But when you live to protect your own self-identity, it’s all props; it’s all fake stuff that upholds it. Because of that, insecurity and jealousy are what we become prone to. When we don’t understand who Jesus says we really are, anyone who discovers who God made them to be will never want to be anyone else. It’s who God made us to be that’s important.
This is such a critical area that Jesus was actually verbally assaulted, if you will. He was tempted, if you will, in Luke 4 when Satan came to him in the wilderness during his 40-day fast, and he gave him this question: «If you’re the Son of God,» the first thing he addressed was identity. The battle for identity is so significant culturally; it’s become an epidemic—a lost sense of identity. It’s a pandemic—and it’s contagious. People who believe lies inspire others to believe the same lies just to protect that false sense of identity. When you believe a lie, you have to feed it with more lies to protect it.
Real faith is not an expression of self-determination; real faith is the result of surrender. You can’t determine yourself into great faith, but you can surrender yourself into great faith because you’re a believer, and believers believe as part of their nature. Romans 12:2 says, «Don’t be conformed to this world; be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might prove the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.»
Years ago, I heard somebody say, «I don’t want to do the perfect will of God; I want to do the acceptable will of God.» That’s just absolutely foolish! Those are not three terms describing three different expressions of the will of God. If you ever think that, just slap yourself until you start thinking correctly! Three words describe the same thing: good, acceptable, perfect.
The renewed mind, as I understand it, helps us with three basic things. Number one, the renewed mind enables us to usher in the miraculous. Let me explain how this works: through the transformation of our mind, we prove what the will of God is. The best definition of the will of God is in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples: «Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.» What’s the will of God on earth as it is in heaven? What makes that possible? The renewed mind! Faith doesn’t come from the mind; we know that faith comes from the heart. But the renewed mind is like the banks of a river; it creates the context for faith to flow in.
The renewed mind will always work in cooperation with faith. Faith sees, faith perceives, and the renewed mind will always function in the perception of what faith sees and cooperate with that very thing that God has designed. So, number one: the renewed mind makes possible or gives occasion for the miraculous. You know your mind’s renewed when the impossible looks logical. There is a reasoning available to us that is not hype, it’s not sweaty, it’s not through human effort; it’s actually the mind of Christ, revealed in scripture page after page after page.
The renewed mind anchors into what God has said above every other voice. The Bible says, «Let God be found true and every man a liar.» If I spend more time receiving input from mainstream media than I do from the word of God, then my depression is self-imposed. If I believe a lie, I create a narrative; if I embrace a lie, I create a place for that seed to germinate through time of thinking, and my confession waters that seed until it takes root in my personality and actually affects the way I affect people.
That kind of lie can only be removed through repentance. We know that repentance means to change the way you think, but the part I don’t always emphasize, that I am purposefully emphasizing from here on out, is that scripture says godly sorrow produces repentance. Repentance is not a mental exercise; it is not mind over matter. It is not just deciding to think differently about something. It’s different than that. It comes from a place of deep soul awareness.
Let’s say you entertain thoughts of self-doubt. Now, I get it; it’s easy to spot the devil’s suggestions of immorality, stealing, lying—those kinds of things. Those are easy to find; that’s the devil wearing a red rubber suit—easy to spot! It’s when he comes looking like Jesus that we have a hard time. He said he comes as an angel of light. When he comes with a suggestion that is actually self-doubt, but because it has the feeling of humility, it’s embraced by believers.
Focusing in the name of humility is just a quiet pride. Self-absorption is the issue. If I embrace that lie, let’s say of self-doubt—where God has said, «I’m going to be doing this to obey the Lord; I need to go in this direction» and I’m filled with self-doubt, saying, «I don’t think I can do that; I don’t think I’m that kind of person; I don’t have that personality; I don’t have that gifting; I don’t think I have the right training"—that kind of self-doubt is actually feeding into a lie because it’s contrary to what God said.
Because I say I don’t think too highly of myself, I fall for the lie that that is humility, and it’s not humility at all—it’s arrogance and pride because it wars against what God has said. That kind of sin that all of us have fallen into here can only be uprooted through repentance. «Father, I have chosen to believe the opposite of what you said; forgive me.» Godly sorrow produces change.
The first thing that the renewed mind does for us is it positions us to partner with God to see the impossibilities of life bow to the name of Jesus. The renewed mind ushers in the miraculous. The second thing it does is it connects us to a true godly self-esteem, which is essential. Self-esteem that is contrived out of our own discipline—I don’t mind that; I wish more people would do it—actually, just fake it if you have to! You know, the world would be a better place if you just lied to me; you know, I don’t care!
