Gregory Dickow - The Power of Right Thinking
Well, welcome to "The Power to Change Today," and today we are launching the 2018 Fast From Wrong Thinking. And it is your time, it is going to be your year. It's time to break out of every limitation holding you back from the victorious life God created you for. Listen, the enemy is trying to keep us small, defeated, crawling through life as victims of whatever he brings our way. But God created us for so much more, he created us to fly. He created us to soar. God has put limitless possibilities inside of you. You may feel like you're just crawling like a caterpillar, but you're about to get your wings today. You're about to discover how to soar. You're about to uncover all the beauty, all the glory that you were created for. It's time to get in the cocoon, that's what "Fasting From Wrong Thinking's" all about. It's not fasting from food, it's fasting from wrong mindsets, it's so easy. I'm going to show you exactly how to do it today. I'm talking real transformation, where it's not about you doing anything, it's what happens to you, not what happens by you.
And that's what Fast From Wrong Thinking is all about. You just get in the cocoon, you get in a 40 days of renewing your mind with me. And I'll send it to you, it's absolutely free. My announcer will tell you more about it and you'll see it in the show, but listen, Isaiah 55 says that God's ways are higher than our ways, therefore it's because his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So, what today's program is all about, as we tap into God's higher thoughts, we're going to begin to soar into his higher ways. We're going to rip the roof off the ceilings of our finances, our relationships, our emotions, our health. It's time for you to fly. You've got wings inside of you, and today you're going to learn how to change from the inside out instead of wrestling to try to bring about change. Change is going to happen in you, by God in you rather than by you. Today, you're going to learn how to live higher by thinking higher. Check this out.
2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 4 and 5, "Pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations, and taking every thought captive". Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, the obedience of Christ. Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Now, this is three steps to spiritual warfare, pulling down strongholds. Now, how can you stop the strong man unless you... how can you stop the strong man? I think it's in Matthew chapter 3, Matthew chapter 3, verse 37. I don't know if I have this. I don't know if I've written this, but it's either Matthew chapter 3, verse 27, or Mark chapter 3, verse 27, where Jesus says, "How can you stop the strong man from stealing your stuff unless you first bind the strong man"? Thank you for that, team. We have an amazing tech team.
Come on, let's thank God for them too. 'Cause sometimes I look in my Bible, I'm like, "Man, am I getting old, or is it just dark in here"? It's just dark in here. No one can enter a strong man's house and take back the goods unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. In other words, we have to realize Satan is the strong man. Jesus defeated him, but we have to bind his thoughts. We have to stop him from influencing our lives with his system of thinking. His failure mentalities that he's placed inside of us, and the wrong images of ourselves, and the low esteem and low sense of self worth and value. How can you miss this, how valuable you are? Why would you treat yourself or let somebody treat you poorly when... and we're not saying that we shouldn't forgive people when they treat us poorly, but I'm saying why would we lower ourselves and why would we devalue ourselves if we would realize that Jesus valued us so much that he paid for us with his own blood?
That's how valuable you are. You're as valuable to Jesus as he is to God, to the Father. You're as valuable as Jesus. That's why he paid for you with his blood. He values you that much. And your sense of value is what determines and shapes the choices that you make, your sense of value. Do you value yourself based on your talent or your skills? Do you value yourself based on the color of your skin, or the beauty of your skin, or the lack of beauty in your opinion? Do you value yourself because of the amount of money you have or... no. See, this is what spiritual warfare is. We have to value ourselves based on how Jesus sees us, how Jesus values us, and what he would do for us. And you have not been purchased by silver and gold which perishes, but 1 Peter chapter 1, I believe verse 19 to 20 says, "You were purchased with the blood of Jesus".
You weren't purchased with silver and gold, you weren't bought with something that perishes. You were bought with the blood of Jesus, so we have to bind the strong man. This is what spiritual warfare is. We have to bind the strongholds, so we're pulling down strongholds, number one, casting down imaginations, number two, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. But if we invert those three things, that's the order in which we do this. So, the first thing we need to do is attack our thoughts with God's way of thinking, and then what that does is it dismantles or it breaks up the images, it destroys the false images that we have of ourselves. And then it pulls down the strongholds that have controlled our choices.
You see, the decisions you make are based on the strongholds in your life. The stronghold is the thing that has a stronghold, it has a strong enough hold on you to influence your choices. Listen to me, true spiritual warfare is the battle of who or what is going to control the decision-making process of your life. So, spiritual warfare is the battle over who's going to control and what's going to control the decision-making process of your life. Because our choices are where our power is. There's no greater power that you have than the power of choice.
