Spiritual insight about your heart: A

biblical truth on how the state of your

heart determines your spiritual life.

James Eric

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Copyright © James Eric, 2022.

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Table of contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Understanding the kinds of heart

Chapter 3: How to obtain a Godly heart and

retaining it

Chapter4: Dealing with yourself to renew

your mind (heart).

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Chapter 1: Introduction
The heart is a very significant part of the body; it
is the powerhouse of the whole system. The
word heart in the Bible refers to the authentic
you, who you really are. Where you desire,
deliberate, and where you decide. It’s the place
of spiritual activity, the seat of your inner
spiritual life.

The heart is the place where God meets you, the

place of our fellowship with Him, the place God
reveals Himself to us. Both the mind and the
heart are connected with each other and they are
interwoven. The heart serves as the store where
different things are stored either good or bad.

The heart is actually our mind, it's the very seat

of our emotions. It is the thoughts of our hearts
that determines the actions we take in life.
When your heart is right with God, you have life
in its fullness. But when your heart is filled with
wickedness and evil, it means you are dead
spiritually. It's the state of your heart that
determines your life.

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It is with the heart that man believes or doubts,
accepts or denies God.

When God looks at an individual He doesn’t see

what we see of one another. We may be looking
at the color of our skin, we may be looking at the
kind of clothes we are wearing, some will brag
about their educational achievements in public
gatherings, social position, financial or political
power, etc. God does not look at all these things.
What we think controls the kind of person we
are. Thinking evil thoughts makes us evil and
thinking Godly thoughts makes us Godly.

"Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man;

but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a
man.” May 15:17 NKJV.
"But those things which proceed out of the
mouth come from the heart, and they defile a
man." Mat 15:18 NKJV.

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"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, blasphemies." Mat 15:19 NKJV.
We must fight to keep our hearts right always,
because it is our hearts God is looking at.

That is why God told Samuel, “For the LORD

does not see as man sees; for man looks at the
outward appearance, but the LORD looks at
the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7b NKJV).

In the Bible the heart of a person is considered to

be the real genuine individual. God sees the real
us through the states of our heart. You could be
pretending to be in worship today or a Christian,
just to please your neighbors, yours spouse or
your parents. God sees the intents of the heart.
Our outward being is not important. What is of
utmost importance is whether our heart is right.

According to the Bible book of Jeremiah 17:9,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, And
desperately wicked; Who can know it? NKJV.

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Because the heart naturally is deceitful
(spiritually dead), a lot of people are faced with
a lot of challenges, problems, battles, setbacks,
and issues of life.
In this book you will learn about the UnGodly
and the Godly heart, and how we can be
transformed from our natural UnGodly heart
(which makes us to be dead spiritually) to
having a Godly kind of heart (which makes us to
have life in its fullness).

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Chapter 2: Understanding the kinds of
heart

A lot of people are faced with a lot of challenge,

problems, quarrels, setback, and diverse issues
of life, which could have been prevented if they
have identified the kind of heart peculiar to
them.

There are two basic kinds of heart, these are

UnGodly and Godly heart.

1. UnGodly heart
This is the nature of our hearts by defaul,
it's filled with wickedness, evil, and deceit
(which makes us dead spiritually), and
exposes us to problems, quarrels, setback,
and diverse issues of life.

This kind of heart is enmity with God,

anyone with this kind of heart cannot
please God. This kind of heart is divided
into the following categories:

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● Unsaved Heart: There are a lot of
people that are not born again; a lot
of people go to church but are not
born again; many of the pastors are
not born again.

"For with the heart man believeth

unto righteousness; and with the
mouth confession is made unto
salvation." (Rom 10:10)
What we need is; genuine bible
salvation.

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye
have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more
in my absence, work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling”
(Phil 2:12)

You need to work out your

salvation.

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● Wicked Heart: If a person does not
put his heart under the guide of the
Holy Ghost, you will tend to enjoy
doing evil. People with wicked
heart are dangerous to be friends
with.

