The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (22 page)

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s we press deeper into the power of right believing, I want to show you practical ways in which you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Right believing is all about renewing your mind and uprooting the wrong beliefs that shape your thinking and behavior. That’s why the Word of God says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2). I like how the New Living Translation says it: “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.”

It’s clear that if we desire to enjoy liberty instead of bondage, joy instead of fear, and peace instead of anxiety, then we need to
allow God to transform us by changing the way we think so that our minds are renewed through the power of right believing.

This is not about behavior modification, which is just outward. We are talking about being transformed by the Lord from the inside out. Behavior modification is sustained by your own discipline, self-efforts, and willpower. It works only as long as you keep on working. We are talking about change that comes from an inward heart transformation sustained by the power and love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His power and grace work best when we stop striving and depend wholeheartedly on Him.

Renew Your Mind—Be Christ-Occupied

God wants to change the way we think by shifting our thoughts from self-occupation to Christ-occupation. Our human tendency is to be focused on ourselves. In other words, we are prone to excessive self-introspection and are easily susceptible to becoming preoccupied with ourselves rather than with Jesus.

Very often, we are not even conscious that we are self-occupied. This could be happening to you right now. You don’t believe that you tend to be occupied with yourself? All right, whenever you look at a photograph with a bunch of people including yourself in it, who do you look for first? Your mother-in-law? Of course not. You look for yourself.

Like it or not, to some degree, we are all self-occupied. Of course, looking for yourself first in a group photograph is not a serious issue—most of us do that. The problem occurs when our thoughts
are centered on and preoccupied with “I,” “I,” “I,” and more of “I,” while Christ is noticeably absent from our thoughts.

Have
I
done enough?

What is wrong with
me
?

I
have so many weaknesses and shortcomings!

I believe that many of our greatest pains, struggles, and miseries stem from us being “I” centered. Self-occupation is the reason for many of our failures and defeats. When people become overly occupied with self, they become obsessed, oppressed, and inevitably depressed. The only way that we can be delivered from occupation with self is to be occupied with Christ. We need to be occupied with the One who is greater than us and worthy of all our praise, worship, and adoration.

That is why God gave us the Bible. It’s not a rule book of dos and don’ts. It was given to reveal the beauties of the glorified Man, Jesus Christ, so that when our hearts are utterly absorbed and engrossed with Him, we will find peace, freedom, and rest for our weary souls.

Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Notice that He doesn’t say, “Come to Me after you have examined your heart.” All He says is, “Come to Me… and I will give you rest.” You don’t have to be perfect to come to Jesus. He wants you to come to Him just as you are—with all your bondages, addictions, and failures, and He will give you rest from all your mess.

When you become occupied with Christ, you will become increasingly untouched by the things that hold the world captive. It doesn’t really matter anymore what this person says about you or what that person thinks about you. You are no longer a slave to their approval and good opinion of you when you are established and secure in the approval and good opinion of Almighty God, the Creator of the universe.

The Problem with Self-Occupation

Is your mind filled constantly with thoughts of how you have failed, how you have missed it, and how unworthy you are? That is symptomatic of someone who is clearly self-occupied. Thoughts like that cause a person to develop an inferiority complex. They start feeling like they are not as good as the brother over here or that sister over there. They are constantly berating themselves, thinking, “Why am I such a failure? I can’t even control my own thoughts. What’s wrong with me? Why do I always feel so down and depressed all the time?”

People who suffer from this are ever ready to condemn themselves. Their minds are clouded with negativity and pessimism. For example, when they see some of their friends talking and laughing, they think to themselves, “They must be gossiping and mocking me for the mistake I made last week.” In reality, their friends were only talking about a funny movie they had caught over the weekend.
However, because these people generally harbor thoughts of inferiority, they project their thoughts of inferiority and insecurity into every situation they are in. This in turn adversely affects their friendships and relationships with the people around them.

Self-occupation doesn’t just rear its ugly head in the form of an inferiority complex. It can also manifest at the other end of the pendulum’s swing as a superiority complex. There are people who think they are always better than everyone else. They are painfully arrogant, and they think their perspectives and opinions are always right. Do you know someone like that? Well, that’s self-occupation too. Whether you are feeling superior or inferior, your focus is still on yourself, and in the end that causes you great pain, misery, and heartache.

