Here’s how renewing of mind works:
When our mind is renewed by the truth of God, we put on a new identity that is in line with the perfect will of God who created us and knows us well. The creator of our lives knows exactly how many hairs we have on our heads. The Bible says God ever numbers our hairs. This is how well our Creator knows us. He knows every thought we have in both our conscious and subconscious minds. God has given us free-will, and He’s a gentleman. He doesn't intrude. But when we invite Him to work on our mind, He will. His Holy Spirit will shape our mind into thinking only true, wholesome, godly, holy, perfect, righteous things. Soon the old untrue, ungodly and distorted view of ourselves, other and God are replaced by His truth. Then our new godly mindset in our subconscious mind begins to function according to the perfect will of God which has no errors or deceptions. All the negative stuffs that we picked up in the past are gradually removed and replaced by the truth of God. And because our mind are thinking the things that are noble, just, pure, lovely and praiseworthy; we’re naturally able to produce good results and yield good fruits in our lives.
“ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” Philippians 4:8
How do we know the truth of God?
There are two ways we can know the truth of God:
When we accept Jesus as our personal Savior, God’s Spirit – the Holy Spirit then comes live inside us and begins His work of telling us the truth, guiding us to the right path by His divine power.
Renewing of mind is like our body needing nutrients to sustain good health. Renewing our mind by reading God's words and allowing His Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts directly is important. It should be on-going and on a daily basis. We probably won't see any ill effect on our body right away if we skip one or two meals. But if we don't eat health food for nutrients for a period of time. We'll definitely experience some ill effect on our body. Likewise, everyday we are in the world that is filled with negativity, false teachings, deceptions, wrong information, etc. If we don't renew our mind on a daily basis by allowing the truth of God to sink into our belief system so to produce strength, love, peace, joy and good fruits. Our belief system will be susceptible to the negativity and deception around us and produce unwanted negative behaviors. The word of God is like nutrients to our soul. There's power in the words of God and they are relevant to anyone who reads them.
Here’s another interesting thing about our subconscious mind:
Our subconscious mind is in the Alpha state just at the moment before we fall asleep and at the very first moment we wake up. During this state we are more receptive towards suggestions and affirmations. Now with this knowledge, we know that it’s best to surround ourselves with positivity during those two prime times. So try not to go to bed or wake up thinking about negative stuffs or allowing negative emotions to dominate your thought. They will stay in you and it’s hard to remove them from your subconscious mind later. Read the words of God instead or meditate on His truth during those two prime times. Let God’s truth shape your thinking hence transform you.
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8
Lastly, the language of the mind is mental image. Our mind thinks only in the form of images, it can never think in words. Our spoken words are just representing the images we have in mind, even if we are mentally spelling out the word. Try think an apple, what do you see? That’s why visualization and imagination are so powerful in programming and influencing the subconscious mind.
Remember what the word of God says about imagination?
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalt itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
If our imagination is not in line with God but what the world is telling us, then we need to cast that imagination down by using the spiritual weapons provided by God (I’ll talk about that in my next blog). If what we visualize is not in line with God, then we need to be very careful because our visualization is powerful to shape and form our reality both in the natural and the spiritual realms.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2
The word of God tells us that we need to have visions (to visualize in our mind the dreams and goals we have) and to write down our visions (our desires) and read them. Doing so will empower us to fulfill our dreams and goals.
“Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.” Habakkuk 2:2
God gives every single one of us vision, and we’re instructed to write it down and make it plain, so we can run with it. We are called to excel and succeed. So next time when God gives you a vision, write it down and start visualizing it. For instant, if God gave you a vision of becoming a teacher, start thinking what you're going to teach, where and when you're going to teach, start envisioning teaching a class, put your face in the future, and start dreaming about your vision. Before you know it, your vision will become true.
Remember our mind always finds a way to fulfill what we see in our mind. What we think and believe in our mind will produce the outcome of our thinking and belief. If we think and believe that we're worthless, we will do things that reflect that belief, and worst we will often attract people who think and see that we're worthless. If we think and believe that we're a person of value, trustworthy, capable, wise, hardworking and loving, we will do things that reflect that belief, we will live life to be that person. And others will see the same qualities in us.
If you have any question, you can send me an email at: Yusan@IntentionalLifeCoaching.org
More and more people are talking about “strongholds” and “renewing of mind”. What exactly do those terms mean? Are they related to modern day scientific description of “subconscious mind”, “neuroplasticity” and “positive thinking”? Why do we need to know how they affect our behaviors?
Before I go on explaining what “strongholds” and “renewing of mind” mean, allow me to tell you what our modern day scientists have discovered recently:
Researchers and scientists are now discovering that our subconscious mind tricks our conscious mind into producing unwanted negative behaviors. A most recent research done by Cleveland Clinic titled “Don’t believe everything you think”: “95% of our thoughts are being repeated in our subconscious mind and 80% of those habitual thoughts are negative.” That leaves only 5% of our thoughts are processed in a conscious level. Now if we want to change our unhealthy unproductive behavior patterns, we ought to change the way we think right down to the unconscious level.
