By John Thiel, mp3

Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life.

What is a realm? It is a domain, a kingdom, a realm over which a monarch rules. It is a well-guarded sovereign state where no intruder is permitted. It is a realm. All realms have a customs to look after of the incoming and outgoing of people. Of all well-guarded realms admitting no unlawful intruder, is the realm of our thoughts.

You are puzzling over something, you are deep in thought and someone comes along and says, “A penny for your thoughts.” It immediately provokes alarm bells. No one is permitted to enter into my thoughts. They are very private. No one must be privy to my inward thought as that is my domain. Certain people want to wind their way into the thoughts of people and you see them sending out decoys to lure them to reveal their inward thoughts. They put up smoke screens and protective agencies to allow no one to get into the inner thoughts. There is self-protective armour that utters, “That is none of your business what my thoughts are.” This is what people believe firmly. “How dare you intrude into what I think, it is none of anyone else’s business.” Or is it?

Do your thoughts have something to do with me? Am I going to be affected by your thoughts? Are they only your business? As he thinketh in his heart so is he? What you are will have an effect on me won’t it? If you have secret negative thoughts, won’t that create an atmosphere about you? Does not that atmosphere affect people? If you have some secret sensual thoughts, will that not be exposed by your body language and there will be an atmosphere that affects people in a sensual manner? Or if you have positive uplifting thoughts, won’t that affect the atmosphere around you?

Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life.

The influence of every man’s thoughts and actions surrounds him like an invisible atmosphere, which is unconsciously breathed in by all who come in contact with him. This atmosphere is frequently charged with poisonous influences, and when these are inhaled, moral degeneracy is the sure result.– 5T 111 (1882). {2MCP 733.2}

Do your thoughts, or are your thoughts your own private business? They affect others around you. This realm of our thoughts is not only a realm that will have a bearing upon the lives of others but what you think, you must diligently handle because it was what you think that produces issues.

Psalm 94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they [are] vanity.

Did you think you had a realm that no one else can get into? What does the Lord know about us? That our thoughts are vanity. God knows our thoughts. Before I even start thinking God already knows what I’m going to be thinking.

Psalm 139:1 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known [me]. :2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted [with] all my ways. 4 For [there is] not a word in my tongue, [but], lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. 5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

I have no realm that I have full control over. Someone else knows about them before I even think it.

Will men and women consider how God regards the creatures He has made? He formed man’s mind. {SD 105.2}

He who creates your brain and has created this marvellous computer knows the working of it through and through and all that influences it.

We do not think one noble thought that does not come from Him. He knows all the mysterious workings of human mind; for did He not make it? God sees that sin has debased and degraded man, but He looks upon him with pity and compassion; for He sees that Satan has him in his power. {SD 105.2}

It is not my own thought. It has been put there from God. We cannot be proud of our self, it comes from Him. We are to come into the knowledge of this mysterious thing of the human mind. God knows my thoughts a far of. My realm, my sovereign state is so revealed to Him but I don’t have to cower at the thought. He does have pity and compassion.

God knows the workings of my computer. It is programmed. Satan came along and put a virus in there and God knows the virus in there too. He knows the workings of all this and its interaction. He knows it all. We need to consider the government and the articulation of that realm of our thoughts if we are going to be saved.

David in the Psalms reveals the interactivity of the thoughts with one another.

1 Chronicles 28:9 And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

God understands the imaginations of your thoughts. What is suggested here? Do you know that you can have thoughts and then something that extends from them?

The Imaginations of Your Thoughts

Psalm 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, [who is] the health of my countenance, and my God.

Why are you thinking such troubled thoughts? You can think about your troubled thoughts. There is such a thing that thinking about what you are thinking about. You can think about what you are thinking about.

This is what David said. Soul, you are thinking troubled thoughts, what is the matter with you? His soul is talking to himself thinking about his thoughts. This mystery of the human mind is important to understand in how to deal with the realm of your thoughts.

1 Corinthians 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

There is a spirit inside of you, your spirit that knows about you that examines all sorts of things happening inside of you examines the thoughts and feelings, the wide realm of imaginations going on inside of me and you.

Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man [is] the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

You can explore your inward realm, the realm of your thoughts. Did you appreciate that this is a mystery of God’s creation inside of you? If you didn’t know it, it is important that you know it. David didn’t know why he had troubled thoughts. Look at how he talks to his thoughts;

Psalm 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and [why] art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him [for] the help of his countenance. 11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, [who is] the health of my countenance, and my God.

Who is the health of my countenance? Can you hide your thoughts? Where does it show up? It shows up with a slightly wrinkled forehead. This is why some say a penny for your thoughts please. What are you thinking? It shows up whether in the smile. A plastered smile tells me that there are some other thoughts behind it. There are many different ways by which your countenance is affected by your thought and David says I will yet praise Him for the health of my countenance.

