Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi. Welcome back to Believe and Become. This is the second half of our two part episode on renewing your mind. Today we're going to talk about the five steps to renewing your mind. It's going to be transformational. Get ready. Get excited. As always, share this episode with a friend. If you find it helpful, follow rate and review. And if you're interested in doing coaching with us, go to joshandcorina.com coaching that's C O R I N A joshandcorina.com/coaching. Hope you enjoy the episode.
Welcome to Believe and Become, Spirit-led breakthrough for transformation that lasts.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: We're Josh and Corina Greegor, authors, speakers and freedom coaches who help Christians like you break free from anxiety, burnout and spiritual frustration by renewing your mind and walking in truth.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: If you're hungry for real, lasting change and ready to grow in identity, peace and purpose, you're in the right place.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Let's believe what God says and become who he created us to be.
In Joshua 1:8, the Lord commanded Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.
So God is basically telling him, meditate on the law by keeping it on your tongue. So speaking it, rehearsing it, reminding yourself of it, thinking about it day and night. So as you're going to sleep, you're meditating on scripture. When you wake up, you have a scripture that you're rehearsing and throughout the day, all day, all night, rehearsing the the scripture that you may observe it, observe to do accordingly. So what he's saying is as you meditate, you're actually creating a circumstance in which you will be obedient, in which you will walk in the way you're supposed to walk. And then that is going to create success for you in your life. And so this is just such a rich passage. How we are to live, how we are to overcome. Because Joshua's job was to lead the children into the promised land. And so what is your promised land? Where is it that God wants to take you, that things that he's promised you? This is how you get there, by meditating on the truth and that he has spoken over you, the scriptures that he's given you, the promises that he's made, rehearsing them day and night, reminding him, praying them back to him, calling your spirit up and saying, hey, this is what the Lord says, and this is what I'm choosing to believe. And you'll begin to walk in those ways. Changing your thoughts changes your actions.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: That is so good. I know that as I've gone through this process of renewing my mind, and part of that is doing declarations, finding God's truth, and saying it out loud every day, it starts to come out of you automatically.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: I'll enter into a situation where I would have been discouraged or afraid or anxious, and instead the truth that I've practiced comes out of me. I say, wow, my forward movement causes red seas to part, or I'm more than a conqueror, or, you know, you name it, there's all these scriptures start coming to mind, or the thing that I declared this morning ends up being, oh, well, that was the truth that I need to hear for this situation. Situation later today.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: So good.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: And it just ties into Proverbs 23:7, where it says, for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Our thoughts, the things that we've hidden in our heart, come out as who we are. It just becomes part of you. And so you get the choice to practice negative thinking, negative thoughts, and have that come out of you as who you are, or you can change that. We, God has given us incredible power and responsibility to take charge of our thoughts because it will change us. And his word is that powerful. And our words are that powerful. We have the power of life and death in our tongue.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: And so if we harness that for good, we'll be changed.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's so good. So let's talk about our coaching framework. This is something that we use with clients who maybe feel stuck in an area, who are consistently coming up against a lie and have trouble overcoming it. Maybe they might even know it's a lie, but they're having trouble coming. They're having trouble finding the truth. So, you know, sometimes we have heard, I want to renew my mind, but I just need the accountability, the help to do the work. Or I want to go into situations without fear. I want to thrive, not just survive. But I'm stuck in this negative thought pattern. And so this is the framework that we use just in this one area of overcoming negative beliefs and renewing your mind.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah. So the first step is to uncover the lies. And how do we do that? We do a little assessment of our hope level, and you think about the different areas of your life. Is there a place where you don't have much hope if there's not much hope? That area is under the influence of A lie. And you need to get rid of that, find the truth and replace it. And so you can, you can ask yourself, where am I lacking hope or joy in my life? And so our areas of belief are around God, ourself, other people, our circumstances, and the decisions that we're making. So think about those areas of your life and go, is there any place that I'm lacking help? I'm lacking help for my spouse or for my kid or for my job or for. I just have no hope that God's going to move in this situation that seems impossible. And so you can write that down. Or the other thing to do is just ask God, is there a lie I'm believing? Is there an area where I don't have hope? And let him guide you into that area.