Upside Down Thinking - by Dean Chicquette

Satan wants you to think his thoughts. He wants to capture your mind, ignite your desire, and act from a position of lack or inability. Get, gain, more, and increase are his motivators. First and foremost he wants you to think you depend on no outside person to function and that you have the power, like a Jedi, to use that power for good or bad. Without saying it out loud, he wants and wants and wants right down to his core and shares that core with you, so you will want and want and want. His very self-image of a non-dependent being is so familiar, you think it is your original thought. You, from as early as you can remember, thought it was all up to you. Where did that come from?

If in fact, you are an independent entity with the power to do good or evil, then you are a god. What do you need God for? Maybe He is really, really big and you, though growing, are in comparison, stunted. Like a very smart 8 year old who submits to a violent alcoholic father until she can escape him.

On the flip side, you believe the evil you do is totally under your control and you can take it or leave it, right? Just ask the millions of addicts that question and this is what you will hear, "I can stop anytime I want, I just don't want to stop”. Put another way, the illusion of self-control is just that, an illusion. The birthplace of that illusion is our brains hearing Satan's thoughts and thinking they are our thoughts. 

What am I saying? Well, you were a child of the devil and he 'did you' until you did something very drastic. What was that? Stopped being your own god and humbled yourself to trust God's Son for everything, even your thoughts. You know, like as if living apart from Him you could do NOTHING.

In the past, you lived as a container who was housing and expressing, right down to your thoughts about yourself, Mr. Sin. Your being yourself was in fact him being himself through your soul. But once you have obeyed God by trusting His Son, Jesus for life and godliness, you get to continue being yourself, but now with full knowledge, it is He 'doing you'.

Now that's encouraging.