Trap the Thought Before It Traps You: Talk Back to the Devil

Sermon outline

Jesus has already stripped the devil of his power, so the believer resists him with the Word of God, beginning in the mind, where every negative thought must be trapped and thrown out before it takes root.

1. People aren't your problem

   Ephesians 6 says the believer's fight is not with people but with wicked spirits in the heavenlies. Many Christians say they are living under the circumstances or that the devil is after them. He wants to reverse that, so that the believer chases the devil and resists him steadfastly. His own victory came as he grew in a thorough, working knowledge of the Word and exercised his faith.

   Illustration: As a young Christian he was whipped many times by the devil because he had no knowledge of the Word of God. As he matured he was able to put the devil to flight.

   “Your fight is not with people, but your fight is with wicked spirits in the heavenlies.”

   • Ephesians 6:10-18
   • James 4:7

2. Power and authority: the victory is in the past tense

   Jesus spoiled principalities and powers and made a public example of them, and He has already delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. This is something done 2,000 years ago, not something still to come. The believer is seated with Christ in heavenly places and is to dominate the devil and the circumstances of life with the attitude of a winner.

   Illustration: Every morning, before he puts his feet on the floor, he says to himself that the lion is now getting up. He tells viewers to say, 'I'm large and in charge.'

   “It's not something that Jesus is going to do, but it's something that the Lord Jesus Christ has done 2,000 years ago.”

   • Colossians 2:15
   • Colossians 1:13
   • Ephesians 2:6

3. Resist the devil and he will flee from you

   James 4:7 does not tell Christians to flee from the devil. We submit to God and we do the resisting; God will not resist for us, because Jesus has done everything that needs to be done and has passed His authority to the church. You can only resist if you know your rights, and you do it strong in the Lord and the power of His might, not in your own strength. The god of this world blinds minds, and many Christians too do not see the power available to them. Jesus resisted the devil by quoting Scripture, and Satan left Him.

   Illustration: A policeman in full uniform who stands in the traffic with his arms hanging limp at his sides stops nobody. The moment he stands upright and lifts his hand, even a huge vehicle must obey, however small and skinny he is, because he is exercising his authority.

   “It doesn't say that Christians ought to flee from the devil.”

   • James 4:7
   • Ephesians 6:10
   • Romans 12:1
   • 2 Corinthians 4:4
   • Matthew 4:1-11

4. The Word of God is seed

   The sower sows the Word, so words are seed, and seed reproduces after its kind: doubt produces doubt, fear produces fear and faith produces faith. Seeds do not simply appear in the mind; they have to gain entrance. So it matters what you open your eye gate, ear gate and mouth gate to: what you listen to, read and meditate on, who you socialise with and what kind of teaching you sit under. Faith comes by hearing the Word, and staying in a Word-based church keeps what you have received.

   Illustration: He often meets people who are healed when they are prayed for and then lose that healing, because they are not in a Word-based church or under Word-based teaching.

   “Seeds, whether good or bad, just doesn't pop up in your mind. They have to get entrance there.”

   • Mark 4:14
   • Romans 10:17

5. Trap negative thoughts, or they will trap you

   This is a 'spiritual nugget' from the first chapters of his book. Negative thoughts have no legal right to be in a mind that belongs to God and must be arrested and sent back where they came from. The source of every fear-based thought is the devil, who begins his stealing and destroying with a thought or a suggestion. Your mind should work like a filter: line every thought up with the Word, and if it does not agree, cast it down and declare your victory in Christ.

   Illustration: When the authorities arrest someone who has entered South Africa illegally, they take him before a court and send him back to his country of origin. Thoughts contrary to the Word are 'illegal aliens' trying to enter your mind. He gives the example of a thought that you are going to lose your job: meditate on it and accept it, and before long you will be jobless.

   “If you fail to trap a thought, it will trap you.”

   • 1 Corinthians 6:19
   • 2 Timothy 1:7
   • John 10:10

6. Be a good gardener and prune your mind of weeds

   The second programme begins with a recap and then this point. Your mind is a garden and you are the gardener, and a garden shows what kind of gardener it has. Negative thoughts are weed seed that must be dealt with ruthlessly, because as a man thinks in his heart, so is he, and fear-based thoughts immobilise people. Test each thought: if it is from God it agrees with His Word and builds faith, and if it is from the devil it carries fear and bondage. Guarding the mind is hard at first and becomes a habit with practice.

   Illustration: You would never let people squat on your land free of charge, so why let negative, unruly, fear-based thoughts squat in your mind? He tells viewers to 'rip out those informal settlements of negative thinking' and to stop saying 'I can't do it'.

   “Why do you allow negative, unruly, fear-based thoughts to squat in your mind?”

   • 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
   • Proverbs 4:23
   • Proverbs 23:7
   • Philippians 4:13
   • 1 John 4:4
   • Philippians 4:8

7. You are set free from the power of darkness

   Note the tense again: you are not going to be set free, you already are, both from darkness and from the dominion of the devil. God's people suffer because they are ignorant of the Word or fail to receive its promises. God protects His saints, and we must believe it, receive it and walk in it. When the devil throws his lies at us we do not accept them but proclaim God's Word over them.

   “You're not going to be set free. Indeed, you are already set free.”

   • Colossians 1:13
   • Isaiah 54:17

8. Deliverance and freedom in the area of healing

   God is more than willing to heal. Be clear on two things: number one, healing is for today and you can walk in divine health; number two, healing is for everyone and not a selected few. Jesus bore our sicknesses and by His stripes we were healed. When symptoms come, that is the moment to resist the devil with the Word and say so aloud. From Proverbs 4:20-22 he gives a four-step formula for receiving healing: attend to God's Word, incline your ear to it, do not let it depart from your mouth, and keep it in your heart.

   “God is not just able to heal you, but God is more than willing to heal you.”

   • Isaiah 53:4-5
   • Acts 10:38
   • 1 Peter 2:24
   • Revelation 12:11
   • Proverbs 4:20-22