Many Christians struggle with various addictions, Drugs, Alcoholism, Nicotine, Adultery, Fornication, Pornography, Masturbation, lust for other women where they look at them with sexual desire, in person, on the TV…etc.
People can get addicted to movies, TV shows, in the sense of keeping them from other things the Lord would have them do.
There are good movies, I judge a good movie as one where I cry because something good is happening in the movie, or show. Otherwise, I lose my awareness of the Lord.
I personally turn on the TV at night, but it is hard for me to watch something because, I cannot just sit and watch a movie straight through because I have a lot of work to do on my website, unless I get so tired and cannot write anymore. And end up having to press pause or rewind, because by this time I am getting tired When I turn on the TV. During the day I have worship music on, and it does not distract me.
I said that because there is nothing wrong with watching a good movie, if it does not distract you from your walk with God.
But then there are also the things that we are not doing, meditating on the word, confessing the word, worshiping the Lord, waiting on the Lord (focused listening), witnessing when Led by the Lord, the basics of a walk with God.
But when you look at yourself, you see the same old struggles, the same insecurities, the same negative thoughts that loop endlessly in your mind, like a broken record, the same habits you swear, you’ll break but somehow fall back into when life gets hard or you’re not maintaining your walk with God.
The same guilt that whispers relentlessly, You’re still not good enough for God.
The same fears that paralyze you when you try to step forward in something the Lord would have you do.
The same anger that erupts too quickly at the people you love most.
The same shame that covers you like a heavy blanket every time you fall short, making you want to hide from God and from yourself.
You love Jesus with all your heart. You gave your life to Him with tears of surrender and joy.
You prayed to receive Jesus as Lord and savior and got born again, you got baptized in water your initial obedience to the gospel.
If you are not baptized in the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Or you spoke in tongues once but cannot do it at will, you ask the Lord for the promise, start confessing God’s promise. You ask the Lord, keep expecting the answer.
You started going to church, regularly hungry for more of God. You read your Bible, highlighting verses that promise change.
You worship the Lord with hands raised. You serve in ministry.
You repent with sincere tears when you sin. But deep down, a heartbreaking question keeps surfacing like a wave you can’t escape.
If I’m really changed, if I’m really a new person in Christ, why do I still think, feel, and act like the old me so often? Why do the old thoughts come rushing back uninvited, playing on repeat until they exhaust you?
Why do the old temptations feel so strong, pulling at you like gravity?
Why does guilt still knock on the door of your heart every time you mess up, making you feel distant from God?
You ask yourself why do I still struggle?
With lying, covering over, being a hypocrite, speaking only half-truths as you relate to other Christians you know?
With fear of losing your salvation that steals your peace.
With doubt that robs your joy.
With addiction or addictions that chain you.
Shame that isolates you.
Or that constant sense of not measuring up to what a good Christian should be.
If this is you, and you’re asking yourself why haven’t I changed more? Why do I still feel stuck in the same pattern?
You are not alone in this struggle. You are not a failure in God’s eyes, and God has not left you to battle forever in the same old ways you have been.
The problem is not that God’s promise of transformation isn’t true or powerful enough.
The problem is that most Christians have been told by others that they are changed, but they’ve never been able to show you how to experience that change in daily life through the incredible power of renewing your mind.
Certain revelations I have received from the Lord have changed my life forever.
It came after years of my own tears, frustration, and confusion.
I loved God with all my heart, but I felt trapped in old patterns of thinking and feeling that I couldn’t escape.
I wept in prayer, begging God to transform me from the inside out, to make me new in my thoughts, to free me from the mental loops and emotional storms that kept pulling me back into the same cycles of defeat.
I felt like a spiritual hypocrite, knowing the truth in my head but not living it in my heart and life.
I felt distant from God like He was waiting for me to get it together before He could really use me or draw close to me.
But when the truth of renewing the mind finally broke through, like light piercing the darkest night, it brought tears of a completely different kind, tears of relief, joy, and overwhelming freedom.
I can pray for a person and break the power of the devil working in their mind and emotions, literally feel the power of God flowing through my hands, when I am filled with the Spirit to the point of overflow, healing their body.
And they will be totally free for a day or two, if they feel the manifest presence of YHVH upon them. But then they will go back to their old ways because they do not know how to renew their mind.
When I learned that my mind and my brain were not the same, that my brain was programed by my lifestyle, my habits, the way I used to think about things and so on, that I had to re-program it. THE REPROGRAMING OF YOUR PYHSICAL BRAIN. Not the renewing of the mind, which is a function of your soul, that come through encounters of God, where the Holy Spirit reveals divine truth.
