Thursday, October 15, 2020

How to Renew Your Mind

 


Changing your thought process, your focus and your view of God will change your life.



Scriptures:

  • Romans 12:2
  • Mark 9:23
  • Matthew 6:26-27
  • 2 Corinthians 12: 9
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
  • Philippians 4:8
  • Philippians 4:4 - 8
  • 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
  • Mark 8:14-21

Outline:

  • We Are Living in Stressful Times
  • Defining Wholeness
  • Mindset of Wholeness
  • Homework Results
  • What Are You Focusing On?
  • Set Your Minds on Things Above
  • Strongholds
  • Why Are You Worried About Bread?

Romans 12:2

2And 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.

We’ve been uncovering what the renewed mind looks like

We Are Living in Stressful Times

Psychologists give 3 categories of stressors include

  1. Everyday inconveniences
  2. Significant life changes
  1. Death of a loved one
  2. Moving
  3. Having a child
  4. Getting a divorce
  5. Getting a new job
  1. Catastrophes
  1. Unpredictable large scale events like
  2. war
  3. natural disasters
  4. terrorist attacks
  5. Pandemic
  6. Fire

People are struggling with sin.   They are also struggling with:  

  • Depression
  • Anxiety / Fear
  • Phobias
  • Insecurity
  • Dysfunctional behavior
  • Addictions

Defining Wholeness

Wholeness is about being _______ healthy

  • spiritually
  • emotionally
  • mentally

Dealing with life’s stresses and being healed from past experiences/wounds

Results of Wholeness

  • Break generational curses
  • Love your neighbor as yourself
  • You have joy and peace in your life

Traits of Wholeness

  1. Authenticity
  2. Honesty
  3. Not seeking external approval / validation
  1. You won’t need social media likes or confirmation in order to feel validated.
  2. You won’t get upset when people don’t call you by your title.
  3. Not seeking validation for your appearance or competency
  1. Living by values and principles
  2. Kindness
  3. Setting Boundaries
  1. Know how to say no
  1. Living with Purpose and Passion
  2. Optimism
  3. Confidence
  4. Healthy relationships with both genders
  5. Not losing control
  1. Anger
  1. Free from addictions
  2. Addressing Conflict
  3. Vulnerability
  4. Non-judgemental
  5. Not jealous
  1. Genuinely applaud the success of others
  1. Forgive those who have wronged you in the past
  2. Accept That God loves you as you are
  3. Not afraid to fail
  4. Free from irrational fear, worry, and anxiety
  5. Selfless encounters with others
  1. You don’t give to get
  2. You don’t complain about not being appreciated

Mindset of Wholeness

What’s going on in your head can be more real than what’s going on in reality.

Growth Mindset

Mark 9:23

23And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”

Growth mindset believes that qualities like intelligence, talent  and abilities can be developed through practice and effort.

The opposite, a fixed mindset believes that these qualities are fixed traits.  

  • Some people have it and some don’t
  • They believe they are in their position in life because of their circumstances
  • Victim mentality

A growth mindset says: even though It will be difficult for me because of my circumstances, I can still do something about it

Abundance Mindset

Matthew 6:26-27

26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Your life decisions aren’t based on a fear of not having enough in the future

Your sense of security isn’t dependent on outside sources like

  • Circumstances
  • Available resources
  • Relationships

Confident that God will provide

When you have a scarcity mentality you believe you don’t have enough

  • you’ll never have enough
  • and there’s not much you can do about it

Examples of scarcity mindset:

  1. Stay in a relationship because you might not find anyone else
  2. Don’t want to share information with your coworkers because your security is in keeping the information to yourself
  3. Have a years worth of toilet tissue in your garage

Enough

It’s wise to save, but at some point you’ve saved enough

Adequacy Mindset

2 Corinthians 12: 9

9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

  • An abundance mindset tells you that you have enough.  
  • Adequacy tells you that you are enough.

if I just had ______ my life would be great

  • A husband
  • A child
  • A Mercedes
  • 20 pounds less
  • Had a father
  • Was a different race

Sometimes our inadequacy is rooted in comparison to other people.  

Selfless Mindset

“How can I help” vs “What’s in it for me?”

Self-centered people, don’t bother to take the time to understand another person’s point-of-view or feelings.

Thankful Mindset

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

16Rejoice always; 17pray without ceasing; 18in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Don’t focus on what you don’t have

  • Gratitude is about being grateful for what you already have.
  • Don’t take everything for granted.  

