Latest / Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit / 12. 5 Steps to Renew Your Mind with the Truth (Part 1)

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12. 5 Steps to Renew Your Mind with the Truth (Part 1) · Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hey friend. We just wanted to start this episode by letting you know we got a little carried away. We love talking about renewing your mind and the power, the transformation that comes with that. And so this episode went a little longer than we anticipated, so we've divided it into two episodes. This first episode, episode 12, will be all about renewing your mind, why you should do it, how and what the Lord has for you in that. And then next episode we will dive into the five steps of mind renewal that we work with our coaching clients on and you'll get all the juicy information there in episode 13, which will be released next week. Either way, we hope you're encouraged and that you find something to grab onto in this episode that the Lord speaks to your heart and that you can be transformed by truth.
• 0:53
  Speaker B: Welcome to Believe and Become Spirit Led breakthrough for transformation that lasts.
• 0:58
  Speaker A: We're Josh and Corina Greegor, authors, speakers and freedom coaches who help Christians like you break free from anxiety, burnout and spiritual frustration by renewing your mind and walking in truth.
• 1:10
  Speaker B: If you're hungry for real, lasting change and ready to grow in identity, peace and purpose, you're in the right place.
• 1:18
  Speaker A: Let's believe what God says and become who he created us to be. Foreign hello and welcome back to Believe and Become. We are so excited that you're here with us today and you are spending some time with us. We are going to be talking about five practical steps to renew your mind with the truth and we couldn't be more excited about this because this is something we are so passionate about. We hope that you will walk away from this episode with a really simple and practical way of grabbing hold of lies and being transformed by truth. If you find this episode helpful or encouraging in any way, we would love to have you share this with a friend. Go ahead and drop a comment, Leave a review. Rate us. That is so helpful to get this message out to more people. So well, here we go. Let's talk about it.
• 2:18
  Speaker B: Yeah, let's go. I don't know if you know this, but we actually have a coaching program.
• 2:22
  Speaker A: Yes we do.
• 2:23
  Speaker B: We love to work with people to help them renew their minds and so we're excited to share part of the framework that we use with our clients to help them be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
• 2:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, it feels like something that is really simple that you can just do on your own, right? Memorize some scripture, meditate on some truth, and then just magically change. But sometimes we don't see the lies and we don't See the things that need to change. And I know that we together have spent a lot of time challenging each other with, is that really true? You know, if you're believing something that's causing pain or discouragement, there's been so many times where one of us has asked the other, what's the truth? That sounds like a lie. What's the truth? And you, you would be surprised how many times it's hard to find those truths. But having somebody to help you walk through that process and to identify places where you're believing lies is really helpful.
• 3:23
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I also think that sometimes lies, we've thought them for so long or believed them for so long, sometimes it takes another person a second perspective to go, hey, is that really true?
• 3:37
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 3:38
  Speaker B: And a lot of times when you verbalize your thought process, you'll. You're thinking things that are stupid, like it's just dumb and you kind of laugh at it.
• 3:48
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 3:48
  Speaker B: And then all of a sudden it doesn't have that power over you.
• 3:51
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 3:51
  Speaker B: Sometimes bringing another person in to help you with the mind renewal process is really helpful.
• 3:57
  Speaker A: Absolutely. I was actually thinking about that recently because we have developed the habit of laughing at lies over the last year or so. And I was thinking about a story that I shared last episode about how I was leading worship. And I had this kind of like terrible thought, like when if you just took it at face value, it felt really kind of painful. But the minute I said it, we just started laughing because to us, it's the enemy. He's laughable. And his schemes and his ideas and his ways of speaking are laughable when they're compared to the truth. And so I hope, even if you don't take anything else away, that you can begin to take that part with you, that when you start to hear things that make you feel bad or icky or don't sound like Jesus, that you can just laugh at them because that has been such a powerful tool for us.
• 4:46
  Speaker B: Yeah. I just sense the Lord right now giving you grace to identify lies in your everyday life that you've already been believing as you're going through your day and your thinking thoughts. We think 10, 15,000 thoughts a day.
• 5:02
  Speaker A: That's crazy.
