Taffi Dollar - Recognizing The Power of Thoughts - Part 1
- Watch
- Donate
2 Corinthians chapter 2. This morning, we’re gonna talk about our thought life because our life is shaped by our thoughts. And the Good News Translation says that «Be careful how you think, because your life is shaped by your thoughts». And so as we look at 2 Corinthians chapter 2, we’re gonna look at verse 10 and 11 in the NLT and the NIV translation, if you would. Go ahead and look with me there, because we wanna spend some time, I believe, this session today and even the previous sessions that we’ve been hearing about the mind, renewing the mind and how important it is to have a sound mind, that it governs our life in so many ways.
We know that the battle is between our ears, we’ve heard that time and time again that the mind is the control center. We’ve been taught how important it is, the mindset that we have and this shift towards the mind of Christ, the mind of God. And so here in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 10, it says, «When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes».
So the goal today and for these few minutes that we have together is to recognize that Satan wants to outsmart us. He wants to outsmart us by us not recognizing the power and the authority that we have over our mind to renew our mind, to make it new again, to cause it to function at its highest level. We all are creative expressions of God that he has put in the earth, and the earth is waiting for the manifestation of who we are. And so many times, what the enemy wants to do is strategize, he wants to come up with all kinds of schemes and strategies, structures and different systems so that we will not understand what he’s trying to do to cause us to be killed, to be defeated, and to be destroyed. So he says here that, «Satan will not outsmart us».
So you have to make up in your mind that I’m not going to allow the enemy to have any authority in my life. He will not, as Jesus says, have any power over me, because we are not ignorant or unfamiliar with his schemes. Now, let’s look at this in the NIV. Let’s look at what it says. The same translation in the NIV version. He says, «I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake». Let’s go to the next part. «In order that Satan might not,» what’s that word? «Outwit. For we are not unaware of his schemes». So that’s the enemy’s plan. It’s always been his plan, from the foundations of the world, to outwit us, to cause us to not realize that he’s behind the scenes.
So many times, we fight with one another and the enemy’s behind the whole time because the Bible talks about how we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but our fight is against principalities that have already been defeated. But he doesn’t want us to know that. He wants us to focus on that other person. He wants us to focus on our partner, focus on our boss, focus on our co-worker, focus on our children, focus on the person who offended you, the person who flicked you off. He wants to outsmart us. He wants to outwit us because he doesn’t want us to be informed and he wants us to be ignorant to his schemes. And what that does, it gives him the authority in our life. It gives him access into our life when we don’t see that it’s him behind the scenes all the time. And so he comes and he creates these things, these schemes, these plans, just like he did with Adam and Eve, in the form of suggestions, so that we can begin to be unaware that it’s really him who’s trying to destroy us and pull us down. And so we have to begin to recognize this.
Look with me at 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 4, because he has an office and if Satan’s office files were to be revealed and opened up, he’d probably say some things that he can get you to be outsmarted by or things that he could get you to fall for. He’d probably say, you know, «Taffi, she’s prone to maybe burn herself out. She’s prone to, you know, anxiety, or she can easily be brought back to a place of fear and so, you know, I’m gonna do everything that I can to overcommit herself to certain things, to be overzealous about certain things. So as a result, I can begin to destroy her life through frustration because of her overcommitment or her desire to be over-accomplished in areas of her life, then this will be a way in which I can have place. And this will be a scheme whereby I can do harm in her life».
And so the enemy has a file and he wants to accomplish the things concerning your life which, as the Bible says, John 10:10, that «The thief comes not». He is a thief. And the Bible has clearly described that for us. But here in chapter 10, verse 4, it talks about the weapons of our warfare. What does he say? «They are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of,» what? «Strongholds». Somebody say «strongholds». Strongholds are areas in our life like, in the Old Testament, a stronghold was a fortified place. It was a place where the opponent or the army would hide out. It was a wall, it sometimes was a castle, and it was in that place that the enemy would be safe. Where the enemy would plan and the enemy would contrive certain things.
And so, the strongholds in our life are where the enemy resides. The strongholds are the places where he feels safe. He recognizes maybe the things from your past, maybe he says, «Oh, well, you know, Charmaine, she may be used to depression so I’m gonna hide out and bring these negative thoughts of how unworthy and how unattractive or how undesirable she is, and I can hide out there and continuously bring that up before because I realize that this is maybe a area that has been given access to the enemy». So he says our weapons, first of all, they’re not carnal, they’re not weak. He says, «But they are mighty through,» who? «God, to the pulling down of strongholds».
Pulling down of those things that have held us in bondage. A stronghold is a thought pattern, it’s a way of thinking, it’s a way of receiving information. And so we have to realize that we must pull these things down. It’s a piece of ground where we believe his lies, the enemy’s lies, that war against the knowledge of God. It’s the enemy’s systems, it’s his structures, and then, you know, the Bible talks about how it’s been given to us the shield of faith to deal with these strongholds. So it’s a place where the army dwelt, where the battalion hid, and as a result, this is where the enemy dwells. These are ideas that are in conflict with what God says. The apostle Paul calls them fortresses. The devil builds a place from which he can operate and he means for that fortress to be permanent. He plans to take up residency there all the days of your life, a place from which he can operate. He makes himself home in that stronghold.
