{"id":9804,"date":"2021-11-19T05:46:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T05:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9804"},"modified":"2021-11-19T05:48:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T05:48:32","slug":"empowering-our-future-with-mind-renewal-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9804","title":{"rendered":"Empowering Our Future with Mind Renewal \u2013 Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>\u201cBe transformed by the renewing of your mind\u201d<\/b> <\/span>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/Romans12%3A2\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Romans 12:2<\/a>).<br \/>\nThe renewing of the mind can happen both in the positive and negative. Obviously, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/Romans12%3A2\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Romans 12:2<\/a> is about positive mind renewal, but the reality is that when we give our inner agreement (our \u201camen\u201d) to a belief, mind renewal takes place and it impacts our future experiences.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">I used to only \u201crenew my mind\u201d with my feelings and experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>I felt weak, so I renewed my mind with the belief I was weak.<\/li>\n<li>I struggled to have heart connections with people; therefore, I renewed my mind with the lie I did not do relationships well.<\/li>\n<li>I used to think that certain geographical areas were hard for the gospel, so I renewed my mind with that belief and created an even more difficult experience for myself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I would passively agree with these feelings and experiences, regularly concluding they were the truth. Each agreement would strengthen the negative stronghold in my mind, and my future would be negatively transformed by these beliefs.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>The greatest strongholds blocking the purposes of God are in our minds, and there is nothing passive about how we are to think, <\/b>\u00a0\u201cFor the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/2%20Corinthians10%3A4-5\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2 Corinthians 10:4-5<\/a>).<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>The mind is a battleground (it\u2019s the real warfare)<\/li>\n<li>We are to cast down arguments and high things (lies) trying to exalt themselves above the knowledge of God<\/li>\n<li>We need to take every thought captive \u2013 they are not going to willingly surrender<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Truly, the highest level of spiritual warfare is to believe (agree with truths) higher than what we are feeling and experiencing. We don\u2019t deny our experiences and feelings; we just don\u2019t get our beliefs from them. There is a higher way. We are called and empowered to believe in the \u201cGod, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/Romans4%3A17\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Romans 4:17<\/a>). As we intentionally think and speak (renew our minds) with God\u2019s promises and our biblical identity, we will transform our future into those things.\u00a0As we embrace the heart of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleserver.com\/ESV\/Joel3%3A10\" class=\"bibleserver extern\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joel 3:10<\/a>, \u201cLet the weak <b>say<\/b> I am strong,\u201d we will see transformation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">adapted from a blog Nov 5th 2021 by Steve Backlund<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBe transformed by the renewing of your mind\u201d (Romans 12:2). The renewing of the mind can happen both in the positive and negative. Obviously, Romans 12:2 is about positive mind [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,76,51,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-destiny","category-hope","category-identity","category-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9804"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9806,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804\/revisions\/9806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}