Heights 2

Today morning, an evil thought crossed my mind. It was about murder in the family but immediately, this scripture fought it: CASTING DOWN IMAGINATIONS …

Right away I felt the dark grip of the imagination DIE! You see as a man thinketh, so is he. Before we become all that we are, we first think it. When we meditate longer upon those thoughts, we believe them, and so we speak…them. (2 Cor 4:13) Once we speak them, we create the universe they speak about, for they are all seeds.

The imagination that came by way of mind was a seed, but what the scripture did was to immediately withdraw it from the soil of my heart long before it’d sink and germinate into a tree. And if the tree grew, I’d eat of its fruit. (Prov 18:21)

Many of us have been here before: where random thoughts cloud our minds and we either trash them or — which is the more commonplace — think about them so long. Job did the latter, and when his children died, he said “what I feared has come to pass.” This means when the devil got an opportunity to strike him, he was already with weapon — not something out of this world, but the very thoughts and imaginations of the victim.

But how does he know our thoughts if he is not in us? 1 Corinthians 2:11 poses that no one knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of that man within him.

I then conclude, that the devil either INVESTIGATES or INFLUENCES our thoughts and intellect by studying our actions. If the Bible says ‘as a man thinks, so is he’, the devil will influence a man to think poor, or sick, and that man will be.

Let me talk about investigating first. Job always sacrificed offerings to God with the reason of cleansing the sins of his children, believing that they’d sin as they partied at a specific annual event (Job 1:4-5). Of course, he believed the penalty of their sin was death. It was no wonder that when they died, he confessed that what he feared the most came to pass. The devil investigated why he offered these sacrifices, and when he got an opportunity, he employed the very trepidation of the protagonist.

When he could not die, the antagonist tried to influence him to, through the words of his very own wife, curse God and die. Thankfully, Job was too mature to fall for that trick. When the enemy can’t detect your motives anymore, he tries to plant his thoughts in you, so that in your meditation and speech, you give them life, and destroy your own self.

He spies me, watching who I am calling that owes me, and he’ll connect the dots to see that I need finances to clear my tuition before my exams’ start date. He then ‘shoots his shots’, drawing his bow’s string as far behind as he can, releasing it to come at me as a wile: Why read? Did you know you can’t sit your exams without clearing that tuition! Better find ways of borrowing money at least before it’s too late.

I lose concentration, and nearly slip down the street called anxiety, but the word comes to my rescue, reminding me that I lend to nations and I don’t borrow, and that I shouldn’t worry about anything. For if he takes care of a sparrow, how much more me!

The enemy tried influencing Jesus’ thoughts too. He presented his influence in form of a solution to the desert hunger during Jesus’ fast. When Jesus rejected it, he conveyed Jesus to the temple top and encouraged him to throw himself off its battlement, shortly before he told Jesus that he’d offer him all the wealth he’d ever dreamed of, if he’d only worship him. Jesus rejected both proposals. How? By responding using God’s word — the same word that rebuked the imagination that trespassed my mind today.

I believe the world has been deceived and has granted the enemy more power than he has. Telepathy…has always been a fictional idea; that another man can read one’s thoughts. God reserves the rights to read one’s thoughts, since he wired every human. The devil? He has no ounce in that wiring, so he’ll stick to his craftiness, ensuring that if he can’t read your thoughts, he can as well possess them by making you think what he wants you to.

God, in a bid to humiliate the enemy took this a notch higher. After Jesus dying, He was exalted to the highest honor and position, sitting at the very right hand of God, FAR ABOVE all principalities and powers and dominions and all things were put under His feet (Eph 1:20-22). Now, he isn’t seated there alone. Once you have believed on Him as your personal Lord and savior, you are right there with Him. Seated FAR ABOVE too (Eph 2:6).

You’re not just ‘above’, but ‘faaaar above’. Let’s take the clouds for example. If you are to throw a stone at them, can it reach? No. In the same way, God has raised you far up, where the devil can not reach. Gravity keeps diverting downwards the arrows he aims at you. No wonder no weapon he forms against you can prosper. You are too above for any to reach; at a height unattainable by him.

The principalities talked about are military units that were kicked out of heaven, and while on earth, are believed to fill the troposphere and stratosphere and mesosphere. If we are to look at things vertically, this is the space between heaven and earth where the answer to Daniel’s prayer was being delayed. You see, Daniel’s spirit didn’t have the same advantage as yours. His spirit was at a low altitude, far below these principalities; so, the Prince of Persia, who was working under Satan tampered with the signals.

Since you’re above, you do not have to worry about ‘signal interruptions’ or ‘delayal of answers.’ Once you pray, your answers are already with you. You talk to God on the same level. He isn’t far above, while you’re far below. It’s the devil who’s far below now, and you might ask, ‘how come he’s still disturbing my peace?’ Well, our bodies exist in the troposphere, even if our spirits are with God, and our souls in between.

As the enemy investigates or influences, like I earlier explained, our reaction must be with the word of God, which has been memorized in our minds, for the body is just a cloth that the soul wears. So, for the body to stay ABOVE while here below, it has to have meditated on God’s book of law. It has to think of the things ABOVE, and not of those on the earth (Col 3:2)

If not, disease will keep it pinned down, even if your spirit is elevated in the other realm… This could be likened to one being an ambassador of a super power, yet living in that country as poor as those from that country.

Why the scripture says ‘casting DOWN imaginations…’ is because you are ABOVE and all the devilish attempts are coming from below. You are at the zenith point in the galaxy. There’s no higher point than where Christ is seated, and at that point everything that lingers has the capacity to become alive.

Conclusively, the next time the devil tries to shoot arrows of deceit, sickness and poverty at you, remember you are faaaaar above the exosphere. To get to you, he needs a rocket, and what’s available to him, are mere planes.

Just reminding him how far below he is, and how you can’t hear his yells despite his speaking through a megaphone, mocks him to a degree that he can’t stand you. That’s the resistance that causes him to flee. That and having a clear understanding of your height, and a firm meditation & understanding.

Till next time, enjoy your view from ABOVE.

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2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;