That's why God said, "You can eat from any tree in the garden. If you eat from this one, you'll die. You can still eat from it, but you will die if you eat from it". But he didn't tell Adam and Eve, "I'm not allowing you to eat from it". "You have the power to choose, but if you do choose to eat from it, it'll kill you. If you choose to eat from these, it'll bring you life. But if you eat from this one, it'll kill you". But the power that he gave man is so fantastic and so beautiful, the power of choice. Do you realize that no one has the power to control your life and no one has the power to determine the outcome of your life more than you do? And the way that you control it is by the choices that you make. And the choices that you make are based upon the stronghold in your life. In other words, whatever has a strong hold on you is going to influence your decisions. And so, that's why we must take our thoughts captive, which will cast down imaginations.
As we continue a process of taking every thought captive, it will dismantle the false images that we have of ourselves as we identify only with who we are in Christ. And then it will pull down the stronghold that has been influencing you to make the wrong decisions because when you are controlled by a false image of yourself, you make a bad decision because you feel you lack something, you feel you're missing something, so now you make a bad decision to try to obtain something that the Bible says Jesus has already given you and paid for with his own blood. In other words, he's already made you righteous, he's already made you forgiven, he's already made you his child, he's already made you love. You don't have to do anything to get God to love you. He already loves you. He already made you something. And he made you something amazing.
Our job, the Christian life, it's really a treasure hunt. It's really a discovery. It's really, it's going out in the backyard of your life, it's going to the backyard of your soul and digging up all the treasures that God has placed in there. You have this treasure in earthen vessels. You are full of treasure. You are full of treasure. And the job, the Christian life is not about trying to get God to give you something, but instead the Christian life is the discovery, the discovery, the discovery of what treasures God has already put inside of you. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7 says we have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. God chose to put his treasures inside of you. You're the temple of the Holy Spirit. That doesn't mean, oh, you better not do anything bad. You know the Holy Spirit, if you do something wrong, man, the Holy Spirit, he'll just get up and walk away. The Holy Spirit cannot get up and walk away 'cause the Holy Spirit only does what the Father says. And the Father said, "I will never leave you or forsake you".
So, the Holy Spirit will never leave you. Yeah, but what if you smoke too much? The Holy Spirit can handle it. What if you cuss too much? The Holy Spirit can handle it. What if you do this too much or that too much? The Holy Spirit's not overwhelmed by it. 'Cause the Holy Spirit knows that Jesus already paid for those things. The Holy Spirit is not basing his love for you and his work in your life based on your outward appearance, your outward behavior. He's basing everything on what Jesus did for you. So, now go back to 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5. He says, "We're pulling down strongholds, we're casting down imaginations, and we're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ".
Now, I used to just preach this regarding taking every thought captive, but I just didn't fully understand this piece of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ or to Christ's obedience. So, I want to spend a couple moments on what Christ's obedience is. What does he mean when he says the obedience of Christ? Like, is he saying that any thought that we have, any bad thought, any disobedient thought, any unholy thought, we better conquer all those? Now, don't get me wrong, it's better to have holy thoughts than unholy thoughts. It's better to have obedient thoughts than disobedient thoughts. But that is not what he's talking about in this verse. He's talking about spiritual warfare is, this is where the rubber meets the road. This is the crux of the matter here, gang, is that he's saying we're taking every thought to the obedience or taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
So, now we have to understand what is Christ's obedience? Since every thought must be taken captive to Christ's obedience, we didn't know what Christ's obedience is. What does he mean by that? Christ's obedience, the obedience of Christ. Because that's what every one of our thoughts needs to be subjected to. That's what every one of our thoughts needs to be a prisoner to, to Christ's obedience. So, whose obedience are we talking about here? So, we're not talking about our obedience. This has nothing to do with our obedience. This has everything to do with the obedience with Christ. It's not obedience to Christ, it's the obedience of Christ. It's really the obedience by Christ. It's Christ's obedience that every thought that comes to our heads and fills our heart needs to be subjected to the fact that Christ obeyed God for us on our behalf.
And any thought that tells us that God's relationship with us is based on our obedience is spiritual warfare. This is what we have to pull down. These are the thoughts that we have to take captive. These are the thoughts we have to reject, and resist, and dispel from our lives. It's every thought that tells you, "Your relationship with God, and God's favor, and God answering your prayers, and God's blessing in your life is going to be a result of your obedience". This is what spiritual warfare is. Satan wants you to think, 'cause it sounds almost right, that your obedience will result in God's blessing. It's not the discernment between right and wrong, it's the discernment between right and almost right. It's almost right to think that our obedience is what causes God's activity and blessing in our lives, and our disobedience is what causes Satan to control our lives. No, that sounds right, but it's wrong. Because if you could get saved by your obedience, then number one, what would Jesus have even come for?