• 5:03
  Speaker B: Scientists say, and so God is just giving you the ability to discern those thoughts right now and go, are those from him? Are those good thoughts? Are they based on lies? Are these lies that the enemy's been telling me for years? Those are going to pop up, they're going to stick out like a sore thumb, and you can Actually just laugh at those when they pop up, and it disarms the enemy. He doesn't like laughter. He doesn't like joy, because that's. That's God. God is all about joy and laughter. The enemy is not. He wants us to be sad and depressed and stuck.
• 5:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, like him.
• 5:37
  Speaker B: Like him. And so when we start to get free and we start to get happy, we experience the joy of the Lord. He doesn't like that. Yeah, but he doesn't have any authority, so nothing he can do about it. So we wanted to actually go through the biblical basis of renewing your mind and share some scriptures with you. So you know that this comes from the Bible, comes from the Word of God. And then stay tuned, because we have the five steps to renew your mind coming up towards the end of the episode. So stick around, but let's get into the word.
• 6:08
  Speaker A: All right, so where does this idea of renewing your mind come from? Romans 12:2 says that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It's literally straight from scripture that we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And this word transformed is really interesting. It's a great word.
• 6:25
  Speaker B: Yeah. That word transformed in the Greek is actually metamorpho, which is where we get the word metamorphosis from. So it's a complete transformation. Did you know that as the caterpillar turns into butterfly, it has two sets of DNA. The caterpillar DNA dies off and the butterfly DNA gets activated. And that's. That's the type of transformation that Romans 12:2 is talking about. The old sinful DNA is just going to die. In fact, that's happening right now in you as you listen to this. And your new man, your new spirit, your new identity is being activated. Your new DNA, which comes from Jesus. Yeah, that is being activated. And that. That's the type of transformation that he's talk. Talks about.
• 7:15
  Speaker A: And that reminds me of 2nd Corinthians 5, 17, that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, it's dead, and the new has come. So when you come to Christ, when you give your life to Jesus, you choose to believe in him, and you receive him, you actually become a new person. The old person is dead and gone, and you can carry him around with you, and you can try to make him behave like the new person is supposed to, but it doesn't really work very well. And that old man, he's not going to be reformed and changed. He has to actually die. And he's no longer who you are.
• 7:52
  Speaker B: That's good. And you know, dead guys can't sin.
• 7:55
  Speaker A: That's good.
• 7:55
  Speaker B: Your old creation is dead. It has no power over you. Yeah, yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker A: And your new man is in Christ. And that man is just. Just like Jesus.
• 8:03
  Speaker B: Yep.
• 8:04
  Speaker A: Ugh. So good.
• 8:05
  Speaker B: So good. So back to Romans 12:2. That word metamorpho is used only three times in the New Testament. One is in Romans 12:2, but the other is describing Jesus. Transfiguration. Isn't that wild?
• 8:22
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 8:22
  Speaker B: When we found that out, that was. Just blew my mind.
• 8:25
  Speaker A: I love it.
• 8:26
  Speaker B: Jesus was completely. Even his outward appearance was transformed. And that's what. That's what God is doing. As we take our thoughts captive, we submit them to Jesus and we bring them into obedience with alignment with His Word. We are completely changed from the inside out. And that idea of renewing your mind, just think of re new. I'm making it new again and again and again. So it is a process. It's not like magically one day I'm just going to change the way I think. Oh, God can do that.
• 8:58
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 8:59
  Speaker B: And he does do that. Sometimes we'll have a radical encounter with him. That completely changes the way that we think. But it is also a process that we have to go through of intentionally making our thoughts new every single day. Say no to the old bad thoughts and we say yes to the new thoughts.
• 9:16
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 9:16
  Speaker B: And we practice those until they become part of who we are.
• 9:20
  Speaker A: That's so good. And I love the idea of being transfigured because we don't look like ourselves anymore. And that could be a physical manifestation. Like some people just begin to look different, like happier, more joyful. But there's a complete transformation on the inside. And we begin to look like Jesus.
• 9:39
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 9:39
  Speaker A: In what we say and how we behave and how we love others. And I just love that God does. That is so beautiful.
