“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV)
I wanted to take a final look at the wonderful resource of Dr. W. Lee Warren’s book this week, and focus on the importance of taking every thought captive. To be able to do that, you have to be vigilant about everything coming over your air waves.
Dr. Warren expresses how important it is to take every thought captive through The Tenth Commandment on self-brain surgery that reads, “I Must Understand That Thoughts Become Things” (The heading of Chapter 20, page 165).
He begins the chapter with these words, “…Not every thought you think is true. Not everything you feel is a fact.” (p. 165)
He finishes that thought with these words, “Although not every thought or feeling that pops into your head is true or requires a response, every thought you decide to think and act on turns into a real thing in the world.” (p. 165)
“Every Thought You Decide To Think and Act on Turns Into a Real Thing in The World” – Dr. W. Lee Warren
Now that takes a little thinking to wrap your head around.
He explains futher:
“… before you respond to a thought, an entire field of mental, emotional, and behavioral possibilities is available to you. Your attention—what you choose to focus on—determines which of those possibilities becomes real in your life.” (p. 165)
Dr. Warren demonstrates in his book what happens when you choose one thought out of all the possibilities. He has a detailed description on pages 166-167, and I highly recommend you get his book to get the full gist of the process one thought goes through in your brain. But the good thing is he condenses the process on page 167 and this is how a thought goes through your brain to become real:
- A thought became a particle.
- A particle became electricity.
- Electricity became neurochemistry.
- Neurochemistry became biology.
- Biology became physiology.
- Physiology became epigenetics.
- And epigenetics became history for your family. (p. 167)
Your thoughts become part of your generational history passed down through your genes.
How on earth could this be possible at all except for an AMAZING GOD??
But it is also why the Bible warns to take “every thought captive.” Even the seemingly subtle things of the Bible are so very important to pull out and explore, learn, and obey.
Here are two of the most important bullet points I got from this chapter:
- “The physiological event, over time, causes an epigenetic event, and genes are tagged and methyl and acetyl groups to down- or up-regulate their transcription and cause chronic stress-related events to harm you body. Those tags are then passed to your offspring so that they are born with an abnormal stress response.”
- “The epigenetic event has now changed your family’s ability to handle adversity, making them, at base line, less resilient and more uneasy in life.” (p. 167)
I can see how this has played out in my own life. Both of my parents always suffered from irrational fears. Both lived through the depression. My dad’s father lost his farm and they had to move to town. My mother’s father “was the eighth Thomasville man reported dead, or missing in action, since Pearl Harbor.” (From a Thomasville newspaper report) In 1942 he took the place of a man who was sick — on “the forward part of the ship, which was running through heavy seas, to release anchor in case of emergency, when two successive waves swept over the entire ship carrying Rumple overboard.” ( My grandfather John Rumple)
They threw life preservers, but he could not reach them. “W.J. Greer, chief machinists mate, put on a life jacket and went overboard to help him, but Rumple disappeared just as he was about to reach him.” His body was not recovered.
My mother told me two different ages for herself over the years at the time of his death. She was either age seven or nine at the time. But she recalled being frightened at age five when she stood on the banks of a lake and watched her dad and mom get baptized. I asked her one time why that frightened her and she said, “I thought they might not come back out of the water.” That answer was so foreboding.
If you go to the battleship in Wilmington,N.C. you will find my grandfather’s name, John Rumple, listed there.
So what would all that trauma and also the fears of lack of food during the depression do to someone’s genes based on the scientific evidence that Dr. Warren presents? I’ve had to work through many irrational fears, and sorry to my kiddos, but I think some of that was passed on to them.
That is why you have to change the gene pool with total trust in God, and His ability to override every trauma related to your life.
Dr. Warren says, “When you release a thought, it is as unchangeable as an arrow in flight.” (p.168)
He also warns, “Be careful with your thoughts, because when they turn into words that hurt people, those wounds are just as real.” ((p.168)
He ends the chapter with, “…careful self—brain surgeons choose their thoughts wisely. Why? Because thoughts become things.”(p.168)
On page 167 he reiterates how important it is to release the right thoughts and take captive the wrong thoughts with these words about what happens:
“You cannot take it back, and it takes tremendous work to reduce the impact of a harmful thought that has impacted another person. The famous 5:1 Rule in neuroscience is that it takes approximately five positive statements to counteract one negative remark.” (p. 167)
My take away—Not only must we take a thought captive, we must zip our lips and keep our thoughts to ourselves, lol.
Have a great week!