Soul & Scepter - Ruling Your Thoughts with Pastor Joshua Clay

I've got to start out this this message.

The the title of my message today is soul and scepter and

we're going to talk about ruling over your thought life because I

found. You know what, we'll read this

Scripture first because I see that we have this, this

statement being made in our society and in churches.

But Ephesians chapter 12, chapter 6, verse 12 says this.

It says for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but

it's against rulers, against powers, against the world forces

of darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly

places. And when we say this, I think a

lot of times, believers, it's like a passion of mine to try to

take the spiritual concepts and make it real for you to walk

away and do something with. Because when we say our battle's

not against flesh and blood, it's a spiritual battle.

Well, unfortunately, a lot of believers just kind of use that

as an excuse to be like, well, send the Lord's hands when

nothing of the gospel, nothing that I've read in the Bible

alleviates your responsibility in any area of your life.

So if there's a battle going on, that's a spiritual battle.

I found the spirit battle is the root of the problem and then we

have the fruit of the problem that manifests out in the

natural. But somewhere in between there's

a blockage. So today we're going to talk

about what's in between because we know it, it should go without

saying, but we'll say it for the sake of saying it.

That the spiritual battle that we're that we're fighting, it

says we wage war not against flesh and blood, but it's a

spiritual one, right? That means we understand it's

going to be a prayer battle. Jesus fought 0 battles without

prayer. First, he goes out and spends 40

days in the wilderness. Just like Pastor Chase told us

last week. Jesus is out there in deep

prayer, in fasting, spending time with the Lord to deal with

a battle that came and manifested in the natural in

front of him, and the devil began to tempt him.

And throw thoughts in his mind. This is all found in Matthew

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4. And again, I'll say this because

we always say this, you're not obligated to believe one word I

say this morning. Just like Apostle Earl says,

just like Pastor Angie said, just like a Pastor Chase said

your. Job is not to take what I'm

saying at face value and believe it because I said it.

Your job is to go back into the scripture and verify what what I

was saying is. So by the Holy Ghost, so in

Matthew chapter 4, Jesus goes out empowered by prayer in the

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

supernatural, then gets tempted in the natural and gives a

response to the enemy. Every time it says what it is

written, it is written. Now this temptation that he was

given, you understand, those were mind games.

I went on a study and I, you know, I've read through the

Bible a couple dozen times at this point in my life and I

thought every time there's an issue of sin, it always first

starts with a thought. Every time, every instance where

I see someone has a failure in the word of God.

And then I zoomed out from the word and went into life.

Every time I've ever known of a sin that has taken place in my

life or in someone else's, it's always begins with a thought

first. So we wage war in a spiritual

battle that manifests itself. Many times it says we wage war,

but there's many battles that can take place within a war.

And I found most of those battles are fought right here,

right here in your mind. And, and I'll just tell you, not

that I'm trying to foreshadow too much to the end of this

message, but Jesus came and through his death, burial, and

resurrection did not come just to redeem you spiritually.

He came to redeem every single area of your life that was

affected by sin. He came out to just change your

spirit. He came and gave you everything

you need so that you could change your thinking.

So we have to go back to the beginning.

I can never get up here and miss.

It's like we haven't ever exhausted Genesis chapter 1 and

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

2. And I would venture to say that

until the end of time, we'll never exhaust the depth of what

happened in the garden. You have problems today in your

life because of what happened in that garden.

Jesus showed up on the planet and redeemed us because of what

happened in that garden. So in Genesis chapter one verse

26, we see he says let us make man.

God says let us make man in our image according to our likeness

and let them what? So God didn't give man a

religion. He didn't give him a, a, a list

of things that this is how you sing songs on on a certain day

of the week. This is how you should preach

messages. What he gave Adam was his very

best and it was the ability to rule.

He crowned him with dominion and then gave him a territory to

rule over. That territory was Earth.

What was Adam made out of? So we should say this this

morning, God didn't intend man just to rule over the dirt of

the planet. He intended man would rule also

over the dirt of his own self. See, so many people are like, I

want the dominion of this Kingdom, yet they can't dominate

their own thoughts. They can't dominate their own

choices. Yet Jesus came to empower you to

dominate both. So this spiritual war that we're

waging, you understand, Jesus came and through his death,

burial and resurrection, made it available for you to have the

new birth and be born into the Kingdom, which changes your

spirit man. It changes you on the inside,

who you are, your nature, the root of the problem.

But I know people who pray the prayer, who make the commitment

that he's Lord, make a covenant with him, and then all of a

sudden go out and live the same way.

How if your roots have been changed, why isn't the fruit

different? It's because in between there's

this concept that we call the renewing of the mind.

So after he gives man dominion, he crowns him with, with

perfection, with thought, with perfect thoughts, with

righteousness. All Adam knew was to obey God.

The perfect plan was that Adam would hear the word of God,

believe that what God said, and then act on it.

Yet there's a spiritual battle that happened in the garden.

We pick up in Genesis chapter 2, and Eve, Adam's wife, shows up

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

in a tree and we see a serpent, right?

We know this is the enemy, which tells me the war that's being

waged was already there in the garden as well.

So Eve goes up and she's talking.

I'm going to paraphrase for the sake of time today, but she's

talking to the serpent, and the first thing that he brings her,

he doesn't touch her and put cancer on her body.

He couldn't do that. He doesn't come in and hypnotize

her. If this is a.

Spiritual issue, we got people walking around, we're finding

hypnotists and people with crystals and all kinds of things

trying to tap into a spirit realm.

And Eve failed in the spirit realm because she missed it in

the mind realm first. So whenever Eve shows up, the

serpent comes and brings a thought, he has a theological

debate. He says what did the Lord say?

