Peace: Take Your Mind Captive

I don’t know why God made me the way I am. My mind, my tendency to overthink, analyze, go so deep in my head that I am visibly away from the present circumstances. My mother used to call it “checking out”. She described it to me as watching me fall backwards into something inside my head. She would even account for it in how she parented me. She used to joke with others, “just give her a minute, she’s checked out, she will be back”. I would be very deep in thought and come back around and she would be staring at me blankly then ask, “You back yet?”

I would like to say that all this energy I spent thinking resulted in great wealth or fame, or inventions that changed the world. It did not! Far from it! I have found myself, too many times, captive by non-productive and destructive thinking or in over-analysis of any given situation.  It is only within the Holy Spirit that true and complete peace is found to calm the storms of the mind. Too often, when I finally settle into that peace, something comes along and I take back that battle! 

Do you do this also? Why do we do that? Who knows? It ebbs and flows… comes in waves!

For this week’s study topic in the Fruit of the Spirit Series we are continuing to look at Peace. Everyone has a different perspective of what peace means in their life. For one, it may be an absence of anxiety, for another, anger. For me, PEACE, means my mind is quiet.  It is still, absent of the millions of questions or analytical tangents that I constantly explore. Peace means understanding and captive thoughts. I want to share a little about one of the most powerful spiritual journeys God took me through over this past difficult couple of years and how allowing God to take captive thoughts resulted in tremendous amounts of PEACE!

Following the loss of my husband and best friend to a long battle with cancer I waged not just a battle of the mind, but full on war, and understandably so! Events like this tend to bust open the tiny fractures that hide within us waiting to be exploited by the devil and his desire to destroy all that God intends for good. In the days, weeks, and months since the loss, I have shown strengths and weaknesses and made good and bad choices. I have experienced both closeness with God and, at other times, I ran far away. 

It is within the storms of my mind that I want to hide. I want to hide under a table and wait for the fury to just go away. Depending on the circumstance, I want to reason, rationalize, and beat it down to a pulp myself. I want to believe that I myself can say, “Peace, be still” to the wind and waves as Jesus did. I cannot and I usually end up falling hard, self-destructing, getting sick, or hurting someone I love. After all, I am NOT the One who can speak peace in the middle of a storm! (Mark 4:39)

We read in Matthew, Mark, and Luke about Jesus making the wind and waves stand still and calming the storm. Through word study I learned that in these accounts the original words mean “muted”. Jesus muted the storm. I love that. I need that to happen God!!! I still pray it multiple times a day. Mute all this in my mind so that I can be useful!  Still the waves come.

My search for peace over the last year and a half has been relentless. I’ve read scripture, prayed, attempted to just sit and listen to God and be still. I even got a tattoo that means “Sit quietly and listen attentively” to remind me of a peaceful perspective. It speaks to me all day long when I see it. Sometimes it screams at me and I put my hand over my forearm to drown it out. I already know what I am supposed to do! 

One night, I asked God for a verse, a thought, a declaration, a giant billboard, something, anything. I needed a sign, a word, a piece of the puzzle to fit to let me know God still hears me and that I can find PEACE. I waited. I needed God to help me take my mind captive!

One day I was studying about taking the mind captive.  I came across a familiar verse. It is a verse that I have read countless times. I feel positive I have heard many sermons, On this day it had new meaning and God had given me what I needed to hear!

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6.

Let’s break it down…

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.”
Of course we don’t! We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Of course we don’t! It is a spiritual battle. 

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.”
Spiritual battles are won in prayer and through the Holy Spirit. 

“We demolish arguments...”

What we read as demolish actually has two meanings. It can mean to take down or pull down either subtly without violence, or with the use of force. How true this is. Sometimes the places we go within our minds requires a subtle reasoning from the Holy Spirit to get it back and sometimes God has to stop everything about us and bring us to our knees. It feels like a force when it comes through, breaking you to your core, chastising and cleansing. The word “arguments” better translates as computations, reasoning, a judgement or decision. Here we see how PEACE begins as God begins to quiet the arguments and thoughts that circle the mind!

“...and every pretension…”

Pretension better translates as we read in the KJV as “every high thing”. It means an elevated place or thing but more accurately described as a barrier. The word actually is referring to a high barrier. So true, lofty thoughts or running ahead in our minds from God’s will is counter productive and creates a high barrier! I absolutely hit a lot of walls. A lot. All the time. Can I get an Amen? These barries can keep us from experience all the amazing things that God intends to bless into our lives!

“...that sets itself up against the knowledge of God…”

Basically knowledge speaks to knowing God, the deeper knowledge and understanding. “More perfect” is how Strong’s concordance defines it. A more perfect understanding and knowledge of God. Who doesn’t want that? 

“...and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 

This part of the verse stopped me in my tracks. This verse contains the word “obedient”. As it appears in Greek text is it the exact tattoo I have on my arm reminding me to sit still in peace and listen! When I read this that day I was studying, I literally shot straight up in amazement. It was as if God put this here for me!

I had absolutely missed this occurrence in my previous studies. At this moment, I had my declaration. My creed. My words. The Words of God that I will absolutely use. I am a firm believer on claiming scripture. We see it in stories of God’s people when they are given words, phrases, declarations that literally tear down walls, break through, and have power. I had been waiting for a sign with flashing lights and now I had mine! 

“And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.”

KJV uses “revenge” where NIV says “punish”. The original word does mean vindicate or punish and also to protect or defend. My acts of disobedience, or walking outside attentively listening to God, and doin’ my own thang… are avenged by the blood of Jesus. They are also punished. I definitely know what chastised feels like, but it is also covered like all sin and I feel loved and held. Much like when I would punish my children then hold them tight and make sure they knew I loved them but they had to act better. :) The last phrase actually is better represented, as I learned in Strong’s also, by the words “until you're completely attentively listening”. 

Sometimes in these moments, knowing that God is listening, results in healing and PEACE.  The morning I studied this verse, I felt God serving up not just words that I could declare, but also a dose of the Holy Spirit nudging me, comforting me, and clearing my mind and heart. I changed the words to this passage to make it specific to me. I encourage you to do the same!

The personalized version of 10:3-6: (Insert your name!)

_________, this battle is not yours and you cannot win it with your own intelligence, abilities, passion, or choices. The weapons to use are prayer and standing on God’s word. The Holy Spirit fills with what you need for each battle and it was won on the cross a long time ago anyway. So just stop trying to do that. When you do surrender completely and use prayer and God’s word then your own inadequate computations, fears, reasoning, and decisions will either be gently brought into submission or kicked down with force. Be ok with whichever it takes. Also, the thoughts that torment you will come under submission to be no more and no less of what God wants for your life. If left unchecked, they will become a barrier either keeping you trapped or preventing you from entering into a place God desires you to be...into the deep full knowing God and walking with Him in complete surrender.

When relying upon prayer, the word of God, and being open to the fullness of the Holy Spirit, your thoughts will be taken captive and subject to sitting and listening attentively. Your mind will be still to listen to and know God.

The kicker… do it over and over again. Failures and your sin will be avenged and covered through the blood of Jesus as you make mistakes and think uncaptive thoughts. You might be chastised but know that it is God loving you, pulling you up because He knows one day it will be complete and you will fail less, stumble less, not as perfect but as walking in grace and within the presence of God more. You will make more mistakes and fail again. Every time, pray, and submit to listening attentively and not on your own. Get up and do it all over again focusing on the goal of being effective and serving others. 

​Kim Carroll