A Beautiful Mind

Romans 12:2 NASB95

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Become a Warrior

Become a Warrior

Body, Mind, and Spirit

To prepare for a day of fasting and prayer.

My father was a high-school football coach: Natural Athletes (Eye hand coordination, speed (speed is born not made). His job was to take these natural athletes and develop the skills they would need to become successful football players.

But he would also take these natural abilities that they had, and improve them. He would physically and mentally push them until they became stronger and faster.

Becoming a warrior for Christ.

God takes our natural abilities that he created in us, and indwells us with His spirit. But he also pushes us, through trials, to become mentally stronger.

Mind is our greatest power and our biggest weakness.

God created us with superior intelligence

Genesis 1:28 NASB95

28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Physically we are inferior to most animals on the planet.

But because of the intelligence of humans, we have, in part, subdued:

Land: Motorcycles

Sea: Boats, ships, submarines

Air: Airplanes and even gone into space.

Humans have gone into space,

Greatest Inventions/discoveries of all times

Fire

Wheel

Nail

Optical Lenses

Compass

Paper

Printing Press

Electricity

Steam Engine

Internal Combustion Engine

Telephones

Vaccinations

Cars

Airplane

Rockets

Penicillin

Nuclear Fission

Semi-Conductors

Personal Computers

But man also created terrible things:

Gunpowder

Guillotine

TNT

Agent Orange

DDT

Sarin Gas

Land Mines

The Atomic Bomb

With the mind we can comprehend the existence of our creator, or we can be duped by a John Jones where in 1978 909 people committed suicide at Jonestown.

The Power of the Mind

Tibetan Monks: Meditation have been able to drastically lower their heart rate and regulate body temperature. 4 monks were put into a room at 39 degrees covered in wet blankets and were able to raise their body temperature to just over 100 degrees.

Another monk was able to make one hand warmer than the other.

The Placebo Effect: In 1957, a man named Mr. Wright hounded his doctor to allow him to try Krebiozen, even though he did not qualify for the experimental trials, because Wright was convinced the drug would cure him. His doctor finally consented and injected him with the cancer treatment. Wright immediately began to improve, and one journal article quotes the doctor as saying Mr. Wright’s tumors shrank “like a snowball on a hot stove.” However, Wright got wind of the failures of the drug, and soon after his tumors shot up in size. Worried for his patient, Mr. Wright’s doctor convinced him that there was a newer, better version of the drug which was guaranteed to work. Mr. Wright consented to trying Krebiozen again, but was actually injected with a syringe full of water. His condition immediately improved. Unfortunately, Wright then learned that Krebiozen had been declared ineffective by the American Medical Association and died soon after.

Nocebo affect: itching just talking about lice or bugs.

Visualization: Air Force Colonel George Hall POW 7 years. Every day played golf in his mind. Played in the New Orleans open and shot a 76.

Pain Management: Jack Schwarz was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. To withstand the torture he faced, he practices meditation and prayer. He could poke himself with a needle and stop and start the bleeding.

Hypnosis: Stop smoking, lose weight, turn babies in the womb.

Automatic processes: Riding a motorcycle

What the Bible says about meditation

Psalm 1:1–3 NASB95

1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Meditate: Ha-ga: to growl (like a lion) give serious thought to. Ponder.

Psalms

Psalm 119:15–16 NASB95

15 I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways. 16 I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.

Phil

Philippians 4:8 NASB95

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

So why does God want us to meditate on His word?

God knows how suggestible we are.

Proverbs 21:16 NASB95

16 A man who wanders from the way of understanding Will rest in the assembly of the dead.

Don’t think about an elephant.

People can manipulate that characteristic.

Go to buy a car/bike.

Do you have that one thing that will set your off?

Offer you something

make you feel that you are losing out if you don’t buy now.

Make you sit quietly alone.

Bathroom habits.

There are worse things than car salesman!

2 Timothy 3:1–5 NASB95

1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

2 Timothy 3:1-

2 Timothy 3:12 NASB95

12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Do you have that one thing that will set your off?

Story about giving the middle finger.

Thinking about God can save you from yourself.

Renew your mind

Romans 12:2 NASB95

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

2 Corinthians 10:5 NASB95

5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

Prepare for the battle

Romans 12:2 NASB95

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Picture the Elephant.

Spend some time in meditation.

Meditation is not prayer. Prayer is communication.

Meditation practice: picture your sin, picture the Christ on the cross.