I started reading the gospel of John last night. I only got to the first three verses. I stopped to savor my roots. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Psalm 119 is a kaleidoscope of verses that display many names for His word. Here are a few of my favorite anchoring verses. Verse 1 says, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the  law of the Lord!” Verse 15 says, “I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.”

Please read this ‘root’ verse carefully. Verse 89 says, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” Titus 1:2 says, “In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” 

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Back to John 1:3. It says, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

Ephesians 3:19 indicates that it is far more than a mere knowledge of God. It is total immersion through our being a partaker of His nature. Our experiential knowledge conforms our thoughts, purpose, and actions to His will and ways  ~ producing inner transformation.

Romans 1:21 says that they knew God, but they did not glorify Him as God. John 15:1-8 was written about abiding. Verse 5 in the Amplified says, “I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me (cut off from vital union with Me) you can do nothing.”

Verse 8 says that the result of living in His abundance, bears much fruit that will glorify Him. Intimate communion is drinking in His abundance, dwelling vitally united to Him, so that we can reflect His character to others.

John 10:10 is a verse of contrasts. The thief: comes to destroy. Jesus came to give us abundant life. After reading Luke 24:16 I wrote questions down in my journal. You might ask them of yourself. 

God Himself prevented the two disciples from recognizing Jesus. What restrains me? What blocks me from knowing You? What keeps me from experiencing the abundant life You came to give me?

Abundant life is not circumstances, opportunities, favor, or anything to do with material goods. Immersed means to involve oneself deeply in a particular activity or interest. Abundant life ~ immersion through our intimate communion with the Lord. It is an essential avenue to knowing Him.

Proverbs 9:10 says, “Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding…” Ephesians 1:18 was part of Paul’s prayer for the church of Ephesus. It says, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know…” Hebrews 5:14 says, “…who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Deception deadens our senses. The Giver of discernment is restrained. 1 Corinthians 12:10 says that the discerning of spirits is a gift from the Holy Spirit given in the moment it is needed.

Therefore, in order to be freed from the chains we have put around our heart, we have to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the root. He will do that when we have a foundation of truth to anchor us ~ as He takes us from our Valley of Trouble, into the wide open door of hope.

It is so easy to blame our shortcomings onto others. We do that when we don’t want to face the truth about our heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” 

Hebrews 3:13 says, “…lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” A deceived person does not know, recognize, and acknowledge that they are deceived. Last night I started to read Luke 24. I only got to verse 16 when the words arrested me.

Jesus had come up to join two of His disciples. They were discussing His death and burial. It says, “But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.” What blocks us from knowing the Lord? 2 Peter 1:3-4 says that He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through our knowledge of Him. 

Nothing in our past can hold us captive, except in our thoughts! Nothing. WE chain our own heart to our past through our thoughts. Prisoner’s are chained as they are transported from one location to another.

Jesus’ ministry was stated clearly in Luke 4:18. Here is one part of it ~ He came to set the captives free. What recurring thoughts have chained your heart to your past? Do you have a record of wrongs that play over and over in your mind?

Though this verse was written about Gomer, you can apply this to the troubles from your past. Please read it carefully. Hosea 2:15 says, “…the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there…” The Valley of Achor was a place of trouble for Achan and his family because of his sin. Joshua 7:10-26. Breaking self-chains is all about inner transformation.

Springing ‘Trap-Thoughts’ Part Two

Let me take you back to a startling verse in Acts 8:22 that says, “Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.” The next verse expressed his heart’s captivity. It says, “For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”

Our thoughts either bind us or free us. Binding thoughts come from inside the snare. Freeing thoughts come from our intimate communion with the Lord. Knowing about the Lord versus experiential knowledge.

Ephesians 3:19 Amplified gives us an excellent template. It says, “(That you may really come) to know (practically, through experience for yourselves) the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge (without experience); that you may be filled (through all your being) unto all the fullness of God (may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself)!”

Are you trapped in a certain way of thinking? It is essential to know there is a way out. Being trapped through thoughts is like the hamster in a wheel. It goes around and around, but it is all futile action.

Proverbs 1:17 says, “Surely, in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.” Psalm 124:7 says, “Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.” 

Snared versus free. At salvation we were set free from satan’s slave block of sin. Our position in Christ is inner freedom. Yet, our state has to do with our thoughts. 2 Timothy 2:26 says, “And that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

Years ago school buses had governors. I rode in one from Las Vegas to Carson City. It could not go more than 45 mph. It was a long hot ride. When we hide God’s word in our heart, it will act as a governor with our thoughts.

Two of our flesh’s favorite past times are to engage in negative dialogues, or trying to figure things out ahead of time. Have you ever played past conversations over in your mind? Have you ever assumed something would go a certain way and it didn’t? 

I have a mentee who wrote, ‘My paranoid thoughts are really loud now. Starting to think of all the things they told me that they probably didn’t mean, all the things they probably say about me to each other when I’m not there.’ Can you hear the fear? Can you feel her emotional fatigue?

Jesus qualified His gift of peace in John 16:27. It says, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

The operative word is ‘let’ which is a word of permission. Don’t ‘let’ your thoughts entertain anything that will dump debris onto your gift of inner peace. The other night I read these two verses and stopped to ponder them.

Luke 17:20 -21says, “…The kingdom of God does not come with observation….the kingdom of God is within you.” Is His kingdom ruling over your heart? Isaiah 9:6 lists His names. 

It says, “…and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace.” His kingdom of peace is within ~ our heart is His inner sanctuary.