You are not trapped. That’s a lie. It’s not game over. You are not in checkmate. The King still has another move.
It’s time to remove the lies, to erase their effects.
John 8:32 “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Freedom is possible in Jesus.
John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”
Phil 4:8 “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
Rom 8:1 “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”
The Israelites were so beat down by Pharaoh’s task masters that they couldn’t believe miracles were possible. They saw miracles with their own eyes, but they didn’t believe, they couldn’t believe because they only looked at their past bondage. That anguish of spirit that they felt, the grieving, the loss, kept them from hearing the deliverance available to them.
Your brain waves, your thoughts, have been programmed by the enemy. God wants to reprogram you.
Rom 12:2 “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.”
Let God transform the way you think.
How many people watch the news and say, ‘The whole earth is full of God’s glory’? More often, people think more about their lack than their abundant blessings.
Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened, not that they were closed before, but new thoughts were put into their mind. They went from pure to impure. Impure thoughts flooded their minds and for the first time, they felt fear. They felt doubt.
God wants you to know that He loves you. He has a better plan for you, a better life for you, better thoughts for you.
Rom 8:31 “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”
The way you think causes you to think a certain way. Your experiences affect your thoughts. Emotions lead to actions which leads to consequences. You can choose your behavior, but not your consequences.
Nothing can cause you to have anxiety. Your anxiety comes from your response to thoughts and situations.
For instance, you hear a sound at night, a bump, and you’re scared out of your mind. You’re frozen in fear. So, you just lay there and pull blankets over your head. Your response is fear. As a result, you get no sleep and then mess up at work the next day and get fired. Then, you blame God.
Or, you could respond differently. You hear something and instead of fear, you choose to trust God. So, you roll over and fall back to sleep and get a great night’s rest. The next day, you do well at work and keep your job and get promoted eventually.
Mental anguish affects your body, your relationships, your work, and your life.
Don’t choose to get your information from only the world. Get truth from the Bible, from the Word of God. This is light and life.
John 14:6 “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’”
2 Tim 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
John 14:27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
Renew Your Mind:
Before he knew Jesus, Pastor was diagnosed with depression. Nothing worked to fix it until he came to church. At that church, the people were excited and praising God. Pastor’s question was, ‘How do I get THAT?’
Rom 12:1-2 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 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.”
A sacrifice is something dying. Paul is saying to make yourself a ‘living sacrifice.’ Give yourself to Jesus. Give your whole self to Jesus.
Don’t be like this world. Instead, be transformed in your mind, your thinking, think the way Jesus wants you to think. Focus on the fact that Jesus takes you from where you are to where God wants you to be. That is transformation. It has to do with how you think.
Transformation is renovating your mind. You take something that has been broken down and restore it to the original intention. Adam was created with thoughts already working.
God created this world fully mature.
Jesus showed us how to get back to the pure, fully mature nature that God originally created Adam to be. God has given us a new, renewed mind and new process to be reprogrammed.
God wants us to change our minds. ‘Repent’ means to ‘change your mind.’
Your brain waves have electromagnetic activity. You can measure this.
- You need to renew your mind often, daily, over and over.
Acts 2:42 “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.”
They continued, over and over, in the apostles’ teaching, new teaching, new friends, healthy (generous, sharing) food, and prayer.
Your subconscious, your ‘superconscious’, has a lot of power. You actually make your thoughts come true. You have a bad dream and cause your heart to beat fast. Your brain is a battlefield.
You have the power to rebuke doubt and darkness. ‘Gird up your loins.’ ‘Tuck up a robe: To give your legs freedom of movement.’ Think differently and get ready to run. ‘Prepare for mental activity: To guard your mind.’ For example, in the Bible, 1 Peter 1:13 says, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus.” (Google Generative AI Overview).
Come back next week for more on mental renovation. 😀
More Questions for Personal or Group Study:
- What really spoke to you in this message?
- What do you habitually think about? How is that different from what the above says? What do you need to change?
- Read Phil 4:4-9. What do these verses say we are to do? How are we to think? What are we to think about? How is this different from what you currently think about? What are the results of thinking the way Paul advises in these verses?
- How can you encourage someone else with this message?
Excerpted from a sermon preached by Pastor Anthony LoCascio.
If you are looking for an Apostolic Pentecostal church and are in the Chicagoland area, come check out The Life Church of Northbrook.
We have services on Sundays at 11 am: The Life Church of Northbrook and Life Groups on Wednesdays at 7 pm.
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