• 9:46
  Speaker B: That's so good. So let's move to John 8, 31 and 32, which is another passage we love. It says this. If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Freedom comes from abiding in the truth. Again, that's this mind renewal process. We figure out the truth, find it in God's word, we let him speak it over us, and then we abide in it. We sit in it, we meditate on it. We are intentional about getting that into our minds and into our thoughts so that it actually changes the way that our brains think. I love Dr. Caroline Leaf's book, switch on your brain, it talks about we can actually create structures in our brains. Isn't that wild?
• 10:35
  Speaker A: Super cool.
• 10:35
  Speaker B: God, he's creative. He were created in his image. We can create things. And actually our thoughts are creative. They create pathways in our brains, physical structures.
• 10:46
  Speaker A: That's so cool.
• 10:47
  Speaker B: And you can. If you can control your mind, what you think, you tell your brain how to think, and then your brain actually works on that while you're asleep, while you're doing other things, your brain is constantly working and it's restructuring itself. It's building things, new structures in your brain. So if you tell it to think about the truth, it will start building that in your brain till it becomes automatic. It's wild. I love it when science catches up to the Bible. Bible, yeah.
• 11:13
  Speaker A: That's amazing. And I love that God's. God's words are creative. So therefore, our words are creative as well. And we can't always see what we're creating.
• 11:24
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 11:24
  Speaker A: Until there may be a manifestation later on. Right. Or you might think, well, I'm just saying how I feel. Or I'm saying what I think on the blank. When we're speaking, we're actually creating.
• 11:36
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 11:36
  Speaker A: And so we're. We're creating situations. We're creating atmospheres when we're being kind or when we're being unkind. Like, we're setting a tone for the room that we're in, for the places that we're going. But then we're also creating neural pathways in our brains. That's so cool that the Lord gave us that ability, but that he made our bodies in that way, that our brains and our thoughts are actual substance. But this idea that we abide in his Word, it's. It's simply spending time in scripture. And. And I don't think that it's just like, okay, I'm going to read my Bible over and over and over. Right. Like, I'm just going to read the passage. No, this is about. If I'm abiding in his Word, then I'm. I am living in his Word. So I am talking to him about his Word, walking it out when he's asking me to do something. When the scripture says to behave in a certain way or whatever it might be, I'm doing those things in my life, and I'm creating my life around his Word, around His commands, around the things that he spoke. And so it's this beautiful picture of building your house in his words or with his words, really. And that house is going to Be strong and stable and free. And so this idea of abiding in His Word and being set free, his words, his commands, aren't these chains that we have to wear. They're not these difficult, heavy burdens. He says in Matthew 11, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. He came to set us free. And so we get this opportunity to build our lives with our words while we abide in His Word.
• 13:16
  Speaker B: So good.
• 13:17
  Speaker A: And so I think it's really important that we pay attention to what we are saying and to what we are thinking, because ultimately, what comes out of our mouths is what we've been meditating on. Right. We have to be intentional to change our thoughts. If we want to change our words, if we want to change our life, then we have to be really aware of what our thoughts are and what's coming out of our mouths.
• 13:39
  Speaker B: Yeah. 2 Corinthians 10, 4, and 5 says we have to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. Let me read it to you. It says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. This is spiritual warfare. So many times I thought of spiritual warfare, as, you know, we're binding demons and casting them out and that kind of thing. But really, this is what Paul's talking about. This is our. This is our battle as New Testament believers, New Covenant believers. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal or fleshly, but it's actually in our thoughts. He's talking about pulling down strongholds and casting down arguments. These are our thought patterns. And so we're bringing them all into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That is something that. That's not passive. That's active. It's something you actually have to do. We have to work on and use the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
• 14:44
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 14:44
  Speaker B: And it's. If it's a sword and you're not killing something with it, you're not doing it right. We got to use the Word to tear down these strongholds and to fight the battle, just like Jesus did when the enemy led him into the wilderness to be tempted. What did Jesus do every time Satan said something to him? He quoted scripture, he used the sword of the Spirit, and that's what we need to do.
• 15:05
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I think this idea of perceiving your thoughts as the enemy, not as the devil, but you're the negative thoughts in your mind are the things that you need to go after the negative stronghold. So a stronghold is fortress that is built to protect something. Right. And so when we think a thought, say, I'm not smart. If I. If I. At some point, for some reason, I began to believe I wasn't smart or intelligent, then I'm looking for evidence that I'm not intelligent. Right. So I get a bad grade. I'm not intelligent. I say the wrong word and somebody laughs at me. I'm not intelligent. Right. So every time that something's happening and I'm rehearsing this thought that I'm not smart, I'm basically putting another brick on that stronghold.
