Mind: Your Own Business

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Mind: Your Own Business


Brandon: I readjusted this layout to better fit the formatting needed when I print. If you will just keep all your text within the blue margin lines on this page, I shouldn’t have any more issues ☺. Thanks! Dr. Brandon Park | June 19, 2016

When you think, you build thoughts, and these become physical substances in your brain. When you think, you build thoughts, and these become physical substances in your brain. “As a man thinks within his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). First we think with our mind, and then physical changes happen inside the brain. Your brain cannot generate the mind. The brain simply houses the result of the mind. So you are not a victim of your biology. You may not be able to control the circumstances that happen in your life, but you can control your reaction to those circumstances. It’s those reactions that hardwire positive or negative neural pathways in your brain. Research dating back to the 1970’s shows that capturing our thoughts in a disciplined way rather than letting them chaotically run rampant can bring about impressive changes in how we feel and think. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We 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.” Paul uses words such as “war,” “weapons,” “fight,” and “strongholds” to remind us that we are in a battle that begins in our minds. Paul is reminding us that there is a battle being fought for your mind this very moment. The devil wants to make your mind his spiritual ____________________. Paul says that our mind is like a fort – it’s like a stronghold or a castle, and it’s constantly under attack. The mind is the control center of who we are. Everything you do begins with a thought! B______________ determine b____________________. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Life consists of what a man is thinking about all day.” John Locke said, “The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.” There are more than _______________ thoughts a day that pass between our ears. A.W. Tozer said, “Our thoughts not only reveal what we are, they predict what we will become. We will soon be the sum total of our thoughts.” The Holy Spirit uses the nourishment of the Word of God to rewrite our computer and renew our minds. The average person has more than _______ negative toxic thoughts a day. Depressed people have as many as ________. You can’t eliminate all the troublesome things that go through your mind, but you can certainly reduce the number of negative thoughts. How do we take control over our thinking patterns?

1. We must _____________ our mind in all things.

If Satan wants to control our thinking, how does he go about doing it? The key is to understand the basic meaning of his name. The word “devil: comes from the word diabolos, which means “to thrust through.” He wants to hit you and repeatedly hammer you with thought patterns, circumstances, and emotions that eventually create synapses that wire together within your brain. He works to penetrate that barrier which is your mind (intellect, emotions, and will) that directly affects your brain. The Bible teaches that we are not ignorant of the devil’s “schemes” or “methods” (2 Corinthians 2:11). The word “strategy” or “methods” comes from the Greek word metahodos, which literally means “with a road.” Once Satan gets a road to your thinking, it starts out as a single lane. But as you choose to continue to build on that thought, that road (neural pathway) becomes bigger and bigger. In order to renew our mind, we have to start locking down that road one lane at a time. 2 Corinthians 10:3, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.” Paul notes that this is not a war we can see – it’s a war we cannot see (mental/spiritual war). From the time Satan entered into the world, he has had only one strategy: ______________, __________________ and __________________ your mind. If you can get someone to think in the wrong way, they will start living the wrong way. Colossians 1:21, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds…” You were born in sin. When you became a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit stormed the gates of your mind and began the process of taking over ownership. Here’s the problem: the devil never gives up in

