Even your thoughts aren't safe

When faced with foolish government actions, Scripture urges us to respond with grace rather than frustration. This post explores the importance of taking every thought captive and the power of intercessory prayer.

Transcript

So, what do you do when your government acts foolish? Many times it's really, really frustrating when that happens. And I don't know about you, but a lot of things come out of my mouth at sometimes and stuff shows up in my head. You know, a couple of years ago, the Lord started to speak to us about blessing and cursing really, really uh strongly. came out of our one of our Tuesday morning prayer times and again something has arisen out of that wonderful prayer time that we have on Tuesday morning in Zoom our national call. Um and again the Lord was speaking to us again similarly to what he was saying before and this time it came out of Eccles Ecclesiastes rather

Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and verse 20. Let me read it to you. Um it's a really interesting verse and there's nowhere to hide after reading this verse. They brought a lot of direction and correction in our lives after that. So let me read it to you. Ecclesiastes 10 verse 20. Do not curse the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird on the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you have to say. Don't even curse the king in your thoughts." Now, actually, when I heard that, I my initial response was, "That's not fair. I'm having a hard hard enough time not to curse with my mouth, but I can't even curse in my mind. And I don't know if

you think it's fair or not, but I think it's the truth. It actually leads to some place that's very, very important. You know, the scripture says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The heart isn't just this thing that thumps, but it's here as well. It's the thoughts, the intentions, and it's all those things that are all together that make up what's going on in the inner man. And this I find really interesting when we look at 2 Corinthians uh chapter 10 verse 5. It talks about taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Now remember a couple of weeks ago I was talking about about being disciplined and when we pray for discipline it's important that we we

yes we can ask the Lord to discipline our leaders but ultimately it has to start with us. Discipline me first. And this is a good way to learn discipline. Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Let me just show you what it says here in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Um it is uh again you know this well. So here for though we live in the world we do not wage war against the world. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine powers to demolish strongholds. Strongholds are those mental structures, those mental arguments that are in your brain, in your mind, connected to your soul, your mind, your will, your emotions. And so

there are strongholds or ideas that set itself up against the knowledge of God. So when God says you need to be disciplined and con take those thoughts, those strongholds captive to the obedience of Christ because God says don't curse, bless. Even Jesus said this when you pray, pray for your enemies. Bless, don't curse. It says, so here it's not only just making sure it doesn't come out of your mouth, but don't even let them take root in your soul and your mind. You know, when we look at Dan Daniel, you know, we see that prayer in Daniel chapter 9, that is really so important. You see, how do you deal with foolishness that comes out of government? You intercede,

you don't complain, right? How has that worked anyway? We've seen when we make intercession for our leaders, there are changes. So, and in the intercession, it's not about us saying he did that, he's nasty, he did that, I don't like it, he's foolish, all the things, all the things that I rattle off with my mouth. But it's not that. You see Daniel when you look at Daniel 9, Daniel was able to identify with the sin. He took him on took it on himself. He confessed the sin as if it were his own sin. That's what intercession is. That is going and interceding be the gobetween. That is the standing in the gap representing that other body, entity, person, nation, and standing in the gap

and acting as if you committed the sin and then asking for mercy. So there's this this this outlaying of confession, this outlaying of asking for mercy. And I don't want to get into here, but I just want to read the latter part of of Daniel 9 as to where it goes. So, if you want to really get take get an a greater indepth look, look at and read all of Daniel 9. But I'm going to go here at the very bottom here. Now, our God, hear the prayers and the petitions of your sermon. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary, on your people. Give ear, oh God, and hear. Open your eyes and see the desolation of our city or our nation. We do not make requests of you because we are

righteous. Listen to this. But because of your great mercy. This is why we intercede. Not to make ourselves righteous or somebody else righteous, but it's because of his great mercy. Oh Lord, listen. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, hear and act for the sake. For your sake, oh God, oh my God, do not delay because your city and your people bear your name. So we request to God, intercede on behalf of our leaders because of his great mercy. Not because they deserve it, but because he is merciful. It says, "The Lord is good and his mercy endures forever. And that is how we pray for a foolish government, for foolish leaders. We take it upon ourselves. We confess the sins

and we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Not murmuring, not complaining, not cursing, but blessing, but standing in the gap on behalf of our nation, on behalf of our leaders for mercy. I'm Chris Byber, the director of the National House of Prayer. And if you like this video, please like and subscribe. We'll see you next time. Bye for now. [Music]