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think it's good to just start with one.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Yes. Don't ask all the lies that you're believing.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: Just start with one area. Maybe it's the biggest area where you feel the most stuck or the thing that's right in front of you right now, today, you're struggling with something. And so either ask the Lord God, what is the lie that I'm believing in this situation that's causing me to lack hope? Or maybe you know what it is. You might already even just as you're listening to us, you go, I already know what the lie is. I can see it. Can see it a mile away now that you pointed it out.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And sometimes there's layers, so there might be some surface level lie that immediately springs to your mind. Sometimes it's good to explore that with God and say, is there an underlying lie that speaks to my identity or my beliefs about you? Those tend to be, you get down to, like the foundational. Okay, this is something that I built a whole bunch of lies on top of. You want to get rid of that lowest level one, and that. That really is powerful for transformation. So step one is to uncover the lie or lies that you're believing. Step two is to just break up with lie. And so one of the best ways to do it, which sounded weird when I first heard it, is to laugh at the lie. And I was like, that is crazy. I'm not going to do that. That's. That's just ridiculous.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: That's weird.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: So weird. But it is based on Psalm 2, 4, where it's talking about God and it says, he who sits in the heavens laughs. God is observing what all his enemies are trying to do. And he's just laughing because they can't Touch him. Yeah, they have no power. They have no authority. Yeah, and it's the same with you. Jesus has all authority. He took it away from the enemy.
And so just follow God's example. Laugh at those lies. And so when we. When we laugh at the lie, it loses its power. We mentioned it earlier, but this is where it's helpful to do it with a buddy. Because sometimes you'll say a lie and you kind of go, oh, man, that actually really hurts because it feels really true.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: But sometimes when you say it out loud with another person, they're like, wow, that is laughable.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: Well, especially because you don't always see yourself accurately. I remember in college, had. I struggled with fear a lot. And I would just, like, anytime I would try to pray, I just felt this, like, darkness or presence come in, you know, or like, I would immediately feel afraid because I was praying, and so it was causing me to not want to pray. And I went to talk to somebody about it, and she was just like, he's lying to you. Like, the enemy is trying to convince you that your prayer is bringing him into the room. And. But he's a liar. And it's like, duh.
You know, when I look back on it, it's. It's so clear. Clearly not Jesus, obviously, but in that moment, it felt real. And so for me to try to figure out what was going on wasn't working. And so I needed to bring somebody else into that situation. But also just this idea of, you know, when I would be ministering and the enemy's trying to whisper in my ear that I'm being prideful or that I'm trying to show off or, you know, whatever, Whatever. Fill in the blank. And in your mind, it feels so real where it's like, oh, my gosh, I'm so prideful. Oh, my gosh, I'm so. Because he speaks to us in that I. I in the first person. Right. Because that's how he feels. That's how he is seeing himself. And so he's speaking to us that way and trying to get us to believe that that's how we feel or that's what we think. But it's so ridiculous when it's brought to light.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's how he speaks. Lies come straight from the enemy.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: That's.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: He can't.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Father of lies.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: He can't even tell the truth. So he just tells us lies and he tries to get us to believe them. And that's what keeps us stuck.
So breaking up with the lie so we can Laugh at it and then repent and ask God to forgive. You say, I'm not gonna believe this anymore. Repent just means to change the way that you think. So it's not necessarily that you did anything wrong or was sinful.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: It's like, I'm changing my mind.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: I'm changing my mind. I'm not going to think that way anymore. I'm not going to believe this lie.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: And so here's an example prayer that you could use for a lie.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: And you could just say it's the lie of I'm not important.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Okay. So say this. I nail the lie that I'm not important to the cross. I break all agreements I've made with this lie, knowingly or unknowingly, and I repent of joining with the lie that I'm not enough. I command all darkness and deception away from me. Thank you, Father, for removing all of this away from me. As far as the east is from the west.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: And just.