Biblical self-esteem is to see what He sees, to say what He says, to believe His word over everything else in our life. The war against identity is huge and significant; it’s what’s behind the absolute destruction of the concept of fatherhood in our country. I don’t mean to say by any means that a single mom cannot release any part of identity to children; it’s just that there’s such a war over identity. That’s the whole point, and unfortunately, what happens out there doesn’t stay out there. Sometimes what happens out there comes in here.
The very battle that your neighbor has, if you fight the same battle your unbelieving neighbor fights with the same tools they fight with, you’re going to have the same outcome they have, regardless of the fact that you’re going to spend eternity with Jesus. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal; they’re actually divinely designed to fit in your hand—well, divinely designed to be apprehended by every single individual in this room. It’s not an ill-fitting sword; it’s a perfectly fitting sword according to your design, your purpose, and what God has said over you.
It is possible for you to completely annihilate every lie that is thrown at you. Paul told Timothy, «Timothy, wage the war against you; wage it according to the prophecies that have been made about you. Take the word of the Lord and fight your fight.» In other words, your destiny is on the other side of a war, so take God’s word and get there. Do whatever you need to do to get there; that’s His design; that’s your purpose. Get there! But take this word to get there.
Part of what we do in that sense of self-esteem and purpose is not to work on our self-esteem just so that we feel better about ourselves; that’s a nauseating conclusion. I should say it better than that—it’s a conclusion that could be articulated more effectively. What’s the purpose of your self-esteem? Your self-esteem is anchored in the nature of God. You don’t find out who you are until you find out who He is. Self-esteem is our confidence in design, which means we are automatically devoted to our designer.
All right, that went over well. Let’s go to Second Corinthians chapter 10. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I spoke to some of our students out of this chapter this week, and I don’t want to say this verse is haunting me, but it just keeps following me everywhere I go. I can’t shake it, nor would I want to, but the Lord is definitely trying to build this feeling. I feel like this is a now passage for us to better understand the hour we live in.
So, verse 3: «We walk in the flesh, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds.» Picture with me a stronghold. If we were in biblical days, you would see cities made out of huge stones, these carved stones. Each wall would be these various stones built inside, and there would be houses or castles or whatever. If you’re from Europe, there’re these beautiful castles built out of these stones.
A stone is not a stronghold; a stone does not create a dwelling place. But repeated stones, connected together, eventually build a place where the enemy can hide unrecognized. He hides. What are these stones? They’re illegitimate thoughts. When I embrace an illegitimate thought that the enemy has suggested over my life and I dwell on it, I meditate on it. What am I doing? I’m actually building a habitation for the enemy to dwell unrecognized. Does that make sense to you? This castle-like edifice, and the enemy hides inside! We can’t see him; he comes out at night to attack, but we don’t spot him during the day because he’s hiding behind a way of thinking that is illegitimate.
He says the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God for the purpose of pulling down strongholds—pull down the illegitimate patterns of thought that have enabled the enemy to kill, steal, and destroy. Verse 5: «Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.»
Let’s just say, for illustration’s sake, that this is an army in here, an actual physical army fighting an actual physical war. Outside of this room is an enemy army, and in that enemy army is a world-renowned terrorist who kills, rapes, and maims just for pleasure and delight. We put together a team of Green Beret-type operatives and send them out. They sneak in behind the enemy’s camp and take that world-renowned terrorist captive and bring him into our camp.
Now imagine that terrorist is here. We retrain him, with his zeal, his willingness to put his life on the line, and now we train him not to fight against God’s purposes but for God’s purposes. That is exactly what happened to the Apostle Paul, who sought to kill. He was apprehended by the Lord and brought to the front lines of battle. He became the captive thought, if you will, that now works on behalf of the kingdom of God.
The lies that you and I have dealt with throughout our lives must be dealt with, but it’s more—it’s not good enough that we get out of the red; we have to get into the black. It’s not good enough that I stop the bad thought; I must replace it with what God says. I must replace it with what God actually says. What does He say here? Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ—apprehending that which was working in me to undermine my identity, undermine my confidence in God, undermine my faith, and now that very thing that was working against me is now working for me—building up my faith, building up my confidence in God, building up my sense of esteem and purpose. The thought life is now used for my welfare, not against me.
The renewed mind serves to usher in the miraculous. It connects us to a godly self-esteem that anchors our soul into the nature and covenant of God. The third thing it does is that the renewed mind is free from anxiety. The renewed mind positions us for godly creativity. Stop trying to be different. Stop trying to be original. Start trying to be authentic. Artists who try to be original just do stupid things. But artists who work to be authentic create.
I’m telling you the absolute truth. You can create out of pain, but it’s never as wonderful as those who create out of the overflow of life in Christ. Every five-year-old is an artist, and somehow we get into an educational system where we get taught this one’s an artist, that one is not. Yet creativity is supposed to be a normal expression of every believer’s life. Whether you’re a lawyer, a doctor, a stay-at-home parent, whether you work down at the gas station, or whether you own a business, it doesn’t matter. Creativity—authenticity is needed in every expression in society because there’s an authentic expression of who God made you to be that the world is aching for.
