GIG276 Renewing Our Minds

Growing In God Podcast

Program Number: GIG #276

Title:  Renewing Our Minds

 

 

Web Description: When we get into spiritual warfare, we tend to become focused on things outside of us. But it is actually an internal battle that takes place in our minds. We are fighting a battle against mental speculations that attack the knowledge of God and draw our focus away from Him. Let us bring our focus back on Christ the King and enforce His victory with the divinely powered weapons He has given us.

 

Show Notes: The practice of building a booth, or sukkah, at the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) involves leaving the roof open. And we can draw a lesson from the fact that in our sukkah, we are not looking out; we are looking up. Instead of a focus that looks out on everything happening in the world, we are to be training our minds to focus on the Lord. This principle applies directly to our concept of spiritual warfare. The battle for our focus is not happening outside of ourselves. It is taking place in our own minds.

 

According to 2 Corinthians, the weapons of our warfare are powerful to the pulling down of strongholds. We are destroying speculations and taking every thought captive in obedience to Christ. We are warring against strongholds. But those strongholds are not separate from us. They are strongholds built from the speculations and thought processes of our minds. These speculations of the human mind are what raise themselves up against the knowledge of God, against the truth of God, and against Christ. Our warfare is with the thoughts of our own minds and the things within ourselves on a human level.

 

In our society today we see many who are embracing twisted ideologies and belief systems that literally claim that truth is a lie, and the lie is truth. These belief systems have become a stronghold like a fortress or a walled city that seems impossible to break through. We need to believe and exercise our powerful and effective spiritual weapons that are able to destroy these speculations that war against the knowledge of God within us. These weapons are divinely powerful because they come from God, and we fight this war effectively by keeping our minds focused on Him.

 

Key Verses:

 

•       2 Corinthians 10:3–7. “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.”

•       Romans 12:2. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

•       1 Corinthians 2:16. “We have the mind of Christ.”

•       2 Corinthians 5:17. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

•       Hebrews 11:10. “He was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

•       Psalm 2:1–8. “As for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion.”

•       Psalm 96:10–11. “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns.’”

 

Quotes:

 

•       “When our minds develop these speculations and then coalesce those speculations into a belief system, all of a sudden we realize that these things are fortresses that are absolutely against what God is trying to say.”

•       “I don't need to argue with you about all of your morality and all of your philosophy and all of your theology. I just need to tell you one thing: Christ reigns. He reigns as Lord Supreme. He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords.”

•       “We can either be aware of the battle, or we can be aware of the fact that the battle is already won.”

 

Takeaways:

 

1.    The weapons of our warfare are for destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. A speculation is a thought process, and we need to see that spiritual warfare is a battle that takes place in our minds.

2.    Speculations and belief systems of the fleshly mind become a fortress, and we cannot fight that on a fleshly level. We must use the spiritual weapons that are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

3.    We need to change our focus. We need to take our focus off the world and put it back on the Lord so that our minds are stayed in Him, and we are bringing His divine presence constantly in our thoughts.