Gregory Dickow - Conquer Your Thought Life
Well, the revelation I want to share with you is one I've taught for years, but I've got to tell you, the stories and the testimony after testimony that come in from all over the world confirm that when we understand the battle that we're in, that the battle is really between our ears, that the plan of the devil, that he's launched an attack against our mind and our thought life, when you discover how to fight back with the weapons of warfare that God has made available to you, everything in your life is going to get better: your family's life, your children's life, your grandchildren, your finances, your health.
You're going to overcome struggles that you never thought you could be free from. You're going to break free from addictions. You'll conquer disease and sickness in your body. You'll get out of the financial rut that maybe has been plaguing you for years. I know if you're like me, you're ready for the promises of God to manifest in your life, but are you ready to pull down those strongholds? It's really easy, it's really simple when I show you exactly how to do it in today's program. It all happens right now. Don't go anywhere, you and I are going to study the Bible together one on one. I'll be right back.
Well, we're talking about "Conquering Your Thought Life," and when we do, everything is going to change in your life. Now, I want you to look in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 5, verse 5. We're going to study the Word one on one together today, and I want to show you how to conquer your thought life or how to conquer your flesh. This has become a life-transforming teaching for so many people that we've done over the years, how to conquer our flesh, because the flesh is not your physical body. The flesh is a way of thinking. And it's the root cause to the problems in our lives because when we think wrong or when we think unscriptural or thoughts contrary to the Bible, that's when we lose in life. Jesus has already paid for the entire victory for us to walk in, but we lose and fail in life when we don't renew our minds to God's way of thinking, God's way of looking at things.
So, I want to show you the connection here in Matthew chapter 5, verse 5. Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth". Now, it's time for us to walk in our inheritance. It's time for you to walk in your inheritance. And Jesus shows us how here. Now, I want to show you this connection here. Now, here this word, the word is "meek". It doesn't mean weak, meekness is not weakness. Meekness means controlled strength. In other words, somebody who can control his thought life is a force to be reckoned with. If you can take your thoughts captive, you'll in turn control your emotions, your attitude, your words, your actions, your relationships.
You see, as we control our thought life, we walk in the inheritance that God has intended for our lives. We live the blessed life. Jesus says here we will inherit the earth. He says as we are meek, or as we take control, which is what this word means, take control, harness our thought life, harness our flesh, we win, we inherit. We walk in our inheritance or we experience our inheritance because we're meek, which means we control our thinking. That's what meekness means. If we can control our thinking, we can control anything in our lives. Now, I've said this before, but I really want you to hear this, a successful man or a woman learns the art of conquering himself. In other words, in order to experience true success, prosperity, victory, you simply got to conquer your thought life. You can call it self-mastery, you can call it self-control, but really, freedom is found in conquering your thought life.
A man who conquers himself or a woman who conquers herself cannot be conquered. A man or woman who conquers their flesh cannot be defeated. And I want to make this statement, it's really important that you hear this. It's our unconquered mindsets, that's our flesh, it's our unconquered mindsets that defeat us. Not the devil, not fear, it's our unconquered mindsets. Not your financial situation, it's your unconquered mindsets that defeat you. You see, we don't need to overcome the devil. A lot of times, we thought or we've been told because of bad preaching that the devil is our problem. Well, look, the devil is certainly not a blessing, but he's not your problem because he's already been defeated. Jesus already defeated him on the cross. And I'll say this, thoughts are more powerful than devils. And where the devil gets in our lives is through our way of thinking, our mindsets.
See, you have a born-again spirit. If you're born again, you have a new spirit, but you're going to keep thinking the same way that you were taught to think before you were born again until you renew your mind, until you change the way you think. And listen, it doesn't take years, it doesn't take forever, it takes a decision. And today, that's why today's program is so important. You can't change every thought in an instant, but you can change one thought at a time every day by making a decision to conquer your thought life, and I'm going to give you the tools to do it. So, we got to learn how to replace a wrong thought with a right thought. And where do we get the right thoughts from? The Word of God.
You see, all of our inheritance begins... don't you want God's blessing, God's inheritance in your life? It all begins by conquering your thought life. Jesus said you'll inherit the earth when you conquer your thought life or conquer your flesh, that's meekness. So, if you're not experiencing the fullness of your inheritance, it's because you haven't learned to conquer your flesh, which is a way of thinking. Let me show you what I mean by that, and this will make a lot more sense to you and you'll really be free. You see, John chapter 6, verse 63, Jesus said this, "These words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life".
So, he's telling us something here. He's telling us how to walk in the spirit, that walking in the spirit means walking in the Word. He says, "My words, they are spirit". So, when we're walking in alignment with God's Word, then we're walking in the spirit, and that's how we conquer our flesh. Now, let's go a little deeper here in Galatians chapter 5 and let's read verse 16, where it says, "This I say to you, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh or for the flesh". He says, "The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit lusts against the flesh; and these are contrary to each other". He says, "And so the one is against the other so that you do not end up doing the things that you want to do". What is he saying here in verse 17? He's saying, "Look, the flesh is against the spirit, and the spirit is at war against the flesh". So, he said, "So you don't end up doing the things you want or the things you really desire because of this war".