● Discouraged Heart: When some

people are faced with trials and
challenges, the usually easily give
up, they are discouraged. Such
people should pray against the
discouraged heart. "If thou faint in
the day of adversity, thy strength is
small." (Proverbs 24:10)

● Double-minded Heart: There are

some people that are also full of
doubts; even when the promises of
God is so clear and sure they are
still double minded about it. "A
double minded man is unstable in
all his ways." (James 1:8)

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● Selfish heart: This category of
people with this type of heart
always wants to have all the good
things of life to themselves and
nobody will have it. Some of the
symptoms of the category of heart
is the urge to keep acquiring, even
when you don’t need it.

● Proud heart : People with this

heart are usually too proud to
accept the truth. When the Holy
Spirit is reproofing them through a
lower status person, they will feel
too ridiculed. Symptom is the sign
of arrogance.

"Then thine heart be lifted up, and

thou forget the LORD thy God,
which brought thee forth out of the
land of Egypt, from the house of
bondage” (Deut 8:14)

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● Obstinate heart: These people will
refuse to yields to correction
because of this kind of heart. Such
people are usually destroyed at the
end of the day because there is no
counsel to put them to the right
way.

"But Sihon king of Heshbon

would not let us pass by him: for
the LORD thy God hardened his
spirit, and made his heart
obstinate, that he might deliver
him into thy hand, as appeareth
this day" (Deut 2:30).

● Fearful heart: These classes of

people are very fearful. Where they
face any situation that is new and
not looking pleasant, their heart
jumps up in fear; they begin to
think of every possible negative that
could happened.

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 "The foolishness of man
perverteth his way: and his heart
fretteth against the LORD" (Prov
19:3).

● Heavy heart: When people with

this kind of hearth have troubles;
they will let it burden them. The
heavy heart is not able to give any
solution but instead confuse,
complicate the issue the more and it
is even difficult to pray with this
kind of hearth.

"As he that taketh away a garment

in cold weather, and as vinegar
upon nitre, so is he that singeth
songs to an heavy heart." (Prov
25:20).

● Troubled heart: Problems of life

is normal. Being born again does
not excuse you from the troubles of
life. The bible says that

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 “You shall have tribulation,
Rejoice, because He has
conquered the word.”

The bible also says that; God will

deliver you in trouble and not from
trouble. When faced with this
troubles, the troubled heart is not
able to receive this word of God;
instead, begins to panic.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace

I give unto you: not as the world
giveth, give I unto you. Let not
your heart be troubled, neither let
it be afraid"(John 14:27).

● Foolish & Darkened heart: A lot

of people have been brought down
because of the foolishness of their
heart; it is such heart that claims
that; God does not exist. Such
people’s heart is now darkened that

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 they cannot see the light even when
it is obvious.

"Because that, when they knew

God, they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful; but became
vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened"
(Rom 1:21).

● Deceitful & Mischievous heart:

People with such heart are
fraudulent and cannot be trusted
with any business, their family or
any position of integrity.

"O Jerusalem, wash thine heart

from wickedness, that thou mayest
be saved. How long shall thy vain
thoughts lodge within thee" (Jer
4:14).

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 Your need to examine your heart
and do a cleanup; because of the
deceptive attribute of the heart, one
might think all is well.

"Examine yourselves, whether ye

be in the faith; prove your own
selves. Know ye not your own
selves, how that Jesus Christ is in
you, except ye be reprobates?" (2
Cor 13:5).

2. Godly heart

This is not the heart with which a person

is born, but another heart put in them by
the Holy Spirit.

"I will give you a new heart and put a

new spirit within you; I will take the
heart of stone out of your flesh and give
you a heart of flesh". (Eze 36:26)NKJV.

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This is the kind of heart that God interacts
with, a heart that makes one a friend of
God. Anybody with this kind of heart has
life in its fullness in the sight of God.
This is the kind of heart God expect every
believer to have.

● A Godly heart focused on God.

When asked what the first
commandment was, Jesus replied,
"And you shall love the LORD your
God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your mind, and
with all your strength." This is the
first commandment. (Mark 12:30
NKJV)

● A Godly heart is a NEW heart

(Ezek. 36:26). It is not the heart
with which a person is born, but
another heart put in them by the
Holy Spirit. It makes one to love
God.

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 It is a heart which has new tastes,
new joys, new sorrows, new
desires, new hopes, new fears, new
likes, new dislikes.

