What lies are you believing? Bill Johnson challenges us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. When things are uncertain, what will we choose to believe – will we let fear dictate our thoughts, or will we carefully guard our hearts and minds and walk in the peace of God, with constant awareness of His goodness?

taking her thoughts hostage

until they are transformed in nature

and they actually reflect the fact that

there is nothing impossible he has a

redemptive solution for every situation

he will cause every situation that

pertains to my life to work for good

which means for his glory and for my

strength

it’s not

complicated

if he said it it’s true

if he didn’t it probably isn’t

it’s not complicated

if i have more input

from social media than i do the word of

god my discouragement is self-inflicted

it’s a calculated decision

i find myself thinking of this person

they will never change

at what point do i stop the lie

because i’m building

a hiding place

for the demonic that will actually help

to fulfill the very lie i’ve come to

believe

i would never say it

but my approach to a problem oftentimes

reflects that

it’s a stronghold

and the lord is preparing us

in this season

to be able to address the impossible

we’ve said this for 20 years so this is

nothing new but i feel like he’s

heightening heightening our awareness of

something today

he’s enabling us to be aware

where we have fallen

for the lie

where

where i have entertained

the enemy’s ideas

in my personal

castle

i have this

this sense that through this

strangest season

of my life

the lord has been training us for

something

that we’re unaware of

and i’m i’m i would assume

all of us are not maybe not in the same

boat but certainly similar

i’ve never seen so much swirling

in thought in ideas and you know

arguments and stuff just just in the air

as in recent days and i feel like the

lord

is allowing us to be exposed to the

chaos so we have no mistake recognizing

peace

the peace of god is the complete absence

of chaos that is the definition by

nature

the peace of god is the complete absence

of chaos

and he has allowed us if you will to be

exposed to some of the craziest things

ever

not so that we walk through life being

victims

if you

experience sorrow maybe a friend has

fallen into some deception i i got news

this week of a

of a dear friend who is uh getting

divorced

and never would have expected never

never never ever would have expected it

i don’t know what happened

but when you have pain like that

if you just feel sad and do nothing with

it you’re wasting your time

god gave you a an ability to feel

so that it would take you to him i don’t

know how to pray for this situation but

i do know the enemy has had his way

and so i pray the mercy of god to come

upon this couple the mercy of god to

touch each individual heart god i don’t

know what’s happened or where this is

where you pray in tongues a lot

he always gets it right

i mean i may

pray this prayer oh god

give me a ferrari with 700 horsepower

and then i pray in tongues the holy

spirit says man don’t give him that car

he’ll kill himself that’s what i’m

praying in tongues i’m praying i don’t

even know he just canceled out my prayer

so i’m praying to yourself

that’s how this works to me so i don’t

know how it works to you but but he

always

he always refines my refines my prayer

he says no he’ll kill himself if he has

that card don’t do that don’t do it

but if you feel grief or you feel pain

or you feel troubled

if it doesn’t take you to him in prayer

you’re wasting your sensitivities

it’s a gifting it’s like eyesight if you

you know if you see something coming at

you that’s going to hit you and you

don’t duck your head then you’re wasting

your eyesight

we perceive because he’s positioned us

to make a difference or react

accordingly

all right let’s read this passage um

one last time

in first second corinthians

or chronicles if you prefer

chapter 10 verse 4 the weapons of our

warfare are not carnal

they are mighty in god

for the purpose of

pulling down strongholds

casting down arguments

every high thing that exalts itself

against the knowledge of god

to the point

where

we learn to bring every thought

into captivity to the obedience of

christ

it’s an interesting picture through that

last phrase bringing every thought

captive

when i see

bringing every thought captive

i think of a like a soldier who was

warring against us all right so let’s

just take that thought for a minute

let’s just say we’re in an army and we

have a soldier i take him captive

but he becomes so captive

that he becomes a soldier for us

it’s not putting him in restriction

where he doesn’t function

it’s seeing that thought process so

transformed that it now works for us

taking every thought captive to what the

obedience of christ what is that it’s

the mind of christ

taking this deceptive thought about your

neighbor

take it captive

until it starts reflecting the mind of

christ about your neighbor

hostages

taking our thoughts hostage

until they are transformed in nature

and they actually reflect the fact that

there is nothing impossible he has a

redemptive solution for every situation

he will cause every situation that

pertains to my life to work for good

which means for his glory and for my

strength

i like the phrase casting down

that reminds me of wigglesworth

my

my grandfather told me he said not

everybody liked wigglesworth

because his faith was so abrasive you

know

active faith

offends inactive faith

faith in action offends faith as a

concept

faith that is active in the moment

offends faith that’s waiting for

something to happen someday

wigglesworth would say

don’t treat the devil kindly

so when he would rebuke a demon that

demon knew he rebuked him

some people

suggest a demon leave

as though they were making a suggestion

it says casting down

take that vile thing

that just

isolated that person into an

unredemptive position in their life

take that vile thought

that just declared over your economics

that there is no solution you’ve

actually tried everything and there is

no solution take that vile thought cast

at the feet of jesus who is himself

jehovah jireh

take that thought

that says your marriage cannot be healed

or restored take that thought captive

because it is born in the pit of hell

you take it captive and you cast it down

and you bring into subjection all these

things that you’re thinking seeing and

feeling until what you’re seeing

thinking and feeling reflects his heart

