I Am the Sum of My Thoughts

"Casting down imaginations ... and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Anyone who wishes to check on his true spiritual condition may do so by noting what him voluntary thoughts have been over the last hours or days. What has he thought about when free to think of what he pleased? Toward what has his inner heart turned when it was free to turn where it would?

When the bird of thought was let go did it fly out like the raven to settle upon floating carcasses or did it like the dove circle and return again to the ark of God? Such a test is easy to run, and if we are honest with ourselves we can discover not only what we are but what we are going to become.

We'll soon be the sum of our voluntary thoughts.

It is possible to have our whole life so possessed by the Holy Spirit that our very thoughts and intuitions will come to us in quietness and simplicity, with the consciousness that they have been touched by His thoughts and illumined by His light, that we are walking continually with our Father, and receiving constantly the testimony that we please God.

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The Habit of Holy Thought

"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7)

Every normal person can determine what he will think about. Of course the troubled or tempted man may find his thoughts somewhat difficult to control and even while he is concentrating upon a worthy object, wild and fugitive thoughts may play over his mind like heat lightning on a summer evening. These are likely to be more bothersome than harmful and in the long run do not make much difference one way or another.l

The best way to control our thoughts is to offer the mind to God in complete surrender. The Holy Spirit will accept it and take control of it immediately. Then it will  be relatively easy to think on spiritual things, especially if we train our thought by long periods of daily prayer. Long practice in the art of mental prayer (that is, talking to God inwardly as we work or relax) will help to form the habit of holy thought.

This is what the Holy Spirit brings to us, the vision of the Lord, power to see divine things as God sees them. The Spirit also thinks in us by giving us divine instincts, intuitions and enablements.

~A. W. Tozer~