When I learned the difference between the legal and vital aspects of redemption, that the Father sees me differently in heaven-He sees me perfect in Christ.
And the Holy Spirit working with me here on earth, in learning how to be transformed by the renewing of my soul. Then I started experiencing permanent change.
For the first time, I understood that transformation is not just a miracle God does for me without my participation, it’s a beautiful partnership where the Holy Spirit changes me as I actively renew my mind to His Word, day by day, thought by thought. Confession by confession of an inheritance word revealed by the Lord to me.
And today, with every part of my being, I pray the same revelation breaks through for you.
Let this message heal the disappointment that has wounded your heart for so long.
Let it replace confusion with clarity,
Let it turn your tears of frustration and shame into tears of gratitude and joy
Let it bring you into the freedom and victory God designed for you as His beloved child from the very beginning.
Stay with me through every word of this message.
This is not shallow encouragement or religious steps to try harder and feel worse when you fail.
This is deep biblical life altering truth from scripture and the powerful passionate revelation that can restore your mind and revolutionize your walk with God forever.
By the end of this message, you will not just know the truth about renewing your mind, you will experience the beginning of it right now.
You will see how to live from your Newborn spirit, the new creation reality every day with a freedom and joy that will bring tears of wonder and worship!
The tension so many believers live in is absolutely heartbreaking.
When Paul cried out in Romans 7: 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
The word wretched talaipōros means miserable.
Your spirit is desiring one thing and your flesh another. And you do not have the power to do what your spirit desires, so the cycle repeats itself over and over again.
The struggling believer is one of the most common silent sufferings in the church world today.
You read Romans 12:2 and your heart hopes and longs for this transformation, you no longer want to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
You want that transformation more than anything in the world.
During times of brokenness before the Lord, you pray for it with tears streaming down your face.
You long for it with every part of your being because you know that on the other side of it is peace, joy, victory, and intimacy with God.
But when you look at your life honestly in the quiet moments, it doesn’t feel like it’s happening fast enough or at all.
The old mindsets creep back in like unwanted guests you can’t seem to evict permanently.
The old thoughts return uninvited, playing on repeat in your head until they exhaust you emotionally and spiritually.
The old reactions happen before you can not stop them, leaving you with regret and self-condemnation.
The old fears whisper lies in your ear at night, stealing your sleep.
The old guilt returns accusing you, the moment you fall short, making you feel like you have to start all over again.
You try harder than ever. You read more Christian books on victory and freedom. You listen to more sermons on breakthrough.
You memorize more verses, hoping they will stick this time.
You repent with more tears and sincerity. You promise God you’ll think differently this time; you’ll control your emotions better; you’ll break the cycle once and for all.
But the cycle continues and it wears you down. And the enemy uses it to torment you relentlessly.
The enemy says, “See, you’re not really transformed”.
You’re still the same broken person you’ve always been. God must be disappointed in you.
The renewing mind thing is just words on a page that don’t work for people like you.
Those lies cloud your mind. The shame tends to isolate you from the fellowship of believers; you feel distance from God.
You feel abandonment, and quiet despair that makes you question if real change is even possible.
I know that pain intimately. I lived it for years. I wept over it, alone in my room, feeling like God was far away.
I felt like a spiritual fraud, knowing the promises in my head but not experiencing them in my life.
But the truth is liberating and healing beyond anything you can imagine.
The issue is not that renewing your mind is impossible or only for super Christians or pastors or those with special anointings and have more discipline than you.
The issue is, misunderstanding what renewing the mind really is and how to do it effectively in partnership with the Holy Spirit.
Renewing your mind is not positive thinking or pretending bad thoughts don’t exist or forcing yourself to think happy thoughts.
It is not self-help, or sheer willpower, or mind-over matter.
It is not just memorizing verses and hoping they magically change you.
It is not ignoring your emotions, or denying your struggles, or pretending everything is fine when it’s not.
It is the Holy Spirit-led process of replacing old, worldly, lie-based thinking with God’s eternal, unchanging truth about who you are, who He is, and how life works in His kingdom.
The great lack in the church today is mind renewal.
We have preached salvation, but not the renewing of the mind that makes salvation vital in daily living.
We have preached forgiveness, but not the righteousness- consciousness that frees us from guilt.
We have preached heaven, but not the victorious life on earth through a renewed mind.
