I would like to refer to a foundational scripture that describes that firstly, our thoughts determine what will happen in all of our lives. Secondly that thoughts are in the imagination of the heart.
Gen 6:5-6: And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
This is why he told Noah to build the ark to save himself and his family from the flood
In this case, the thoughts of the people’s hearts were evil.
Although God did not create us to think evil continually, we still have the option to think whatever we like.
I’m thinking about the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus. They both knew that He was God, but only one chose to be with Him forever. The other thief chose to curse him.
Thoughts present themselves in our mind, and it is for us to decide if we will take them to heart and allow them to grow in our imaginations to cause toxic feelings. Feelings eventually become emotions, and dark emotions are the true powers of darkness. Gal 5:19
We can nurture feelings of hate, which are toxic thoughts, for instance, and allow it to grow and become a cancer that kills the body and causes death in all things we do. This is the curse. These emotions are called the flesh or carnality in the Bible.
On the other hand, God has given us His Word, and His Word is Spirit and it is life. His Word is full of life, that is life and life and life abundantly. The Word is the blessing. Meditating on the Word brings feelings of peace to the heart. Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. What could be better than having peace in the thought life? After all, this is the reason for drug abuse and alcoholism. All people want peace! They will go to great lengths to make up all kinds of religious rules and traditions, but peace is a lot closer than that. We can’t work or do things to get peace. Peace is a free gift from God. Jesus saves! What does He save us from? From chaos in our minds. He saves us from deadly thoughts that make us sick and destroy our lives, and cause wars because we listen to all our feelings. We think that because we felt goose bumps when someone said or did something, the feeling must be from God. We do not listen to feelings, we tell feelings how they should feel.
When we become believers, we are to become disciplined in our thinking. Jesus made disciples. We must take thoughts captive and decide if they come out of our own will or if they are the will of God. We know what God’s will is, when we read the word. As the Word fills our heart, it causes life.
God is not out to get us for sinful thoughts, God so dearly wants us to have His thoughts that he gave His only begotten son to die on the terrible cross. Jesus took all the evil wickedness that is caused by thoughts into himself and nailed it to the cross. All we have to do is follow Jesus daily. Simply do what he did, die to the flesh and rise in the spirit, where there is only peace.