And she said don't eat or touch of any tree of this of this tree

in the garden, don't touch it, don't eat it.

And he said, what'll happen? She said, I will, We will die.

And he said, you will surely not die.

He brought a contrary thought. In fact, that's all that his

domain can do. That's it.

The only thing that he can do is bring contrary thoughts.

And people wonder why they struggle in their life and

they're wondering why it's a it's a struggle in their mind

and, and they've got challenges in life when really it comes

down to you're struggling because you're listening to the

wrong voice. God spoke His word, He was clear

in the garden, yet she was crowned with glory, crowned with

right thinking. But the moment she listened,

believed, and submitted to the wrong voice, she traded her

crown of glory for a crown of chains that then, from then on,

humanity. Was bound in their mind and

couldn't think right and couldn't think straight.

They couldn't get their thinking together.

Anxiety became a problem. Depression became a problem.

Thoughts of hatred, thoughts of thoughts of murder became a

problem. You were saying the first murder

that happened was outside the garden with the children of Adam

and Eve. Her choice to just disobey God's

voice and eat the fruit caused murder to enter her family.

You know, we got people right now saying, man, they're,

they're not in their right mind. Has anybody ever heard that

phrase? Oh, the, oh, there's I suffer

from anxiety. Has anybody ever don't say that

You've said that, but has anybody ever heard somebody say

that? You were saying Jesus came to

fix that just as much as he came to fix your spirit.

We have so many diagnosis in the in the world that we live in

today, so much in psychology that tries to place a bunch of

different labels on just a problem of an unrenewed mind

said, well, you know, I've been diagnosed with this, an

unrenewed mind. If you're not born again, sure,

there's a whole bunch of stuff that you're going to suffer from

for the rest of your life. Because until the root of the

spiritual war is taking place, you'll never win the battle of

your mind. Every action that's ever been

done begins with a thought. We can start thinking of stories

right now in the Bible. The historical account that the

Bible gives us. I'm telling you, there's never

been a better documented account of history or more widely

distributed or more widely translated document than the

Bible that tells us the truth about where we've come from and

where we're going. In fact, the Bible also has the

greatest handle on the human condition.

You can talk to me about Plato and Socrates and all these other

people throughout history, but in the end, Jesus had the best

handle on the human condition. Solomon, David, people that were

close to God, they had the best statements.

Think about this in Proverbs 23 seven.

Proverbs 23, seven, let's put this up and let's look at this

together. It says for as he thinks within

himself, so is he. There's another translation that

says as a man thinketh in his heart, that's who he is.

If your thoughts weren't important, come on.

Let's just, let's use our brains.

Whenever I became a believer, when I became a Kingdom citizen,

God didn't tell me to check my brain at the door.

My spirit is redeemed. I'm able to comprehend the

things of the Word because of the Holy Spirit in me.

But with the Holy Spirit. And your brain, those two things

were meant to work together. Come on.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

When we go back to this Genesis account, the God that created

the heavens and the earth, the God that created the whole

universe is concerned about what you listen to, because look at

what he says to Eve. He whenever he looks and says,

Adam, where are you in the garden?

Where are you once he finds him? Adam says we hid ourselves

because we were naked. Then what's God's first question

for his failure? Who told you that?

Who told you that? He's asking what voice have you

listened to that wasn't me. Then if we Fast forward and we

get the guy who, you know, came and redeemed us, right, the

living embodied truth, Jesus Christ, he shows up and in in

his last moments. I find it interesting that he

asked the same question of Pilate.

Pilate asked him, he says, listen, are you a are you the

king of the Jews And Jesus goes, who told you about that?

God himself is continually asking believers today.

I promise, he's saying. Who told you that?

You realize that fear? Anxiety, worry, these are all

learned behaviors. We're not born innately to able

just to fear things. Adam didn't wasn't made and then

went, Oh my God, what am I going to do?

It's not what happened. In fact, even little kids you

can see when they're when they're first born, they trust

whoever it is that's that they're in the care of.

Throughout life, throughout circumstances, throughout things

that we experience, we begin to learn how the world in its

fallen state operates. And we begin to learn fear and

we begin to learn anxiety. And that was never God's plan.

That's why when Jesus showed up, think about it, His good gospel

was the Kingdom. God's governing influence on the

earth is here. But the first thing that he said

was repent, because the kingdom's back.

That means you've been trained to think the wrong way your

whole life. You've been trained with wrong

thinking. Your mind has been wrong since

the beginning of your existence. But when the Kingdom shows up,

it's the same call for every believer in 2025 that it was

back in year 3. Repent.

Change the way you think because you'll never enter into the

kingdom's fruit, even though the roots been dealt with.

If you can't change your mind and how it operates, well,

somebody's like, it's just how I am.

That's just, you know how I've just always been like this.

Jesus didn't show up for you to say I've always been like this.

He showed up, said you've always been like this.

Here I am to set you free. The problem with salvation is we

think we were saved from an end result.

When you're saved from what brings the end result, you're

saved from sin and the thinking that brings sin into your life.

Wrong actions come from wrong thinking.

Right actions come from right thinking.

So if somebody keeps saying, well, I'm in a pattern, I just

can't seem to break free. It's maybe it's not your spirit

man that's the problem. Maybe you refuse to take.

Responsibility over what God can't change.

Put up Joshua 1/8. Joshua 18.

Great book of the Bible. Joshua was telling the children

of Israel this. He says this book of the law

shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on

it night and day, day and night, so that you may be careful to do

according to all that is written in it.

