Becoming Gospel Fluent | Taking Every Thought Captive – part 4
As we continue to learn what it means to become gospel fluent people (see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), we recognize the importance of becoming a people shaped by God’s good news. We need to know the gospel and live it out in the everyday stuff of life and ask others to speak the gospel into our lives.
Why is this important? Because anything that stands in the way of our faithfulness to Jesus is ultimately a gospel issue since sin is the outcome of unbelief in Jesus (see John 16:9).
Let me ask you a few questions: Do you know the gospel? Could you articulate it? Are you able to address everyday issues with the gospel?
And if you know the gospel and can articulate it, here’s another question: Are you experiencing a life of ongoing repentance and growing faith in the good news of Jesus?
What do we mean? Repentance is turning from the lies about God and the sin that comes from those lies. Faith is believing the truth about God and living in faithful obedience because of that truth. We experience true and lasting change as we live in a posture of continual repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
So how does this look?
First, it has to begin with prayer. Ask the Father to open the eyes of your heart to see His truth revealed in Jesus, and ask that His truth be rooted in your life by the power of the Spirit.
Second, it requires that we know what God’s truth is. We must learn God’s word—by reading it, meditating on it, memorizing it, praying on it. God has breathed out His word, and it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training us in righteousness, equipped for every good work! (2 Timothy 3:16–17).
Third, it requires that we “take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Again, this takes prayer! Ask God to help you check your motives, beliefs, attitudes, and actions to see if they reflect faith in Jesus or faith in someone or something else. This also includes inviting others in your life to have the freedom to speak the gospel to you.
As the Spirit works Jesus’ good news in our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we learn to recognize when we are having faith in someone or something else other than Jesus and what He has accomplished for us through his life, death, and resurrection. The Spirit reminds us of how the gospel shows Jesus to be the only sufficient One for us in every life issue! We can then take captive every wrong thought, motive, and desire, repent of our unbelief and put our faith in Jesus and his sufficiency.
The more we learn to apply the gospel to all of life, the more normal it will become for us to speak it and live it out!
Next time we’ll look at how we can rehearse the gospel regularly in the everyday stuff of life! Until then, keep your eyes on Christ, family! We are praying with and for you!
–Pastor Wade