in his nature

it’s not complicated

it just means

i’ve got to have more input from what he

said

instead of from everything else that’s

around me

why don’t you stand we’re going to pray

wrap this up

i i believe

i i believe the lord put this on my

heart for today i do i believe

i believe he directed my heart i’ll be

honest with you i had something else i

was

wanting to do

uh just as of this morning we eric and i

walked over to the offices i went into

my office

and boom it became clear

completely

off

what i had prepared my heart to do i

could i could feel the heart of the lord

for

the mental health

of the body of christ

it is for you

but it is also through you

and it’s through you

unto a culture

that you will not convince through

debate

in some cases

it’s going to be your engagement in

prayer

that pulls out the rug from that spirit

of deception that is influencing your

neighbor the way he’s influenced them

they see no solution

because they’ve locked into a covenantal

agreement with the powers of darkness

but your prayers

not manipulation not pointing the finger

not argument and debate but you going

before god saying god i really care for

this neighbor and they are trapped they

don’t see it

i know i can’t convince them but i know

that you can

we begin to pull down the strongholds of

thought they think healing of a marriage

is impossible i know god that’s a lie so

i pulled that thought down in the name

of jesus right now that that has been

raised up in their thinking as a god

and it is not a god it is an inferior

thought

and we take that thing got from my

friend who has a cycle of going bankrupt

after bankruptcy after bankruptcy they

are locked into thinking they can never

be successful in their life and god i

know that that’s a lie from hell i know

it’s a lie from hell

it’s an absolute lie it’s not in your

promise you never promised us that we

would never come out of cycles of pain

you did the opposite so i take that

thought captive that that has been

raised up against the knowledge of god

your very name is jehovah jireh

and i take that lying spirit and i

confront you in the name of jesus that

lying devil that is about hopelessness

into my friend who believes it’s

impossible for them to ever have an

economic solution it’s a lie from hell

it’s a lie from hell i pulled that

thought down and in its place i released

the revelation of jehovah jiren the god

who always provides the god who is

always more than enough

you bind

and you lose

you bind and you lose you bind here

what’s bound there you loose here what’s

loose there

if it’s not in the mind of christ it’s

not worth releasing

got to stop saying the stuff that he

isn’t thinking

i’m so tired of my own opinion

i’m serious

it bores me to tears

i must have the mind of christ i must

have the word of the lord i have to

when he speaks i live when i think

without him i die

i’m about to start over so i’m telling

you better i don’t know i’m just that

was a threat that was a threat i’m just

joking all right

we’re going to pray and i want you to

put your hands in front of you

just an act of faith to receive because

i do believe that jesus

has brought this to the forefront today

because it is in his heart to repeat to

release a grace

a grace

to deal with the lies have been raised

up in our own our own lives

the lies

i look to your father father of truth

you cannot lie

you cannot deceive

you who is faithful and true

so completely

trustworthy you are perfectly

perfectly trustworthy we owe you

absolute trust

and together we look to you right now

and i’m asking

that you would give us as a gift a grace

a heightened awareness

of the things we’ve entertained

the times we’ve welcomed the enemy of

our soul into our homes

and have made them comfortable with our

thinking

today we expel those lies

and i pray that you would over these

next seven to ten days there would be

such a heightened awareness of what is

true a heightened awareness of what is

filled with hope a heightened awareness

of what is on your heart for this hour

help us to never again waste a painful

moment

let them always bring us to you

always bring us to you

i ask that a spirit of wisdom and

revelation rest upon this body of people

those who are watching online

i bless this company of believers

i bless you in the name of jesus

and i pray for a wisdom to scale the

walls of the city

and to bring down strongholds that

people have placed trust in other than

the name of the lord

that this company of people would be

known by their neighbors

they just

trust god

they simply

trust him when push comes to shove they

just

trust god it makes no sense they just

trust god

let that be

the living reality

of this body of believers

in fact i pray for the city of reading

that reading would rise to a place of

absolute trust that this city would love

you well

that this city would absolutely

trust you

i pray this in jesus name

now i know there’s a chance there could

be somebody here in the room

and there’s

many who are watching online bethel tv

do not have

a personal relationship with the lord

jesus christ

i want to invite anybody in the room

that has never made

a personal commitment to receive jesus

into your life where you understand you

know what forgiveness of sin is and you

are actually transformed literally from

the inside out

it’s a conversion

experience not by our works it’s by his

but we turn our life to him that’s

that’s what invites that invasion of god

and if there’s anybody in this room

that i want in just a moment i want you

to put a hand up

and those that are online

that are watching on bethel tv and

youtube

just we’ve got pastors online with you

just write the note i want to know jesus

i want to know jesus just put that in

the note and a pastor will get right to

you and pray with you but is there

anybody here that would say that’s me i

don’t want to leave the building till i

know i’ve been born again until i know

i’ve been forgiven of god

okay all right

i would assume that it’s a house filled

with believers but

it’s not worth taking the risk

i just pray for you that god would give

such prosperity of soul

that your emotional life

your mental life

would be so overflowing with the mind of

christ

that literally the mind of christ would

be contagious through your words that

somehow you would speak a word and

people would change their thinking

simply because what you said

may the mind of christ settle upon this

city in jesus name amen amen tom come

and help us

[Applause]