8: The Renewing of the Mind

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 know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. Romans 12:2 (NLT)

The first component of Jesus’ message concerning the Kingdom of God was repentance. He echoed John the Baptist when he proclaimed, “Repent!” The basic meaning of the Greek word for repentance, metanoeo, is “to change the mind”. We are born into this world with a predisposition to believe lies. It’s called the “old man” or sin nature. Have you ever wondered why gossip is so universally appealing? We love the “dirt” about folks, and it doesn’t usually matter whether it’s true or not. Why do people so easily believe negative news but find it difficult to believe the truth? It’s because we’re sinners whose minds need renewing.

Satan is a liar, and his kingdom operates on fear, intimidation, and lies. He lied to Adam and Eve about God, and his most destructive work today is to convince people that God is not to be trusted. He plants deception and misinformation wherever he can, because knowing the Truth (Jesus) will set us free. Knowing and believing the truth of God’s Word will keep us free.

All of us are in bondage to one degree or another, which is always connected to our believing lies. The way out of slavery is to displace lies with God’s truth and begin to act upon it.

Jesus put it like this.

...If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." John 8:31-32 (NASB)

The salvation of the soul is the process over time whereby God displaces wrong thinking and actions with correct thinking and living. This is a lifetime process that requires fresh help from God (grace) each day. Ideas have consequences. What we believe will affect every part of our lives.

Right thinking, the result of repentance, is the key to right living.

The Word of God affects every area of our lives, if we are open and willing to obey. If we see that God’s Word conflicts with something we believe or are doing, we should ask God to help us change.

Repentance is a gift (2 Timothy 2:25 and Acts 5:31), not something we can do on our own.

The Holy Spirit comes alongside us to work repentance or right thinking into our lives. We participate in repentance by responding to the conviction and leading of the Spirit in the pursuit of embracing God’s truth and turning away from evil. The turning away from evil is the fruit or evidence of our change in thinking.

Embracing truth is always the first step in transformation.

Sometimes we will discover areas in our lives that seem impregnable to God’s Word. The Bible calls these “strongholds”.

Biblical strongholds are fortresses of falsehood reinforced by fears and hurts that resist God’s truth. They are usually built on logical arguments that we have constructed, perhaps without realizing it, which interfere with our ability to believe and receive the truth.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV)

We can often tell where we have a stronghold against the truth by observing when we use the word “but” as our defense against believing and receiving God’s truth. Here is an example: “I know the Bible says God is a loving Father, but that has not been my experience.” Or “I know we are supposed to forgive, but… (fill in the blank).” In cases like these, everything that comes after the “but” is a lie that must be cast down.

Perhaps our own father was such a bad example of what a father should be that we have transferred our experience with him to God, and we cannot believe in our hearts that God really loves us. This is a common stronghold that must be destroyed with God’s help, if we are going to experience true victory and freedom in our daily lives.

Remember: it’s not necessarily what we believe theologically that will set us free, but what we believe in our hearts. How we act under pressure reveals what is truly in our hearts.

Whenever we act contrary to what we thought we believed or with a reaction that is disproportionate to the stimulus, we should suspect the presence of a stronghold.

Some strongholds run so deep that we must get help from others to recognize and overcome them, but it is always worth the effort. Most of the time God breaks these things down as we seriously study God’s Word, listen to good teaching, pray, and interact with other believers who will speak the truth in love to us.

Unless we take seriously the requirement to study and become familiar with God’s Word as revealed in the Bible, we have little hope of renewing our minds and living in freedom.

Many Christians are lazy in this regard and therefore fail to qualify as real disciples.

Christians are born (again), but disciples are made by the Holy Spirit over a lifetime of disciplined study and committed obedience.

Which are we going to be? Regardless of what our past has been like, we can make the choice to act as a disciple from now on. May God help us all make the right choices.