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Are you currently fighting a problem that is as a result of a decision that you made based on a thought? I believe many of our problems are. You start to wish that you could go back and do things differently, that you could have chosen another path. If only there was an easy way to stop our thoughts from turning into bad decisions that take us years to fix.

Thoughts have a way of controlling us. If we are not careful, our thoughts can even lead us to total destruction. In that moment, we believe that our thoughts are the best decision to help us through the situation. In other situations, we end up making wrong decisions even when we clearly hear the spirit asking us to do otherwise. Even the Bible warns us against our thoughts. Proverbs 3:5 asks us not to lean on our own understanding. Moreover, there is a saying that goes like this, „an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.“ This implies that bad thoughts that are instigated by the devil are born when we are idle.

Today’s sermon is from no one other than Pastor Steven Furtick (aka PSF). He uses two titles for this sermon. The First is „Take It Back“ and the other is „The Guided Mind and a Guarded Heart.“ He derives his sermon from two Bible scriptures, 1 Kings 20:1-9, 13-28 and Philippians 4:6-7. Here we find Ahab, king of Israel, under attack from Ben-Hadad, King of Aram who brought with him 32 king, all fully armed to defeat Israel. Ben (this is what i will call him moving forward) in this case is the enemy. He sent word to Ahab with demands for him to surrender his most precious possessions, and when Ahab responded with a yes! Ben responded with more demands. However the second time, the elders of Israel advised Ahab not to give into the demands and when Ahab didn’t, Ben threatened him with war and total destruction of Israel. Now, let us stop here for a second and learn from what PSF has to say about this situation.

In his perspective, Ahab made some terrible decisions that led him to his current situation. He-as the Bible calls him in 1 Kings 16:3-was a wicked king! More wicked than anyone before him. If you have heard of Jezebel, you would know how wicked Ahab was. Ahab married a wicked woman who led him and the whole of Israel astray. They started to worship and serve Baal (see chapter 16:31). God sent Elijah the prophet to let Ahab know that there would be a terrible famine in Israel (chapter 17) and a few years later God proved himself glorious when he humiliated Jezebel‘s gods by asking her prophets to ask their gods to answer by fire. They failed of course! Elijah called on God and he brought down fire. Shortly after that the famine that Elijah had previously pronounced on Israel ended. Therefore, at the time of Ben‘s attack, Israel was just coming out of a terrible famine which God sent upon them because Ahab and Israel refused to turn from his sin.

See Ahab, started off his reign with some bad thoughts which led him to marry the wrong wife and turn from God. To this, PSF asks us to always involve God at the level of our thought (hence my sermon title). He believes that if we involve God in our daily lives, which includes our thought process, we will avoid making decisions that may cause us problems in the future. But if we allow our mind to go on without guidance from God, we will find ourselves anxious, and also find ourselves digging pit halls for ourselves. PSF believes that some of these decisions will take us the whole of our lives to fix! That is why Paul asks us to pray in ever situation. Therefore, PSF asks us to pray about our decisions so that God will guide us. Praying through the process of making decisions should be done even when we are in the hardest situations. It is possible that when we are in a dark place, the devil will use our mind to do things that will cost us our future. Such as thoughts that tell us that we are useless, worthless, that we are weak, that no body cares for us, that we are better off dead, etc. such thoughts should be captured and surrendered to God. Otherwise, allowing them to guide us will lead us to anxiety, alcoholism, suicide attempts, theft, murder, etc.

God knows where we have been and what we have been through in the past. The Enemy on the other hand will find us at our weakest point and he will bring others along with him to threaten us to make agreements with him to surrender the best of ourselves. God gave us joy, peace, kindness, our gifts and possessions because we need them to keep moving. We cannot agree to surrender them to the enemy because he has demanded us to. Let us not be like Ahab who was willing to give the best of what he had without consulting the person who gave it to him. He later realized that that’s not all that the enemy wanted, the enemy wanted to take everything he owned to leave him worse than he found him.

I hope this speaks to someone who is giving up his or her joy away because the enemy demands it. Don’t do it! It is not yours to give! God only gave it to you to help you, he didn’t give it to you to give it to the enemy. You need it, the enemy is only after your soul.

PSF says, „it is not the voice you hear that affects your life, it’s the Voice you believe“ Believe God’s voice. A thought that leads you to seek revenge or take that drink or drug is only going to bring you temporary relief. Seek permanent relief which you get when you surrender everything (even your pain) to God. Philippians 4:8-9 tells us to think of good things and put them into practice. Things that are true, noble, right, lovely, pure, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. Ahab (because of his distance from God) forgot to seek him first. PSF suggests we seek God first when faced with the enemy’s attack. Even if it is our decisions that have led us to where we are now.

How do we seek God? Before we give into the enemy’s demands or do anything you will regret, I suggest we praise and worship him and or read and meditate on His word. Remember what King Jehoshaphat did when he was under attack from the Moabites and the Ammonites? (2 Chronicles 20). He went onto his knees and started to remind God (more like remind himself, because God doesn’t need to be reminded of anything) of how he had ended up where he was. The key point here is to surrender the battle to God because he can see beyond it. Only he knows what is coming next and how you can proceed from where you are. PSF tells us that there is no battle or problem new to God. He says that thinking that your problems are beyond God is an expression of arrogance. God has dealt with all this staff in the past and he knows how to help you. Even if your decisions lead you to your current problem, God foretold it and he knows how to get you through it.

Ahab didn’t remember to seek God. But because the enemy was so arrogant! God told Ahab that He (God) would win this battle for him. And indeed he did! Ahab with God’s help defeated Ben-Hadad. Ahab! A wicked man! If I am right, many of us never expect God to help us because of our sin. But remember, God made a promise to Abraham, Jacob and to David to bless their descendants. God was only keeping his promise to those who were faithful to him in the past. God knew that you and I needed to (one day) read this scripture and know that even in our most wicked state, God can save us! His promise is to prosper us. Stay faithful to God for your future generation.

Finally, Ahab‘s experience teaches us that we need to strengthen our faith because even after God has helped us fight the battle the enemy will come back to fight us through our weakest points. God’s prophet went back and told Ahab that he had to prepare for the next attack. It turns out that the enemy was so confident that if they attacked again this time they would defeat Israel. They were convinced that the only reason why Israel defeated them was because their God was a God of the hills and so their new strategy was to attack them in the valley. Their limitation of God made Him come through for Ahab more stronger than he had done previously. The valley represents your weak points, the times when you are experiencing the darkest times. The enemy thinks that God only helps you when you are having a good life (on the hills) but what he doesn’t know is that when you are weak, He is strong. That God is a God of both the valley and the hills. Your strategy (after one attack from the enemy) is to strengthen your position in faith and be able to fight harder for what is coming next. Don’t give up after the first fight, the enemy is always looking to defeat you. PSF tells us not to ask God to help us with things we aren’t willing to change. You have to be willing to change!

My prayers is that you may remember to (in every situation) involve God in every step of your life. Remember it all starts with what you do at the level of your thought. May the peace of God that surpasses all understanding guard your heart and mind. Amen!

With love as prayers,

Resty Kansiime

Here is the link to today’s sermon from pastor Steven Furtick. https://youtu.be/Ox-uaXpwvx8