"Renewing the Mind"
There must be a spiritual
renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.
Ephesians 4:23
Once a rabbi decided to test the level of obedience in his disciples, so he called them together and posed a question. "What would you do if you were walking along and found a purse full of money lying in the road?" he asked. "I'd return it to its owner," said the disciple. "His answer comes so quickly, I must wonder if he really means it," the rabbi thought. "I'd keep the money if nobody saw me find it," said another. "He has a frank tongue, but a wicked heart," the rabbi told himself. "Well, Rabbi," said a third disciple, "to be honest, I believe I'd be tempted to keep it. So I would pray to God that he give me the strength to resist such a temptation and to be obedient in doing the right thing." "Aha!" thought the rabbi. "Here is the man I would trust."
Science has proven the human mind never shifts into neutral. Like a computer, the mind receives and processes life giving miracle producing thoughts from God and fear based thoughts from surrounding worldly influences. Out of this database of thoughts, what we allow ourselves to meditate on will manifest in our lives. If we don't discipline our minds by replacing fear with faith, these fear based thoughts will manifest undesirable results in our lives. Job was an example of this. After severe calamity happened in his life, Job said, "What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true." (Job 3:25)
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What the mind attends to, the mind considers.
What the mind constantly considers, the mind believes.
What the mind believes, the mind eventually does.
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Science has proven the human mind never shifts into neutral. Like a computer, the mind receives and processes life giving miracle producing thoughts from God and fear based thoughts from surrounding worldly influences. Out of this database of thoughts, what we allow ourselves to meditate on will manifest in our lives. If we don't discipline our minds by replacing fear with faith, these fear based thoughts will manifest undesirable results in our lives. Job was an example of this. After severe calamity happened in his life, Job said, "What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true." (Job 3:25)
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What the mind attends to, the mind considers.
What the mind constantly considers, the mind believes.
What the mind believes, the mind eventually does.
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Renewing the mind involves replacing fear based thought patterns with faith based patterns. This process involves exchanging our thoughts with God's thoughts. The Bible is the Word of God or His thoughts recorded for us, so studying scripture renews our minds. The process of discovering fear based thoughts includes listening to ourselves and studying our actions. Every spoken word or behavior is the by-product of a thought. What we say produces either life or death in our lives. Because our words are a powerful creative force.
If we want to control what comes into our minds, we have to do more than just not think about the wrong things. If we become obsessed with trying to control wrong thoughts and we think to ourselves, “I don’t want to think a wrong thought,” that wrong thought is going to pop into our minds repeatedly against our will. The solution is not to try to stop thinking about wrong thoughts, but to provide a stream of positive life giving information found in scripture that replaces them. “If the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life." (Romans 8:6) In this renewal process, we may need to separate ourselves from certain people, activities, and environments that present temptations to remain stuck in a paradigm of fear. Confronting our fears will prevent them from manifesting in our lives.
1. What is temptation?
Temptation is an opportunity to carry out a desire that is life stealing rather than life giving. This is the point at which our character is tested. The testing of our character is proven not by what we do when others are watching us, but what we do when we are alone. If we resist temptation, the thoughts attached to that particular temptation are transformed into a character strength. 1 Corinthians 10:13 states, "God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it." Additionally, God is never the source of any temptation. James 1:13-14 says, "Remember, no one who wants to do wrong should ever say, 'God is tempting me.' God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else either."
Some desires stem from behavior patterns of the past. There will continue to be strongholds in these areas until we transform the way we think about it. This involves relying on God to perform the supernatural as we do the practical and asking these questions: “If I indulge in this, what will this cost me and my loved ones?” “How will it effect my relationship with God, my spouse, my children, and others I care about?”
2. What is obedience?
· It is self-imposed discipline in response to Christ's love.
· It is putting into action our spiritual gifts.
