Blowing the Lid Off Your Mind Renewal
By Steve Backlund
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
Here are some powerful mind-renewal truths:
Current mind-renewal creates future experiences.
We can renew our minds with truth or with lies.
Increasing hope is the evidence we are renewing our minds with truth. Decreasing hope is the evidence we are renewing our minds with lies.
Much of what we are experiencing and feeling today results from what we renewed our minds with in the past.
We are not transformed by just surrendering our hearts, but we are transformed by surrendering our beliefs.
Most people only renew their minds with their feelings and past experiences, and they continually transform their future from having those same feelings and experiences.
The renewing of the mind is not by osmosis. We don’t just renew our minds by being in church or reading the Bible. Those are very helpful, but mind renewal really happens when you choose what to believe and get a plan to strengthen those beliefs.
In the first week of my new pastorate in a California city, someone told me, “This city is hard for the gospel.” I knew if I renewed my mind with that, I would become one of the biggest strongholds hindering the will of God in my city. Yes, it may have been difficult and challenging, but we cannot call it hard. Once we do, that belief system becomes a bigger stronghold than anything the devil is doing.
My experience reminds me of the calling of Jeremiah. “‘And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’ Then I said, ‘Oh, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth.’ But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am a youth”’” (Jeremiah 1:5-7).
“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth.’” What we renew our minds with will come out in our words. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). Jeremiah was renewing his mind with what he believed was his limitation. His calling and influence would be limited if he continued to do that.
Another insightful verse is 1 Timothy 5:19. “Receive not an accusation against an elder except in the mouth of two or three witnesses.” This passage is a powerful reminder not to believe hearsay information (gossip) about others that is not confirmed, but there is something even more important to learn from it: We can hear something but not “receive it” (not renew our minds with it). This is an illustration of “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Radical mind renewers are very vigilant in not “receiving” the messages our experiences, feelings, limitations, and circumstances are trying to tell us. T.D. Jakes (an international influencer) tells of a time early in his ministry when his car was repossessed and then his power and water were shut off at his home. He says he walked into his house and spoke to it saying, “You’re lying to me!” He refused to renew his mind with the messages of failure, victimhood, regret, and hopelessness his circumstances were trying to tell him. We too are empowered by God to be vigilant in the same way.
We can blow the lid off our mind renewal and experience what we never believed by being passionate about what we receive and don’t receive into our belief systems. Yes, we will need to manage and steward circumstances that are contrary to God’s promises, but we will experience transformation as we persist in keeping God’s word front and center in our thinking.
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