As long as our minds are not occupied with Christ, all of us can at times feel inferior and at other times feel proud, arrogant, and superior. Only in Christ will you experience true transformation and walk neither in pride nor in false humility. Both extremes are the product of our human flesh. When we are self-occupied, our flesh is strengthened and it is ugly. It’s no wonder the apostle Paul says, “In me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Rom. 7:18).

The good news is when you are Christ-occupied, the flesh in you becomes inconsequential and you begin manifesting all the lovely, wholesome, and beautiful attributes of Jesus unconsciously. The fruit of the Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, and kindness, flow through you effortlessly when your mind is renewed and occupied with the person of Jesus.

There are some religious people who get very uncomfortable when I use the word “effortless.” “What do you mean there is no
effort?” they argue. My reply is simple—a healthy tree bears good fruit without any strain, effort, or stress. When you are planted in the fertile soil of God’s Word and His grace, fruits of righteousness will manifest effortlessly out of your relationship with Him. It’s an inevitability! You cannot touch His grace and not become holy any more than you can touch water and not get wet.

Supernatural Transformation

When our minds are occupied with Jesus, we don’t have to try to be humble. In the presence of the Servant-King, our hearts become supernaturally transformed, and we will carry His servant heart. In other words, when you hang out with Jesus, all that He is will rub off on you. Your thoughts and your words will be full of the fragrance of His sweet presence and grace. All your inferiority and insecurities will melt away in His marvelous love for you. It takes people who are truly secure in Christ to be able to bow down and serve others with genuine humility.

Similarly, when you are courageous and bold
in Christ
and in His love for you, it doesn’t manifest as fleshly pride and arrogance, but rather as complete dependence on Almighty God. Think of
how young David charged down the Valley of Elah and challenged the giant Goliath, while the rest of the well-trained and full-grown men of the army of Israel cowered in fear. Was that simply a display of youthful bravado or a genuine dependence on God?

To the untrained eye, David could have appeared like an impudent little brat. Especially since the loser of this one-on-one battle would enslave his entire nation to the enemy. The fate of the entire nation of Israel was at stake. But we know where this steely chutzpah comes from when these bold words of a mere teenager resonated throughout the valley: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the L
ORD
of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (1 Sam. 17:45). From his words, we can tell that young David was clearly occupied with the Lord of hosts and not with himself or his abilities.

When your thoughts are occupied with the Lord, you become a giant slayer! Are there giants in your life today that need to be slain? Like young David, occupy your mind with the Lord, and God will fill you with the courage and audacity to overcome all your adversities. Listen to the words of David in Psalm 18:29: “For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall.” Let these words of faith and boldness be established in your heart. With God on your side, nothing is impossible!

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus

Christ-occupation makes you bold but not superior, humble but not inferior. Doesn’t that sound so much like our Lord Jesus Christ? Here, then, is the key to being occupied with Christ:

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

—2 Corinthians 3:18

The more you keep your mind, your thoughts, and the eyes of your heart on Jesus, the more you are transformed into His image from glory to glory.

Stop looking at yourself! Stop dwelling on negative thoughts about yourself and feeling lousy. Turn your eyes away from you, and look at Jesus. Your freedom from every fear, anxiety attack, bondage, and addiction is found in the person of Jesus.

In the preceding chapters, we dealt with how to win the battle for your mind. While spiritual warfare is real and there is a devil that is out to accuse and condemn you in your mind, I also want you to know that not every bad thought you have comes from
the devil. Charismatic Christians are notorious for this—they blame the devil for everything. They stub their toe on the bedpost when they get up in the morning and think it’s spiritual warfare. Come on!

There
is
spiritual warfare, but do exercise some godly discernment and don’t think that every bad thought in your mind comes from the devil. He is a defeated foe, and he doesn’t wield that much power and influence over our lives. My point is this: While it is necessary to understand that there is a battle for your mind and not be ignorant of the devil’s mind games, the devil should never be our primary focus.

Our primary and central focus is Jesus and Jesus alone. God doesn’t want us to be occupied with the devil or occupied with ourselves and our flesh. He wants us to occupy our minds with Jesus. Jesus is the answer to all our pain, misery, and struggles.

Understanding the Flesh

The flesh in us can produce a whole gamut of emotions and thoughts, from defeat, jealousy, greed, and lust to anger, inferiority, condemnation, and arrogance. As long as we are in this physical body, the flesh is active in us.