Established Thoughts
Reading from the book of Proverbs sixteenth chapter beginning with the first verse:
Proverbs 16:1-7: “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes" but the LORD weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
Here in the book of Proverbs, we find it says, “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.” We’re living in a day when there are a lot of problems with human thoughts. It seems that people everywhere are going berserk. It seems like they’re losing their stability, their mental balance, and they can hardly continue in life. It seems like there’s such a great travail just to exist day by day because of the fears and frustration. The devils and demons are trying to trample down the mind of humanity. Satan is doing his very best to trample down the mind of humanity. The Bible says that in the later times Satan will go about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and this is the day that we’re living in. It’s a time when Lucifer is seeking whom he may devour. People are having problems with their thoughts. Their mind is like a computer out of control and there are all kinds of things harassing their mind. It’s just a continuation of annoying thoughts, fears and frustrations, and folks don’t understand what’s happening.
But, we’ve got to realize that if we put something into a computer, then that’s what we’re going to get out of it. A computer out of control may bring forth anything. So knowing this, why then do we do the way that we do? We sit and watch television with all of the evil imaginations and every kind of fearful thing that can be brought forth, every kind of dreadful thing, and we keep putting this poison into our minds. Don’t you know that we’re going to have to live with that? Don’t you know that when we follow vain imaginations and go after these horror movies and all of these terrible things, and we put this into our understanding, science tells us that whatever a man sees or thinks that it stays with him, and it lives with him.
When we go after all these things and put these things into our hearts, and especially into the hearts of our little children, don’t you know that we’ve destroyed our self and we’ve destroyed our little children? Those things are going to come back. A man that takes dope is going to have flashbacks from those things. He’s going to have a repercussion from those things. And those things are going to clutter his mind and take away all of his stability and confidence and faith. Those horrid things, once it becomes a mind, are a torturous, tormenting thing, and it becomes your master. This is why Jesus tells us not to give place to those kind of things. The flesh feeds on those kind of things because the devil is the prince of this world and he lives within the human body. He is in the human body, and he hungers and thirsts after these things because that’s part of his world. He is the creature of darkness. He is the ruler of darkness.
I know when we think about darkness, we think about turning the lights out. The natural things of this world only help us to understand spiritual things as to reality. For instance, light represents understanding, God understanding. The Bible speaks of the light of the church, of the true child of God, as the light most precious. It speaks of that great city of New Jerusalem, the Lamb being the light of that city. When we speak of those things, we understand. When we speak of darkness, we speak of intellectual oppression, ignorance, that which is not right in the sight of God, that which is lying vanity, that appears to be but it’s not. It just vanishes away.
God said to Paul, “Turn My people from darkness unto light.” He came to the revelation of God. He came to understanding. Now, he was responsible to turn God’s people from darkness (intellectual ignorance) unto the light and understanding of Almighty God. Let the light move away the shadows and move away the ruler of darkness and the demon powers that are fallen angels, which are powers of ignorance that work in the minds of humanity. Move all of this away.
Here’s what we’ve got to remember, beloved friend. Angels appear in the form of thought, and in the form of knowledge, and it can be darkness or it can be light. When the shepherds were on the hillside, the Bible says that the angel of the Lord came upon them as a great light. The Bible says when Paul was on the way to Damascus, there appeared a great light round about him. This was the angel of the Lord. These are angels. Angels are spiritual powers of understanding, and this great light is an inspiration.
The Bible speaks of Jesus, that after about forty days of abstaining from food, then the angel of the Lord came and ministered unto Him. This great light of inspiration and these great thoughts came. Prior to that, Satan and the demon powers were there, and these demon powers kept harassing His mind. They would say, “If Thou be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread. If You be the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here.” And they even quoted the Scripture, saying, “He will give His angels power concerning thee. They shall bear thee up in all of thy ways lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone.” Jesus would say, “It is also written.” He would not deny the Scriptures.
The Bible says that the sinful generation, this power of evil that we’re referring to as Satan, has taken the Word of God and changed it into a lie. They have used the day of grace and turned it into lasciviousness. They use the Word of God for their own benefits. They religiously justify the things that they do, even those things that are of the flesh, which are an abomination in the sight of God, even applying prayer to sports and all of those kind of things. It’s an abomination in the sight of God. When they take the blood of the Son of God and use it in lasciviousness to justify that which is the love of the world and the love of the flesh and the things that Satan savors in this world, to pervert your mind, to pervert the ways of God, then it really upsets the Lord.
