2 Cor. 10:3-5 tells us to demolish the enemy’s arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and to take take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.
My question is , How do we take our thoughts captive in Christ? Are there words that must be said? Do we invoke Jesus’ name? Do we just try to think of something else? Do we pray to have Satan bound in Jesus’ name so he cannot affect us? How do we know If the thoughts are from an evil entity or just our sin nature? What is the correct way to deal with thoughts that cross our mind and are not holy and serving of God
We take thoughts captive by repeating on Scripture that refutes the thought. It’s an application of the theory of displacement which holds that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. At the conscious level, we can only think one thought at a time, so focusing on what the Bible says will force what the enemy is saying out of our mind. It doesn’t matter whether the thought comes from the devil or from our own sin nature, it’s all the same.
Jesus showed us how to do this in Matt. 4:1-11. When the devil dared Him to turn stones into bread, Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Deut. 8:3).
Then the devil dared Him to jump off the highest wall of the temple to prove that God would catch Him. Jesus replied, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Deut. 6:16).
Finally, the devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in return for His worship. Jesus said, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’” (Deut. 6:13).
Jesus didn’t try to debate the devil, He just quoted from the Word of God, replacing the devil’s thought with Scripture each time.
In this way Jesus defeated Satan, leaving him without a response. This same weapon is available to you and me. It’s the best way to beat the devil.