Well the first thing we have to do is lead people away from the false teaching that thoughts are sins.
Why is that false teaching? Of course we can have sinful thoughts. Paul was able to say Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
There is a difference between thinking and desiring: the thinking action is in the mind, while the will proceeds from the heart.
So the flesh has no power to do what is good, neither in thought or deed, but by the working of His Spirit, God changes us at the seat of our will.
Jesus said (John 6:63) It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Only by being born again are we given the Holy Spirit; only by yielding our will to the Holy Spirit, having no confidence in the flesh, can we walk in any way pleasing to God.
But here is the interesting thing: we still have a choice, at every moment. We have our fleshly will, but we also have the will of God. If we are born again (I mean really born again, not just claiming to be) we have the mind of Christ...so we know when we have gone wrong because He shows us by comparison of our mind to His mind, giving us scriptures to shed light on our carnal thinking, prompting us with groanings and grievings so that we know His will on a matter...and then we have a choice to yield to Him.....or not.
Yielding to the Spirit of Christ is the only way to grow in the Lord. But God will never violate our free will. Therefore to grow is a choice we are generously offered, but to grow spiritually is not a possibility in the flesh.
Personally I feel we would know more liberty if we were not so preoccupied with the doings of the flesh, how to satisfy it by this or that...if we would change our focus from the satisfaction of our dead flesh to the accomplishment of God in us through the Holy Spirit.
Preaching to myself here as I write, I know I have sticking points where my heart says, really Lord? Some places I don't want to go with Him, some places of liberty I can't seem to enter and I give my personal circumstances as the reason for holding back. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. My sticking point is a place of unbelief, clearly, a fleshly security blanket that I don't want to abandon. I need to abandon it really but I exploit the choice God gave me to its fullest extent in avoiding that abandonment, and I know it is holding me back.
While I am in this place however, this spiritual location in my heart, my earnest intention, my "will", is to get the fullness of teaching out of it, because I believe that some things God doesn't take away...like the thorn in Paul's flesh...if it means we would place ourselves above others, forgetting what manner of men and women we once were.
ALL things (not some, but all) work together to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
Praise the Lord!
love to all