25/07/2018: Renewing the Mind | Colleen Stringer

Inside Activity: The Mind: Enlightenment

• ”What are the thoughts that surround you, I want to look inside your head”
• Proverbs 23:7 as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
• Gospels—– deliverance: Epistles —golden thread “Renew the mind” this shows us that God veiws the “mind” as highly important.

Four Biblical Facts Concerning the Mind

1. God made us with the ability to think: Isaiah 55:8 & 9
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways my ways,” says the LORD.”For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
2. The first SIN arose out of a wrong thought: 2 Corinthians 11:3
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
3. Our Minds have been greatly affected by the fall 2 Corinthians 4:4:whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
4. To function effectively our minds must be renewed.
Romans 12:2: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The ‘cult of holy stupidity’ is to expect to move to maturity without transformation.

THE ENLIGHTENED MIND: What Is It?

Although the word enlightened is found only a few times in scripture, it is clear that the need for changed thinking is a key truth within the Christian life as shown throughout the Word of God.
Ephesians 4:23 (TLB) Psalm 19:8: Psalm 18:28: Ephesians 1:18
Definition – Enlightenment
Coming alongside a fellow believer to help and assist them to bring their thinking in line with God’s thinking as established in the word of God
The Mind = The Thoughts And Imagination.

Thoughts

Imaginations
Feelings Will
Emotions

Behaviour

1. WHAT IS THINKING?
One of the most debated issues in psychology today concerns the role of thinking in the determination of behaviour. Thinking is little more than the brain establishing patterns.
2 Timothy 1 Hold fast the pattern of sound words, which you have heard from me, in faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus
Ephesians 4:23and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (brain, thought life)
Do you know what you are thinking? Did you know that we all have “inner conversations?” Though largely unnoticed, we talk continually to ourselves and from these inner conversations come our feelings, our reactions and our behaviour. This is called SELF-TALK.

SELF TALK: Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord, my strength and redeemer.
Dulaney: Because we are self-conscious beings we can talk to ourselves in sentences and the sentences we learn to put together in the early developmental years of our lives play a strongly determinative part in our later development.
Did you know that we usually speak aloud at the rate of 150-200 words per minute, yet researchers suggest that we talk to ourselves in our thoughts at the rate of approximately 1300 words per minute.
Messages that are played on the inside of our personal inner audio system.
Ezekiel 11:5 (LB) Is what you are saying? Yes I know it is, for I know everything you think – every thought that comes into your minds!
What do we renew our minds with?
Power of the Word of God.                              The Great Exchange
Luke 4:4: Psalm 119:130: Hebrews 4: 12: Romans 1:16
God’s Word is so simple yet explicit – a negative thought cannot change into a positive thought, the same way as a rotten bad apple into a juicy shiny red one.
Renew:
 To make new in the inward man (heart change)
 Being renewed unto knowledge which is the true knowledge in Christ, as apposed to heretical teachings, Psalms 119:160. Entirely of your word is truth.
 The adjustment of the moral and spiritual vision and thinking to the mind of God, which is designed to have a transforming effect upon the life\heart and mind\change in heart will affect the mind. Psalm 19:14

HOW DO WE RENEW OUR MINDS (SPIRIT OF OUR MIND) – THOUGHT LIFE?
A skill I often use in counsel I call the ABC’s of our Emotions. I believe within the sphere of God’s common grace it is better and more pleasing to God and man’s day-to-day functioning for someone to change from “I’m a failure” to “I may fail sometimes as a human being but I am not a failure, because I have been created in the image God! “It’s appropriating your identity in Him” scripturally and positionally.
A B C’s
Every action I do begins with a thought. We need to realise that our thinking is tied up with our emotions.
A = Activity: Activity event, fact, everything going on, what happens to you. You cannot change A.

B = Belief system: What you say to yourself about A

C = Consequences: How you are feeling emotionally
e.g. A (failure to return my phone call = C (I feel hurt and rejected)
A (Beth didn’t invite me) = C (I’m ugly and lonely)
A (I got ‘D’ on my test) = C (I’m stupid and dub)

BELIEF SYSTEM:  What we believe determines our emotions and strongly influences our behaviour. Our beliefs come from how we interpret the events in our lives and are revealed by the things we say to ourselves. Negative beliefs are buried so deeply into us that they throw up a kind of roadblock in certain areas. Negative thoughts tend to occur spontaneously just popping into our heads and are very difficult to turn off or down in volume (devil’s amplifier).

Many negative attitudes are handed down from parents e.g. a child always being told that they are dumb, stupid and useless. They will grow up with that belief system about themselves. Where did it come from? This will lead you to the root. One of the main principles deducted here is that “freedom begins when you take responsibility for yourself” = accountability according to: Deuteronomy 30:19 & 20 “therefore choose life”.
Psalm 119:130 The entrance, unfolding of Your Word gives light; their unfolding gives understanding to the simple.

Negative Thinking: Many people’s belief system puts them on a fast and subtle route to: D = DEATH, DARKNESS AND DESTRUCTION
How do we do this? Similar to 2 Timothy 1:13 & 14 (pattern of sound teaching – hold fast) Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 & 9 “finally brethren. Whatever things are true, whatever things are nobel, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is only virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of Peace will be with you”
Isaiah 26:3 I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me and whose trust is in me.
Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 & 9 we have to learn to control our present thinking, as the past is unchangeable. It’s the past. The minute we change our minds and stop giving power to the past, the past with its mistakes loses power over us and the present becomes the link to the future.
Watchman Nee
The devil abhors light and truth because they remove the ground of his working. Every word of truth has to be fought for in the believers mind
It is possible for a child of God to have a new life and a new heart, but be without a new head

RELEVANT SCRIPTURES FOR THE ABC’S OF OUR EMOTIONS

Proverbs 23:7 As he thinketh in his heart, so is he	2 Corinthians 10:3-5 Destroy
1 Corinthians 13:11 I understood as a child.  I thought as a child	Philippians 4:8 If there be any praise
Ephesians 3:20 To ponder, understand, think conceive abundantly above all that we ask or thin	Romans 12:2  (Phillips; Message) Not to be conformed
Isaiah 55:7 Wicked, twisted	Proverbs 27:19 Wherefore, think you evil in your hearts
Matthew 9:4  To bear or have in the mind -Man’s heart reveals the man	2 Corinthians 5:17  New creature
Lamentations 3:20 Sinking thinking	2 Timothy 1:13 Patterns
Luke 15:17 (Prodigal Son) He thought (reason, to reckon through) within himself – came to himself.

SOME C.D’s YOU MAY BE PLAYING TO YOURSELF

God doesn’t love me	My childhood will always affect me
People will let me down	I should never upset anyone
Crying out loud is a sign of weakness and immaturity	People are not to be trusted
People should trust me	It is better to keep my thoughts to myself
People should be condemned if they do wrong	I aught to do better …..I aught to do better
I must never tell people how I feel, they might dislike me	There you go again
I should help everyone who needs it	I am too bad to be loved
Anxiety is dangerous	There is a perfect solution
Knowing  ‘why’ is essential to, my peace of mind	If I am criticised I am a bad person
There are ways in which I am defective as a person	Possible is the same as probable
I can’t stand if people don’t like me	I am unattractive
I am stupid	I can’t do anything right
Christians must never be upset