It's beautiful.
I just really felt like there's power in that to say I'm just going to break agreement with this lie. Jesus already paid the price for it to be just destroyed. He's already destroyed all the lies. And then that's where you believe the truth, and it releases freedom in your life. I just feel God doing that right now.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: And you may feel like a burden is lifted. You might feel peace come in, or you might not feel anything.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: And that's okay. Remember that our words are powerful and what you're doing is speaking something into existence. And so as you have spoken that lie over yourself, you're now breaking agreement with that lie. You're creating something new in your life. Now, this is my favorite part of step number two is that we ask God, what do you give me in place of this lie? God, I give you this lie. What do you give me in its place? And so often he will give us a picture of something beautiful, of a gift. If you see a gift, go ahead and open it because it's for you. You might have a feeling, an overwhelming feeling of joy or peace or hope. Or you might hear words like, I'm so proud of you, or Good job. Remember that God's voice is always kinder and. And more loving, gentle than our own. And so it's really important that through this process, you are encountering him, that we cannot change ourselves. I can choose to break up with a lie, but if I don't nail it to the cross and give it to Jesus and ask him for something to replace it, then I'm probably not going to be very successful in the breakup. Right. It's going to be one of those back and forth relationships for a while. And so it's really important that through the process, you're coming face to face with Jesus and that you're allowing him to speak into your heart and into your situation. Because just saying the words, it doesn't carry as much weight or as much authority as when we're doing it with him.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And I have found it helpful to use my imagination to visualize. You can even imagine what the lie looks like. So usually some gnarly green, nasty ooze, or it could be a dark cloud or something like that.
And then visualize boxing it up and just handing it to Jesus. You can even just do that in the physical, like with your hands. Jesus, I'm giving you this lie. Let him take it and ask him, Jesus, what do you want to do with this lie? He's really creative. He'll usually blow it up, shoot it out into space, or jump up and down on it, destroy it, shred it into a million pieces, and then let Jesus take care of it because you don't have to hold on onto it anymore. And then ask him, what do you want to give me in return?
[00:13:00] Speaker B: That's so powerful too, that using your imagination to visualize what it looks like to see what Jesus is doing in response. Maybe you've had trouble with your imagination, and right now I see him releasing grace for you to encounter him in that way, in that sanctified imagination. If you have Jesus in your heart, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and he has sanctified your imagination. So as you spend time with him visualizing, he is going to lead you and direct you in the right way. You're not going to get lost. So this is so powerful. When you attach the imagination and the encounter to this process, the transformation comes so quickly.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: So to recap, step one was to uncover the lies. Step two is to break up with the lie. And then the third step that we use with our clients is to discover the truth.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: And so this is actually pretty simple. We're just going to ask God, what is the truth about this lie? What are you saying about this lie? What do you say over me? What do you say over this situation? And then just listening and write down what you hear, what you see, what you feel, what you know, whatever you experience, you want to pay attention to that and write it down. And remember that God does not condemn us. He's Always going to speak truth that aligns with His Word.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: He's not going to contradict His Word.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And I find it helpful to ask for scriptures that support the truth. If you ask God for what the truth is and you hear a scripture, then ask him to speak into your heart about that scripture, something personal. Because I feel like that's really important. Some of us are just trained automatically to hear the scripture. Right. We know the right answers. And so it's just like the scripture just comes up. So if. If you hear a scripture or if you think of scripture, then ask him to speak something personal to your heart. But then the opposite is also true. If you hear something personal, then ask him for a scripture to support the truth that you're hearing.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And we did a whole episode on hearing God's voice. If that's something that you struggle with, go back and listen to episode number eight. And we have tons of tips in there and scriptures that'll help you with that. But we love to work with our clients and invite the Holy Spirit to speak into their lives. He is. I have found that God really, really likes to talk about lies and to discuss the truth with us.
