4 Steps to Getting Rid of Unwanted Thoughts
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Central Text:
2 Corinthians 10:5- We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Hello Dear Readers,
This will be a very special blog post for me.
The reason for this is that throughout this post I will be sharing a personal testimony and what I consider to be the hardest attack from the enemy that I have ever faced.
It took me a lot of time to decide that I would share this with you.
But I prayed a lot about it and I feel like sharing my testimony will help others.
As you can guess from the title, my testimony has to do with battling unwanted thoughts.
Thoughts that were heinous and blasphemous against God.
But this is not just a story of my battle.
It is a story of my victory in Christ.
It all started one night as I was laying in bed praying in my head like I did every night.
As I was finishing up that prayer, a really vulgar thought about God came to my head.
I immediately stopped praying, confused, and asked myself “where did that come from?”
Suddenly many other bad thoughts started repeating in my head.
Cursing God and saying horrible things.
I started to panic fighting with the thoughts to stop.
I started crying thinking that it was me saying all those things in my head because the thoughts came in the form of my voice.
I thought that I had lost my salvation.
Eventually, I became exhausted and fell asleep.
A couple hours later, maybe between 2am – 4am, I woke up.
As I laid there under my covers, I could feel the most horrible presence in my room I have ever felt.
I thought death had came to get me.
I remained frozen in my bed, crying and feeling the worse terror I have ever felt, begging God not to let me go to hell.
To my surprise, I fell asleep again and woke up the next morning still alive.
At the time, I worked at a call center because I had taken a semester off from college.
I got up and when I thought about what had happened the night before, the thoughts came flooding again.
I battled with the thoughts the entire time I got ready for work and even at work I had to time myself out of incoming calls to cry.
My head was not only full of those horrible thoughts against God, it was also full of thoughts that I was going to hell.
That night I knew that I needed help, so I called my uncle Victor and my aunt Marilyn.
My uncle Victor and aunt Marilyn are pastors and I am very close to them.
At first I was very reluctant to call anyone.
How do I tell someone that my head is full of thoughts cursing God?
But I knew I had to do it and I thank God that I did.
When I explained what was happening to me to my aunt and uncle, they reassured me that I was not going to hell.
That it wasn’t me who was actually thinking those thoughts.
They told me that I was undergoing an attack from the enemy and was engaged into spiritual warfare in my mind.
After telling me that, my aunt Marilyn and uncle Victor prayed for me and we hung up.
I stayed sitting on the bed crying.
Part of me was relieved, but the other part was still very worried.
As the days went on and I was still battling with this attack, my aunt Marilyn stayed supportive of me and counseled me.
God used my aunt Marilyn to teach me these next four steps that I will share with you to getting rid of unwanted thoughts.
1. Identify the Nature of the Thought
When my aunt and uncle helped me realize that I was under a spiritual attack and that it was not me actually thinking those thoughts, I didn’t truly understand at first.
Even though they had told me the truth, I was still confused and felt like it maybe was me thinking those thoughts.
My emotions were getting the better of me and I could not think with a clear head.
It was until one day at work that I suddenly just closed my eyes and I asked myself “Ashley, what do you truly feel?”
From the depths of my heart I heard a voice that said “I love Him.” (God)
It was me! It was my true voice!
I was finally able to hear the real me in the midst of all those chaotic thoughts.
I began crying, this time, knowing that those horrible thoughts against God did not come from me.
That moment changed everything. ‘
I was able to stand firm, knowing that it was the enemy sending those thoughts to my head, not me.
2. Immediately Rebuke the Thought
My aunt told me that when the thoughts come, immediately rebuke them.
Once I was able to identify the origin of these thoughts, I was able to rebuke them with the authority that God deposited in me (and in you).
The key is to never repeat negative thoughts out loud.
I made sure, and am still making sure, to never repeat out loud what I was hearing in my head.
Saying negative thoughts out loud open a door for the enemy to come into your life.
Remember that “life and death are in the power of the tongue…” (Pro. 18:21)
Everything that you speak, you speak it into existence.
This is why you cannot verbalize negativity.
Instead always speak the truth of God.
3. Speak the Truth of God
After rebuking a negative thought or lie of the enemy, you must speak the truth of God: His Word.
This is where the central text comes into play.
2nd of Corinthians 10:5 says “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Repeating this verse was such a great help to me during my mental battle.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that goes against the knowledge of God.
That means we as Christians should destroy all thought that is against God.
I did not only repeat this verse, I declared it!
In addition to demolishing all thought that goes against God, we also take them captive and make them obedient to Christ.
In other words, all thought that does not align with Scripture, has to go in the name of Jesus and is replaced with the truth of the Lord.
Whenever the negative thoughts against God came to my head I no longer cried or fought with them.
Instead I rebuked them and began declaring 2nd Corinthians 10:5 and praising God.
The enemy, of course, insisted.
Luckily, my aunt taught me the fourth step to defeating these evil thoughts: ignoring them.
4. Ignore the Lingering Thoughts
As much as we would love to be able to just rebuke thoughts and have them instantly go away, this is not the case majority of the time.
It was most certainly not the case for me.
The final step I took to getting rid of the unwanted thoughts plaguing my mind, was ignoring them and continuing on with my normal day.
It is good to take authority over bad thoughts and order them to stop.
It is good to battle these thoughts with the Word of God.
But once you have done that ignore the lingering thoughts and continue your day.
Do not spend a lot of time trying to contradict these thoughts.
The reason why, is that when you go back and forth with negative thoughts, you’re entertaining them.
The more you entertain them, the longer they will stay in your head.
Do not try not to think about the thoughts either.
Usually when you put effort into not thinking about something, you end up thinking about it even more.
Don’t give these thoughts an important place in your mind.
Instead continue your day and immerse yourself in other tasks.
This was the most helpful thing to do for me.
When I was done speaking the truth of God, I simply continued with my work and got so focused on it that the negative thoughts became quieter and quieter until eventually they stopped.
Now, this did not take one day.
I was engaged in this battle for about a week.
I repeated steps 1 through 4 everyday until ignoring the thoughts became a little easier and I was finally freed from those horrendous thoughts.
What You Need To Know
Battling with negative thoughts is not an easy or short process.
You have to be determined when using this 4 step method and keep your mind firm on God’s truth.
Give it a try and don’t give up.
With perseverance and prayer I know the Lord will liberate you, if you battle with negative thoughts (any type of negative thought), just like He liberated me.
This method will work with any negative thought, not just an extreme case like mine.
I’ve used it over and over whenever I get thoughts of depression, anxiety, or worry and it has always been successful.
I thank God for the experience because my mind is so much stronger now.
I thank God for using my uncle Victor and aunt Marilyn as His instruments to help me get through it.
I pray that this testimony will be of great help to you.
Moving Forward
If you liked this post and want to learn more information and strategies for Spiritual Growth through the Seven Areas of Spiritual Growth , join the RTK Newsletter below!
The next post coming up is one you will not want to miss!
While you wait for that,
Here’s a Question: What are the negative thoughts that come to your mind everyday?
Let me know in the comments below!
Until Next Time.
God Bless,
Ashley
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