Leave this up here. Meditate is this word that it's

not. It doesn't mean you sit down

with your hands in a certain way, crisscross applesauce and,

you know, close your eyes like something from The Lion King.

OK, but meditate literally means to turn over and think on

constantly in your mind. Meditation is a problem for

believers because you're given the option of what to meditate

on. Too many people meditate on what

they're going through. Too many people meditate on and

they're turning over in their mind that conversations that

they had that they wish they could have responded different

because they're not as quick witted as they wish they were.

And when the person said that, here's what I could have said.

I also could have said this and I also could have said this and

you're meditating. You're meditating on something

that you weren't built to meditate on.

What was Adam built to meditate on?

The word that proceeded out of God's mouth.

But then we look at Joshua and he gives us a clear picture.

He says, don't let the book of the law, the word of God, depart

from your mouth. Meditate on it night and day.

That means when you're laying in your bed at night, you're having

a sleepless night and you're riddled with anxiety, you're not

meditating on the right thing. He doesn't say just meditated on

a Sundays and on Wednesdays he says meditate on it every day,

every night. But then in the end, look at

this, he says do all that is according to all that is written

in it for then you will make your way prosperous, then you

will have success. Who makes your way prosperous?

OK? Who guarantees your success?

Who's making you have success? Too often we're trying to put

responsibility on God when he's given you the responsibility in

the dominion. God can't renew your mind.

He can change your whole spirit and give you a brand new spirit

on the inside, but what he won't do is renew your mind for you.

He's the God of empowerment. That means He's given you

everything necessary for you to do that yourself.

So when you go to God and you say, oh, oh, it's so bad, Lord,

just help me, help me. He's saying I've given you

everything you need. That's why I don't really care

for it. When there's songs, you know,

you go certain places, they sing songs.

I want more of you God. You're not going to get more of

God than he's already given. When you got born again, He

placed a brand new spirit, man, lacking nothing inside of you.

The problem is you got to spend the rest of your life getting

your mind to catch up with who you already are.

This isn't a video game where we get to unlock new levels every

time we come to church and we get to unlock.

No, all you're doing is getting a revelation of what's already

inside of you. When you go into a trial or a

temptation or a problem, what's already there is enough to

manifest. But the problem is people are

destroyed because they don't know.

They don't know who they are already.

When people say, oh, I suffer from anxiety because you're

ignorant, the problem in your mind is not anxiety.

The problem in your mind is you don't know who you already are.

I struggle with depression. You know, you struggle with

meditation. That's what you are.

Let me diagnose you. You can go to a world doctor and

they say, oh, you battled with bipolarism and I'll say no.

You battle with identity, and that's only found in the Bible.

We're running to the world looking for a medication of

something that the Bible says. It's like medicine to my spirit

and my soul. What are we doing?

So there's a lot going on in our world right now.

There's a lot happening on social media.

There's a lot happening in the news.

And the last thing you need to do is start going, well, what,

what are they saying? And listening to the news more

than you're listening to what the Bible says about it.

Perfect love casts out all fear. And if God is love and the love

of God has been poured out or shed abroad in our hearts, you

don't have an excuse to say you're afraid.

What can you be afraid? What is God afraid of?

Somebody you know, somebody, raise your hand.

What is God afraid of? And nobody can, nobody can give

me an answer because he's not afraid of anything.

Yet that God lives in you greater is he that lives where

in me than he that's in the world.

So why would I look to the world for answers when every answer

that can be found, every answer that brings true life and true

meaning is found in the Word of God.

But we were made to obey first. And I need him to make this

connection because the word of God, like we saw in Joshua that

you meditate on the word so you can observe to do it.

He didn't say just know what the word says.

He said no, you need to meditate on the word so that you can know

how to apply it in your life. Because I would say that a lot

of people are suffering from mental health problems because

they've really suffered first, an obedience problem.

If you look at the life of Saul and you go to Second Samuel,

first and second Samuel and sees Saul and David and how this

plays out, Saul is anointed of God.

The Holy Spirit comes upon him like just like it did the

prophet, priest and king. He was able to prophecy by

unction of the Holy Ghost. This guy was full of God.

And then we Fast forward in the story to where he's sitting

alone in the darkness of his own palace, tormented in his mind.

Spirits are riddling his mind. He's going to call somebody in

to play a harp for him, an anointed person to come in and

play a harp. We have to say what?

Happened in between. We've got a guy prophesying as

the oracles of God and leading in the Nate God's peoples and

all of a sudden he's riddled with depression and anxiety in

his mind and can't break free. That starts acting on thoughts

of murder and and hurting other people.

You're like what is going on? But in the middle we find we can

pinpoint where it happened. That God says, listen, you're

going into battle, you're fighting a battle, you're making

sacrifices, but this next battle, I want you to go in and

annihilate all of it. Don't have one selfish thought

in the midst of what I've called you to do.

And Saul goes in and knows what God said and do.

What the word? Was and was full of the

anointing and went in and said I want what I want.

And you know what? He never repented from that.

From that moment on, Saul became a disgraced king.

And if we're all called to have dominion on this earth and

called to reign as kings and Queens over this planet and

reign in life in this Kingdom, you understand there are people

walking around that are disgraced kings and disgraced

Queens because they've refused to obey a simple word from the

Lord. And they wonder why there's

calamity in their life and in their family.

It's not God's fault. If I'm going to stand up here

and be a spokesman for the king, he's never failed.

If there's a problem going on, it's not because he didn't

fulfill his word. He fulfills his word every time.

So if we're missing something, if something's gone astray, if

something's not lining up, we got to search ourselves.

We got to take the personal responsibility and say, where

did I miss it? Because if you look at the very

next king, King David, he, he thought a dumb thought on the

rooftop, I like her. I want her body.