It has new views about the soul, sin,

God, Christ, salvation, the Bible,
prayer, heaven, hell, the world, and
holiness. It is like a farm with a new
and good tenant. “Old things are
passed away. Behold all things are
become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

● A Godly t heart is a BROKEN and

CONTRITE heart (Psalm 51:17).
It is broken off from pride,
self-conceit, and self-righteousness.
Its former high thoughts of self are
cracked, shattered, and shivered to
atoms.

It thinks itself guilty, unworthy, and

corrupt. Its former stubbornness,
heaviness, and insensibility have

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 thawed, disappeared, and passed
away. It no longer thinks lightly of
offending God. It is tender,
sensitive, and jealously fearful of
running into sin (2 Kings 22:19). It
is humble, lowly, and self-abased,
and sees in itself no good thing.

● A Godly heart is sensitive to

serving others. Jesus said for us to
love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).
Why must we love our enemies to
have a good and right heart?

”So that you may be sons of your

Father who is in heaven”
(Matthew 5:45a).

Loving others makes us like God.

God causes the sun to rise and
sends the rain on the just and the
unjust.

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 “Therefore, whatever you want
men to do to you, do also to them,
for this is the Law and the
Prophets. (Matthew 7:12 NKJV).

"Let each of you look out not only

for his own interests, but also for
the interests of others".
(Philippians 2:4 NKJV).

A heart that is sensitive to serve

other will always seek for peace,
shun argument over judgmental
issues.

“Therefore let us pursue the things

which make for peace and the
things by which one may edify
another”. (Romans 14:19 NKJV).

● A Godly heart is a heart which

BELIEVES ON CHRIST
ALONE for salvation, and in which

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Christ dwells by faith (Rom. 10:10;
Eph. 3:17).

It rests all its hopes of pardon and

eternal life on Christ’s atonement,
Christ’s mediation, and Christ’s
intercession. It is sprinkled in
Christ’s blood from an evil
conscience (Heb. 10:22). It turns to
Christ as the compass-needle turns
to the north.

It looks to Christ for daily peace,

mercy, and grace, as the sun-flower
looks to the sun. It feeds on Christ
for its daily sustenance, as Israel fed
on the manna in the wilderness.

It sees in Christ a special fitness to

supply all its needs and
requirements. It leans on Him,
hangs on Him, builds on Him,
cleaves to Him, as its physician,
guardian, husband, and friend.

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● A Godly heart is a PURIFIED
heart (Acts 15:9; Matt. 5:8). It loves
holiness, and hates sin. It strives
daily to cleanse itself from all
filthiness of flesh and spirit (2 Cor.
7:1).

It abhors that which is evil, and

cleaves to that which is good. It
delights in the law of God, and has
that law engraved on it, that it may
not forget it (Psalm 119:11).

It longs to keep the law more

perfectly, and takes pleasure in
those who love the law. It loves
God and people. Its affections are
set on things above.

It never feels so light and happy as

when it is most holy; and it looks
forward to heaven with joy, as the

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 place where perfect holiness will at
length be attained.

● A Godly heart is a PRAYING

heart. It has within it “the Spirit of
adoption whereby we cry, Abba
Father” (Rom. 8:15). Its daily
feeling is, “Your face, Lord, will I
seek” (Psalm 27:8).

It is drawn by an habitual
inclination to speak to God about
spiritual things, weakly, feebly, and
imperfectly. Perhaps, but speak it
must.

It finds it necessary to pour out

itself before God, as before a friend,
and to spread before Him all its
needs and desires. It tells Him all its
secrets.

It keeps back nothing from Him.

You might as well try to persuade a

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 person to live without breathing, as
to persuade the possessor of a
Godly heart to live without praying.

● Godly heart is a heart that FEELS

CONFLICT within it (Gal. 5:17).
It finds within itself two opposing
principles contending for the
mastery, the flesh lusting against the
spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh.

It knows by experience what Paul

means when he says, “I see a law in
my members warring against the
law of my mind” (Rom. 7:23).

The wrong heart knows nothing of

this strife. The strong man keeps the
wrong heart as their palace, and
their goods are at peace (Luke
11:21). But when the rightful King
takes possession of the heart, a
struggle begins which never ends

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 until death. The Godly heart may be
known by its warfare, quite as much
as by its peace.

● A Godly heart is HONEST,

UNDIVIDED and TRUE (Luke
8:15; 1 Chron. 12:33; Heb. 10:22).
There is nothing about it of
falsehood, hypocrisy, or
image-acting.

