Wikipedia defines Brainwashing (we are using it in the positive sense) as mind control, thought control, and thought reform.
Romans 12:2 | AMPC (2) Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].
Some may think that you are living out of your spirit. You actually are living out of your thoughts. Your actions always follow your thinking.
Proverbs 23:6-7 | NKJV (6) Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies; (7) For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
Isaiah 55:7 | AMPC (7) Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have love, pity, and mercy for him, and to our God, for He will multiply to him His abundant pardon.
The way that someone returns unto the Lord is in your thoughts first.
As a believer you have a choice to think in line with your spirit or in line with your five physical senses.
Whichever way the mind swings determines the direction of your life.
What controls your dedication to the things of God is your thinking.
What changes you from being shaped like the world is your thinking.
What you believe about Jesus determines your eternal outcome, but your behavior determines the quality of life you experience now.
Our behavior produces the kind of life that we have and if we will adapt our behavior to the standard of God’s Word, we will enjoy His blessing and involvement in our lives.
We make hundreds of decisions every day – about 20% are conscious decisions and the other 80% are reflexive. This speaks to the need for preconditioning in our lives to make sure that we reflexively respond the way should and make good decisions.
The things that exercise the greatest amount of influence in our lives, are the things that help shape the decisions that we make on a regular basis.
God labors through your recreated spirit to influence your decision-making process. (1 John 4:15)
Your body is influenced by the sensory perceptions it has to provide influences in your decision-making process.
Your soul is the seat of your decision-making process.
Romans 8:5-6 | NKJV (5) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (6) For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
How do we get from being carnally minded to being spiritually minded?
The process is called renewing your mind.
Romans 12:2 | TPT (2) 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 will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.
The transformation of our lives is contingent upon the renewing of our minds.
Some think that renewing the mind is simply replacing the worldly value system that you have had and replace it with God’s value system or removing old standards and replacing with new ones.
Renewing does not mean learning.
Paul was writing to people who were Born Again and had a basic knowledge of the Word of God.
Refilling and replenishing the mind with things that you have already learned is a continual ongoing process.
How do you renew your mind?
It is a process of taking out and putting in. (Housecleaning and refurnishing)
Don’t have a mental garage sale, just burn it.
You would not go out and buy new furniture and then squeeze it in next to the old furniture and make it fit, no you get rid of the old and replace it with the new.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 | KJV (3) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Four Levels of Mental Activity:
- Thoughts
- Imaginations
- Reasonings that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God
- Strongholds
Our thoughts are a process of moving through the circumstances of our everyday life.
There is no such thing as a blank mind. Your mind is in operation all the time.
Thoughts are introduced to you by observation, association, teachings, and the circumstances of life.
Matthew 6:25 | KJV (25) Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
We have the ability to accept or reject the thoughts that come to our minds.
We are going to look at the thought selection process.