He came, brought her in, slept with her, has committed the

adultery, Vince said. I've got to try to cover this up

and murders her husband. At this moment he's a disgraced

king. But somewhere with the man of

God, approaching him with the word of God, he makes a change

to where now he's a redeemed king.

And I'll tell you every time, the difference between disgraced

kings and redeemed kings is this word repentance.

Saul refused to repent. He refused to take

responsibility for his own actions.

And then David did the opposite. He said, I have sinned against

God and sought out forgiveness and then never did it again.

People say, oh, I repented from that.

Then why do you? Why do we keep going back to it?

David was not the example of that.

David blew it. Yeah, he blew it that time and

did not do that again. Yes, Saul wallowed in his own

self self induced problems. His disobedience then caused an

open mind to come in and let be affected by other thoughts.

You don't throw a spear at God's anointed King David because

you're thinking right. That comes out of wrong

thinking. Which tells me we've got a lot

of maybe believers, but even people in the world that are

running to pill bottles looking for a harp in it.

In fact, they're coming to church and coming from

conference to conference and worship to worship so they can

hear a harp that'll drive away something they were made to

drive out themselves. Just because you show up and

lift your hands doesn't mean that temporary anointing's going

to carry you the rest of your life.

You've still got to change your mind.

Just because you can silence the lies that are in your head, just

because you can silence them momentarily doesn't mean you've

dealt with them by driving them out.

That's why I'm not impressed. Just because you come down to

worship doesn't mean you're a spiritual person.

A spiritual person knows that they have the right to choose

the spirit or choose the flesh. These are things to think on

today because the last thing that I want to see is a bunch of

believers running around and not have the fruit they're supposed

to have because they haven't taken their responsibility.

See When you Got Born Again. Romans 10/9 and 10 gives us a

clear picture. If you confess with your mouth,

that means make a covenant that Jesus is Lord, Master, ruler,

supreme and authority in your life, your owner, that you will

be born again brand new. That the picture that it gives

us is that your spirit man, Jesus didn't come, die, be

buried and resurrected so that he could clean you up.

He came so that he could kill the old.

Remove it. And they give.

You something brand new. That's why at the end of every

month we have water baptism. It gives us that picture is that

whenever you stand there in the water, you're saying my old

spirit dies and is buried. And then when he's raised up,

you're raised up to newness of life in Christ.

The life of God that's in Christ Jesus becomes the life that

you're now anointed to live. But the problem is what he

didn't do is he didn't come over to Mr. Gus and he didn't say

you've got a brand new spirit. And also, Bam cracked open his

head and gave him a new brain. So the problem is when Mr. Gus

got born again, his spirit has changed, but he still thought

the same way on the inside. He now has the ability to live

right and the ability to know God and the ability to commune

with the Spirit of God. But in his mind, he's got to go

somewhere to find out how am I supposed to live?

That's why the gospel Jesus brought wasn't a gospel that

just says, hey, just hold on, one day it'll all be better.

Just trust me. No, everything that he mentioned

in between his birth and his death was to empower you to live

the Kingdom right now in your life.

If your thinking is wrong, hey guess what?

Jesus came to fix that. And this is the battle we face

with the world today. It's not a battle of just

spirits. That's the root.

But the problem is in between the the root and the fruit is

the thinking. So there's a battle for the

thought life. The enemy wants your thoughts,

and so does God. In fact, because there's this

divine law of free will, God will never violate your free

will, which means the only way He will lead you is through your

thought life. He is spirit, and our spirit

communes with His Spirit, but the way that Spirit communes

with our spirit is through thoughts and truth.

See, everybody's looking for truth.

If we go back to that conversation with Pilate, Jesus

looked at him and said, who told you this?

Wondering where did you get this truth from?

But then at the end of the conversation he says, you said

rightly, I am a king for this reason.

I was born and came to testify to the truth.

He who hears my voice hears the truth.

Then Pilate asks, what? What is truth?

I have found that the pursuit for truth in the human heart is

really just the pursuit for reality.

That's all that it is. What's reality?

We have the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, to lead us and

guide us to what's the reality of the situation.

The reality is not what labels somebody's put on you.

The reality is you've got a spiritual issue that now is that

is being diagnosed as something that's a mental issue.

And in the end, God fixed both. Romans chapter 12 verse 2.

Romans 12:2

Romans chapter 12 verse 2. This is just.

Romans 12:2

It's crazy to me how some people miss this in their personal walk

with the King that he says listen, you got born again and

do we can we all agree on the inside who you were is forever

changed. You couldn't ever earn that.

It's by grace through faith alone.

Your faith in who he has changes your spirit.

No good works you could have done could have changed your

spirit. No action you could have taken,

no no devotion, no sacrifice could change your spirit.

That's proven throughout all history in the old covenant.

But then we get the writer of Roman says do not be conformed

to this world, but be transformed.

Did our did our spirit not get transformed when we were born

again? So why is he now telling born

again church people to transform themselves?

It's because the root was taken care of and transformed.

But the fruit will never be transformed until we transform

it by the renewing of our minds so that we may prove what the

will of God is, that which is good, acceptable and perfect.

You realize the perfect life is only as far away as your ability

to renew your mind and believe what God says.

Come on your faith when we talk. About faith.

Have faith. That means a firm persuasion

based on something I've heard. That means I've heard something,

I believed it, and I am firmly persuaded that it's true, and

now I'm going to act on it. And that's how faith works.

Everybody on this planet is operating in faith.

Everybody. Eve, when she disobeyed God's

command and obeyed the serpent, put faith in his words and she

acted in faith. That's why we have to read where

he says have faith in God or have the God kind of faith.

