How to bring a thought into captivity

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (ASV)
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds); casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;
 
 
What does it mean for a thought to be in captivity? It doesn’t have free reign. Those thoughts don’t get to bounce all over the place. It doesn’t get to intrude over what belongs to God. They don’t have authority to take territory. It doesn’t have permission to be unrestrained. The thoughts we battle don’t get to run wild. They don’t get to overtake. They don’t have control. Why? Because we battle against them by bringing them into captivity.
 
Something in captivity is kept within strict boundaries. Things are captive in an enclosed space. There’s a gate around what’s kept under captivity. That gate is guarded. What’s within it is under control.
 
How do you bring your thoughts into captivity? You enclose it with the Word of God. You meet that thought with scripture. You surround it with your faith and the truth we have in Christ. You rebuke it into obedience.
 
Those thoughts of doubt don’t get to grow in your garden of faith. The devil doesn’t have permission to plant seeds of doubt over what you planted in faith.
 
The thing God promised you that you haven’t seen yet? Hopelessness doesn’t have authority to lay down on top of your promises.
 
The thing you’re praying on? Despair doesn’t get to settle on the matter when you bring that thought into captivity.
 
The thing you’re worried about? Anxiety is not allowed to enter. Bring it into captivity. Take the matter to Jesus in prayer. Don’t listen to the anxious thoughts.
 
That loneliness that’s eating at you? Depression doesn’t belong here. The devil doesn’t get to isolate you in sadness because you don’t let those thoughts win. You battle against them.
 
So much of spiritual battle takes place in the mind. Anxiety, worry, depression, suicide starts in the mind. Fear starts in the mind. Hopelessness and despair are thoughts that come into the situation. We must approach these thoughts as things to battle, not accept and certainly not to grow. Don’t entertain these thoughts. Don’t invite them to discussion and hear them.  
 
The negative thoughts will come. That’s human nature. The enemy will whisper thoughts that go against God. Did God really say that? The devil wants to plant doubt. The devil specializes in deception. His goal is destruction. God’s goal is for us to have life and have it abundantly.
 
My friend, we must battle thoughts that threaten our faith with weapons of spiritual warfare. Know the Word. When the thoughts come, enclose them with the scripture we know is truth. Renounce fear. Cast out anxiety. Unshackle yourself from doubt that holds you back. Shake off hopelessness. Praise the Lord. Bring every thought into subjection. Pray on it. Talk to God about it. Lay it on the altar. Speak faith. Speak truth. Walk with authority. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. The enemy does not get to overtake us. The devil will not win the battle in our mind when we respond to enemy tactics with spiritual battle methods.
 
Bring your thoughts into captivity by enclosing them with the Word of God.