This war between our flesh and our spirit and our spirit, our spirit in our wrong way of thinking, that's the war and it's preventing you from doing what God wants you do to and from doing what you want to do. So, we can put an end to this battle, we can put an end to this war. And it's not a battle against demons. Our battle is not against our body. Sometimes we fight with that, it's not our battle, it's not against our... it's against our flesh, not our body. And what is the flesh? A way of thinking. Now, the Bible says to crucify our flesh. He certainly is not talking about crucifying our body. He says, "Crucify your flesh".
What does that mean? Well, I can tell you what it doesn't mean. You don't have to give up ice cream to crucify your flesh. Somebody needs to say amen out there. You don't have to give up fun to crucify your flesh. You don't have to give up food or give up some of the things in life that you like in order to crucify your flesh. That's why this teaching is so liberating. I believe you can crucify your flesh while you're eating ice cream. I believe you can crucify your flesh while you're having fun with people that you care about and love. Look, God has impressed upon me to share with you today about conquering your thought life because, as you do, as you change the way you think, as you begin to take these thoughts captive, you're crucifying your flesh or that old way of thinking.
You see, if you're under attack in any area of your life, the fact is is you're probably walking out the byproduct or the result of what started here in your mind. Now, if you're not sure what I'm talking about, let me ask you to run a little test with me. Do you feel confused at times or discouraged? Do you live in fear at all? Or are you battling with some sort of guilt, or shame, or depression, or a lack of confidence? If you would say yes to any of those things, then this much I can tell you. Whether you believe it or not, whether you understand it or not, it's no wonder we feel this way, because we're thinking this way. We're struggling this way because we're in a war in our mind.
And again, this is not a conventional war. I mean, it can't be fought with conventional weapons. Let's look at what the Bible has to say about this war that we're in, this spiritual battle, so that you can stop feeling depressed, and stop feeling discouraged, and stop feeling afraid because all those feelings are the result or the byproduct of how we think. Now, let's look at Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12. And he says, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, against the powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces in heavenly places". You see, this isn't a fight with each other, it's not a fight. Sometimes, we think it's a fight at our job, or in our family, or with our spouse, or with someone in the church, or with a family member. No, it's not a fight with your ex-husband, or your boyfriend, or your girlfriend.
The battle is with an enemy that's coming after you with everything he's got, it's your thinking. He's orchestrated, the enemy has orchestrated and carefully designed, strategically crafted a plan of attack taking place in our mind right here in how we think. Proverbs 23, verse 7 says, "As a man thinks, so is he". So, I know that you're watching right now. And if you're feeling frustrated or discouraged, if you're not seeing your prayers answered, if you're not seeing God's promises come to pass in your life, or you're not satisfied, or you don't feel that peaceful contentment, or you're dealing with sickness, or you don't feel invincible, or you don't feel defeated, it's time to take those thoughts captive. That's the only reason why you feel those ways is because you think those ways. But you'll begin to experience victory when your thinking is in alignment with God's Word.
Now, you think about Olympic athletes who go into training. They focus on every aspect of their performance, their endurance, their speed, their form, their structure, their perfect balance of diet and exercise and vitamins and sleep, and all that to get to their one true goal. They focus their attention on one thing to get to their goal. And we've got to realize you don't have to be an Olympic athlete, but if you focus your attention on that one thing, taking every thought captive, then you will achieve, you'll experience way beyond your highest dreams, your greatest desires. It's simply by focusing on this one thing. Right thinking produces right living. We can live a life of victory by doing this one thing, change the way we think. Conquer our mindsets, which means conquering our flesh. And it's not hard, physical training, this is thought training. This is changing the way you think, replacing wrong mindsets with right ones.
Now, 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3 through 5, you know what it says, it says, "If we conquer our thought life, we're taking every thought captive and we're pulling down strongholds". So, this is what's happening when you change your thought life and adopt to God's way of thinking about your body, and you start thinking, "I'm healed". You start adopting God's way of thinking about your marriage, saying, "It's blessed". Or about your emotions saying, "I have peace. I have the joy of the Lord according to God's promises". As you change your thought life, you begin to see things differently on the inside, and that begins to create a different reality on the outside. You create a force on the inside of you that forces itself upon your outside world. It's simply by changing your thinking, it transforms your life.
You're going to bounce out of bed in the morning full of faith and hope. You're going to dig into your job with enthusiasm. You're going to hug your children and kiss them more than you ever have before, your grandchildren, your husband, or your wife. You're going to have more health and healing and blessing than you've ever had before. You're going to feel better about yourself. You're going to have better relationships, and your emotions are going to be free because they are fed, all of your emotions are fed through your thought life. Every impulse, every action is fed by how we think. So today, I want to put you on a new diet, a good dose of God's Word, an healthy serving of God's promises. It's time to change our thought diet, not our food diet. Eat whatever you want. I don't care, God doesn't care.