If God is truly brought into the realm of my thoughts deliberately and willingly, there will be a health of my countenance. I will not be putting on plastered smiles or pictures. I will be perfectly clear in my mind. There will be no secret troubled thoughts. Thoughts that are in your mind a bit like Achan. Could Achan keep his own thoughts from having an influence upon others? Did anyone know what his thoughts were? No one knew apart from God. His thoughts were, “I’m going to keep some of that gold and Babylonish garments and keep it under my tent.” He thought no one knew about his thoughts. Did it affect the whole camp of Israel? Many were slain because of it. What you do with your thoughts is very serious.

The Christian needs to explore because his own personal salvation and the influence he has on others is at stake. Let us discover a skill that is needed, that you need to exercise within yourself.

An Example

Everything around you is going wrong. Everything you planned and hoped for is crashing down around you. Your world is falling in around you. Where does it fall in; in your mind. You see your own failure, your sinfulness, you can see its different aspects in the realm of your thoughts and it is very real. Feelings of horror overwhelm you. You see it and feel it and others talk about it. There was a man who was suffering under his thoughts and he nearly fainted. He had to be held up not to fall over. There was nothing happening to him. Do you know who he was? Jesus in Gethsemane. Why was He swaying? Why was His soul troubled? Thoughts that were coming up and ready to strangle Him. Thoughts of what? Thoughts of sin. These are experiences that take place in the life of every Christian. You feel it. It is a reality but all people can see is that you are having a hard time. Why is this person acting the way he is? We don’t know. There was an atmosphere of dense depression that the disciples could feel.

You believe in Jesus as a personal saviour and you yearn for God. Trust in God. As you look upon these realities in your mind, the terrible thoughts that are really creating a dreadful hopelessness in you, you dare not presume as the thoughts you are having are of dreadful corruption. What do you do? Soul, why are you troubled? Hope thou in God. What reality does he raise in our thoughts? Hope.

As we have the ability to examine the thoughts and feelings taking place within us, therein lies a chance of salvation. If you do not know what you can do with your thoughts you will go into a state of mental disease. When mental patients talk to you, for them it is real but yet it is fantasy. If you deal with mental patients, don’t disagree with them or you lose them. When a mental patient talks his mental derangement, you lock into that and say yes that is right and you consider what they are thinking and you help them to discover there is another thought that can deal with that thinking.

Most people don’t realise that the thoughts and feelings they have can be disassociated from them. We need to know that the whole world is a little mad including us. The fact is we have affected by Satan. The virus in the computer has done its damage. I don’t think I’m that bad but I know everyone else is, not knowing the virus is here too. I think I am okay but I’m not. We are Laodicea. You say you are rich, and increased but you don’t know you are miserable, poor, blind and naked. And when you do know, you fail, you’ve had it. Our brain material is very deranged. Have a good look at yourself and what you are thinking. Don’t succumb to your troubled soul. Hope in God.

The Reality that Oppresses Me

I am oppressed. My sins are oppressing me and people are condemning me for the things they have seen me do. There is so much of that going on. If you will hope in God, what turns that reality?

Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? [It is] God that justifieth. 34 Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Hope thou in God. As you look at your troubled mindedness, as you think about the thoughts that you have, consider Jesus Christ. Look at how he was troubled. Look how he had to handle that mental trauma. He wanted to be free of it. Let me out of here but no, not my will but thine be done. He had to go through with it. What did he go through? Dealing with sinful thought patterns that were laid on his computer brain. He travelled through from Gethsemane to the cross where He in His own mind expressed what was going on in there.

Inside it went on. His thoughts. What happened to His thoughts?

Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my roaring? 5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

Psalm 69:1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto [my] soul. 2 I sink in deep mire, where [there is] no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. 5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

How did He think in His mind? What was happening to Jesus in His mind? He thought that the thoughts that He had were His sins. What did He manage to gain at the end when He said into your hands I commend my spirit? What did He battle through? He battled through the thoughts and hoped in his God.

Psalm 22:9 But thou [art] he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope [when I was] upon my mother’s breasts. 10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou [art] my God from my mother’s belly. 11 Be not far from me; for trouble [is] near; for [there is] none to help.

He trusted. He hoped in God. He cried unto God in His mind, save me. As He trusted in God as His thoughts were pressing Him, His own mind dealt with the those thoughts hoping in God. He gave us the confidence that even if others are condemning me, who is he that condemeth? God justifies. If your thoughts condemn you, not only do people around condemn you;

1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

God is greater than the thoughts that are oppressing me. He knows my thoughts afar of. He knows exactly which way I’m going in my thoughts. He has laid out His own way in the pattern of the Son in what thoughts are going to trouble you and He gives Jesus to show us who got through the thought. All in the realm of your thoughts. There is inside of us to have the ability to have thoughts and imaginations which your thoughts can counteract or cherish. What do I do in the realm of my thoughts to deal with my thoughts?

