Desires grow in the same way our bodies grow: by feeding them. What feeds desires? Thoughts. The more we think on a desire the stronger it gets. And what I mean by “stronger” is that it produces more thoughts, more frequently about itself. In other words, the more thoughts you direct to a particular desire the more you’ll find yourself thinking about that desire — that is — it gets stronger. Conversely, a desire that you refuse to think about begins to starve to death: it generates less thoughts, less frequently of itself.
So when the apostle Paul commands us to “Put to death … whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires … greed…” (Colossians 3:5 NIV) and so on, he’s basically saying: “quit thinking about them” as in Romans 13:14, “…clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh” i.e., starve them to death.
However, we will find ourselves defeated in this until we acknowledge that the upper limit of our power against thinking unwanted thoughts is to say “no!”. That’s it. Beyond that, we are powerless against them as they proceed to march right onto the centerstage of our minds. Here’s the situation: only the Holy Spirit has the power to remove them.
So I recently made an arrangement with the Spirit that has become all important to me:
“Lord, whenever I say “no!” to a thought I don’t want, would you please consider that a prayer for you to sweep that thought away. Thank you.”
The apostle Paul wrote, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)
I can say with confidence arising out of my own experience that he instantly removes that unwanted thought. That is because the Holy Spirit was given to us precisely to help us get free of thoughts we don’t want — thoughts that we know compromise our deepest aspirations as God's new creation. The Holy Spirit is the power in the apostle Paul’s statement when he writes, “… we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV)