In fact, if you eat really bad, maybe you just go to heaven sooner, I don't, I mean, but on your way to heaven, I want you to have victory. And as you conquer your thought life, you will conquer everything else in your life. Listen, God has elected you as the president and CEO of your own life. And you're going to fulfill your greatest potential, how? By winning the battle of the mind. It expands your vision, you see things God's way, you begin to grow and fulfill the purpose that God created you for. It's time to live beyond your wildest dreams.
Now, stop for a minute and hear what I have to say to you and think about this. Proverbs 16, verse 32 says, "Better is a man who rules his own spirit or rules his own thinking than one who captures an entire city". You know, the Bible calls you more than a conqueror in Romans chapter 8, verse 37, "You are more than a conqueror". And when you think that way, all of a sudden joy floods your heart. Peace floods your heart and your mind. Just like the Bible says in Isaiah 26 verse 3, "The mind that is fixed on him, the mind that is fixed on God". Right now, what's your mind fixed on? Your financial problems, your sickness, or the way somebody treated you, or the way somebody hurt you. That's not going to bring you perfect peace. But when your mind is fixed on him, and he and his Word are the same, then he will keep you, God will keep you in perfect peace when your mind stays on his Word.
It doesn't mean you do everything right, it doesn't mean you're a holy roller, it just means my mind is fixed on God's Word. I might blow it, I might screw up here and there, but my mind is staying on this Word. God loves me, he's for me, I'm more than a conqueror. You don't need to look to the left or to the right to compare yourself to anybody else. All you got to do is change the way you think. Now, let me give you an example of what it means to take your thoughts captive. Here's an example just for a moment, let's take the thought that every one of us has had at times, the thought that says, "Man, it just seems like life isn't getting better. It seems like life is getting worse". Or, "Can things really get better in this world? Look at the world, look at the violence, and the financial crises, and the sickness, and the government problems, and politics, and all the things around the world that are happening. Can things really get better"?
We think that sometimes. It looks like things are falling apart. Well, that is a way of thinking that all of us have had at one point or another, and that will feed those thoughts about, "Man, this world's never going to get better. This world's getting worse. Life is getting worse. My life's getting worse". That way of thinking will feed depression and defeat. Depression will grow, defeat will grow, failure will grow as you feed it. If you feed your dog, the dog will grow. If you starve your dog, the dog will die. Don't starve your dog, but you get the point, right? Whatever you feed is going to grow. So, feed your faith rather than your fears. You see, God didn't create you to live a life that gets worse. We have to change the way we look at the situation. He created you to live a life that gets better and better and better.
So, to abstain from wrong thinking is like I described as fasting from wrong thinking. It's like deciding that I'm not going to eat that certain type of food anymore, right? There's a certain type of food you're not going to eat anymore because it'll kill you. Well, there's a certain way of thinking that we've got to decide we're not going to think anymore. So, what do we do? We replace that old way of thinking with a new way of thinking. So, instead of saying, "Man, life is getting worse," it's time to start thinking, "Life is getting better because Proverbs 4:18 says, 'The path of the righteous gets brighter and brighter until the full day, or the path of the righteous gets better and better.'"
Are you ready for that better life? Are you ready to live a better life? The best life that God created you for, it's time for you to succeed and overcome and prosper. It's time for you to experience the life that Jesus paid for. That's why this ministry exists. That's why God started this ministry, it's the power to change. Not tomorrow, not next week, the power to change today. I'm called to help you change mindsets that will change your world, to introduce you to the real Jesus, and to empower you to rise to your true worth and purpose. So, now look, let me do something for you. I want to offer you to be your coach, I want to mentor you, I want to encourage you regularly. I believe God is ready, I believe you're ready to see something amazing happen in your life. God's been more than ready and he's already paid for it.
And I receive testimonies, you know, all the time of people that have taken this challenge to conquer their thought life. They've overcome depression, they've overcome suicidal thoughts, anxiety. One lady began to attack her panic attacks and the anxiety stopped. How did she do it? She took what I said and she attacked those thoughts. As soon as the panic attacked her, she attacked it with the Word of God. Thinking right thoughts delivered her from anxious thoughts, from worry and fear. We've seen people see their marriages restored, parents who've seen their children get saved, people that have seen their finances change because when you change the way you think, it changes your life. God knows what you need. He knows that he's given us his Word because his words are his thoughts, and that's why he knows you can live in victory because you simply get your thinking in alignment with his.
This is what will cause you to experience life beyond your wildest dreams. This is what will cause you to experience the peace that surpasses all comprehension. As you change the way you think, it changes everything else in your life. God's done it all for you, but we got to renew our mind to believe that. I've had people that have sent me letters that they've said they lost weight without trying, they stopped getting angry, their health changed, I mean, their marriage changed. This is what's changed my emotions. This is what's changed my life. This is what's changed everything because it's something that happens to you. It's not something that happens, it's not something you force.
As you renew your mind, God renews your life. It changes everything. It's replacing wrong thinking systematically, step by step, replacing wrong thoughts with right thoughts, with God's thoughts. And all of a sudden, you're happier. All of a sudden, your emotions are changed. All of a sudden, you don't get angry like you used to. All of a sudden, you're not depressed or afraid of the future because you know what the Word of God says about the future, and that's what shapes your feelings.