And number two, what level of obedience do you have to perform to be enough for God to accept you, forgive you, love you, and bless you? Because at some level, the foundation of your obedience is cracked. At some level, your obedience stops. At some level, you didn't pray enough, you didn't love enough, you weren't kind enough, you weren't holy enough, you weren't godly enough. So, where is the point at which we've earned it? Where is the point at which we've done enough? There is no point at which you can do enough. You cannot do enough. Jesus did enough. He did more than enough. And so, every thought, he's talking about, he's talking about Christ's obedience, not our obedience.
And when we realize that our life is built upon Christ's obedience, then we will win at everything. But when we think our life is built upon our obedience, then we will fail miserably because we will fall short at some point, and then that is the point at which Satan will condemn us, and he will say to us, "You see, you failed there, or you blew it there, so you've now disqualified yourself from answered prayer. You've disqualified yourself from God's blessing". You see, all of that is a lie. It sounds holy and it sounds religious, but it is BS. And what I mean by that is bologna sandwich. Let's keep going. And if you believe that... Okay, what is Christ's obedience? We're bringing every thought to captivity to Christ's obedience, so it's all about his obedience. And what is his obedience? So, let's define it. It's right here in Romans chapter 5, verse 19. Let's find out what Christ's obedience is. Romans chapter 5, verse 19, "For by one man's disobedience," who's this one man? This is Adam, right?
"By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners". Who's that one man's disobedience? Adam. "By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So also by one man's obedience," well, who is this one man? Jesus Christ, or we could say by Christ's obedience. Okay, we're coming home, we're coming home. We're coming in for the landing here, folks. This is it, this is everything in your life, if it's built upon this foundation, you will win in spiritual warfare. This is spiritual warfare. It is this right here, that it's through Christ's obedience we are made righteous. Through Christ's obedience, we're made righteous. Now, so this is what he means when he says, "Bringing every thought into captivity to Christ's obedience".
So, any thought that tells you Jesus didn't do enough, you got to do it now. You got to fix, you better stop this and you better stop, don't get me wrong, if you can stop doing something that you know is wrong, please stop doing it. But that does not make you blessed. That does not make God love you. That does not make you righteous. That does not make you holy. It does not make you godly. The blood of Jesus, the obedience of Christ and only the obedience of Christ, and how did he obey God? He obeyed God by coming to the earth, he obeyed God by going to the cross, and he obeyed God by rising from the dead. That's Christ's obedience. He came to this earth as a man, he died on the cross as a man, and he was buried and he rose on the third day. That's Christ's obedience. That's what makes you righteous.
So, any thought that tells you you're righteous because of what you've done or you're unrighteous because of what you've done or haven't done, that is where spiritual warfare is, that is where the battle is. That is where I have to get control of this thing and say, "You know what? I know that I blew it, but I'm not blessed, and my prayers aren't answered because I never blew it. My prayers are answered because the prayers of the righteous avail much". And what makes me righteous? Come on, help me now. What makes me righteous? One man's obedience. Who's that one man? So, we could call this Christ's obedience makes me righteous. My obedience does not make me righteous, Christ's obedience makes me righteous. And what does righteousness do? Righteousness brings me favor that surrounds me like a shield. Righteousness, the Bible says the prayers of the righteous avail much.
Favor surrounds the righteous, Psalm chapter 5, verse 12. "The wealth of the sinners laid up for the righteous". In Proverbs chapter 2, "There's wisdom stored up for the righteous". In Proverbs chapter 2, "The healing is in the wings of the righteous". Malachi chapter 4, verse 2, "A righteous man falls seven times, but he gets up". Proverbs chapter 24, verse 16, I believe it's chapter 24, verse 16, or chapter 16, verse 24. I got a little dyslexia when it comes to that verse, but I just want you to know it's one of those. Anyway, a righteous man falls seven times, but he gets up.
You see, you don't get up, you don't get up to become righteous, you get up because you realize on the ground there, wait a minute, I know I've fallen, but I am the righteousness of God, therefore I have the right, I have the right to get up. I know I feel ashamed, but I have the right to get up. I know I feel defeated, but I have the right to get up. I know I feel bad, but I got the right to get up. I know I feel inferior, but I have the right to be the head and not the tail, to be above only and not beneath. And this kind of thinking is what spiritual warfare is all about. This kind of thinking, this kind of thinking, this kind of thinking is what causes you to rule and reign in life.