Obedience is the evidence of a relationship with God and keeps spiritual health in balance. There is an invisible wall in the spiritual realm similar to the earth's sound barrier that I call the Spiritual Sound Barrier. Earth's sound barrier is broken through excessive speed. The Spiritual Sound Barrier is broken through obedience to God's biblical commands. Satan, as Prince of the Earth Realm, guards the Spiritual Sound Barrier to prevent God's kingdom goals from being accomplished on earth. Daniel 10:12-13 records an example of this activity, "Daniel, since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way."
If we want to control what comes into our minds, we have to do more than just not think about the wrong things. If we become obsessed with trying to control wrong thoughts and we think to ourselves, “I don’t want to think a wrong thought,” that wrong thought is going to pop into our minds repeatedly against our will. The solution is not to try to stop thinking about wrong thoughts, but to provide a stream of positive life giving information found in scripture that replaces them. “If the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life." (Romans 8:6) In this renewal process, we may need to separate ourselves from certain people, activities, and environments that present temptations to remain stuck in a paradigm of fear. Confronting our fears will prevent them from manifesting in our lives.
1. What is temptation? Temptation is an opportunity to carry out a desire that is life stealing rather than life giving. This is the point at which our character is tested. The testing of our character is proven not by what we do when others are watching us, but what we do when we are alone. If we resist temptation, the thoughts attached to that particular temptation are transformed into a character strength. 1 Corinthians 10:13 states, "God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it." Additionally, God is never the source of any temptation. James 1:13-14 says, "Remember, no one who wants to do wrong should ever say, 'God is tempting me.' God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else either."
Some desires stem from behavior patterns of the past. There will continue to be strongholds in these areas until we transform the way we think about it. This involves relying on God to perform the supernatural as we do the practical and asking these questions: “If I indulge in this, what will this cost me and my loved ones?” “How will it effect my relationship with God, my spouse, my children, and others I care about?”
2. What is obedience? · It is self-imposed discipline in response to Christ's love.
· It is putting into action our spiritual gifts.
Obedience is the evidence of a relationship with God and keeps spiritual health in balance. There is an invisible wall in the spiritual realm similar to the earth's sound barrier that I call the Spiritual Sound Barrier. Earth's sound barrier is broken through excessive speed. The Spiritual Sound Barrier is broken through obedience to God's biblical commands. Satan, as Prince of the Earth Realm, guards the Spiritual Sound Barrier to prevent God's kingdom goals from being accomplished on earth. Daniel 10:12-13 records an example of this activity, "Daniel, since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way."
Positive Attributes that Produce a Spiritual Breakthrough: Gratitude, Humility, Love, and Obedience.
Negative Attributes that Block Spiritual Breakthrough: Pride, Hate, Unforgiveness, and Resentment.
3. Is the entertainment content I'm feeding my soul spiritually productive? Ignorance usually is a good excuse for engaging in something that is spiritually unhealthy. The following information is offered to help you create a soul healthy entertainment guide. TV can steal our dreams and produce a dissatisfaction with our abilities, relationships, possessions, and/or appearance. When this happens, we may complain and grumble rather than have an attitude of grattitude for the good in our lives. Most of the time we don't realize we are consuming a steady diet of soul junk food.
All television is educational. The question is: What is it teaching us? Secular TV and other media forms are something like "junk food" for our souls. The diet we feed our souls is totally within our control through our viewing and listening choices. If we indulge in a steady diet of junk food, we lack the solid nutrients that are essential for our spiritual health. We may appear to others to be spiritually healthy, but we know the truth - we are spiritually undernourished. Philippians 4:8 lists the “soul healthy” elements which help guide us in our entertainment choices: "What is true and honorable and right… things that are pure and lovely and admirable… things that are excellent and worthy of praise." The entertainment industry provides an "all you can eat" buffet of junk food that can direct our focus from a love based perspective into a fear based focus.