Service

A natural extension of being grateful is wanting to help others.  

Positive Mindset

Philippians 4:8

8Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Much of happiness is hope no matter how bad your circumstances may be

How would you feel if you were in an all white room with only couches and beds?

Lack of arousal or stimulus causes both

  • Depression and sadness
  • Relaxation

The difference is whether you feel pleasant or unpleasant, positive or negative.  

People characterized by their optimism, happiness and positive feelings often live significantly longer

Chronic negative emotional states and stress influence health

  • Blood pressure
  • Heart rate
  • Cholesterol

Negative Thoughts

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJPvUytJ/

Faith

Real faith doesn’t deny a problem's existence.

  • It doesn’t let the problem shape the heart, your thoughts, or your focus

Homework Results

Take action on 1 - 5 things daily

  1. Is it bothering me?
  2. Is it something I can fix?
  3. Would I be willing to fix it?

The goal was to get you in the mindset that your actions can change things

What do you want to do?

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJyfENMw/

What Are You Focusing On?

There are a lot of things happening in the world that we don’t notice

Example: buying a car

If something happens that directly interferes with what we are focusing on we will notice it

  •  Otherwise it is just not there.

Dealing With Complexity

11M bits of information per second

Our conscience attention can process 60 bits per second

How do you deal with the overwhelming complexity of the world?

  • You ignore things that don’t concern you  
  • You see things that help you reach your goals  
  • You detect obstacles in your path

The price you pay for focus is blindness to everything else.

Blinded By Your Desires

People are blinded by their desires and incapable of seeing things as they truly are.  

Example: you can’t realize how toxic your boy/girlfriend is but everyone else can

Reticular Activating System

Filters:

  • Images
  • Pictures
  • Sounds
  • Tastes
  • Colors

Only lets in what it thinks is important

Examples

  • Feel where your feet Are touching the ground
  • Child doing something dangerous on other side of room
  • Misread text message

What is Considered Important

  • Your Safety
  • Truths you believe
  • Questions you ask yourself
  • Information to prove you right
  • Obstacles to your goals
  • What you think about

Self Fulfilling

Will show what you believe is true

  • The more proof you see.
  • The stronger your belief that it is true.
  • The stronger your belief is the more likely that you’ll tell yourself it’s true.

Self Talk

Self talk > belief > truth

  • “I’m not confident”
  • “I can’t lose weight”
  • “I’m always late”
  • “I always find good parking”

If you focus on positive things your RAS will start to show you things that prove it to be true.

Example: affirmations

  • Don’t say “I am not stupid“.    
  • It is more a matter of what you are focusing on.

You Get What You Expect

There is a book called “the luck factor“

  •  people who believe they are lucky have lucky experiences

Have you ever met people that were “just lucky”?

People who think they are unlucky

  • Will get a dent in the car
  • Lose their keys
  • Lose their phone

Solution: Define Your Focus

Philippians 4:4 - 8

4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus

   8Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Defining your focus in a sense changes your reality

Change Your Questions

So what question should you ask yourself

  • How is God going to bless me today?
  • Who can I serve?
  • What am I going to notice to improve my confidence today?
  • Who’s going to show me gratitude today?  
  • What can I learn at this social event?

Example: what can I get out of this sermon?

Change Your Goals

We only see what we aim at.

  • The rest of the world is hidden.

If you start aiming as something different your mind will start presenting you new information.

Is it Working? - New Coincidences

 When coincidences happen it’s because your brain starts to focus on these other things.  When you start to notice good coincidences happening pay attention because it means your brain is working in the right direction.  

You’ll start to notice the people you need to apologize to will start to pop up in your path.

Set Your Minds on Things Above

In the Market For God

  • When you are in the market for a car you start to notice more of them

When you get in the market for God you notice things differently.

  • You’ll start to notice little things and get confirmation  
  • you’ll hear it in a sermon
  • a movie
  • fortune cookie  
  • hear it in a song
  • Facebook post

Example: studying spiritual warfare

  • Demonic activity increased

Identity

Your position is that you have been raised with Christ

  • You are a child of the king

Stop seeking so low

  • Stop thinking so low
  • Stop speaking so low
  • Stop accepting low

In becoming whole we change our identity

You Attract at Your Level

An identity establishes what you are attracted to and what you attract.

  • The lesser version of you on your last level was connected to lesser things.  
  • How you see yourself is what you put out there.  