It is not double or divided. It really

is what it professes to be, feels what
it professes to feel, and believes
what it professes to believe. Its faith
may be feeble.

Its obedience may be very

imperfect. But one thing will
always distinguish the right heart.
Its religion will be real, genuine,
thorough, and sincere.

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As a Christian you must try everything you can
to have a Godly heart. It's your Godly heart that
makes you a child of God.

"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro

throughout the whole earth, to shew himself
strong in the behalf of them whose heart is
perfect toward him." (2 chr 16:9).

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Chapter 3: How to obtain a Godly heart

1) You must be born again.

Accepting the Lord Jesus as your personal Lord
and Saviour.

The heart is the starting place for spiritual life

because of what the Bible says about God's
actions toward the human heart. In order to get
people to desire what He desires, God said

"I will give you a new heart and put a new

spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone
out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh".
(Eze 36:26)NKJV.

This is a humbling reality, and very difficult for

many of us to accept. We want to believe that
people, in their hearts, are essentially good and
that they must be coerced or victimized or
provoked into bad behavior.

However, Jesus said the opposite: that sins like

evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,

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adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy,
slander, arrogance and foolishness, actually
originate in the heart of man (Mark 7:21-23).
Humanity has a heart problem, and needs a heart
transplant.

There is some residual pain following this heart

transplant. When God spoke through Ezekiel, He
said that after the heart of stone had been
replaced by the heart of flesh,

His people would look back on the evil things

they did and be ashamed and sickened by what
they had done (Ezekiel 36:31). But repentance is
only possible through this change of heart.

A person must come into the light in order to see

what was hidden, and sometimes the hidden
things are hard to look at. But God is faithful to
forgive us and cleanse us from everything that
our new hearts are not proud of.

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If we don't come into the light, and admit that
we have sinned, there is no possible healing (1
John 1:5-10).

So a person can only obtain this Godly kind of

heart through genuine repentance.

2) Guarding our hearts and minds through

prayer and noble thoughts.

Paul promises that God will guard our hearts and

minds when we submit everything to him in
prayer (Phil. 4:6-7). Paul continues this theme of
a guarded heart and mind in the very next verse:

". . . whatever is true, whatever is noble,

whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is
excellent or worthy of praise – think about
these things". Philippians 4:8

If we are constantly desiring worldly things, and

thinking worldly, shallow, and mean-spirited
thoughts that don’t include God, we are letting

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our guard down. Instead, we should follow
Paul’s advice:

"Set your hearts on things above, where Christ

is seated at the right hand of God. Set your
minds on things above, not on worldly things".
Colossians 3:1-2

3) Guarding our hearts and minds through

holy and consecrated living.

As well as virtuous thoughts, we also need to

live virtuous lives. As representatives of Jesus
and his Kingdom, we need to set high standards
for ourselves in regard to faith, love, generosity,
and holiness. In several of Paul’s letters, he
urges the believers to live their lives in a manner
worthy of the gospel of Christ (Eph. 4:1; Phil.
1:27; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:12).

Many modern Christians seem to have lost the

desire to live holy and helpful lives that are
consecrated to God. I wonder why that is? When

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was the last time we heard a message about
keeping our hearts and minds pure?

God calls us to nothing less than holiness (Eph.

5:26-27; 1 Pet. 1:15-16). We were “created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness”
(Eph. 4:24). This is a high calling!

However, while it is important that as we aim for

personal holiness, we need to be careful that we
don’t impose our standards on others or judge
others who do not share our aspirations. We
must let God do the sanctifying work in
ourselves and in others, and this work takes
time.

God calls us to offer up our bodies as living

sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Him, and not to
be conformed to the pattern of this world. This
necessitates having our minds transformed and
renewed. Only then can we discern and know
God’s perfect will, and only then can we respond
to his will accordingly (Rom. 12:1-2).

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It is easier for God to work through us, speak to
us, and bless us when we are living righteous
and obedient lives (Jas 5:16b). Conversely, this
kind of life makes it more difficult for the enemy
to influence our hearts and minds.

