Message summary: As we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ, God is able to help us sort fact from deception. The illusions that keep us bound will be loosed to set us free so that we can be the people Christ has called us to be.

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“And it will be said: ‘Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people’” (Isaiah 57:14). “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Brooksyne and I took a long walk on the farm trail across the road from our house (the mile long trail is to the left of the field in lead photo). Some cattle were grazing and we wondered if the farmer knew that his cows were loose. The further we walked in their direction we spotted a single fence line we assumed to be electric, but we weren’t sure.

Now I don’t care for the “buzz” you get when you touch an electric fence. However, upon close examination it appeared to be just a thin strand of twine. I teasingly tried to coax Brooksyne into touching it to make sure, but her many years of living on the farm taught her to be very wary of such a challenge!

Finally I bravely checked it out and that’s all it was. No electric, no buzz. The cattle could have walked through that "fence" so easily. But apparently the farmer had conditioned them by commonly erecting an electric fence. A few harmless buzzes and they knew to stay away from boundary. They assumed the harmless twine was electric so they didn’t even approach the powerless twine used as an obstacle to their roaming out of safe pasture land.

As God’s people we also deal with real obstacles in our lives. Today’s first text speaks of these obstacles. Some are real, but others are imagined. God gives each of us the power through His Spirit to discern the difference and overcome both types.

In today’s message we want to especially consider the obstacles that are born out of our own imagination or wrong assumptions (speculations) which may enslave us. When such futile thinking becomes our major focus we resist God’s hand while He is extending it. Like the thin powerless twine that cleverly served as an obstacle to the cattle, we may fear an impotent obstacle.

What are you dealing with today? Perhaps it's a real obstacle that God wants you to overcome. If so God will lead you to ultimate victory as you faithfully look to Him for guidance and fervently seek Him about the matter.

On the other hand, is your obstacle that of your imagination or based only on assumption, not reality. You might even need to do some fact checking to sort the presumptive from reality. A challenge can appear overwhelming when in reality it’s nothing more than a vain imagination, similar to the thin powerless twine thought to be powered with electric.

As we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ, God is able to help us sort fact from deception. The illusions that keep us bound will be loosed to set us free so that we can be the people Christ has called us to be.

Be encouraged today!  Hebrews 3:13