trying to reclaim lost territory. That’s why every morning you need to pray: “God I want you to direct my mind.” 2. We must ________________ our mind from wrong things. 2 Corinthians 10:4, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world; on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” What is a stronghold? It’s a _____________ _______________ we have a hard time letting go of. It’s a deeply engrained thought pattern that is contrary to God’s truth. Any time we have a worldview, thought process, or way of thinking that goes contrary to God’s teachings, that would be considered a stronghold. Every stronghold begins as a seed, but by giving attention to it, we cultivate it and allow it to grow. 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” Satan wants to put a barrier up between you and the knowledge of God. He wants to put a wall up between what we believe is right and what God says is right. How does the devil do that? • Satan wants to _____________ the minds of non-Christians. 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” This is why the world rejects the knowledge of God. They’re not even cognizant that the enemy is putting a wall between them and God. (See also 1 Corinthians 2:14.) When a person rejects the gospel, his number one problem is not that he cannot be saved but simply that he will not be saved. • Satan wants to _____________ the minds of Christians. 2 Corinthians 11:3, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” The three areas Satan is most effective in defiling our mind are: _______________, _________________, and _________________. We need to monitor what it is that we are allowing into our minds. 3. We must _______________ our mind to the right things. The only way that you can stay in control of you is to stay in control of your mind. “He that would not command his thoughts, will soon lose command of his actions.” – Woodrow Wilson There are two mental laws that contribute heavily to our mental state of being. They are: 1. The Law of ____________________: Whatever we dwell upon grows in our brain and our life experience. We become what we think. The more we dwell on something, the more we have it in our lives. 2. The Law of _____________________: Our conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time. It makes no difference to our mind whether the thought is negative or positive; it can only hold one at a time. However, Dr. Joel B. Santos says, “We can choose to substitute ‘negative’ thoughts with ‘positive’ thoughts, thus changing our mental state of being.” 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We 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.” What does it mean to take every thought captive? The verb literally means “to take a prisoner with a ______________.” It has the idea of being aggressive with what we DON’T allow into our thought processes. We must learn to say “no” to every toxic, negative thought within the first ______ seconds. Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” The Bible teaches that you can determine the direction of your mind. One author said, “Too many minds are like plankton, a small sea plant that goes wherever the current takes it.” The problem is that people just don’t focus. What does it mean to be spiritual-minded? (Romans 8:6) It means that you have allowed the Holy Spirit of God is always be putting to the forefront of your mind…holy thoughts, pure thoughts, godly thoughts. What you need to do is so load your mind with the truth of the Word of God that there is no longer any room for the devil. “Keep your mind off the things you don’t want by keeping it on the things you do want.” – W. Clement Stone

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Brandon: I readjusted this layout to better fit the formatting needed when I print. If you will just keep all your text within the blue margin lines on this page, I shouldn’t have any more issues ☺. Thanks! Dr. Brandon Park | June 19, 2016

When you think, you build thoughts, and these become physical substances in your brain. When you think, you build thoughts, and these become physical substances in your brain. “As a man thinks within his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). First we think with our mind, and then physical changes happen inside the brain. Your brain cannot generate the mind. The brain simply houses the result of the mind. So you are not a victim of your biology. You may not be able to control the circumstances that happen in your life, but you can control your reaction to those circumstances. It’s those reactions that hardwire positive or negative neural pathways in your brain. Research dating back to the 1970’s shows that capturing our thoughts in a disciplined way rather than letting them chaotically run rampant can bring about impressive changes in how we feel and think. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We 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.” Paul uses words such as “war,” “weapons,” “fight,” and “strongholds” to remind us that we are in a battle that begins in our minds. Paul is reminding us that there is a battle being fought for your mind this very moment. headquarters The devil wants to make your mind his spiritual ____________________. Paul says that our mind is like a fort – it’s like a stronghold or a castle, and it’s constantly under attack. The mind is the control center of who we are. Everything you do begins with a thought! B______________ determine b____________________. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Life consists of elief ehavior what a man is thinking about all day.” John Locke said, “The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.” 10,000 There are more than _______________ thoughts a day that pass between our ears. A.W. Tozer said, “Our thoughts not only reveal what we are, they predict what we will become. We will soon be the sum total of our thoughts.” The Holy Spirit uses the nourishment of the Word of God to rewrite our computer and renew our minds. The average person has more than _______ negative toxic thoughts a day. Depressed people 200 have as many as ________. You can’t eliminate all the troublesome things that go through your mind, 600 but you can certainly reduce the number of negative thoughts. How do we take control over our thinking patterns? direct 1. We must _____________ our mind in all things. If Satan wants to control our thinking, how does he go about doing it? The key is to understand the basic meaning of his name. The word “devil: comes from the word diabolos, which means “to thrust through.” He wants to hit you and repeatedly hammer you with thought patterns, circumstances, and emotions that eventually create synapses that wire together within your brain. He works to penetrate that barrier which is your mind (intellect, emotions, and will) that directly affects your brain. The Bible teaches that we are not ignorant of the devil’s “schemes” or “methods” (2 Corinthians 2:11). The word “strategy” or “methods” comes from the Greek word metahodos, which literally means “with a road.” Once Satan gets a road to your thinking, it starts out as a single lane. But as you choose to continue to build on that thought, that road (neural pathway) becomes bigger and bigger. In order to renew our mind, we have to start locking down that road one lane at a time. 2 Corinthians 10:3, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.” Paul notes that this is not a war we can see – it’s a war we cannot see (mental/spiritual war). From the time Satan entered into the world, he has had only one strategy: ______________, capture __________________ and __________________ your mind. If you can get someone to think in the control corrupt wrong way, they will start living the wrong way. Colossians 1:21, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds…” You were born in sin. When you became a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit stormed the gates of your mind and began the process of taking over ownership. Here’s the problem: the devil never gives up in