1 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

Your brain is organic. Its flesh, it’s got electrical current in it. There are many interferences that come and interfere and you get weird and wonderful thoughts and if you act, you will go into weird and wonderful behaviour. Something has put a circuit breaker in there and caused problems. If I hope in God, what must I do with my flesh and its thoughts?

1 Corinthians 10:5 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;

What must you do? You can think about your thoughts and every imagination and every thought that comes to you, you can either say that’s a nice thought and think about your thought and enjoy it or you can say get out of here, how dare you think such a thought.

Did you know that is what you need to do? If any of us are going to be saved, we are to be saved according to Jesus Christ’s procedure. How He dealt with His thoughts you must deal with your thoughts. Embrace the thoughts that come from God. Cast out the thoughts that come from the flesh or the devil or from the world. Your physical makeup can actually create thoughts.

Children

Children can say I hate my mummy because she just smacked me. Do you really hate your mummy? You don’t really hate your mummy but she smacked you and just for that moment you didn’t like it and you hated mummy. “I hated mummy as she makes me do the dishes yuck!” And then mummy comes along and gives you a big hug and kiss and it didn’t matter anymore. That is how thoughts can fluctuate. That is children. As adults we can be as little children. If something goes wrong, all the negative thoughts control me.

What is it like every 28 days ladies? Men, when you have your wives with you and you wonder, “What has gone wrong with her? She can’t rationalise properly here.” Of course not as the flesh is playing havoc. We need to understand the realm of the thoughts and the physical impact of the thoughts. If we understand these things, we will not go along and create more negative thoughts but will seek to lift one another up.

In the church when we see people struggling with their thoughts and it’s all screwed up in the face, we don’t go along and say, “She didn’t greet me today.” So what? “This person walked past me and didn’t even recognise me.” So what? That person was obviously deep in thought about some other problem and didn’t know how to handle those thoughts. You know what it’s like, you can walk right past someone and not even see them and yet they are your friend. These things happen in the church.

The behaviour of others will affect your thoughts and your thoughts will affect them and it goes back and forward until finally there is a relationship rift and because we don’t understand that the function of my thoughts need to be handled by me. I need to deal with the thought and acknowledge that I can’t go by every thought that is working in me. I can’t go by every feeling pulsating in my being. I must hope in God and my countenance will yet be healed. I will come back next Sabbath and wow, this person has changed. Everything is seen through the frame of your thoughts. How important it is that we remain in our mind upon the hope of God in my life that my thoughts will be favoured from God and nowhere else.

Only under the direction of the Omniscient One shall we, in the study of His works, be enabled to think His thoughts after Him. {Ed 134.5}

You can begin to behold the works of God as “I’ve not condemned you”. The woman caught in adultery thought Jesus had condemned her when He said, “Those of you who have no sin cast the first stone.” Imagine how she thought, “I’m finished, the priests are going to stone me.” She was waiting for it. Nothing happened. Why did nothing happen? Jesus said it, “Who is he that condemeth you?” Where are they? Oh they are gone. Well neither do I condemn thee.” She loved Him ever after. This is the story of rearranging our thoughts. When it says that we may think His thoughts after Him, what are His thoughts?

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

What did Jesus say when He said search for me in the Scriptures? You think you have eternal life.

John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

You think you have eternal life as that is where eternal life comes from, the thoughts of God which you must open your heart to in order to deal with the other thoughts that Satan and sin has put there which comes to condemn you. The battle is relentless and if you see a brother or a sister struggling in that battle don’t go and say stop thinking like that. That will only short circuit the brain once more and another thought will come in and all that sort of thing. If you want to help one another, understand the battle in the realm of the thoughts that the only way by which we can help one another and yourself, is to deal with your brain material in the way that only God knows how. How does God know? What does God know how to deal with it? Understand that the battle is relentless. Is it relentless?

We have it perfectly described in the computer world today. Is the battle of viruses relentless? Can they ever be free of viruses in computers? Some hacker will develop another one to break the wall already there. It will just be a relentless work of putting up another wall a protecting agent to stop a hacker developing a virus. Satan is the greatest hacker of your brain and he will not stop until he is destroyed. He will continue to put virus’s there. We must understand the firewall against those thoughts. The firewall is Jesus Christ.