In other words, he gets a grip on your mind in that stronghold, until people began to think that there is no other way to overcome this problem. No way in this world that I can be free from an addiction, I could be free from this bondage in my life. All my relatives have had it, everybody in my DNA has had it, and so as a result, the enemy wants us to think in our minds that there is no way to make a difference with those who we desire to make a difference with. And so we have to recognize that that is a stronghold.
A stronghold is a mindset that holds you hostage. Holds you hostage. It makes you believe you’re hopelessly locked in a situation that you are powerless to change. And that’s when people say, «I can’t. I can’t. God can’t do it,» because he’s made himself at home in our heads. And he has you operating from that old information, that old hard drive, that old you, but he or she who is in Christ is, what? A new creation. Old things have, what? Passed away, and all things have become new. And so, it’s vital for us to realize that we have this authority and that we have these weapons of warfare that are mighty to pull down that junk, to pull down that thought pattern, to arrest, to quickly do it, immediately do it, not just let it simmer, not just let it stay and wander and linger. No, immediately. He says, «Pull it down». «Pulling down of strongholds,» what’s it say, the rest of it? «Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God».
Look at Genesis chapter 3. «Every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God». Because that’s what happened with Adam and Eve. They were confronted by the enemy. The scripture says how he is more subtle than any beast of the field and, what? He came to them and he was talking to Eve and the Bible says that Adam was right there. And so he was coming because of the things that they desired, the things that were attractive to them.
And that’s the thing that the enemy will do, folks. He’s not gonna try to get you to be attracted to something that is repulsive or something that you don’t want. He works through this scheme, this psyche, this structure, this system, whereby he can cause it to get your attention through subtle suggestions, to cause it to be a higher thing than the things of God, to be superior to the plan of God. So he came to Adam and Eve and he approached them in the cool of the day. The Bible talks about how, you know, they were in the presence of God and how they were in the Garden of Eden. And so there were two trees there: there was the tree that they were supposed to eat of, and then there was a tree that they were not supposed to eat of.
And so it is in our life that we have the tree that we can eat from and how many of you know there’s a tree that we’re not supposed to eat from? And so we have to make those decisions in our everyday life: the things that are going to advance us towards being the authentic expression that God wants us to be in the earth, or to begin to listen to the enemy and to receive his thoughts, and to meditate on what he has and cause us to fall short. Because as we renew our mind, what does the scripture say? «To be conformed, to be transformed, to be renewed, to be changed,» amen?
So that we can prove that acceptable, that good will of God concerning us. But what happens is when we don’t take those thoughts and pull them down, then the enemy begins to create this stronghold. He builds this fortress in our life and one thing that I’m learning in my brief reading on neuroscience is that you can retrain and rewire your mind. Neuroplasticity, the things that perhaps you were holding on to before you came into the things of God, now that you’re in Christ, the Word of God will begin to dig those things up and you can begin to chart a new path, and you can begin to go in a different direction. Maybe that pathway before, you know, it was prone to worry.
«Oh, I just worry,» you know, that’s what we do. We just worry from sun-up to sundown. I used to worry about my youngest, you know, she’s like, «Mom, I’m outside». I’m like, «Well, can you come inside sometimes»? Because I would be so concerned about her safety and I remember when she went off to college and for freshman year and at that time I was working with a lot of women in human trafficking and people who were kidnapped and abducted. It’s still going on, but that had become such in the forefront of my mind that I couldn’t begin to trust in her safety where God’s Word was concerned. And so I had to just unplug from those negative thoughts of fear and worry and anxiety and not knowing certain things and I said, «Lord, I’m just gonna have to trust in you because I’ve got to get to a point where I can begin to think and have the mind of Christ concerning this situation».
So whatever your situation may be, perhaps, you know, it wants to take you down this pathway that’s been carved out and cleared out and the path is, you know, that’s where it is and that’s where you have been, but I’m telling you it’s time to come off that path and get over on another path. And so when Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, I’m here to tell you the enemy was doing the same thing back then as he’s doing now.
It says here in chapter 3, verse 1: «The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, 'Yea, ' hath God said, 'You shall not eat of every fruit of the tree? '» And you know, we know the end of this story but we can skip down to verse 6. He says: «And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat».
So a couple of things there. The tree was good. So it was appetizing. The Scripture says it was pleasant. Like I said, the enemy is going to come with you for something that is good to the eyes, and he says, «Even the tree that would make one wise». So they were already wise but for whatever reason there was this inclination that they perhaps could be wiser than the enemy came to them with, that, you know, you eat of this tree, Eve, you’re gonna be more wise.
And so the Scripture says she took of it and she ate it. And the Scripture says that, you know, «Their eyes were opened, and that they knew that they were naked». So it is in our everyday life. That’s what the enemy does, because he’s coming after your mindset. Because 80%, is believed, of our thoughts are negative. And 95% are repetitive. And it’s believed that we as human beings have between 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts a day. And of those 12,000, 60,000 thoughts, 80% of those are negative, and of those, 95% are negative and repetitive.