Your Mind is Key

The mind is a powerful tool many persons underestimate. If properly harnessed, it can yield numerous benefits. These are the opinions of the Head Pastor of Believers Loveworld, also known as Christ Embassy, Chris Oyakhilome. In his words, ‘the mind is like the rudder that directs a ship. For your spirit, the mind is very important. If you turn your mind away from what it is supposed to be focusing on, your feelings will die. In order to have a mind that is effective, you need to have your emotions balanced. That is the duty of the mind to balance your emotions. It is necessary that your mind is channeled to your purpose. The coordination of the forces of your spirit towards the path of your purpose is the duty of the mind. Hence, you have to program your mind to what you want you desire. Focus helps your mind to be effective. Do you have any plans you need to embark on? You need focus to keep them effective. Pastor Oyakhilome also buttressed his point by addressing people who embark on praying and fasting. According to the renowned cleric, you need focus for the prayers to be effective. However, there are many persons who would distract themselves during this period. The essence of that fast has become defeated because your mind has been placed in many directions. Learn to discipline your mind. Discipline will help you to put your mind on track. It is not always easy to be disciplined. But if you put your mind to it, you can achieve it. Your tongue can help your mind after you have tried to focus and you are still having some challenges, you can try another pattern. Do you know that your tongue is a very powerful tool that can help your mind to be effective? When your mind starts to wander, use your tongue to correct it. Speak to your mind constantly. Tell your mind what you want and watch it bow to you. Work on your emotions. For your mind to be effective, you have to work on your emotions. At times you may want something but your emotions may be pushing you to another direction. You have to work on that. Do not allow your emotions to override what you truly want. It is very necessary to put God in your plans. Work on your emotions. When you put it together, your spirit will also align to the path that you desire. Hence, your spirit is aligning with what God wants and you are propelled to do His work. Your Mind and Change, If you desire a change in any area, maybe in your studies or relationships with other people, you must begin by addressing your mind. Don’t sit back and muse, “I’ve tried everything I know. I’ve prayed and fasted about this problem; still, I’ve not succeeded.” You may have tried all that you know and failed. Now try managing your mind using the Word of God. The Bible says as a man thinks, so is he. Renew Your Mind To renew your mind means you manage it effectively so it can produce the best results for you always. You can get into your mind and decipher which files need to be deleted, and which ones need to be downloaded and installed. You can determine what adjustments you need to make in the structure of your thinking. That’s mind management. It’s the primary principle for increasing your value, multiplying your success and upgrading your life generally. Manage your mind You see, where you are today is a function of your mind. Now that you’re young especially, it’s so important that you begin to manage your mind rightly, because the kind of future you’ll have will be a direct result of how your mind functions. If you don’t manage your mind properly, it won’t produce any good for you. How you live, what you do, the character of your words, and the totality of your personality are all the expression of your mind. Your mind is an instrument given to you by God to improve your life from glory to glory. You have to see first in your mind the things you desire for your life and create them. Thoughts are pictures of the mind that have power and create realities. Mental Pictures The quickest way to affect your thoughts is through mental pictures. Every man is the character of his thoughts. Your mind can make you poor or make you rich; it can put you in a place of glory or in a place of dishonour. The Bible tells us about Lazarus, a righteous man who was a beggar (Luke 16:20-21). When he died, he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, but he lived and died a beggar, not because that was his destiny, but because that was his mindset. Romans 12:3 says God has given to everyone the measure of faith; so it’s about what you do with your faith. If Lazarus had projected himself in faith, envisioning his rich heritage as the seed of Abraham, he wouldn’t have remained poor. The Mind is a tool Use your mind to focus, and project yourself to your next greater level. However, don’t disdain or berate others who are yet to attain your level of reasoning. Don’t compare yourself with them; rather, understand that each of us is at a different level of faith, and gifted differently. How do you think? Jesus often challenged the Jews to think right. Use your mind correctly, to picture your glorious and victorious life in Christ. Your mind is very important. It’s the door to your spirit, and it’s also the door from your spirit out, to bring something into the natural world. The underlined portion of our opening verse tells us, “Be ye transformed (metamorphosed) by the renewing of your mind….” This means you exchange your thoughts for God’s thoughts; you cast away your carnal thinking, your fleshly ideas, and receive His glorious thoughts and ideas. The latter part of it says, “…that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The word, “prove” is from the Greek – dokimazo— meaning to scrutinize or examine. Simply, it’s like the Customs official who’s assigned the responsibility of disallowing illegal exports and imports- interdiction of contrabands. Once he sees such, he disallows it from entering the country. That’s what that scripture is making us understand as the result of renewing the mind. You’re able to “prove,” that is, scrutinize the thoughts you allow to go through your mind, to be sure they’re consistent with God’s Word and His perfect will for your life. You Are What You Think Now that you’re born again, you’re required to think of excellence and only see pictures of excellence. Focus your mind on things that are pure, just, honest, lovely, virtuous and of good report (Philippians 4:8). You can’t afford to continue with the old way of life; you’re different now. Ephesians 4:22-23 says, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” It’s expressing the same thought: think and live differently now that you’re a child of God. As you do this, you’d be giving vent to the glory in your recreated human spirit; the beauty of the Spirit in you will be revealed on the outside in an ever-increasing measure. Hallelujah! The Bible says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3). The Hebrew word translated “peace” is “Shalom”; it doesn’t just mean peace in terms of quietness; it also stands for health, prosperity and rest. It refers to the rest of God with prosperity, health, strength and salvation. However, these things are essentially determined by the content and quality of your mind. When your mind stays on the Lord and His Word, you’ll experience perfect prosperity, health, rest, and strength. It’s that simple. Your mind is very important to God. That’s where He seeks to work. If He can get a hold of your mind, you can be everything He wants you to be. You can become as healthy, prosperous, and successful as you ever want to be. So, it begins with the mind. Why is your mind so important? It’s because God has fashioned the mind as the instrument for your transformation. The Bible says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). There’re no limits to what you can achieve, and absolutely no restrictions to how high you can propel yourself in the highway of victory when your mind is governed and regulated by the Word. With your mind established on the Word, the possibilities are endless. So always fix your mind on the beautiful realities of the Word. It’s an effective way to create the ideal framework and system for your life and make the most of the unique life and blessings God has given you.

PS: As the Year of the Prevailing Vision approaches, your mind is key to becoming everything the word of God has revealed about you. You must stop allowing all sorts of morbid things to dominate your mind evil dreams, family patterns, curses, past failures, trauma, emotional issues, negative words spoken against you, mistakes, woeful decisions of the past and so on must be purged out of our systems. We must know who we are in Christ and see what is now ours in Christ.
-GSW-