Example: Whitney and Bobbie

  • Jay-Z and Beyonce

Strongholds

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

4for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

We fight against arguments. The fortress/stronghold is a fortified  argument that has been in our heads so long that it is strong.

It’s not the sin, but it’s the argument you use to justify the sin

When Satan won the argument with Adam and Eve, he was able to manipulate their behavior.  

  • We need to be concerned about the war within.

What arguments are you telling yourself?

Patterns

The solution is to change our thought patterns.

A pattern has to do with

  1. What I see
  2. How I process what I see
  3. How I act upon what I see

Not just what you do...but why

Change Your Influences

Thoughts become actions > habits > lifestyle

We think the way we do based on what we are influenced by

  • What are you allowing into your mind
  • What are you reading
  • What are you listening to?

The voices in our life affect the choices in our life

What we allow in our hearts have to be under constant monitoring

Self Centered

Your mind is self-centered. The renewed mind is God centered.

  • In the natural we say what will I get out of this.
  • The renewed mind says what will God get out of this?

Your View of God

How do you view God?

  • God is waiting for me to do something wrong so that He can punish me
  • God loves me

You don’t have to earn God’s love

Your view of God will change your reality

Believing doesn’t lead to transformation, surrender does.

  • But you won’t surrender to God if you don’t believe He has your best interest at hand.

Why Are You Worried About Bread?

Mark 8:14-21

      14And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. 15And He was giving orders to them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? 18“HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember, 19when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” 20“When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they said to Him, “Seven.” 21And He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

What didn’t they understand?

  • 7 loaves they fed 4000 -  7 baskets left over
  • 5 loaves and fed 5000 -  12 baskets left over

Jesus reminded the disciples that when they started with less food they fed more people and had more leftovers.  

The amount you have is not important

Why do you start off thinking about what you don’t have?

  • Why are you focused on what you don’t have

When you are exposed to a miracle, it is for the purpose of changing how you see reality.    

  • They have seen food supernaturally multiply twice but yet they were still concerned about the lack of food.

When you have seen supernatural provision, you have lost the right to start any thought process about what you don’t have.  

  • The miracle is supposed to be the lens through which I See present problems.  

The renewed mind realizes that the testimonies of the Lord becomes the lenses through which we are to see our current problem.

Temptation of bread

Christ was hungry in the wilderness

Satan tempted his hunger by reminding Him that He could make His own bread

Jesus told Him that man doesn’t live by bread alone

He was saying

  • It’s not about whether I can make bread
  • It’s not about whether I have enough faith to get what I want
  • My focus shouldn’t be whether I believe that God will give me what I want

 

Jesus said it’s about every word that proceeds out of my father’s mouth

Jesus is the Word

Jesus is “the bread of life”

So it wasn’t about whether or not He had food

It was about Him being food for us

Later in His ministry He was able to miraculously multiply bread.

It was bigger than Himself and His wants and needs

So the pursuit of our focus is not just to get what we want.

  • It’s not to become rich and successful

It’s about what God wants

It’s about having the ability to reach the higher standard that we’ve been called to live

Don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  

  1. Your beliefs and focus effect your reality
  2. Don’t focus on what you don’t have
  3. Don’t just focus on bread for yourself but focus on the will of God


Instructor: Michael Leadon




References

"Wholeness"

Touré Roberts

Be Transformed by Renewing Your Mind

Bill Johnson

Crash Course Psychology:  Emotions, stress, and health

12 Rules to Life

Jordan Peterson

How to Know God is Speaking

https://unchaineddisciples.blogspot.com/2020/02/how-to-know-god-is-speaking.html

Mindsets That Will Change Your Life

https://unchaineddisciples.blogspot.com/2020/09/mindsets-that-will-change-your-life.html

Change Your Focus, Change Your Future

https://unchaineddisciples.blogspot.com/2020/09/change-your-focus-change-your-future.html

Reticular Activating System

https://youtu.be/kF-RZlaPMpU

Reticular activating system

https://youtu.be/QCnfAzAIhVw

Extra

2 Corinthians 12: 9-11

9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

11 I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.

Leaven

Leaven is influence on the mind.

Jesus talks about 2 types of leaven

  1. Leaven of Herod.  
  1. Political system that is humanistic and nature.  
  2. Doesn’t mind you believing in God just don’t bring it into your every day life.
  1. Leaven of the Pharisees.
  1. Religious system where God is at the center of everything but he is impersonal and powerless

 

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