• 15:49
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 15:49
  Speaker A: I'm creating a wall around this belief system that is actually going to direct my life. And so if I can take the word of God. And that's something that we've actually talked about, Right. That we have the mind of Christ, that we have the Holy Spirit, that he teaches us all things. And so we carry innate intelligence within us because we have the spirit of wisdom inside of us. And so when we begin to take those scriptures and declare them over our lives and use them as a weapon, then we can begin to tear down those strongholds that have sometimes been built over years and decades in our minds. And so when we begin to visualize that picture of this thing that I. There's a scripture, it's in the Old Testament, that says, this thing in my hand is a lie. And it's just this picture of the thing that I have held onto. It's a lie, it's not real, but it's something that I have held onto as reality. And so when we can begin to visualize those ideas and those thoughts that we've had as a stronghold of the enemy, then we can see the power and the effectiveness of bringing the word of God to tear down those strongholds. And I think it's just such a. It's such a vivid picture that Paul gave us in this passage.
• 17:01
  Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. This passage actually tells us we get to take our thoughts captive and decide if we want to think them.
• 17:08
  Speaker A: Basically, that's good.
• 17:10
  Speaker B: I like to put my thoughts on trial. Imagine your thoughts handcuffed. I've got them captive. And then let's. Let's bring him before the judge, let's bring him before Jesus and say, is this your thought? Do you want me to think it or not? I found that just asking the Holy Spirit to make me aware of my thoughts is huge.
• 17:30
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 17:30
  Speaker B: And he's doing that for you right now, he's going to make you aware of what you're thinking. So much of it happens on a subconscious level, or it's just automatic thoughts that we've thought forever, but we get to evaluate those and decide if we want to continue thinking them. Does this thought pattern serve me? Is it for my benefit or do I want to flush it? Let's get rid of it. Let's get a new thought. Let's get a new pattern that actually builds me up into the person that God created me to be.
• 17:58
  Speaker A: Yeah. And one of the ways that we can do that is through biblical meditation. Philippians 4, 8 says, finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. So when we take the beautiful things, the things that reflect Jesus and his nature, and we begin to just meditate on them. So meditate means we're turning them over and over in our mind. We're maybe speaking them out, we're thinking about them. When we meditate on those beautiful things, that actually begins to bring beautiful things into our lives. When we think about good things. And good things begin to take shape, partly because when you're thinking about good things, you're actually looking for good things. And so when you're thinking my example earlier, if I, instead of thinking I'm not smart, if I instead think I'm. I'm really intelligent, if that's my stronghold. Right. If I'm building a positive stronghold in my mind, then I'm going to start looking for evidence of my intelligence, of, oh, I got a good grade. Oh, I said the right thing. Oh, I had the right answer. And then the times when I don't have the right answer, I don't get a good grade, it feels like an outlier. It's like, oh, well, that's just that I didn't study well enough for that test. But it doesn't necessarily tear down that strong stronghold of goodness. We can create good strongholds in our mind by meditating on good things.
• 19:27
  Speaker B: Yeah. And this verse actually tells us we get to choose what we think about. We can choose to think about bad things, we can choose to think bad thoughts about ourselves and reinforce that. Or we get to choose rehearse the good things about ourselves or rehearse the good things about God, about other people. And those choices are powerful. That essentially creates who we are.
• 19:48
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 19:49
  Speaker B: Because when we're thinking about good things that's gonna lead to freedom, that's gonna lead to good things coming into our life. But it the opposite is also true. If we continually are talking negatively about ourselves or our spouse, other people in our lives that tends to just reinforce what you're seeing in yourself and in other people. Thanks so much for listening. We hope you've enjoyed this episode on the Biblical basis for Mind Renewal. The five Steps to Mind Renewal are coming out next week so check back in with us on that. We hope this episode has been helpful to you. If it has, please share it with a friend that needs to hear this message of hope. As always, please follow rate and review our podcast and if you are interested in doing coaching with us go to joshandkarina.com that's C O R I N A slash coaching. That's Josh and karina.com coaching. Thank you and we love you all.