Why we need to believe the words that God's saying.

See your thought life is multiple things are being thrown

at your head. Multiple things are being

continually bombarding this mind of yours.

In fact, that Peter even wrote in one of his letters, he said

the enemy Satan is roaming about like a roaring lion, seeking

whom he may devour. And if you look in the original

Greek of these words that he was using, that word devour is like

a picture of a lion that is hovering over this carcass that

is licking up the final remnants of its blood.

He's done that much damage. He's cleaned the.

Bones and is sucking up the rest of the blood from this carcass.

It's a that's a graphic depiction of what the enemy is

wanting to do in your life. But he said the devil roams

about like a roaring lion seeking for somebody that he can

destroy their life to that point.

But that word devil's important. Devil is not his name.

It's his job description. When you see the word devil in

the Bible, it's describing what he does, not who he is.

He's got other names. We got, you know, Lucifer, we

got Satan with those things used.

But when you see the word devil used, this is a combination of

two Greek words. And listen, you want me to

pronounce that you got the wrong clay?

OK. But the first Greek word they're

used in devil is the word that is dia, which means to penetrate

all the way through. Then the second word, however

you say it means to throw with the intention of hitting over

and over. And it's this word that is like

it's derived from the the bolo weapon.

Has anybody ever heard of a bolo?

Has anybody ever watched a Western movie where they have

this rope and it's got these weights tied to the end of it

and they throw it and when they do, it wraps around.

It's a weapon that has to be thrown all the time.

So when we put. Together the word.

Devil, it literally means somebody who is continually

throwing with the intention to penetrate all the way through.

Then we read through Ephesians right and we got the the armor

of God. Instead, we have the shield of

faith that it quenches the what? Firing darts to the wicked?

What are these darts? What is he trying to do?

He's throwing thoughts. Because if God himself honors

free will and all that he'll do is give you thoughts, you

understand Satan has the same thing.

He cannot do anything other than just give you a thought.

If you fail, if you act unrighteous, if you sin against

God, it's not because the devil made you do it.

But it would be fair to say the devil made me think it.

It's because the devil made me do it.

No, he didn't, but he definitely made you think it.

And what you did is you entertained the thought.

You meditated day and night on something that wasn't the law of

God. I mean, think about it when you

say entertain, right? If I, if I invite, you know,

Rafael Eloise over to my house or if they, if they knock on the

door, right, I open that door, I go, Nope, not today and slam the

door. They go away or they camp out in

front of the door. But either way, they're not in

my home. But if I say, hey, come on in

and then I feed them something and then I have conversation

with them, what do we call that? We are entertaining guests.

The same thing works in your brain.

Every single thought that comes at your mind doesn't mean it

needs to be let in and fed. In fact, he said, every

imagination that exalts itself above the Word of God should be

taken captive. The mind of every person should

have a foyer. And a holding cell in front of

it that every thought that comes, you put it in this place

and say, what does this align with the word?

Does this align with what God says?

If it doesn't, you cast it off. If it does, you receive it in

and you meditate on it and that thing will feed you and carry

you through any trial and tribulation, any kind of

circumstance you would go through.

The word of God comes and brings the answer, but there's always

the either or. If you're saying, well, I'm not

meditating on the word, you're meditating on something else.

Nobody is sitting out here thinking nothing.

Sometimes I wonder, but I know nobody's thinking nothing.

Your mind always has something going through.

In fact, even right now while I talk, I'm not going to try to

get into the science of the brain, but you understand your

thoughts can go way faster than your mouth.

As I'm talking, not only are you hearing what I'm saying, but

you're also rattling off other scriptures in your mind, maybe

that back up this point or other thoughts that you've had or

other guilt that you may have where you said I haven't done

this and. There's a lot of other thoughts

moving. Faster than just what I'm

saying. And I'm saying so fast, my

beautiful wife, Pastor Danny's over here, Simon, her hands are

smoking. But we have a problem in this

world that we live in that we've got a whole, we've got a whole

world of people whose minds are wrong and they don't understand

that Jesus came to redeem the heart, the spirit, and the mind.

I want to give you a few statistics real quick, just so

we can put this in perspective, that one in eight people in the

entire world are diagnosed with a mental disorder.

One in eight mental disorder, 300 million people suffer from

anxiety every day, and it's reported 280 million people

suffer from depression just in the US alone.

One in five adults have mental illnesses and live with them and

are medicated for them. One in five.

That's a terrible percentage for even a place like this. 19% of

US adults annually have anxiety or disorders that affect their

physical health. We can trace a lot of diseases

back to issues of the mind. There's people that are

completely healthy yet have a disorder where they always think

they're sick. Suicide is the second leading

cause of death amongst people ages 10 to 34 in the US.

From 10 years old to the age of 34 years old, it's the second

leading cause of death. You understand the great tragedy

of suicide is that no one's ever done it and not thought it

first, which tells me even in believers that thought should

have been dealt with with the renewing of the mind.

So many issues that plague our nation plague our even our

families and our extended families that you were coming up

into into October, November. This is a time where we're going

to get together at Thanksgiving. And you know, not everybody's

family members all love the Lord like you.

Do you want to hear the hot topics like anxiety, depression,

anger, fear, worry, stress. All of these things get brought

up around Thanksgiving by family members every time.

And this also tells me that you can have a born again somebody

that's that's got the nature of God and the spiritual part of

their life is, is taken care of. Yet they can go out and think

wrong. And when they're alone in their

bedroom at night or when they're when they're waking up and

traveling to work, driving by themselves, what are they

thinking? No one's ever taken their own

life just on a whim. It's something that's been

nagging like the devil does, and throwing a thought and throwing

that thought over and over and over until it penetrates deep.

