The battle plan of Satan is wrapped up in one word, "Containment". He is not nearly as concerned with driving us backwards as he is with containing us where we are and keeping us from getting where God wants us to go. He knows that if he can establish a stronghold in our thoughts, he can take over our life.
How does he do this? By putting a yoke, (a weight) around our mind of guilt, worry, anxiety, depression, condemnation, anger, and discouragement, and weighing us down with all that that this world has to offer, the lust of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life - this is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:16) God has given us powerful spiritual weapons to break down the enemy's strongholds and renew our mind in the Truth. In 2 Corinthians 10: 4-5 it says, "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."
How do we take every thought captive? We make an exchange - this for that! My mind says, "You never do anything right", and I exchange this thought with what the bible says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". If we know the Word of God, when something destructive comes into our mind, we can exchange it with a right thought and it will produce good results.
We have the privilege of using God's authority that He has given us when we became born again and use it to break yokes, (bondage) over our lives by acting on what the word of God says. In Matthew 18:18 - "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven." (Please note that this is anything that is in God's will for us and that is in line with the Bible). Hebrews 4:12 (AMP) says, "For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power (making it active, operative, energizing, and effective); it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and (the immortal) spirit, and of joints and marrow (of the deepest parts of our nature), exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart." According to the verse above, God's Word cuts with surgical precision through every deception, argument, motive and hidden intention that clouds our minds, and brings clarity to us.
Don't be passive in your thinking and allow negative thoughts to just fall into it, your mind is not a garbage dump. Be proactive in thinking thoughts that reflect our hope in Christ!