The new birth is the seed of God alive in your spirit which is perfect (the seed), but we must stay conscious of our spirit, feed it, water it, build if up so that it comes to the forefront of our consciousness. The more revelation knowledge we get in our spirit the more it grows.
But our soul (mind, will, emotions, imagination, conscience, human reason, daily choices) has been trained by nature (DNA inherited from our natural parents) nurture( family, friends, peers (influencing our behaviors and attitudes), role models who are not saved, by the world, by pain, by lies, by culture, by trauma, by family patterns, by past failures.
Our soul needs to be separated from our spirit so that we know the difference between our spirit and soul, it needs to be cleansed, renewed day by day, thought by thought, choice by choice. Because there are things in our soul that block the flow of God’s Spirit into it.
THERE ARE THINGS IN OUR SOUL THAT BLOCK THE FLOW OF OUR SPIRIT, and then it is like our spirit is in prison, we need Spirit-filled people to visit it, clothe it, feed it, minister to it. Set it free until we learn how to keep it free flowing.
The Christ in us, which is synonymous with our spirit. Our spirit is Christ’s spirit when it is alive to God, born from above, our spirit will never stop growing on earth or in heaven continually, even when we are not conscious of it.
Our spirit is our God consciousness, his righteousness and all his divine attributes. Our soul is our self-consciousness. And our body is physical world consciousness.
Romans 12:2 is the key to practical daily lasting transformation.
Be transformed, metamorphoō, the same Greek word used for a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, a tadpole becoming a frog through the renewing of your mind.
The miracle of transformation from an earthly form into a supernatural form.
We live by a different life form- the divine, majestic, eternal life of God, all his divine attributes flowing through us.
A love that never, never, never, never fails. Your human love will fail you need a change of life form.
Your mind is the bridge between your divine spirit and your daily life experience.
When your mind is renewed to truth, your emotions begin to stabilize.
Your choices begin to align with God.
Your habits begin to change from the inside out.
Your relationships begin to heal.
Your life begins to prove God’s good, acceptable, perfect will in real, tangible ways.
What happens if God’s thoughts are not flowing into your mind?
You remain the same.
When your mind stays old, filled with old lies and patterns, you live old, even with a new spirit inside you.
When you hear the testimonies of people who have experienced this transformation through mind renewal, these testimonies will bring tears of hope, possibility and joy to your eyes.
Many are born-again Christians, who’s spirits are saved but their lifestyle has not changed, because they haven’t experienced the renewing of their minds.
As the words of Paul’s epistles begin to penetrate your mind, until they become your new mind set, you will change.
Ephesians I:4 I was selected in Christ before the Lord formed the world, I exist holy and without blame in his sight, in love.
Make it personal, read it in a bible where you can see the strong numbers so you can see the original words and the meaning. Do not read these translations from people who do not even know God.
There is no SHOULD in the original, Oh I should be holy, but I am not. Yes, you are! Because YHVH says so, who are you going to believe, stop being deceived you exist holy and blameless right before his face in love, you have not yet even experienced the depth of his love for you until you see His face.
Say it out loud again and again and again until it becomes a revelation from God to you.
The Bible is a love letter. When the Holy Spirit interprets it to you and you understand the ways of the Lord and see the big picture, not the little world you may still be confined to.
I have the spirit of adoption, I am redeemed, I am forgiven, I am delivered, I am healed, I am lavished with grace, I am accepted in the beloved.
If you have to speak the truth of scripture loudly then do it, but it has to become a mindset, you have to see yourself the way God see’s you, and it will not be long before you encounter Him, and then you will know that you know that you know and everything about you will change.
Your Mind will be renewed, slowly but surely.
Insecurity will melt.
Freedom will dawn.
Philippians 4:8 Think on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and of a good report.
All the old will fade away.
Ungodly anger will disappear.
You will stop swearing and start praising the Lord.
Relationships will be restored.
Peace will begin to flow through you like a river.
You will experience unspeakable joy and be full of glory.
Your life will be above reproach.
Guilt will lift off you and never return.
Intimacy with God will return like a flood.
Psalm 139, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
You are beautiful.
Say No to addiction-No more! You may suffer a while in your flesh but keep your mind on the Lord, temptation will fade away if you do not yield to it, but you must displace it. It won’t go away, unless you immerse yourself in the things of the Lord.
I used to listen to Kenneth Copeland in 1985. And I remember he said he got so caught up in going to these church seminars where they had a certain speaker and he forgot to smoke. DISPLACEMENT!
But if you start saying what God says about you, you will begin to believe it and as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
Thanks for reading, be Blessed in the name of the lord!