Into here. But Jesus came not just to save

you from hell, He came to save you from a mental hell.

Because I'm telling you right now, there's people in here,

there's we've got a whole, a whole gamut of, of different

types of beliefs and people that have come into this room right

now. There's some of you that have

been in the word for a while. And this is just a great

reminder for you to just stay on top of reminding yourself

there's some people in here this morning that probably have never

heard this before in their life. There's some of you that may be

like, I don't even know what the Bible is about, and I came here

for the first time. I'm telling you, the good news

is not that Jesus came and died. That was sad.

The good news is that his death and his resurrection brought you

the ability to be whole in every single place in your life.

That anything that was lacking in your family, anything that

was lacking in your upbringing, anything that's lacking inside

you right now can be made right through the Word of God

manifesting in your life. But the challenge is your spirit

can be whole, but your mind has to go on a journey of being made

new. See when we talk about this

Kingdom message, the reason we always start so often when

Genesis chapter 1 and 2 is because that was God's perfect

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

scenario. That man heard the word of God,

obeyed the word of God, had a right mind, a right heart, and

was just living in the Kingdom in their dominion.

Yet when Jesus showed up, we use words like He came to restore.

Have you ever heard that He came to restore mankind?

We came to redeem humanity? Have we heard that?

That means that little prefix RE means to bring back to

something? And we've seen Apostle Earl do

it, you know, 100 times, right? Like, I've got my phone right

here and this is my will. It's to be right here on this

podium. The perfect place that I want it

to be is right here for the rest of service.

Yet something happens and Pastor Chase comes up and knocks it

down and it has fallen. For me to restore it or put it.

Back in the position it fell from, where do I put it with me

so that it can be safe and not have to fall again?

No. For me to actually bring

restoration, I have to put it right back exactly in the place

that it fell from. This was God's plan for humanity

through Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection.

Not to bring you to heaven where He is, but to put you back on

earth in the position and authority Adam had in the right

way of thinking that Adam had. That's why when Jesus shows up,

the first thing he said is repent That little RE.

Shows up again, go back to the right way of thinking.

That was in the beginning. That's why in Romans chapter 12

Romans 12 · chapter mention

verses one and two, he says be transformed by the renewing, not

the newing of your mind. He doesn't say, hey, get a new

mind, you know? He says renew because it denotes

returning your mind back to the way it's supposed to think.

See, God's word doesn't just come and give you a good option

of how to live, it comes and gives you back the original

right option that you were made for.

God's word isn't here just to help you think better, it's here

to think the way you were destined to think.

Nothing that Jesus did, nothing that the word does is just here

to be a benefit to our lives. It's the source of everything

your your beating heart yearns for.

Get us the one thing the enemy wants you to not think about.

Life's simple. Life really is simple.

Right now in in our in our five year old class, they sing a song

that says, read your Bible, pray every day and you'll grow, grow,

grow. Now my daughter Tori, she's four

years old. They sang her that song.

One day we came in the house, she was sitting praying this

great prayer. She's on her knees by the couch.

She's praying. We're like, what's she doing?

She's like, God bless my family, help help my cousin Mei Mei help

my mom and dad and you know, and, and she gets up and then

she goes over to her little picture Bible and she's looking

through it and me and Danny are just kind of in awe.

Like, wow, what a good little Kingdom kid.

This is great. And when she finished reading

what she stood up and she goes, I'm just watching like, what are

you doing? She goes, I read my Bible and I

prayed I should be bigger. Now I get it.

I get the principle works, but the growth is a spiritual

growth. The growth is a mental growth I

would expect. And we had to explain this to

her, right? And she's only four, but she's

doing this much. There's a there's a lesson to be

taught. I'm like, God will help you

physically grow. He made your body.

Don't worry about that. What you're doing when you pray

and grow, you grow closer to God.

You grow closer to the anointing.

You're going to have better thinking when you're older.

If you stay in the word in prayer, you're going to have a

better way of living because you're tapped into God was like,

but I want to be big and I said I don't want you to be big too,

but I want you to be big on the inside first because I know a

lot of adults that are big on the outside but so small on the

inside. Just because we teach it to 4

year olds doesn't mean you're ever free of it at 80 years old.

Read your Bible. Why do what, Joshua?

Said, let the word of God be meditated in your mind.

Think on the word. We could go so many verses.

I mean, Paul told us think on these things, right?

Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,

whatsoever things are of a good report.

You know where you don't find those?

Facebook. I don't care if you follow nice

Christian pages, you're going to have to find it somewhere in

there. So many people are meditating on

social media or the local news that they can't get their mind

straight at all. In fact, when they go in and

have conversations with people, they're thinking every.

All that comes out of their mouth is.

You know what's? Going on in the world right now.

I know what's going on in the world right now.

Can't even compare what's been going on in my heart.

Have you read your Bible? OK.

First Corinthians chapter 2 verse 16 says, for who has known

1 Corinthians 2:16

the mind of the Lord, that he would instruct him?

But we have what? The mind of Christ?

We have the mind of Christ. You're saying, well, you said

when we got born again, only our spirit may change, but God

didn't change our mind. You're right, we have the mind

of Christ. When every time I open my Bible,

I have full access to the mind of Christ, but there's still the

burden of responsibility on me that I would get this mind in

me. That's why Paul wrote a letter

to the church and said, listen, let this mind be in you, that

which is also in Christ Jesus. He didn't say you already have

this mind in you. That would say he said, let it

be, permit it. Permit the mind of Christ to be

in you. That means you have to give it

daily permission to manifest in your thoughts.