The entertainment industry looks at each one of us like a trophy size fish in a fishing tournament. If we become hooked by their alluring bait, we are slowly reeled in closer and closer. Their goal is to sink a hook in our weakest areas with their propaganda. Here are some of the messages secular entertainment dishes out that we want to be aware of and then do everything within our power to avoid:
· Get all you can without regard of the impact on others.
· Promote yourself to increase your ego and pride.
· Your security lies in possessions and a financial portfolio.
· Avoid others that aren't essential to your elevation.
· Attain power and notoriety at all costs.
· Spend money you can't afford to spend.
· Be self-directed, not God directed.
All television is educational. The question is: What is it teaching us? Secular TV and other media forms are something like "junk food" for our souls. The diet we feed our souls is totally within our control through our viewing and listening choices. If we indulge in a steady diet of junk food, we lack the solid nutrients that are essential for our spiritual health. We may appear to others to be spiritually healthy, but we know the truth - we are spiritually undernourished. Philippians 4:8 lists the “soul healthy” elements which help guide us in our entertainment choices: "What is true and honorable and right… things that are pure and lovely and admirable… things that are excellent and worthy of praise." The entertainment industry provides an "all you can eat" buffet of junk food that can direct our focus from a love based perspective into a fear based focus.
The entertainment industry looks at each one of us like a trophy size fish in a fishing tournament. If we become hooked by their alluring bait, we are slowly reeled in closer and closer. Their goal is to sink a hook in our weakest areas with their propaganda. Here are some of the messages secular entertainment dishes out that we want to be aware of and then do everything within our power to avoid:
· Get all you can without regard of the impact on others.
· Promote yourself to increase your ego and pride.
· Your security lies in possessions and a financial portfolio.
· Avoid others that aren't essential to your elevation.
· Attain power and notoriety at all costs.
· Spend money you can't afford to spend.
· Be self-directed, not God directed.
Now, with your eyes opened to the aspects of soul junk food, you will no longer be uneducated about the entertainment industry's baited hooks. Instead, you'll use good judgment by keeping your eyes open and discerning to enticing bait. Jesus said, "If you know these things, which I have taught you, blessed are you if you do them" (John 13:17). It is not the believing in his teachings, but the doing them that blesses one's life. As you keep your spiritual vision clear through good choices, you will discover the answer to the question Are You a Misfit?
Read the next chapter: Are You a Misfit? or choose a title below.
Knowing God Power of Prayer Spiritual Warfare Glossary
Born to Love Renew the Mind Crisis Help What Readers Are Saying
Divine Connection Are You a Misfit? Love in Action ____________________________________________________________________________
Scriptures quotations taken from the New Living Translation® (NLT) Bible. Copyright © 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
CJB denotes scripture quotations taken from the Complete Jewish Bible® (CJB) Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern and used with the permission of Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 615, Clarksville, Maryland 21029. This Bible is available through Messianic Jewish Resources at: MessianicJewish.net
'No Longer Doubting', is an excerpt from the book "Jesus Freaks" and used with permission, 1999. By Voice of the Martyrs (http://www.persecution.com) and DC Talk; published by Albury Publishing, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Read the next chapter: Are You a Misfit? or choose a title below.
Knowing God Power of Prayer Spiritual Warfare Glossary
Born to Love Renew the Mind Crisis Help What Readers Are Saying
Divine Connection Are You a Misfit? Love in Action ____________________________________________________________________________
Scriptures quotations taken from the New Living Translation® (NLT) Bible. Copyright © 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
CJB denotes scripture quotations taken from the Complete Jewish Bible® (CJB) Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern and used with the permission of Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 615, Clarksville, Maryland 21029. This Bible is available through Messianic Jewish Resources at: MessianicJewish.net
'No Longer Doubting', is an excerpt from the book "Jesus Freaks" and used with permission, 1999. By Voice of the Martyrs (http://www.persecution.com) and DC Talk; published by Albury Publishing, Tulsa, Oklahoma.