The terms “strongholds” and “renewing of mind” are found in the Bible written about 2000 years ago. “Strongholds” were walls built around the ancient cities to shield them from intruding forces. Paul, the author of 2 Corinthians used the term to metaphorically depict a negative thought pattern stored in our mind that was guarded by walls so it’s hard to be removed.
Strongholds are built upon deception and error. These errors and deceptions which form strongholds can come from a wide variety of sources, including our environment, those around us, our parents or even demonic spirits.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalt itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
“Renewing of mind” is an ongoing process of removing the negative thought patterns from our subconscious mind that affect our behaviors. It is allowing the truth of God that is written on the Bible to shape our thinking and remove the strongholds from our mind.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2
With our 21st century cutting-edge research and technology, scientists found out that strongholds are those 80% of habitual negative thoughts that run on their autopilot mode day in and day out in our subconscious mind, and are affecting our ability to solve problems and make wise decisions.
Here’s how our subconscious mind works and how strongholds can take residence in it:
Subconscious mind works day and night and it never stops until we take our last breath. The job of our subconscious mind is to support the life system – it keeps our heart pumping, monitoring blood circulation, performing body healing, monitoring the digestion system and etc. The subconscious is always there even when we consciously retire and it even becomes stronger when we are asleep. That’s why it is advisable that you do not let your TV or radio on when you are asleep. Imagine what type of messages that your subconscious mind gets if you let those violence and horror scenes run on your TV! That’s one of the ways strongholds formed in our subconscious mind. I’ll explain that further in a minute.
Our subconscious mind does not possess the ability to think and reason but inevitably, it solves much problem than the conscious mind. This is due to its ability to connect with the super conscious mind (the field of infinite intelligence which I believe it’s the Holy Spirit) to search for solution. Believe it or not, there is at least a solution for every problem and you might not know where to look for, but your subconscious mind always does.
Now we know there are so many wonderful things that our subconscious mind can do, but there are also downsides of it if we don’t know how to protect it from external pollution. By nature our subconscious mind functions voluntarily and the receptive mode of it is always ON and there is nowhere we can shut it down. If we do not make any effort to influence and stand guard of our subconscious mind, it will voluntarily seek out for just anything that it can find. By default, the psychology of the masses is always geared toward the negativity, and this also means that they are always broadcasting negative stuffs and often with errors and deceptions. If we do not take conscious effect to shield our mind from that, they will get picked up as subliminal messages – a kind of subtle energy that escapes our hearing sense, another type of stronghold.
Our subconscious mind does not remain idle. It can hardly stand still and it will always look out for reference that it can keep and rely on. If we fail to find something, particular a goal to impress our subconscious, it will randomly pick up just any thought that enters in it regardless good or bad because our subconscious mind does not have the ability to differentiate good or evil, reality or fantasy, true or false. Bear in mind that we are always surrounded by negativity, false teachings, wrong ideas and incorrect information. Just look around, read the news and watch TV, I’m sure you can understand what I’m talking about.
Strongholds are untrue, unwholesome, ungodly, distorted image about oneself, others and God formed over a period of time and often get reinforced over and over again.
There are many common strongholds such as Pride, Greed, Fear, Addition, Adultery, Unbelief, Abuse, Hatred, Self-hatred, Idolatry, Jealousy, just to name a few.
When I was a young girl, my mom always told me that I was ugly and unwanted. I experienced a lot of verbal and physical abuse growing up. My subconscious mind picked up a lot of bad and untrue massages about myself and the strongholds of low self-esteem, and self-hatred were formed in me. I viewed myself as an ugly and unwanted girl because I believed what my mom told me. I left home when I was 17 and from then onwards no matter how hard I tried not to, I kept “running” into men that would verbal and physically abuse me. And I always had a sense that because I was ugly so they abused me and didn’t want me. Why? Not that I was a bad luck, that has nothing to do with luck. It has everything to do with the strongholds of low self-esteem and self-hatred that were operating in my life – the unconscious negative internal dialogue. Until one day I learned the truth from the words of God saying that I was beautiful because I was wonderfully and fearfully created by Him for a purpose. The words of God also said that I was whole, holy, righteous, perfect, lovable, gifted, blessed and able because I was created in the image of God. He told me to look at the unique fingerprints that He gave me. As soon as I allowed the truth of God to renew my mind while it was pulling down the strongholds in my mind, I was able to feel free the first time of my life. Now my old strongholds are gone, I’m no long drawn to abusers, and they too are no longer drawn to me. It’s amazing how powerful the renewing of mind changed my life.
(to be continued)
If you have any question, you can send me an email at: Yusan@IntentionalLifeCoaching.org