It's arguably the only life changing word.

Your heart, your spirit can be forever changed through the new

birth, but your life and the Kingdom coming from heaven to

earth through you comes only through mind renewal.

I can't act on the word if I haven't first thought on the

word. Jesus had a lot to say about our

our human condition. He knew that 2000 years from now

we would be working jobs to pay bills.

And in Matthew chapter 6, if we start in Matthew chapter 6 verse

Matthew 6 · chapter mention Matthew 6:24

24, I'm going to read you something that Jesus said about

your mind. And this should hit home for a

lot of people, especially if you've in your past dealt with

anxiety or worry or frustration that you seem to not be able to

get free of. Let me let me read this to you.

Matthew chapter 6 verse 24 says no one can serve 2 masters for

Matthew 6:24

either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be

devoted to 1 and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth. But I would like to say that

when Jesus talks, you understand it goes a little bit more than

just face value. When He said no one can serve 2

masters because you'll either love one and hate the other or

you'll be devoted to 1 and not serve the other, then that means

it's going to have to do more than just cash.

We've taught this from the financial perspective, but you

understand you can't serve God and also serve the words of the

enemy. Eve proved that out in the

beginning. Adam proved that out through his

disobedience. His submission to the enemy is

what forfeited his right to dominate.

So this goes for anything in your life.

You cannot submit your thinking to 1 and not also be negating

the other. You can't say I want to do what

I want to do without also negating.

I don't want to do what God wants me to do.

Well, I'm not obeying the devil. Well, you're not obeying God.

And there's an either or. He says for this reason, I say

to you, do not be worried about your life.

We can stop right there. Do not be worried about your

life. You know, you realize all

through the Bible when God speaks or Jesus speaks,

something I've never found where he made a suggestion.

He always gives a command. He doesn't just present you

options. He always tells you the exact

right thing to do. Either do it or don't.

That's how a king works. A king decrees his word and his

word becomes law. And a King's word is either to

be obeyed and submitted to or rejected and rebelled against.

Yet right here Jesus tells all believers, present and future,

do not worry about your life. See brother, I'm just so worried

that then would be disobeying the word of the King.

That would be how we define sin. Sin always brings about what

payment? Death.

So if there's. Death in an area of your life,

Have you been worried about it? Have you been consumed in a

thought that wasn't God's thought about that area?

OK, this is just questions, he says.

Do not worry about your life as to what you will eat, what you

will drink, or As for your body, as what to you put on for His

life. Not more than food is the body,

not more than clothing. Look to the birds of the sky.

They do not sow, nor do they reap, nor they gather the crops

into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not worth much more than they are, or more important than

they are? He says.

And which of you, by worrying, can add a single day to his

lifespan? And why are you worried about

clothing? Notice how the lilies of the

field grow. They do not labor, they do not

toil or spin. Yet I say to you that not even

Solomon in all of his glory clothed himself like one of

these. But if God so clothes the grass

of the field, which is alive today, and tomorrow is thrown

into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you?

O you of little faith, do not worry then, saying.

He says it again. Do not worry saying do not worry

saying. Yet for some reason I get around

Christians and they're saying stuff they're worried about.

Man, did you see what happened? I don't know what's going to

happen. I don't, you know, I got a bill

in the in the mail and and you know, you realize God, anytime

you've gotten a bill that was a surprise.

It wasn't a surprise to God. He's omnipresent.

He saw when they stamped it and sent it to you.

If somebody's calling collections on you, God was

there when they sent the letter in the 1st place.

So he's not looking at going, Oh my God, what are we going to do?

You know what I can't, I can't come through.

This is $300. I, I'm infinite.

I own the cattle on 1000 hills. But I'm going to have to fail

you this time. Well, it's silly, but there are

people who have genuine stress in their life when that shows up

and it's not laughable. You get worried about little

things, you get anxious about little stuff.

Whenever your job is to renew your mind to get into the word

of God, to meditate on what the God's Word says and live a

stress free life. Every Kingdom citizen is

guaranteed a stress free life if they meditate and apply the word

of God. If you have stress, it's your

fault because he says Gentiles are eagerly seeking after these

things, but your heavenly Father knows that you have need of

them. So seek first his Kingdom and

his righteousness and all these things will be provided for you.

God doesn't just say don't worry and then that give you a reason.

He says don't worry because everything that you could worry

about I'll take care of. If you seek my Kingdom and you

apply what my word says and stay in right alignment with the

governing authority, then the next verse we always read,

Matthew 633 writes seek first the Kingdom, but look at Matthew

634. He says, so do not worry about

tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

People don't lose sleep just because of what happened during

their present day. They lose sleep because they're

stressed about what will this produce in my future?

He says don't worry about your life, don't do it.

It is good because if we can get this, what can stop us?

That's why I love the words so much.

I love this message of the Kingdom because the good news

that Jesus brought is if you hear and obey like Adam was

supposed to, like Jesus proved that we can, if you do this,

you'll be unstoppable. What can be impossible for a

people who show up and hear the word of God, believe the Word of

God, act on the word of God, and aren't moved by what's around

them, they're unstoppable. What can happen for a body of

believers if they show up at Anchor Faith Church and they say

we're all in the unity of the Spirit because we all believe

what God said. We have acted on what God said

and now we're moving forward and saying what can stop us?

But it first has to take place in your own mind and in your own

heart. It does no good for you to come

in here and say Amen, Hallelujah and then stand up in your chair

and lift your hands, glory to God.

And then you go home and lay in your bed and think stupid

things. It does no good for for you to

have an an issue that needs to be dealt with.

