Think Again!

Chapter 11: 3-D Forging: Demolish, Detain, Defend • 97

Because you are created in the image of God, you have the ability to stand outside of your feelings and evaluate them. You can observe a feeling and cross-examine it, just like I did when Cathy told me I didn’t have to put Clarence Thomas on the payroll. You can analyze a thought and decide to reject it. This means you are not a victim of your past. You can change at a biological level. To take thoughts captive you have to interrogate them, asking, “Is that thought friend or foe?” Sometimes you need to say out loud: “That is a lie and I won’t receive it!” Call a thought out of the darkness and force it to come into the light. Give the lie a name. Engage your thoughts and feelings. Don’t let them rule over you. When Martin Luther was troubled by his thoughts, he was known to say out loud, “I am baptized!!” to remind himself that he belonged to Jesus Christ and was clothed in his righteousness. The Enemy’s Spin Think about what happens when people say devastating things to you, like these:

• You will never amount to anything. • Why can’t you be more like your brother? • We don’t need you here, you’re fired. • I don’t love you anymore.

• Your child has died. • Your wife has cancer.

In that moment, the devil rushes in to whisper his interpretation of those words. He wants to put his spin on the situation. He wants to twist their meaning so he can steal, kill, or destroy. At that moment, you can choose what to believe: 1) Satan’s