7 minute read
Take Captive Every Thought
from May 2020
by Bill Fortenberry
When Moses commissioned 12 spies to check out Canaan, the land that God had promised to them, two of them, Joshua and Caleb, returned confident that the children of Israel could take possession of the land THAT GOD HAD PROMISED THEM.
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Don’t miss that point. This wasn’t just any old land. This was God’s people acting on God’s promise.
BUT Israel didn’t go forward. Why? Despite the promise of God, despite Caleb and Joshua, and despite the fact that
the land flowed with milk and honey, the majority of the spies returned with fear in their eyes and defeat in their voices. They had focused on the inhabitants of the land rather than the God who gave it to them. Their words in the 13th chapter of Numbers reveal a truth that haunts men and women alike.
“And we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
The 10 scared spies didn’t see themselves as handpicked explorers or children of God. They saw themselves as grasshoppers. Grasshoppers! Because of that negative
perspective, that fear, that comparison to the residents of Canaan, the people of Canaan saw them as grasshoppers too.
In other words, it didn’t matter that they were anointed. It didn’t matter that they were handpicked by God. It didn’t matter that God has promised them this land. Israel turned their back on all that and failed to take hold of the promise given to them. Their fear took root and spread to their hearts. The damage was done.
Someone’s anxiety sparked a flame of fear that spread among the spies until all but two of them lost their confidence in themselves and in God.
They did not take their thoughts captive.
Men, we have to be strong in our minds. Why do you think that part of the armor of God is the helmet of Salvation? We have to know who our Redeemer is, and we have to see our circumstances and our opportunities through His eyes.
Nearly 2,000 years after Israel missed their first opportunity to take possession of the promise God had given them, God’s people were still having trouble with their minds. Here’s the advice Paul gave to the Corinthians: “…and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5b).
Your mind is a battlefield.
You have an enemy who is seeking to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10, 1 Peter 5:8).
He would have you to believe that you are a powerless grasshopper in a land full of giants.
You are not.
If men are to be the strong spiritual leaders that we are called to be, we have to take our thoughts captive and remind ourselves of our true identity. You are not a grasshopper.
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).
Bill Fortenberry worked 17 years as a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist, and has worked in healthcare communications since 2001. Bill serves as the chairman of the board of managers of Haven Health Clinic for Women and is a men’s ministry leader and small group facilitator at his church, HBC Rome. He and his wife, Lisa, have two children, Ethan and Autumn. A storyteller at heart, Bill writes an occasional blog at kudzudad.blogspot.com.
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