Sometimes when you feel like I just don't hear God, I'm not hearing him in this situation, whenever I've brought up lies with him, he shows up and speaks the truth powerfully and. And almost immediately. And our clients generally hear very clearly what the Lord is saying over them. Just because this is key. This is a big part of what God wants to do, how he wants to transform us. And so you might not be ready to hear the truth about that other situation that you've been talking about or what job I need to take, or maybe it's not the right time for that, but it's always the right time to destroy lies and get the truth into our hearts and minds.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: And so what do we do with that truth? Step number four is renew your mind with the truth. So the truth that God spoke over you, the scriptures that you have collected, we're going to turn those into positive declarations. So if the lie was. I'm not important.
And then the truth that he spoke over you is that you are so valuable and precious to Him. And maybe the scripture that he gave you was that he formed you in your mother's womb. Psalm 139, that you're fearfully and wonderfully made, you're going to turn that into a declaration, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. God knew me in the womb as He Created me. He created me on purpose. I am so important to Him. I am special. I am beloved. And so you take whatever he said to you and turn it into I statements about your identity or about his identity. So God is a good father and he loves me so much. I mean so much to Him. I am so special to Him. Turn that truth into a positive declaration and then just begin to repeat it morning and evening, day after day.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: Yeah. And you want to just make that a habit of. I'm going to say this over myself as often as I can. So it's great to start your day with that, in the day with your declarations as well. But all throughout the day, if that thought tries to come back, that lie tries to poke at you again, you say, no, I'm not going to believe that this is the truth. And just then say it out loud again. And it's important to do that out loud as much as you can. Obviously, if you're in a place where you can't, that's fine. Just think it in your mind, but.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: Or whisper it.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Yeah, or whisper it. I've also found you can get your body involved. More emotion that you put in behind it, the quicker it will transform your thinking.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's in line with what you were talking about earlier about creating new pathways when you use your body, when you use emotion, your mind actually takes that as more valuable, more weighty, and it changes more quickly.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: And just. Okay, a little side tidbit. Our emotions don't tell us the truth, but it does tell us what we believe to be true. And so you can use that in reverse. If I can attach a positive emotion to this declaration, then it starts to implant in your brain quicker. So. And then the last step is to celebrate what God has done. And that's just to thank God that he's revealed the truth to you. He's breaking the stronghold off from your mind and giving you a new pattern of thinking. And just celebrate the progress that you've made. And it might not feel immediately like you're making progress, but every single time that you don't get as low as you used to be or you don't fall into that trap for months. Used to get stuck just in being depressed and discouraged for months. It's like I was. I was only stuck there for a couple days or an hour or even.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: A couple weeks compared to a month is huge.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: That's great. So celebrate and say thank you, Jesus. Jump up and down, God, you're doing an amazing thing in me. And that Celebration that brings the joy of the Lord is our strength. So it's going to give you more strength. It's going to reinforce this process that he's bringing you through and that you're being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: And remember that families celebrate progress, not perfection. God is not interested in you getting it right all the time. He's just wanting to walk with you in the process of becoming more like Jesus.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So those are the five steps to that we use to help our clients renew their mind. Step one, uncover the lies. Step two, break up with the lie. Step three, discover the truth. Step four, renew your mind with the truth. And step five, celebrate what God has done. We hope that this has been helpful for you. You can practice this at home with Jesus and go after those lies. You can do it.
And if you need help somebody to guide you through this process or to just provide accountability that you're actually working through it. To answer questions, we would love to work with you. Reach out to us. Check out our website joshandkarina.com that's C O R I N A coaching that has all of the information about our coaching program. We know that God is going to do a great work in you.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Yeah. At our website you can book a consultation with us so we can chat about the areas where you're struggling and can see if it's a good fit and see how we can help you. Because it is our joy to help believers walk in their true identity in Christ and to become all that he has created you to be. So we hope that we hear from you soon.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: As always, if this has been a helpful episode for you, share it with a friend and go ahead and send us a review or a note. Leave us a comment. We love to get those and hear from our audience, but we love you guys and we just want you to go out and live the best week you've ever had.
