By: Bill A. Gaspard, Recovery Coach
Paul seriously wrote some amazing letters while sitting in a jail cell under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The way he broke down and explained the enemy and the gospel armor in Ephesians six is truly one of the best chapters in being equipped in recovery. He of course used what was right in front of him during that moment, a Roman soldier. When it came to enemy tactics he also used an analogy of the time, fiery arrows. Fiery arrows were a great strategy to conquer your enemy quickly; you were able to get them twice, once by penetration and twice by fire. Any enemy that Rome had would not stand a chance against this form of attack but you send fiery arrows towards prepared Romans and they could withstand these arrows by kneeling down together locking shields and stopping the arrows. Paul explains to us that this is not a battle of flesh and blood so we are not talking about literal arrows. The spiritual aspect of these attacks is the foundation of spiritual warfare and if you are in recovery you will need to learn what these attacks are and how to stop them. Let’s call these arrows ‘thoughts’, the enemy fires arrow after arrow, thought after thought into our camp. Cravings, impulses, and temptations. While in recovery these thoughts may seem like constant bombardment into our camp and if we are alone it will be hard to stop them. The enemy does not send the same thought to everyone he has special arrows for each of us and he knows which ones to send. He loves to shoot; jealousy, anger, loneliness, unforgiveness, doubt, anxiety, stress, worry, guilt, rejection or any other arrow with your name on it.
Any thought or impulse that entices a person to fall victim to the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” is a fiery arrow! Charles Stanley
Paul had some great recovery coaching advice for our thought life when he said,
“We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5
What does it look like to take every rebellious thought captive?
I was sitting in a Christian Counselors conference in Branson Missouri and Dr. Mark Laaser brought up the concept of taking your thoughts captive. My mind took a detour for a little while, not that Mark was boring, he is actually an awesome speaker. But the Marine in me came out and I went off a little bit and started writing in the middle of this lecture. I had an idea but then I remembered a Sgt. Hayfield that I had just had the privilege to meet a few weeks earlier in our anger management group at our church. Sgt. Hayfield had done three tours in Iraq and was struggling with anger and emotions, one of the Pastors sent him my way but he has helped me more than I have helped him. I sent him a text and asked him to breakdown for me exactly what he would do if he captured an enemy in Iraq. Within a few minutes he sent me a detailed e-mail that explained military procedure for the capture of an enemy. It was all right there, everything from this point on was going to be about these five bullet points. Remember we are talking about taking our thoughts captive. He told me that, when we capture an enemy we do the following;
1. Disarm, search, secure and watch. Do not torture, kill, mutilate or degrade.
2. Evacuate to a place of safety and interrogation by commander.
3. Do not mistreat. Fair treatment of captives encourages the enemy to surrender.
4. The soldier who ignores the sick and wounded degrades the uniform.
5. Leave punishment to the courts and judges
So if we are in a spiritual battle and one of the enemies favorite attack is fiery arrows (thoughts) then our job as soldiers is to take those thoughts captive. Disarm them, get them to a place of safety (Our Lord) and give those captive thoughts to our commander Jesus, all punishment of those thought s are for the courts and Judges (God alone is Judge.) Then we go back out capture another thought and bring it back to our commander until the job is done, until the enemies are all captured. That is our mission. Will you accept this mission? How do we do this? It takes training, it takes discipline and it takes perseverance. Let me try and explain how it works. I get a lustful thought, I used to try and fight it or pray for it to go away, the more I fight it the more I get in trouble the more I try and deny it the more I want it. Now I simply say, Lord I captured another thought, you know this one Lord, please take it from here, and do the interrogation. After you capture the same thought a few times and do this the commander locks him up and you will go out and find new thoughts to take captive. Do not be afraid to take even the most horrible thought to your commander. Do not try and hide the enemy, torture the enemy or kill the enemy, which would degrade the uniform.
Disarm
Get to safety
Give captive to commander
Get back on the battlefield
Recovery Coaching is one of the most effective ways to prevent relapse and get results in your life. A Christian Life Recovery Coach will come along side you to help you find your purpose and passion in life. We as Recovery Coaches partner with our clients to unlock their God given strengths, and help to motivate them toward Christian leadership. For the person who is in recovery, either yourself or someone you know, who has a good foundation, and is ready to accelerate the process, then working alongside a Recovery Coach could be the next step in his or her journey.
About the author: Bill A. Gaspard is a Certified Christian Life Coach and Biblical Counselor, dedicated to helping God RECOVER His children through relapse prevention coaching. He is the Founder of Christian Recovery Coaching- http://christianrecoverycoaching.com/
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