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Crash The Chatterbox: Subverting the Sabotage

Welcome back! I'm am excited that you are following this series of blogs on the book from Pastor Steven Furtick, "Crash the Chatterbox", hopefully this series blesses you and provides you with tools on crashing, smashing and taming the chatterbox.

This chapter begins discussing that our greatest battles begin in our minds, "Because it's in the mind that the transmission of God's plans for our lives either succeeds or fails", Pastor Furtick shares a statistic that says the average person has over sixty thousand thoughts a day, and over 80 percent of them are negative. Hmm... this is alarming. If my thoughts are working against me, then at this rate I want to have godly leadership and resources to help me attack my worse enemy (my own thoughts).  One of the things I learned as I've studied the word of God is to think about my thoughts. In past blogs I have mention how my thoughts have managed to send me on downward spirals that eventually throw me back into old habits.

This chapter encourages me to think about the thoughts and their patterns. 


For example;

What is that one thought the chatterbox repeats when you are trying on clothes? We all have that one or two problem areas on our body and they jump out when we look in a mirror. What is your first thought when you try on a new pair of jeans or a fitted dress? Observe these thoughts and watch the mental pattern that starts a train of thoughts. But why? Who told us that these areas have a problem? Who told us we are anything less than perfect? It sure wan not God!

Then, the chapter continues discuss the actual term for toxic thoughts; logorrhea 1. pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech; 2.incessant or compulsive talkativeness, wearisome volubility.

This incessant talk happened to me this past week. It was wearisome chatter in my mind regarding an old, but still debilitating mental struggle. It placed me in an old familiar dark state of mind. It starts by reminding me of the past. Then it snowballs into why I cannot be happy in the present and it ends by mentally clouding my hopes for the future.

"And it's not just what this chatter says that makes it dangerous. It's what it keeps us from hearing."

Pastor Furtick discusses the danger of this obsessive compulsive thinking pattern. He discusses how God is always at work in our lives, but the chatterbox creates so much static in our minds that it is impossible to hear God's direction when we are in constant dialogue with the chatterbox.
Pastor Furtick quotes Brennan Manning and a perfect description of what happens when the chatterbox gets the best of us, "Great deeds remain undone and the possibility of growth in greatness is aborted"

When I recognized this past week that I was in black tunnel with no signs of light, I ran to prayer. See when I see the patterns of the chatterbox, I also start to see patterns in my behavior. I am learning to check myself. I quote Jesus, "You will know them by their fruits", if my fruit isn't matching my proclaimed Christian identity, then what is next? Checking my thoughts. 

Good deeds are not my concern when I'm stuck in the mental rut. Following commands of love and kindness are the last thing in my head when I'm obsessing over something. I am utterly concerned on my weariness and distracted form the need that is constantly surrounding me when I'm snowballing in negative thoughts. And it all suddenly shrinks down to ME, ME, ME!

"God is equally concerned about what He is doing in me and what He is doing through me."

I had to come to acceptance that my problems and the patterns I had created in a life away from God weren't going to go away in 1 day or 1 month... or 1 year. I had to come to the understanding that God is more concerned in helping me get through it with honor, love, courage and dignity. 

God wants us to know that we are not what our failures TELLS us we are...God wants us to declare war for our souls. God wants to cover us in armor that will help us get our peace back because His word (1 Timothy 1:7) says we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of LOVE, POWER and a SOUND MIND (this verse helped me though my panic attacks)... You have to fight back!

The word of God is a lamp at our feet and His holy Spirit has given us a spirit of adoption. We are children of the Most High God. Jesus came to announce the Kingdom of Heaven of the powerful God almighty is at hand. You are from this world, but you were created for so much more than meets the eye. The Kingdom of heaven of the living God offers you the ability to walk in freedom! It will not be a trouble free life, but through Jesus we are offered a life where we have access to peace, confidence, comfort and counsel from our Heavenly father.

Quiet the Riot


This book is based on Pastor Furtick proposing to begin a fight back with 4 confessions:

  1. God says I am...
  2. God says He will...
  3. God says He has...
  4. God says I can...
Of course all confessions are bible/scripture based confessions...

I'm excited to get into these confessions and seeing how they can help us!

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