The thought that I want to get across to you is this: Demon spirits appear in the form of thoughts, depressing, oppressing, misleading, hallucinations or whatever it would be, as to your thinking capacity, and you find yourself having the spirit of error, doing the things that are not convenient to God and for your soul and for eternal life’s sake. But the light of God, which are the angels of God, comes to minister unto us. Angels of light bring to us thoughts of inspiration, not thoughts of lasciviousness, as to go after the things of the world, but the thoughts that inspire us unto hope, thoughts that inspire us unto health, happiness, peace and joy, for serving the Lord is joy, peace and righteousness in the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost.
So we that these great, wonderful powers come to us and we have to learn to differentiate between these two powers. Sometimes it will be so close that it would deceive the very elect if it was possible. That is, we have to define it by the Word of God. We try the spirits, and that which does not fit the Word of God, we don’t allow it to come into our mind. We say, “Nay, that’s not of God. That’s not life. That’s death.” If you were going to determine what the law says, then you would have to go to a lawyer. He’d have to go to the book and he would have to quote it to you, because the book is the power as to the authority. It’s the absolute. It’s the final say, and whatever it says, then we know that’s what it is.
I know that there’s a lot of corruption in the courts of the law. Solomon said, “I looked and in the place of judgment, there was corruption.” I know that. But, if the judge goes to the word of law, the book, then that’s the law. That’s what the people have agreed on. If he executes that, then that’s right. If he brings that to pass, then that’s right, so far as law is concerned. There are a lot of things that go on in the law court that ought not to go on. I’ve been in the court chambers when some of the judges try to make passes at the women that come before them when they have problems with their husbands. I’ve been present. This is corrupt and evil. I could make mention to you of things that I personally know about local lawyers and judges and authorities that should not to be. They’re becoming detrimental to the public. They’re harassing the public. Policemen that I know of are committing adultery and doing other things and they are still kept on the forces. Things like this should not be, but what’s the cause? Our political powers, while straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, don’t have time to look into these things for the benefit of the people. When it comes to money, when it comes to taxes or anything else, they’re right there. But when it comes to the people’s rights, to look after them and to help them, they don’t have time for it. Many of them boycott together because they’re friends one of another. What is it? The world loveth its own.
But beloved friend, there’s coming a day when God’s going to put away that corruption. He’s going to raise up the children of God. He’s going to raise up people of understanding and completely eradicate from the face of the earth this kind of corruption. He’s going to take it out of the ministry, because He speaks of the ministers that feed themselves and don’t feed the flock of God. There are statesmen that are not true statesmen and dignitaries that are not true dignitaries, and even though there are some good among all of them, yet God’s going to eradicate the bad. He’s going to take it away.
Where does this come from? It comes from evil thoughts. Where does war come from? The Bible says, “Is it not from the lust that warreth within your members?” You desire to have and you cannot obtain, so you kill and steal and do all of these other things. The Bible tells us that if we just simply love the Lord, believe on the Lord, seek the Lord Jesus Christ, all of these other things will be added unto us, whether it be health, whether it be peace, whether it be blessings, whatever it might be. God will give us all those things, because He has given to us in Christ Jesus all things that pertain unto life. And when we do the things that please Him, then we have a clear conscience to believe. When we believe, then we have the fullness of the blessings of God.
So we find that we can escape the detriments of life, the evil forces and powers, by discerning them by the Word of God. He sent His Word and cast out the unclean spirits. If you’ll think on the Word of God, study the Word of God, love the Word of God, and come to understand the Word of God, then it will completely drive evil thoughts, as to spirits, out of your life, even infirm spirits that live within the tissues of your body. There’s a germ of life on the inside that comes from God. This germ of life gives you health and it gives you life. But there’s also another germ, and this is the germ of death, and this germ is an infirm spirit. This thing is on the inside of you and it creates cancer, it creates all kinds of diseases. When the life of that germ is killed, medical science will tell you that whatever the germ produces, cancer or whatever, it will go away. When you cast out the unclean spirit, when you cast out the spirit of infirmity, then the problem is gone.
I have ministered on the curse being gone by Calvary. We are free from the curse of sickness, death and sin. But today, we are having lots of problems. Our children have just gone wild. They can’t seem to constrain themselves. They’re becoming dope addicts and drunkards and they need places of rehabilitation, when in the years gone by, they did not have to do that, because they had something to occupy their minds. They worked in the fields. I worked in the fields. We had things to do that constituted good living and that contributed to man’s way of life, as to make a better man or woman out of him, to make a virtuous person out of them, to provide a living, to take care of our little family or to help our neighbors. This provides good living.
Commit thy works unto the Lord. Someone would say, “I just can’t get control of my thoughts.” It’s because there’s too much leisure. The old saying says that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. So it is. As long as you do not commit your works unto the Lord, then your thoughts aren’t going to be established.
