• When we were born again, our spirits became perfect.
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17 – we are new creations in Christ Jesus
  • Ephesians 2:10 – we are results of His craftsmanship, created to walk in His works
  • 2 Peter 1:2-4 – God has given us everything that we will need to succeed in this life; it’s all deposited within our spirits
• What about the body we live in and the soul we have?
  • Romans 12:1-2
    • Our bodies are to be presented a living sacrifice
    • Our minds are to be renewed
  • A living sacrifice
    • Our bodies are not decision makers in and of themselves but they are very influential
      • Our five senses are constantly taking in data around us
      • These senses are all wired to our brains.
        • They send electrical signals
        • Our brains often times respond to these stimuli with chemical responses, releasing chemicals such as adrenaline, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. 
        • Over time we learn which stimuli and which behaviors release more of the pleasurable chemicals and we will seek to do more of that.
        • The sensory input from our bodies is also very influential with regards to our conscious thought.
        • In a man’s natural state, the body is the primary influence on our mind.
          • If we’re not born again, we are completely dead to the spiritual realm (Ephesians 2:1)
          • If we remain carnally minded after salvation, our body will continue to be the major influence of our minds.
    • To be living sacrifices, we cannot be led by what our natural senses or our body’s desires tell us.
      • The body will protest when it doesn’t get its own way. It sends signals expressing its displeasure to our brains.
      • We must deny our body the final say in our lives and instead submit to the truth of God’s Word.
        • For example, if we are sick and we want to receive our healing we cannot remain fixated on the feelings in our body. We must deny our body the authority to influence our minds and instead choose God’s Word.
  • Renewing of the mind
    • We cannot become a living sacrifice without doing this
    • Greek word for renew is anakainōsis (Strong’s: 342)
      • This also means to renovate.
        • Imagine renovating a dilapidated shack into a comfortable home
          • These houses get stripped down to the studs
          • The old material brought out of the house ends up in a dumpster
            • Once the old is completely broken down and removed, then the contractor has a clean slate and can build something great.
        • Military training
          • The new recruits are broken down during boot camp.
            • Once the old is broken down, the recruit is built in the image of the military
        • Paul tells the Christian to renovate his/her mind.
          • It’s not simply a matter of adding God’s truth to our existing thought processes and lives.
          • The old mindset has to be torn down first.
    • Paul used the word metamorphoō  (Strong’s: 3339) from which we get the word metamorphosis to describe the outcome of renewing our mind
      • It is a complete transformation, the same as a caterpillar going into the cocoon and coming out as a butterfly.
      • It’s not a simple addition of the spiritual to the natural – it’s a complete replacement of the natural with the spiritual.
    • How do we go about renewing our minds?
      • Philippians 2:12-13
        • This transformation is working out our salvation. It’s getting what God has perfected in our spirits already out into our minds
        • Ask God to give us a desire to renew our minds
      • Determine to know and accept as the ultimate truth what God says about your life
        • This must be done according to the Holy Spirit
        • We can read the Bible with the carnal mind.
          • This will lead us to a very superficial understanding of the Word at best, or confusion at worst.
          • Looking up the scriptures without the Holy Spirit’s involvement will not bring forth abundant life
        • 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
          • Stronghold
            • Greek word ochyrōma (Strong’s: 3794)
              • castle or fortress
              • “of the arguments and reasonings by which a disputant endeavours to fortify his opinion and defend it against his opponent”
            • Any way of thinking we have that is contrary to God
              • Habits we’ve developed over time
              • Religious traditions
              • Anything whose source is the carnal mind
          • We have to forcefully remove our old ways of thinking from our minds.
            • In war, fortified positions require a significant amount of force to remove and demolish.
            • When the house gets renovated, stripping the walls requires the sledge hammer
        • Presenting our bodies as a sacrifice comes into play here as well – we have to stop giving our natural senses the priority over the truth of God’s Word.
      • Philippians 4:8
        • What are we letting into our minds?
        • If you’re renovating the house, you’re going to put all the old, rotted material in the dumpster and get fresh, new wood, sheetrock, etc.
        • If you wouldn’t remodel a house with old rotted wood, why would we rebuild our minds with the same garbage we just took out?
        • Armor up! (Ephesians 6:12-18)
          • When we put on the full armor of God, we are putting Christ on.
          • He will protect us from the wiles of the devil and give us the means by which to fight the battle (the Word of God).
    • Our soul is the only part of our being that can reach our Spirit
      • To the unsaved man, his natural senses and his emotions are the controlling influences of thought and action
      • When we become saved, the Holy Spirit will speak through our spirit to our souls
      • As we renew our minds to God’s truth, we become more open to the Spirit speaking to us.
      • Our goal should be to hear the Spirit more loudly and definitively than our own natural senses