trying to reclaim lost territory. That’s why every morning you need to pray: “God I want you to direct my mind.” protect 2. We must ________________ our mind from wrong things . 2 Corinthians 10:4, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world; on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” thought pattern What is a stronghold? It’s a _____________ _______________ we have a hard time letting go of. It’s a deeply engrained thought pattern that is contrary to God’s truth. Any time we have a worldview, thought process, or way of thinking that goes contrary to God’s teachings, that would be considered a stronghold. Every stronghold begins as a seed, but by giving attention to it, we cultivate it and allow it to grow. 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” Satan wants to put a barrier up between you and the knowledge of God. He wants to put a wall up between what we believe is right and what God says is right. How does the devil do that? darken • Satan wants to _____________ the minds of non-Christians. 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” This is why the world rejects the knowledge of God. They’re not even cognizant that the enemy is putting a wall between them and God. (See also 1 Corinthians 2:14.) When a person rejects the gospel, his number one problem is not that he cannot be saved but simply that he will not be saved. • Satan wants to _____________ the minds of Christians. 2 Corinthians 11:3, “But I fear, deﬁle lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” The three areas Satan is most effective in defiling our mind are: _______________, media movies music _________________, and _________________. We need to monitor what it is that we are allowing into our minds. connect 3. We must _______________ our mind to the right things. The only way that you can stay in control of you is to stay in control of your mind. “He that would not command his thoughts, will soon lose command of his actions.” – Woodrow Wilson There are two mental laws that contribute heavily to our mental state of being. They are: Concentration 1. The Law of ____________________: Whatever we dwell upon grows in our brain and our life experience. We become what we think. The more we dwell on something, the more we have it in our lives. Substitution 2. The Law of _____________________: Our conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time. It makes no difference to our mind whether the thought is negative or positive; it can only hold one at a time. However, Dr. Joel B. Santos says, “We can choose to substitute ‘negative’ thoughts with ‘positive’ thoughts, thus changing our mental state of being.” 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We 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.” What does it mean to take every thought captive? The verb literally means “to take a prisoner spear with a ______________.” It has the idea of being aggressive with what we DON’T allow into our thought processes. We must learn to say “no” to every toxic, negative thought within the first 5 ______ seconds. Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” The Bible teaches that you can determine the direction of your mind. One author said, “Too many minds are like plankton, a small sea plant that goes wherever the current takes it.” The problem is that people just don’t focus. What does it mean to be spiritual-minded? (Romans 8:6) It means that you have allowed the Holy Spirit of God is always be putting to the forefront of your mind…holy thoughts, pure thoughts, godly thoughts. What you need to do is so load your mind with the truth of the Word of God that there is no longer any room for the devil. “Keep your mind off the things you don’t want by keeping it on the things you do want.” – W. Clement Stone