You can be as religious as you want to be, but that isn’t going to answer the problem. Being religious isn’t going to answer the problem, but the answer is when you commit your works unto the Lord. Just saying “I believe” is not sufficient. That isn’t going to do it, but it’s when you commit your works unto the Lord, and when you begin to do the things that please Him. The Bible says that the child is known by his doings. If you’re going to make a million dollars, you’ve got to do something. If you’re going to have a strong, healthy body the athletic side of life, then you’re going to have to jog and the lift of weights and all kinds of exercises, because you’ve got to do something.
If you’re going to have salvation, and if you’re going to have a heart that will be convinced in the things of God, to believe unto righteousness that you might make confession unto salvation of this of your lips, then you’re going to have to do something. You can’t go out and do the things of the world and still be a believer, not a God believer. You can believe in your intellect and be a religious fanatic, but you won’t have salvation of the heart as to faith in God. The ways of life for faith is of the heart, for with the heart man believeth and that unto righteousness.
So then, you’re going to have to do something. You’re going to have to commit your ways unto the Lord, commit your works unto the Lord, and then your thoughts are going to be established. In the time when you commit your ways and in the time when your works unto the Lord, your thoughts are going to begin to take root and your mind isn’t just going to be boggled down with the things of the world. You won’t be going from place to place and thing to thing, and you won’t be sitting around watching some non-virtuous thing on television or reading some non-virtuous thing in the newspaper or magazine, and you won’t be thinking on non-virtuous things.
You’ll have a holy mind, a clean mind, a godly mind, and then all the fears and frustrations and anxieties of life will be gone, and you’ll be anxious for nothing. You’ll find peace. The Bible says that he that keepeth his mind stayed upon the Word of God, as to Christ Jesus, shall have perfect peace. We are to meditate in these laws day and night, cast down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ, every thought. We should surrender our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God, which is a reasonable service, in that He did so much to provide eternal life for us and gave us all things that pertain unto life.
So beloved friend, godliness is profitable for this world, the Bible tells us, and for the world to come. It can bring you health and happiness in this world. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. As he thinketh. It would not make any sense for me to tell you that I just love to hunt and I never go hunting. I would say, “I’m a great hunter. I love to hunt.” And you would say, “I never see you hunting. You always go fishing. How is it that you love hunting so, and you never go hunting?” See, I would be lying because if I loved hunting, I would go hunting. If I go fishing, then I love fishing. So if I go out into the world, then I’ve got the love of the world in me. If I do the things of the world, then do I have the love of the world. If I dress according to the world, then I am of the world. If I have the love of the world in me, the love of the Father isn’t there. The love of spiritual things isn’t there. If I am carnally minded, then am I still abiding in death. I’ve never been born again and I don’t have the mind of Christ, for to be spiritually minded, as to the mind of Christ, is life, but to be carnally minded is death. Satan has infiltrated everything in the world and it’s under the curse until you’re born again. When you take on the mind of Christ, and you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all the other things are added unto you.
So, we find that the child is known by his doings. Whatever he does, that’s what he is. His thinking will compel him to do that. So then, it’s little reason that you should be in the kind of condition that you are in. It’s little reason, on your part, in that you never understood the real reasoning of God, coming into the reasoning of God, into the mind of God. To be carnally minded means that you are concerned about natural things, and natural things tend unto death. But when you’re considering God and seeking God and putting God first and meditating in Christ, keeping your mind on Christ, then you’ve got a spiritual mind. And when you have this kind of mind, then you have peace. When you teach your children these things, as to the laws and ways of life of God, then do you escape death.
You must of necessity think according to life and think according to faith, and you must not put things that gender fear, frustration, wild imagination and all of these horrible, hideous things into your life. You must not do that, because it will bring nightmares at night. You won’t be able to sleep. You won’t be able to rest. You can’t take dope and all the other drugs that stimulate the body to where you cannot relax. You take all of these kinds of things to stay awake, to frolic at night, and not have proper rest, then you get to the point where these things control your nervous system. When these things control your nervous system, you’re going to be fully alive and awake and everything’s going to be going along real good. But after awhile, these things are going to begin to wear off, and when they do, your nerves are going to be just shaky. You’re going to be trembling. You’ll become a feeble person. You will not be able to continue on in life.
Did you know that God brought more than three million people out of Egypt? The Bible says that there was not one feeble person among them. He said that if you do the things that I tell you and you honor My Word and you keep My sayings, He won’t put any of these diseases upon you that He brought upon the Egyptians. He told the woman, “Go thy way and sin no more.” He forgave her of her sins. But go sin no more because if you sin again, it’s going to bring sickness, and this time, something worse than ever will come upon you, something worse than before. So then, conform to His ways, love Him, do His will, follow after Him. Folks, this is what we’re supposed to do. And when we do this, it makes for good living and brings you good health. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. When we commit our works unto God, then our thoughts are established.
By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.
Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.
Holiness Unto The Lord