Thoughts are very powerful. They seem to just drop into our minds or arise from within us.
The television presents a good illustration.
When a television station sends out signals they are received and decoded by our television sets. The decoded signals are then used to paint a picture on our television screen. We sit back and watch the picture.
Colour televisions use three electron beams to paint the pictures on our screens. These beams called, red, green and blue, combine to create all the different colours will see.
Interestingly, our minds also receive all the thoughts and ideals from three sources. God, man and satan.
Consider thoughts as beams, which our mind has the ability to decode. God can beam the same thought to two different people who then put these thoughts into words.
They may express the thoughts in different ways and with different words, but basically they would be saying the same thing. This is how prophecy comes through to us when someone speaks what God is saying.
They express God's thoughts with their own words.
Thoughts come from three sources
1.Our own imagination
- Genesis 6:5, 1 Chronicles 28:9
These can be good or bad. What you hear, see and do affects your thought life. Meditating on God's word produces godly thoughts. Studying secular and human literature can also provide us with inspiration and good ideals. There is nothing wrong in this.
The reality is that God gave mankind a wonderful brain. When we put our intellect to use we can all receive inspiration and ideals. The good ideals can ultimately be traced back to God.
Even people that do know believe in the existence of God benefit from such inspiration. The scriptures put it this way.
Job 32:7-9 I said, 'Age should speak, And multitude of years should teach wisdom.' 8 But [there is] a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. 9 Great men are not [always] wise, Nor do the aged [always] understand justice. (NKJV)
2. From God
- John 14: 26
God spoke to Adam and Cain. The Bible is full of accounts of God speaking to people. What they heard were godly thoughts.
We are all made in the image of God and have the ability to receive thoughts that come from God. Many times we do not recognise the thoughts and ideals that God drops in our hearts.
The wisdom and wide varity that God uses in speaking to us often results in many of us not recognising His voice, thoughts and leading.
As we begin to renew our minds we shall find ourselves better placed to discern godly thoughts.
3. From satan
- 2 Corinthians 10:5, 1 Chronicles 21:1-2, John 13:2,
Acts 5:1-3, 1 Timothy 4:1
Cain, Saul and Judas all meditated on the devils thoughts and got influenced by satan. The devil still pulls these tricks today.
We shall explore this more later.
Nevertheless read the scripture accounts above and you will surely learn alot from them. Below is just one taster.
John 13:2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's [son,] to betray Him, (NKJV)
Now lets take a closer look at some people's thought life.