• Believe – G4100 pisteuo:
  • General: to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in;
  • in a moral or religious reference:
    • used in the NT of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul
    • to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith
    • mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith
• Unbelief – G0570 apistia
  • disbelief
  • weakness of faith
• Context
  • Having faith in God and His word
• Both can exist simultaneously in our minds
  • The presence of unbelief does not mean that there is no belief or faith in a person’s mind
  • Think of belief as gas in a gas tank
    • Add water (unbelief) to the tank.
    • There’s still gas in the tank, but something has been added that dilutes it and can render it ineffective
• Mark 9:14-29
  • We have a man whose son is bound by a demon
  • He brings him to Jesus because he believes there is a possibility of Him helping
  • The man’s belief in Jesus is not complete – he asks “if you can do anything….”
  • Jesus brings the man a correction
  • The man accepts the correction – “I believe, help my unbelief!”
• James 1:5-8
  • James warns against double-mindedness.
• Unbelief is not simply the lack of belief; it’s believing something contrary
  • Our minds are not empty voids – we are going to believe something
    • What our natural senses tell us?
      • Our bodies have five senses that are always providing data to our minds.
      • We see things around us
      • We hear what other people say
      • We have feeling in our physical bodies – pain, sickness, strength, etc.
      • We smell and taste
      • This is the reality of the natural world around us
    • God’s Word?
      • This can only come by the measure of faith that God has given us.
      • What God says will very often go against what see to be the natural reality
      • Isaiah 55:8-9 – The Lord’s ways are higher than our ways. The realities of the spirit realm are greater than those of the natural world.
    • We have to make the decision what we will believe
      • 1 Kings 18:21 – Elijah challenged the people to choose between the Lord and Baal, to stop wavering between two opinions
      • If we decide we want to believe God’s word over the natural, the Holy Spirit is there to help us.
      • Romans 12:2 – Paul instructs us to renew our minds
        • Man’s default setting is to believe his senses. It’s our natural wiring.
        • It takes renewal of the mind to trust what God says, when it defies the senses.
• Belief in the Lord and His Word is essential to unlocking everything that God has for us
  • 2 Peter 1:2-4:God has placed everything we need in order to live a full and blessed life in our spirits.
  • Our souls are the only interface to our spirits. What we believe will determine whether we allow the good things that God placed in our spirits can affect our lives or stay bottled up.
• Ultimately the decision rests with us whether to walk in the victory that God has for us or not
  • We choose what to believe
  • We choose what we will feed into our minds
  • Deuteronomy 30:19 – choose life

Key Scriptures: Jeremiah 29:10-14

What are some of the key indicators that we are truly walking by faith?

• We will bring our needs to the Father. We only bring needs to people that we reasonably expect to meet those needs. If we have faith in the the Lord and His word, then we will bring our needs to Him.
• We will be more concerned about the well-being of those around us than ourselves. If our faith allows us to trust the Lord to meet our needs, we can spend our time and energy instead ministering the love of God to those around us.
• We are free from fear and worry – they do not dominate our lives or set our course.
• We see, hear and speak according to God’s word. We don’t speak and act according to the circumstances around us. Instead we speak (and thereby sow seeds) of life, not of death into our lives.
• We will be at rest and full of the joy of the Lord.

Key Scriptures: Philippians 4:4-7, Mark 11:22-24

Key Scriptures: Isaiah 43:25-26

Everyone who is born again has faith – God gave each of us a measure of faith. The question becomes are we walking by faith and living by faith? Do we understand how faith works? Do we only seek to walk by faith when things get hard?

How does faith work? The Lord reminds us that there will always be a time of sowing and harvesting and that all seeds reproduce after their own kind. Every good thing that comes from God comes through the Word. Faith works according to sowing the Word in our lives. When the word is sown into good ground, it will grow and produce fruit. We don’t need to know exactly how that happens – just as the farmer doesn’t know exactly how the seeds planted into the ground germinate and produce their crops.

Just as a natural seed requires sunlight to grow, spiritual seeds need the light that comes from the Son of God. Seeds also require watering. This requires that we continue to speak life over the seed – don’t speak death and tear it up. Continue speaking God’s word.

Having good ground requires first that we have spiritual ears to hear what God is speaking to us. We then need to receive what is spoken to us. The moment we think we already know something, we stop receiving and we stop hearing.

Bearing fruit requires effort in the form of persistence. We need to persist in the Word of God and not let it depart from our mouth in order to have good success.

Key Scriptures: Genesis 1:11; 8:22, Mark 4, Proverbs 4:20-22, Joshua 1:8-9

The famine of the Word that was mentioned in the Old Testament is not due to a lack of the Word, but rather a lack of consumption of the Word. From the beginning of time, the devil has attempted to steal and suppress the Word of God.

Having a teachable heart is key to growing in the Word. Without this, whatever knowledge of God one has will slowly erode and fade away. When receiving the Word, we must do it with faith. God’s Word is only profitable to us if we mix it with faith when we hear it.

Key Scriptures: Amos 8:11, John 15:3, 2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 3:16 – 4:3; 11-12, Mark 4:13-20; 25, 1 Samuel 15

We should rejoice because of the favor of God. If we have His favor, it means our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life!

Why did Mary have God’s favor in her life? When the angel came to speak to her, she hadn’t said or done anything great yet. She had God’s favor because He chose her. We have His favor because He chose us, not because we did anything special. He has chosen us to bear fruit.

What are the mountains in your life? The things that overshadow God, that steal your focus from Him. Because we have the Spirit of God in us and with us, however, everything becomes possible. We can command the mountain to move – it will become a plain.

Mary came into an agreement with the messenger at the end. She said to the angel “let it be done according to your word.” If we agree with His word and speak it, then we see His favor acting. By contrast Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, spoke doubt and unbelief. The Lord had to shut his mouth in order to prevent him from derailing what He wanted to do.

Key Scriptures: Luke 1:26-38; 45, John 15:16, Zechariah 4:6-7, Romans 8:28-29