Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 148
TRANSCRIPT
One of the most powerful weapons you have in spiritual warfare is your mind. We are in a spiritual battle, and your mind is one of the major weapons in fighting the battle. Unfortunately, the mind is also easily corrupted by lies and deceit. In this podcast, we will discuss the power of your mind and thoughts and hopefully encourage you to guard what comes into your mind.
I’m Lee Whitman from Restoring the Foundations and I welcome you into this Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. The mind is a powerful weapon. The enemy knows how powerful our minds are. That is why there is a relentless attack on the minds and thoughts of believers. Our verse for today is Proverbs 23:7, which says, “For as a man thinks within himself, so is he.” Those of you who have been through RTF Thorough Format Ministry (the 15-hour ministry format), will remember that one of the most impactful parts of the ministry is breaking False Identity statements. These are the shame-based statements taught to us by the world about our identity. In Genesis 3 is the story of how the serpent deceived Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, and sin entered the world. Along with sin, shame entered as well. Up to that point, it says that Adam and Eve were naked, but unashamed. After eating the fruit, they recognized for the first time that there was something wrong with them. Feeling like something is wrong with you is the essence of shame. So, Adam and Eve recognized for the first time that they were naked. It was not just being physically naked that was the problem, because they had been naked their entire existence. The problem was that for the first time they believed that something was wrong with them. Shame attacked their identity. Due to their shame, they were afraid of God finding out that they had eaten the fruit, so they hid themselves. The enemy has been attacking our identity ever since the Garden. His goal is for us to believe lies about ourselves based on shame. According to Proverbs 23:7, these lies dictate how we view ourselves.
In this podcast, I am going to look at several scriptures that talk about the importance of your mind. Let’s begin with Psalms 139:23-24. I encourage you to read the entire chapter of Psalms 139. In this chapter, David describes how intimately God knows his thoughts. He says that God knows the words on his tongue before he speaks them. That is pretty intimate. Then in verses 23-24, he makes this statement: “Search me,O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my anxious thoughts! See if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” David had just declared over and over again how intimately God knows his thoughts. Why would he ask God to search him and know him? I think what David is saying is, “God search me and show me my thoughts.” David’s understands that his thoughts are vital to following after God with his whole heart, so he wants God to reveal to David if there is anything amiss.
You have probably heard the illustration about the frog in the pot of water. If you put a frog in a pot of hot water, the frog will simply jump out. But if you put a frog in a pot of cool water and slowly turn up the heat, the frog will remain in the pot and eventually boil to death. This is an accurate picture of what is happening to each of our minds. We live in a world that is bombarded by media. I am old enough to remember when we only had a few sources of information; you had three news channels, which were still basically reporting the news instead of interpreting the news. We had a local newspaper and perhaps a few local radio stations. Today, the sources of information are almost unlimited. Many of those sources are feeding us an unhealthy diet of tainted unholy information. It used to be that you could trust societal norms. Not any longer. What has become normal is no longer moral nor Biblical. Thus, it is more important than ever to take every thought captive. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Why is taking every thought captive so vital in being able to live in this world as a child of God? Because the Bible describes the devil as the father of lies. John 8:44 says, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” One translation says that when the devil lies he is speaking in his native tongue. And as I said earlier, these lies have been accepted into our culture as normal. Things like the fidelity of marriage have become an old school norm with the new norm that you remain in the marriage as long as you have feelings for your spouse. It has also become a new norm that it is ok to have sex outside of marriage as long as you are in love with that person. Notice that the context of 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 is warfare. It is talking about the weapons of our warfare. Our minds are a vital part of fighting this spiritual battle. I could spend a lot of time on this verse from 2 Corinthians, but instead I will move on.
Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Peace of mind is such a wonderful thing. The way to have peace is to keep our minds fixed upon our Father God. I may continue to bring this up, hopefully as a reminder to help you, but if we continue to fill our minds with the current events from the news and most social media, we will struggle to have peace. There is chaos in this world. But if we set our minds on Father God and His kingdom, we will be kept in perfect peace. Is this easy? No, but it is essential for a life of peace.
Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.” The true source of life for us as children of God does not come from this world. The source of our life comes from what our Father God says. It comes from things above. It is easy for us to let the circumstances and situations of life tell us what is true. When we do that, we are going to struggle. But when we, as children of God, can set our minds on things above and let Father God tell us what is true, we will live in peace and joy. For example, we often look to our performance to prove our value and worth. If we perform well, we feel like we are valuable. When we don’t perform well, we are less valuable. That is looking to the wrong source for value and worth. The only secure place to get our value and worth is from setting our minds on things above, on what God says about us.
Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” The Passion Translation says it this way: “Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think.” This is a process that takes intentionality. We have been so indoctrinated by the ideals and opinions of the culture around us that we desperately need the Holy Spirit to show us the truth. I am pretty sure my lovely wife gets tired of hearing me talk about this, but I have a big concern that here in the United States we are living a form of cultural Christianity rather than a Biblical Christianity. I don’t think this is just limited to the United States. I believe that our brothers and sisters in Canada filter their belief through that culture. I believe our brothers in the UK do the same thing. I am not sure any of us can help but mix our culture into our beliefs. My concern is when we get our beliefs about God from the culture around us, rather than from God’s Word, His nature, and His character. Only the Holy Spirit can show us any beliefs we have that are cultural rather than Biblical. Ephesians 4:23 says “to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.”
One of my favorite verses about the mind is Philippians 4:8-9. Again, quoting from The Passion Translation because it is so powerfully said: “Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.” My Mom would often say, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” That was good advice that has kept me from saying harmful things. The same is true of our thoughts as well. When we fix our thoughts continually on what is honorable and admirable, on what is beautiful and respectful, on what is pure and holy, life will be a lot brighter. My wife plays worship music in our house most of the time. She regularly plays these amazing worship sets from different churches found on YouTube. I really enjoy that because it helps me live out this verse. When the worship music is playing in my head, it is easy to continually fix my thoughts on Philippians 4:8-9. The struggles and problems of this life begin to shrink as the truth of the Gospel takes over. The old hymn is still very true, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
I want to end this podcast with 1 Peter 1:13 that says, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Listen to this verse from The Passion Translation: “So then, prepare your hearts and minds for action! Stay alert and fix your hope firmly on the marvelous grace that is coming to you. For when Jesus Christ is unveiled, a greater measure of grace will be released to you.” We must prepare our minds for action. We can’t have our minds in neutral. It is vital that we are prepared for action. Being an old athlete, I will use an athletic analogy. Most of the church is just playing defense trying to keep from getting beat-up by the enemy. What if we went on the offense and put our faith into action and took the battle to the enemy and beat him up. Remember the enemy is the father of lies and his main weapon is lies. As we stay alert, we will recognize his lies and be able to fight them off more easily.
You are a mighty warrior. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. If you are not sure how God views you, ask Him. If you need help breaking agreement with the old lies, get with an RTF minister. They will help you.
PRAYER
Father God, You told us to hide Your Word in our hearts so we might not sin against You. Would You take the words of today’s podcast and encourage my brothers and sisters to guard their minds against the father of lies.