4) Allowing God to guard our hearts

"The heart is deceitful above all things and

beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
Jeremiah 17:9

But God answered his question with

reassurance:

“I the LORD, search the heart and examine the

mind.” Jeremiah 17:10

When we continually offer our heart and mind to

God, he will search it and sanctify it with his
Holy Spirit. King David wrote,

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Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me
and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is
any offensive way in me . . . Psalm 139:23-24

Paul wrote rhetorically about internal struggles

with sin. He wrote that it is only God, through
Jesus, who can rescue a person from his inherent
sinful nature (Rom. 7:15-25). Only God can
cleanse our hearts and minds, but we need to
cooperate with his work.

"Casting down imaginations, and every high

thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ" (2cor 10:5)

We must try to control our thoughts and bring

them to the obedience of Christ, in other for our
hearts to become Godly.

5) Occupying your heart with the words of God

"This book of the law shall not depart out of

thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day

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and night, that thou mayest observe to do
according to all that is written therein: for then
thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then
thou shalt have good success" (Josh 1:8).

God was saying to Joshua; your success depends

on you, “I have given you the land but it depends
on what you do with the word I gave you, if you
only put it under your pillow, that is your fault
but God wants us to have a heart hold on the
word because whatever occupies your heart is
what will eventually manifest in your life, let
your heart be occupied by God’s Word.

As you keep occupying your heart with the

words of God, gradually your UnGodly heart
will be transforming into a Godly kind of heart.

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Chapter4: Dealing with yourself to renew
your mind (heart).

The ball is on your court, the power to control

80% your thoughts is in your hands.
● Stop waiting for an outside miracle to
change your mind: Most of those
miracles will never come until you get rid
of the chaos in your mind by filling it with
God’s Word. Renewing of the mind will
never work if someone believes this
excuse,

“The reason why my mind is so negative

is because my life is so hard.” Have you
ever thought that maybe the reason your
life is so hard is because your mind is so
negative?

You cannot have miracles in your life,

regularly, if your mind is a mess.
Do not get me wrong, we need miracles,
but they alone do not change our minds

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 without our humility and willingness to
make God’s Word the standard for our
lives. Remember, the same sun that melts
the ice also hardens the clay.

Miracles are like that for those who are

hungry for God’s Word, miracles help our
faith, but for those who are refusing God’s
Word to have dominion over their lives,
miracles are never enough. If you stop
blaming your circumstances for your
negative thinking, God will start working
on you in a powerful way.

● Stop believing that you can’t control

your thoughts: The second lie that must
be repented of is, I cannot control my
thoughts, they control me. It is a weak
excuse, and this excuse is not Scriptural.

The Bible commands us to “Think about

these things” (Philippians 4:8), “You shall
meditate on it day and night” (Joshua 1:8),

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“On His law he meditates day and night”
(Psalm 1:2).

It is pretty clear that you are expected by

God to choose your thoughts, not let your
thoughts always be chosen by something
else. How do we do this practically?

It is true that we get attacked in our minds,

because our minds are a battlefield, not a
playground. As a Christian begins to
connect his spirit with Holy Spirit, his
spirit begins to get stronger. Because the
mind is servant to either the spirit or to the
flesh.
When the spirit is weak, the mind runs
errands for the flesh by thinking negative
thoughts. But when we constantly build
our spirit by communion with Holy Spirit,
our mind comes under the influence of the
Word of God and Holy Spirit who lives in
us. We are left with the choice to think on
God’s things or let the mind go with the
flow of life.

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● What you feed your mind with becomes
a mindset: A mindset is impossible to
change without changing what your mind
is filled with. Typically, when we hear the
truth about breaking strongholds or
renewing of the mind, we get busy trying
to change our mindsets. We quickly learn
that it is not an easy task.

A mindset is what controls you, while

mind is what you control. The only way to
change your default and automatic
thinking is by filling your conscious mind
with new information of God’s truth.

● Resist negative thoughts, assist positive

thoughts: Positive thoughts are not going
to stay, they need to be assisted. Negative
thoughts are not going to leave, they need
to be resisted.

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We must assist the Word of God by
making room for it in our hearts, and
resist the evil thoughts of the enemy by
taking them captive and bringing them
into submission to Christ.

"Casting down imaginations, and every

high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ" (2 Cor 10:5) KJV.

You cannot stop birds from flying over

your head, but you can stop them from
building a nest in your hair. Bad thoughts
come, but do not have to stay if we speak
against them with the truth of God’s
Word.

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40