7 Steps to Renew Your Mind

The Apostle Paul said in Romans 12:2 that we are transformed by the renewing of the mind. Many of us think that once our life is transformed, then our mind will be renewed. It is actually the other way around. When we were born, most of us came out of the womb, and into this world, head first. If you want to come out of unpleasant circumstances, limitation in career, stagnation in your ministry, your head has to come out first.

When your mind is changed, your life will be transformed. Remember, where your mind goes, your life follows.

When you experience deliverance, your mind has to switch from a slave to a son, from a slave to a soldier. Even if you get the same attacks as before, you get to see them from a different position. I like to tell our church, “You are not a sick person trying to get healed, you are healthy person fighting sickness.” “You are not a bound person trying to get free, you are a free person fighting bondage.” “You are not a sinner trying to get holy, you are a saint fighting sin.”

Step 1 – Stop waiting for an outside miracle to change your mind.

Most of those miracles will never come until you get rid of the chaos in your mind by filling it with God’s Word. Renewing of the mind will never work if someone believes this excuse, “The reason why my mind is so negative is because my life is so hard.” Have you ever thought that maybe the reason your life is so hard is because your mind is so negative? You cannot have miracles in your life, regularly, if your mind is a mess.

Stop making your mind a sidewalk for the Devil to trample on, make it a disciple to the Word of God.

Do not get me wrong, we need miracles, but they alone do not change our minds without our humility and willingness to make God’s Word the standard for our lives. Remember, the same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay. Miracles are like that for those who are hungry for God’s Word, miracles help our faith, but for those who are refusing God’s Word to have dominion over their lives, miracles are never enough. If you stop blaming your circumstances for your negative thinking, God will start working on you in a powerful way.

Step 2 – Stop believing that you can’t control your thoughts.

The second lie that must be repented of is, I cannot control my thoughts, they control me. It is a weak excuse, and this excuse is not Scriptural. The Bible commands us to “Think about these things” (Philippians 4:8), “You shall meditate on it day and night” (Joshua 1:8), “On His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2).

It is pretty clear that you are expected by God to choose your thoughts, not let your thoughts always be chosen by something else. How do we do this practically? It is true that we get attacked in our minds, because our minds are a battlefield, not a playground. As a Christian begins to connect his spirit with Holy Spirit, his spirit begins to get stronger.

The mind is a servant, either to your spirit or to your flesh.

When the spirit is weak, the mind runs errands for the flesh by thinking negative thoughts. But when we constantly build our spirit by communion with Holy Spirit, our mind comes under the influence of the Word of God and Holy Spirit who lives in us. We are left with the choice to think on God’s things or let the mind go with the flow of life.

Step 3 – What you feed your mind with becomes a mindset. 

A mindset is impossible to change without changing what your mind is filled with. Typically, when we hear the truth about breaking strongholds or renewing of the mind, we get busy trying to change our mindsets. We quickly learn that it is not an easy task.

A mindset is what controls you. The mind is what you control.

The only way to change your default and automatic thinking is by filling your conscious mind with new information of God’s truth. Once the conscious mind is filled to the overflow, it slips into the subconscious mind.

Step 4 – Confess what you believe, not what you feel.

We possess what we confess. We possess salvation by confessing Jesus as Lord of our lives. We possess God’s promises by confessing them with our mouths. When you regularly confess only what you feel and see, you are hurting your faith and not helping negative thoughts to leave.

Don’t use your mouth as a thermometer, which only reads the temperature of your current condition, allow God’s word to turn your mouth into a thermostat, which changes the temperature of your life by confessing what God says.

Jesus did that in the wilderness in His temptation with the Devil. Most likely the Devil tempted Jesus as he usually tempts us, with thoughts. Jesus did not think the Scripture to combat the Devil’s arrows, He spoke the Scripture.

Don’t speak what you feel all the time, otherwise your mind can’t change. Learn to speak God’s word instead.

Step 5 – Resist negative thoughts, assist positive thoughts.

Positive thoughts are not going to stay, they need to be assisted. Negative thoughts are not going to leave, they need to be resisted.We must assist the Word of God by making room for it in our hearts, and resist the evil thoughts of the enemy by taking them captive and bringing them into submission to Christ (see 2 Corinthians 10:5).

The Bible describes the mind as a ship looking for harbor. You cannot keep bad ships from sailing back and forth on the ocean, but you can refuse them from docking privileges in the harbor of your mind.

You cannot stop birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from building a nest in your hair. Bad thoughts come, but do not have to stay if we speak against them with the truth of God’s Word.

Step 6 – Celebrate the process.

It is going to take time to see change in your mind. I think there is a reason why God took six days to create the world instead of one day. He wanted to show us how to go through the process of change.

Each day something great was done and God would end the day by celebrating what was done, instead of complaining about what was still not done. On the third day, when there was still so much work to be done, God saw that it was good. God did not look at what still was unfinished. Much was yet to be done but He celebrated what was complete.

Renewing of the mind happens when we celebrate small victories and focus on what God is doing, instead of what He is not doing.

Also, it is worthy to note that God never compared the messy process of creation to the beautiful heaven where He resides. The Devil will try to mess up the process of your mind renewal by making you compare your progress with someone else.

You are complete in God. You do not need to compare yourself to others. Comparing leads to complaining. Complaining can lead to breaking the 10th commandment of coveting. Coveting kills the creative process of God in renewing your mind. If your neighbor’s lawn looks greener than yours, start watering your own lawn. Be the best version of you the world has ever seen. Remember, what God started, He is faithful to finish (see Philippians 1:6). He is not done with you yet.

Step 7 – Expect miracles.

Expecting something good to happen is a choice. It is an act of our faith. A person with a renewed mind has positive expectations in the forefront of their mind. Do not let your imagination create an image in which things will go bad for you, such as sickness worsening, relationships breaking, business failing, etc. Replace those negative imaginations with promises from God’s Word.

Expectations are a breeding place for miracles.

Some people wake up in the morning with a feeling that something bad is going to happen to them that day. If that happens to you, it is from the Devil. Go back to bed and wake up again until you have a positive feeling that God is good and He plans good things.

If you keep getting bad thoughts that something will happen and they do, you are releasing your faith for your own trouble. I choose to trust in God and expect His grace and mercy, not accidents, tickets, or all hell breaking loose.

Does that mean we will never have bad days? No! But we will not live expecting them.

Prayer

“Precious Holy Spirit, You are hovering over my life right now. All I can see is darkness, all I can feel is void in my life. I accept Your word as the final authority in my life. I ask that You will take the information from the Bible and make it a revelation in my heart. Oh, Holy Spirit, bring the manifestation of God’s Word into my life. Let my reality rise to the level of Your truth.“

This is an excerpt from “Break Free” book.

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