God wants us to recognize that Holy Spirit is the greatest gift we can receive. He is the Spirit of Christ and we need to guard and treasure Him as God's believers (2 Cor. 4:7). Many have a great need to practice living in God's presence daily. We do this by having grateful hearts, continually thanking Him for hearing our prayers and for being one in Him as He is one with the Heavenly Father. Jesus made this all possible for us who have received Him as our Lord. He wants us to choose to put on His mind daily and to put off our mind – the old way of thinking. When the old mind rationalizes things it produces fearfulness, worry, discontentment, and negativity. Jesus Christ gave us the precious gift of His Holy Spirit because He knows that is the only way for us to live in truth and victory.
He has wonderful thoughts and good plans concerning us. However, the fact is that many of us have unhealthy thoughts about ourselves and about others. These unhealthy thoughts are poisoning us causing sickness and death. This is the very opposite of God's goodness for us. Some of these harmful thoughts are rooted in the emotions of being fearful, discontented, negative, and critical or judgmental. Many times these thoughts go unnoticed in our lives for they are very deeply rooted in us. We actually think it is okay with God to be this way because we’re just human and this is just life. The truth is God wants us to recognize these toxic, ungodly thoughts so that we can stop hurting ourselves and each another. Unfortunately we often speak words that don't edify one another, but actually cause grief and pain.
These toxic thoughts are lies that have been spoken to us that we have internalized. They became deeply rooted in our soul which is made up of our mind, will, and emotions. We have a bad habit when our negative thoughts consistently become negative words. Most people don't want to be around a negative, discontented person who finds fault in everything and neither does Holy Spirit. God wants our hearts to be sensitive to each other and Holy Spirit wants to feel comfortable with us in our thoughts and words. God has given us a conscience so that we can sense what is right and wrong, but if we resist and rebel against our godly conscience then our hearts can become hard. People who are hard hearted can often hurt people and don't even realize it. However, it still grieves Holy Spirit. We must be sensitive to His voice.
Some people are fearful in their emotions and afraid to make decisions because they do not see God for who He is. Billy Graham once said, "Anxiety and fear are like baby tigers: The more you feed them, the stronger they grow." There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). God is love, so trust and believe that you are no longer going to be a slave to fear. Never let your fear decide your future! Worry takes place when we think we are responsible to solve our own problems, yet we have been called to be dependent on God, for He is all powerful. However, we are responsible for our thoughts, words and actions.
The only way we can break these ungodly habits is by beginning to think and speak positively. We must starve the negative thoughts and their rights to our lives so that they no longer rule our souls - for we are blood bought, righteous children of God. Jesus Christ gave us His Spirit. We can possess all the promises of God that He has for us. We need to uproot these toxic thoughts and replace them with God's Word and thoughts for us. It takes a lot of discipline and time spent in the Lord's Word and presence for one to get a renewed mind. In fact it is a lifetime of discipline, but the fringe benefits are worth it. God's Word brings healing, peace and a joyful life.
- Pastor Carol McLean