Trying to copy other people just kills what God made us to be. And what happens with the renewed mind is that the renewed mind is free from the anxiety and the stuff that just ties us down—fearful of making a mistake. The renewed mind is not as fearful of making a mistake as it is of not taking risks.
The Christian life is supposed to be carefree! Oh, is that even possible? The doctor wrote me a note that says you need to have no stress in your life, and then he suggested just have one day of the week that you deal with stressful things. Even that is challenging! So it is—it’s today, and then tomorrow, and then Tuesday—why?
Let me take you to a strange story. We won’t turn there, but you can study it on your own if you want. Zechariah 1 talks about four horns. Horns in scripture are authorities or powers. Four horns released in the earth—the number four represents the earth, the world, north, south, east, and west; it represents the planet. So the enemy has taken four demonic power realities and released them into the earth to discourage the people of God and undermine the work of the gospel, really, is what it comes down to.
God’s answer for these four horns was to release four artisans. That’s one of the strangest things. It’s like when God set a choir into battle first. The Lord’s answer for these four realms of authority and powers that would blanket the earth with an oppressive mindset was for a worldwide movement of creativity—a worldwide movement of restored authentic expressions out of a relationship with God that would terrorize the enemy and reverse the effect of these four horns.
How important is the mind of Christ? It’s important for about a thousand reasons, but one of them is it’s the only way the authentic you will ever be known. It’s the only way the authentic you will ever be realized by both you and those around you. The mind of Christ is not something put upon you; it’s something you were designed for. The mind of Christ is actually the glove that fits perfectly.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned again—I feel like this could probably be the key passage for my life in the last ten years, out of John 15:7, where He says, «You abide in Me and My words abide in you. You’ll ask whatever you desire and it will be done for you.»
I want to wrap this session up with this verse. Let me talk to you about it for a minute: «You abide in Me.» Live in a place with a felt realization of God’s presence! With the affection of your heart, be anchored in the fact that God is with us—Emmanuel, God with us. He said, «Abide in Me. My words abide in you.» Be intentional about embracing, meditating, praying on what God has said of your life.
It can’t be passive; it can’t be this occasional glimpse at a nice inspirational verse. It’s got to be embracing the meat of the word so that it has its full effect. Do you know the difference between milk and meat in scripture? Milk is that which soothes and comforts; meat is what brings about change. It’s called the word of righteousness in Hebrews 5—the word of righteousness that provokes change in me. Embracing that which God has said over me will provoke change and transform my life in alignment with what God has said.
What would it be like to think according to faith? «You abide in Me; let My words abide in you.» Then you become positioned to co-labor with God to see His will and His purposes done in and through you on the earth. It’s the all-encompassing verse that describes our design, our purpose, our co-laboring role to see transformation happen all around us. It’s a transformed mind that transforms a person. It’s a transformed person that transforms a city. There’s a connection, and usually I have been drafted into this role of partnering with the Lord to not just live with the realization that I can do nothing without Him; I want to stop doing nothing with Him.
I want John 15:7 to be more and more of my daily bread, where I intentionally live in the manifest presence of God, embracing what He’s declared over my life, and unwilling to believe a lie in that context—seeing His will done on earth as it is in heaven.
Let’s stand together. You made it! Thank you! I’ll take it; that was unexpected! Huh, that was good! Thank you! I know the probability is high that we have friends, people, among us that don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. It’s really imperative. It’s really put right in front of every one of us to live in a place of continual surrender. There are some in this room who would say, «Well, I don’t have a relationship with Jesus; I don’t know what it is to follow Him. I don’t know what it is to be born again, to be forgiven of sin, but I want to. I don’t want to leave this building until I know what it is to find peace with God.»
Does anybody in that position? Put your hand up high because I want to see you right where you are and just acknowledge you. I want to make an agreement with you. The online family—same! I know we have so many people that have come to Christ online, so let me give just a moment; put it in the chat room, if you would. We have pastors online that will help you.
Okay, I’m going to assume we’re all in. Let me pray for your minds. Jesus, I’m not joking, but I’m joking anyway. All right, Father, thanks for the mind of Christ. You’ve given it to us as an inheritance—it’s in our account! I pray that this would be a week of personal transformation where we think what You think, see what You see, and feel what You feel; that what You’ve designed for us would be more fully embraced by every single believer in this room. In fact, I pray for our new believers in here that they will not have to go through the years of turmoil and confusion that so many others of us have had to go through because they embrace truly the mind of Christ as our inheritance.
I pray for this in the honor of the name Jesus. Everybody said, «Amen!»