(Romans 12:2 NLT) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
(1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIV) (23) May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How Do I Renew My Mind?
(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;
Three Levels of Mental Activity:
- Selection of Thoughts
- Imaginations
- 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 the circumstances of life.
- The first level of mental activity is the selection of thoughts.
(Matthew 6:31 KJV) Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
You determine the thoughts that you take or reject.
You take a thought by attaching words to it and saying it out of your mouth.
(2 Corinthians 10:5b BBE) …causing every thought to come under the authority of Christ;
The thoughts that come to you that do not correspond with the standards of God’s Word; if you do not put words to them, you don’t take them.
The thoughts are in line with God’s Word or the dream He has placed in your heart, you take those by putting Words to them.
- The second level of mental activity is imagination.
Imagination – the process of mental imagery.
Mentally imaging your circumstance and the thoughts you have taken building an image of what your life can be as it relates to that thought pattern.
This is the level where behavior comes into play as you begin to visualize your life in one way or another.
The process of visual imagery is what leads to behavior.
The process of repetitive or consistent behavior will only take place if there has been repetitive or consistent visual imagery.
Patterns of behavior that can be defined as habitual, start this way.
- The third level of mental activity is called a stronghold.
We are created by God with the ability to create habit patterns to make us more efficient so that eventually you can do things without having to consciously think about them.
Example – when we were young we had to remind ourselves or someone else remind us to go and brush our teeth in the morning.
Habit – an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become involuntary.
It literally can become an enemy fortification if Satan becomes involved.
Realize that there is an anointing available to you to help you tear down those strongholds in our lives by casting down imaginations and go through the process of renewing your mind.
How you can gain the victory over the strongholds in your life:
- Identify the stronghold.
Be honest with yourself and with God.
Deal with one stronghold at a time.
- Fast and deny the cravings of the flesh.
This magnifies the anointing in your life and the anointing of God is designed to destroy bondages in our lives. (Isaiah 58)
- Pray and the Lord will answer.
- Push the enemy back with the Word of God.
Jesus resisted the enemy with the Word of God in His mouth.
Notice in the Lord’s temptation that Satan challenged Jesus on who He was and this will be the basis of a lot of our temptation.
- You cannot do this alone.
(James 5:16 NKJV) Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
You may need some professional help especially where the body has gained a chemical dependency.
Imagination will breed expectation.
Your imagination and expectation will even impact those that are around you: your family, co-workers, etc.
Examples: Parental studies proving that most children never excel above the expectations of their parents.
Students at school in California where teachers were told they were the highest IQ students…
How do you cultivate a greater level of expectancy in yourself?
- Meditation in the Word of God – imagining yourself going beyond the barriers of pre-disposed limitations.
(Joshua 1:8 AMP) This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous (break out), and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.
(Psalms 1:1-2 NKJV) Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; (2) But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
(Psalms 2:1 KJV) Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? (meditate = imagine)
We must not let others paint the canvass of our expectation for us but paint that picture for ourselves based on God’s expectation for us.
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more than knowledge, it is a preview of life’s coming attractions.”
Charles Kettering said, “Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.”
We must go to the Word of God and find out what God’s expectations of us are and build our expectations around them.
Be willing to step beyond the boundaries of limitations that others may have placed around you.
(Acts 4:13-14 NKJV) Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. (14) And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
Hope – To look forward to with confidence or expectation:
Remember, Hebrews 11: 1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
(Isaiah 40:30-31 NKJV) Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, (31) But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
The Hebrew word for expected or expectation means as in a binding cord that attaches something to you.
(Proverbs 24:13-14 AMP) My son, eat honey, because it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. (14) So shall you know skillful and godly Wisdom to be thus to your life; if you find it, then shall there be a future and a reward, and your hope and expectation shall not be cut off.
(Psalms 1:1-3 NKJV) (1) Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; (2) But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. (3) He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
In this scripture we see a progression of life and our behavior:
- What you SIT and listen to the most of will determine what you stand for.
If you never learn to sit and listen you will never be able to stand.
Sitting implies listening and learning.
- What you stand for will determine how you walk in life.
- You can then walk out what you stand for and this determines the quality of your life.
Your actions follow what you meditate or think on the most of.