And one of the pastoral staff comes and says, Hey, there's an

adjustment that we got to make and you go, Amen.

I'll believe it. Thank you, pastor.

And you walk away and you're like, man, I'm just so sorry.

I'm such a piece of trash. I'm not even good enough.

Why is God even? We've missed the point.

Are you saying what God's saying?

Are you thinking what God's thinking?

We were born to think a certain way and Jesus brought back that

way of thinking. He came and did all that he did

so he could restore you. He could get let you renew.

Go back to your original thinking.

You know, I think a lot in this, you know, in the past couple

weeks, a lot of things have been happening in our nation, in our

society. And it's caused people that, you

know, wonder the question, you know, would I, would I die for

what I believe? Would I die for this, this

Kingdom that I've, you know, so strongly say that I represent?

But so many people have probably said that to me where I would

have to look back at them and say you wouldn't because you

don't prove that you would be willing to die for something

unless you live for it first. I've never had to ask myself,

would I die for this Kingdom? Because in the end I know I've

proved that I would because I've lived for it.

I made the choice every day to apply the Kingdom, to know the

Kingdom. I've made the choice to put down

my flesh. That right there is enough for

me to say I have done what Romans chapter 12 verse 2 says,

Romans 12:2

present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable

unto God. Come on, that's your reasonable

service of worship. But it starts in changing your

thinking if you're not willing to start saying over yourself

what God says, if you're not willing to identify with what

God says. That's why I can't really stand

the, the, the when believers come and they're like, oh, I go

to a A every week and I say, I am an alcoholic.

You've missed the gospel. He didn't come to save

Alcoholics. He came to get Alcoholics

changed to not be Alcoholics anymore.

I'm just an alcoholic saved by no, you're not.

That's why it just irks me so bad when somebody's like, oh,

we're all just sorry sinners saved by grace.

No, no, no. The save by grace part means

that you used to be something that died.

Now you're something brand new. You used to be.

So don't identify. Let's see.

That's a problem in the mind. That's not a spirit problem.

God made you brand new when you were born again.

But in your mind you still can't get past.

Here's what I am. Oh, I'm just a human.

Human sin, we fail, we make mistakes.

No, no, no, not Kingdom humans. Are you a regular human or are

you a Kingdom human? That's why it's.

Difficult. I've been in places before and

you're ministering and people, Oh, you think you're better than

me? Yes, my life is better because

I'm in the Kingdom. If you're not in the Kingdom,

then you don't have the source of true life.

I don't think as a person, God cares about me more than he

would care about you. I'm not a better.

I'm not just better because God says that I'm better.

I'm better because my life is better because I based it on

better choices. So if you're asking me to

compare, your life is built on sand.

My house is my life is built on a rock like a house, and the

storms come. Which is better?

I have a better foundation because I've chosen the word.

I have a better foundation in my thoughts.

I'm not riddled by every time somebody says something negative

about me, but there's some people whose whole life

collapses and falls apart if somebody gives them negative

criticism. They go through and they're

reading on comments and they. You're opposed to think who's.

Saying what? What are they saying?

And they get so moved by that. When that's a storm of life,

Come on, people are going to disagree with you.

These things are going to happen.

And if you fall apart every time, it's probably because you

haven't based your identity on the word.

You've based it on people's opinions.

Hey man, let's wrap this up with Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Colossians chapter 3 verses one through 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Come on, this is for us. It says.

Therefore if you have been raised with Christ, have you

been raised up with Christ? Have you been born again?

Have a brand new spirit man on the inside of you?

Come on, if you've been raised with Christ, then what?

Keep seeking the things above, not the things that are of this

earth, for you have died and your life is now hidden with

Christ in God. So keep seeking the things

above. There's another one that says,

look, verse 2. Set your mind on the things

above, not on the things that are on this earth.

So seek what's above. Set your mind on the things

above. Let me break this down to be

actually really real for you for a minute.

I grew up in church. My my parents were associate

pastors at the church I grew up in for a time, which means as a

kid, I got to sit and listen to a lot of adults talk.

And there was this phrase that kept getting brought up by

people that would have to be correct.

But they would say, oh, you know, some people are so

heavenly minded, they're no earthly good.

Has anybody ever heard that? So heavenly minded, they're no

earthly good. And as a kid, I thought, yeah, I

can see that. And then all of a sudden, one

day I had this thought, wait, was Jesus heavenly minded?

In fact, who that has ever walked this planet was more

heavenly minded than Jesus, yet on the same side, who has ever

existed on this earth that was more earthly good than Jesus?

So when he says set your mind on things above, let me tell you

what he's not saying. He's not saying to be a weirdo

and walk around going, oh brother, I don't even think

about anything in in this life. I'm only thinking about heaven

and its rewards and its returns. No, no, setting your mind on the

things above from a religious perspective can be weird like

that. You're you're allowed to be

weird in religion. We're not in religion.

If we have been entered into a government called the Kingdom of

God, then setting your mind on the home country means the way

that it operates, its culture, its laws, its decrees.

Those are the things I think about.

So when I enter a situation, my mind being set on above doesn't

mean I'm ignoring what's on the earth.

It means that I'm getting my response from above.

So he's saying set your mind on things above doesn't mean, hey,

just walk around and don't try to think about anything that's

going on in your life and only think holy thoughts.

No, no, no. All of your thoughts come from

the throne. And and you know, not to

disappoint you, but it's not because he's going to have some

big booming voice from his throne and tell you what to do

every situation. What he's going to do is point

you back to his written, documented word.

See, as believers, we're called to not just renew.

Our mind. But once we've renewed our mind,

we are called to set. Our mind in that fixed unmovable

position of being from above.