Framed
Pt. 2 – Mind Frames
As I mentioned last week I know that there are many forces trying to wield influence to shape us or frame us. There are billions of dollars spent each year in an attempt to frame our desires, our style, our wants and our likes. However, I also told you that although I know that your environment, your education, and even the region in which you were raised have a part to play in framing your world I am convinced that there is one factor that has more power and more impact on shaping your than any other. That determining factor is your mind or your thoughts. So we jumped off of Proverbs 4:23 and 23:7 which say:
Text: Proverbs 4:23
Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.
Proverbs 23:7 – “as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
We talked about the mind games the enemy plays with us. That if we are not careful in tired moments he will trick us and paint pictures for us that seem to be right and true that are false and with those thoughts he sets us up for failure. We talked about the fact that our perception (true or false) determines our reality. That is why you have to have some folks in your life that can challenge your perception when you aren’t seeing correctly. We said that you have to be careful what you allow into your head because it can get into your feet causing you to run at the wrong moment. You will escape right at the moment of breakthrough. You will give up right on the doorstep of a miracle. I ended by telling you that you have to get your head right and everything else will follow. You will come out of all your problems head first. How do you picture yourself?
So today I want to go one step further and talk to you about mind frames. If our world is framed by our mind then what do we need to know about our mind frame?
1. Fixing the mind is a daily process!
We want a one stop run to the altar and our mind is fixed forever. We never really deal with our minds except on Sunday and then we can’t figure out why our mind frame is wrong. We want God to reframe what we have allowed to run amuck all week! Paul makes it very clear that this is going to be a daily process. You will have to deal with and work on your head daily.
We love to quote Romans 12:1-2 when it comes to dealing with behavior and actions but we forget that the instructions given reach further than that. These instructions carry over to our mind and in fact whether or not we daily present our minds determines whether we are able to adjust our behaviors. Let me read this to you and then take you to another passage that bears this out.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. - NIV
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 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 learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
You have to present your mind to God every morning. Let Him have your thought processes, thought subjects, and imaginations daily if you want your mind to change. A few minutes once a week is not going to sufficiently change or frame your world. You can undo everything that we did in here with 15 minutes of unchecked or thought that hasn’t been renewed!
2. A daily mind fix will fix our behavior!
It is important to understand the daily nature of fixing our mind because if we would fix our mind daily we would also address our behavior! Many of us are fixated on our behavior. We are trying to get our behavior right and we struggle and we fail. This is why we generate lists of do and don’ts hoping that they will help us live better. However, we never seem to see the correlation between our thoughts and ways.
Paul shows us that if we adjust our mind our bodies/actions/behaviors are impacted. He says we won’t be as likely to copy the behavior and customs of the world if we are transformed by the way we think.
We see this concept in Isaiah 55:7-8:
7Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously. 8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
He says turn from wicked ways and banish the thought of doing wrong. In other words, thoughts and ways are linked. We would change our ways if we change our thoughts. There is a direct correlation/link between your thought life and your actions. Every action begins with a thought. How you think determines how you act. Your thought life will determine your victory or defeat.
Some of you don’t understand why you can’t seem to act differently even though you have been attending church, listening to worship, hanging out with a different crowd. The answer is simply you have failed to change the way you think! We pray and we fail. We shout and we fail.
You continue to live in the past and therefore your actions are repeated. You continue to think like an addict so your actions follow. You continue to think like you did in the hood so your actions follow. You continue to think like you are poor so your actions follow. That’s why rich folks horde toilet paper. Their mind frame is that they are going to lose everything so their actions, as crazy as they are, follow. You continue to think like a sinner so you act like one. You continue to think like someone who was rejected/abused/abandoned and so you run from relationship to relationship trying to find acceptance.
So if we want to fix daily behavior we have to fix thinking daily. You can’t just deal with your head on Sunday you have to fix it daily. If you just address behavior and never deal with thinking . . . behavior returns.
3. Warning . . . the mind is mean!
If you are so desperate to change your ways that you are willing to start working on your mind you had better know going in that this will be a battle! This isn’t something you are going to tackle easily. I think this is what separates the men from the boys and is why most of us never really tackle our mind. We aren’t prepared for the level of spiritual violence that is required.
Purity isn't natural...our minds (if left unguarded) will always lead us towards doing things that we know we should not do.
We want an easy fix. We want something that can be done in one hour flat. We want a 2 minute a day formula that will bring solution, but the mind is mean! Many of us never find freedom in our thoughts because we aren’t willing to go to war. We want to play church. We want easy street and the first time we try to tackle our thought life a mindset it hits back! All new thoughts are resisted violently by old ones!
Romans 8:6-7 says this:
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Did you see that? The carnal mind, the mind governed by the flesh is enmity, hostile, or hates, is at war with God.
Paul goes on to reveal the depth of the battle we must prepare for when in 2 Corinthians 10:4 he uses the term captive. This isn’t a passive term. This term carries the idea of overpowering, subduing by force, wrestling it to the ground, shoving its hands behind its back while it is resisting and forcing the mind to surrender. That doesn’t happen by just singing soft, sweet worship songs. This doesn’t happen with passively attending a service. This doesn’t happen with meek and weak prayers. This is a strap on your boots, man your battle stations, get your hands on some weapons, go to war, and let the blood start flying proposition.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)
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.
Hear the violence in this passage? Thoughts don’t lay down easy! They take up root and residence and we have to forcibly remove them from the territory of our mind!
However, the good news for us is that even though it is a battle we have the power to do this! In fact, this is not a lack of power issue. This is a right power issue.
Paul goes on and makes it clear in Romans 8:9-13 that we aren’t fighting our mind with flesh but by the power of the Spirit.
Romans 8:9-13
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
I already showed that in 2 Corinthians we are told that our weapons are not of this world and that we have divine power to demolish the strongholds. Our weapons are spirit directed . . . laser precise ability to strike and destroy strongholds. Then Romans follows up and says this Spirit gives us the ability to live in righteousness!
This is why it is so crucial to be Spirit filled. He enables you to corral your mind and to control your flesh! So the issue isn’t no power . . . the issue is right power and then once you are full of the Spirit it is a discipline (that is the dirty word – discipline leads to discipleship) issue!
You can’t pull down imaginations or strongholds with fleshly power. Some of you keep failing in this area because you are hoping will power is enough. Paul makes it clear the power of the Spirit is what defeats wrong thinking! You have got to get full of the Spirit and then exert discipline in your mind!
Stop and make sure we are Spirit filled. Because if you are not Spirit filled you are in a fight, according to Paul, that you cannot win. You can’t defeat the mind without being equipped spiritually.
Pray for those who are not prepped for the fight!