Often the Christian life is beset with dangers, and duty seems hard to perform. The imagination pictures impending ruin before, and bondage and death behind. Yet the voice of God speaks clearly, Go forward. Let us obey the command, even though our sight cannot penetrate the darkness. The obstacles that hinder our progress will never disappear before a halting, doubting spirit. {GW 262.1}

Your spirit looks at the thought and says I don’t know. Do you ever do that and say I don’t know whether to go or stop inside of yourself?

Those who defer obedience till every uncertainty disappears, and there remains no risk of failure or defeat, will never obey. Faith looks beyond the difficulties, and lays hold of the unseen, even Omnipotence, therefore it cannot be baffled. Faith is the clasping of the hand of Christ in every emergency. {GW 262.1}

We have heard all these things before but unfortunately people do not understand what is going on inside of them. After hearing such beautiful messages of faith, they don’t know how to act within their thoughts. But now I have shown to you that there is a mystery of the human brain that you can understand and that is, there are thoughts and feelings aroused by Satan that annoy even the best of men.

There are thoughts and feelings suggested and aroused by Satan that annoy even the best of men; but if they are not cherished, if they are repulsed as hateful, the soul is not contaminated with guilt, and no other is defiled by their influence. {2MCP 432.2}

Your thoughts will influence others. If you repulse as hateful these thoughts, they will not contaminate. There lies the important internal understanding. There might be hopelessness in your imagination in front of you and behind you, the terrible results that follow you up, but what are you to do?

Hope in God

What you think about what you are thinking about, defines your destiny. If you have a foul smelling room, what do you do with it? You put some nice perform in the room and keep the door shut? Is that how you remove it? No;

The Lord purifies the heart very much as we air a room. We do not close the doors and windows, and throw in some purifying substance; but we open the doors and throw wide the windows, and let heaven’s purifying atmosphere flow in. . . . The windows of impulse, of feeling must be opened up toward heaven, and the dust of selfishness and earthliness must be expelled. The grace of God must sweep through the chambers of the mind, the imagination must have heavenly themes for contemplation, and every element of the nature must be purified and vitalized by the Spirit of God. {SD 107.2}

You must think Gods thoughts after Him. Let His thoughts come in and discard the other ones as dust. It’s impurity. Throw it out.

The thoughts must be bound about, restricted, withdrawn from branching out and contemplating things that will only weaken and defile the soul. {SD 107.3}

If you think negative thoughts, it will weaken and defile your soul.

The thoughts must be bound about, restricted, withdrawn from branching out and contemplating things that will only weaken and defile the soul. The thoughts must be pure, the meditations of the heart must be clean. . . . The noble powers of the mind have been given to us by the Lord, that we may employ them in contemplating heavenly things. God has made abundant provision that the soul may make continual progression in the divine life. . . . {SD 107.3}

You can do it. It’s so easy. But you say, “Wait a minute it’s so hard.” Is it hard to open your window? Is it hard to open the soul to the Lord? The only thing that makes it hard is if you don’t like the light. Do you know there are people who don’t like light? They shut themselves in the darkness. When Jesus the light of the world came along, what did the Pharisees do? They rejected the light. They closed their doors. That is the only reason why it’s hard as I don’t like the evil thoughts in me to be exposed as I love them. I’m cherishing them. That is what makes it hard, nothing else. Open the windows of impulse, the windows of feeling toward heaven and throw out the dust of selfishness and earthliness. Let the wind blow it out.

By beholding Christ we become changed. {SD 105.4}

My mind must behold Him.

If the mind dwells upon temporal things constantly, these things become all-absorbing, affecting the character, so that God’s glory is lost sight of and forgotten. The opportunities that are within reach for them to become conversant with heavenly things, are overlooked. Spiritual life dies. . . . {SD 105.4}

You can become caught into a clam of thinking. You can’t hope in God if Gods glory is lost sight of. How is it done? In the realm of your thoughts, that is where spiritual life dies. How do you do it? By meditating about earthly thoughts instead of letting the heavenly thoughts come in and control your mind activity.

We need a constant sense of the ennobling power of pure thoughts and the damaging influence of evil thoughts. Let us place our thoughts upon holy things. Let them be pure and true, for the only security for any soul is right thinking. We are to use every means that God has placed within our reach for the government and cultivation of our thoughts. We are to bring our minds into harmony with His mind. His truth will sanctify us, body and soul and spirit, and we shall be enabled to rise above temptation. {HP 164.4}

The control of the thoughts, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, will give control of the words. This is true wisdom, and will ensure quietness of mind, contentment, and peace. {HP 164.5}

You like that?

There will be joy in the contemplation of the riches of the grace of God. {HP 164.5}

Do you like the answer? You can become pure and it must take its course in the realm of your thoughts because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

May God give us that joy as we participate in our thoughts with Him is my prayer.

Amen.