My Mind Was Working Against Me (Until God Changed It)

0:00Hello, hello friends. Welcome back to a thousand and one steps. Your favorite young adult Bible study and podcast. If you're new here, my name is Tia and I am your lovely host. Today we're going to talk about mindset and the Lord has had me reading the book of Romans. I don't know if y'all have read Romans before. I've read it multiple times but it was something about this read that just opened a whole new world to me. I mean, Romans is good. Romans, it's good. Like I started reading it and you know, okay, I compare Romans to a fruit snack. Stay with me, right? Have you ever had a fruit snack and you're already expecting for it to be good. Like, you're about to pop it in your mouth. You just know it's going to be tasty. But when you pop it in there, right? When you throw it up, catch

1:03it. You realize it has juice on the inside. It's one of those first thing fruits next. You know, like the gushers? It's like gushers. Top tier. Amazing. Even better than just a regular fruit snack. That's how I felt about reading Romans this time. I was like, bro, what is all this extra goodness here on the inside that I did not see the first time around? Like when I tell y'all, I went from having like three notes in the book of Romans to having so many. It's so many notes. Like I, it's stuff written all over this paper. So good. Praise the Lord for growth and just for showing, you know, showing me different things within his word. Like that's, that's the amazing part about reading God's word. Last single time you read it, he is going to reveal something new within it for you. Now before we hop into this topic and really talk about mindset, let's pray. I've been

2:07feeling like the Lord is wanting us to open up with prayer. And so let's invite him in. I pray before these podcasts, but I've been feeling like I need to pray during them. So let's pray. Holy Spirit. Hello. We welcome you into this space, God. We, we open up our hearts in order to receive what it is that you have to say to us on today. God, Lord, I just thank you for continuing to walk with us. I thank you for continuing to be with us on our journey. God, we found out at the beginning of this season that you are with us in every single thing and every single challenge and every single calling you are with us. And so God, as we step into our callings, as we walk with you, as we step into relationship Lord, we just thank you for being with us in every single step. I pray for the hearts of those who are here. I pray that they're able to hear you. I pray that they're able to even see you in the midst of my testimony, Father God. And Lord, I just pray that you are using this for the building and uplifting of your kingdom in Jesus name. Amen.

3:08All right. So today we're talking about mindset. And I want you to like quickly sit and think about what your mindset was like pre Jesus, you know, in your before Christ days, you know, in your BC days, what was your mindset? What was it like? I can say personally, my mindset was not the best. I've always been who I am. And my mom even called this out of me. She told me before I even came to Christ that my ministry is in hope that I'm always able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm always able to see how God is going to show up. Right? I just have such great optimism. And I'm not going to lie. It's I do have optimism. I do have a lot of hope. I'm not going to lie to you. I really do. The main way that the enemy trying to attack me in my BC days was with depression, was with mental

4:12health. And y'all know what the thought was in the midst of my depression that there was no hope. Isn't that I have never thought that I've never had that thought until this moment. Isn't that crazy? That the very thing that the Lord instilled within me to help build his kingdom, to help point people back to him, to help others and help myself. Remember that he is the light that he is always there, that there is always hope. That very thing is what was attacked in my BC days. I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I remember one of the ways I used to try to describe what it was like to be depressed to other people, at least in my own experience, was that it felt like the walls were closing in, felt like the like I was drowning in the sea of darkness. And I could see where the

5:20light was, but I could not reach out and grab it. And it was often, I would have that thought and that feeling a lot. But it was often right at the moment of no return when I would feel myself. And you know, now I look back and I know that it was God, but I could feel myself like reach up out of that darkness where I'm like, I ain't nowhere else to go. This is as bad as it can get. This is as dark as it can get. I have to fight back. And in those moments of fighting back, I would reach for the light and let me tell you every single time I reach for the light, God grabbed me and pulled me out of it. I could not see it then that he was there and he was pulling me out of it. I'm trying not to cry on this podcast. I was not even supposed to be talking about this. However, the enemy attacked my mindset because even more than we know it sometimes, the enemy knows that

6:26we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. And so he will come in and he will try to attack the very thing that allows us to be transformed and to be more like Christ Jesus. And so when we find God, when we come to God, we have to be very aware and very careful about our mindsets. See, when I came to Christ, I brought that same mindset of hope and optimism to my relationship with God. Did I think every day was going to be beautiful now? But did I trust him to deliver me from depression? Yes. That was actually one of my main things that I brought to him. Like, Lord, look, I'll walk with you. I will not live with this forever. And even outside of my mindset being set on that, I was speaking that. I didn't recognize it at the time. You know, I'm really, I'm really talking in retrospect. Didn't recognize it. But I spoke it. Lord, I am not going to deal with this for the rest

7:28of my life. Sometimes you have to speak things as though they were speaking over yourself. Okay, if we are made in the image of God and he is able to say let there be light and there was light, then guess what? You can speak something over yourself. The world calls a manifestation, but you can speak something over yourself. And it will come to pass. The Bible tells us that there is power in the tongue. I don't know why the Holy Spirit is taking us this way, but I know that he is intentional. And so this is for somebody. There's power in the tongue. Speak life over yourself. But you know what? The tongue can only speak what it knows. It can only speak the things that you allow yourself to think and meditate on. Right? Like it's what comes out of a man that defiles him. Right? It is the heart. It is what you truly believe about your life and about

8:33your situation. It is your mind set that makes a difference in how everything around you looks. Okay, let's read Romans chapter 8 verse 5. And I'm going to keep reading. I'm reading from the NIV version. And I know we transition. We're not really doing the whole like teaching thing here. We're going to do that in the Bible study space. I just really felt like we should read this together. So you have a good frame of reference of where this thought even came from in my head and why I felt like the Holy Spirit wanted us to address it. So it's Romans chapter 8 verse 5. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires. But those who live according but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is dead. But the mind governed by the spirit is a life

9:39and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. Man, when I tell you when I read that, I literally wrote out to the side, what's your mindset? This points to the importance of the renewal of the mind. And another thing that really stood out is a mind governed by the flesh cannot please God cannot please God. What does it look like to live according to the flesh? Right. All right. Living according to the flesh at least for me look like living however I wanted to. Whatever Tia wanted to do guess what she was going to do. Just that. Like there were no constraints.

10:43There was no dying to self. There was no telling myself no. If I felt like I wanted to do it, I did it. I'll tell y'all. I told y'all last. Now I told y'all in the first episode of the season. You want to talk to somebody who's been in the world. You got to right here. Okay. I have been done that. All right. There's nothing you can throw at me where I'll be like. What? I cannot believe you would do. No. I'm telling you people tell me their life stories or no. Let me tell you this. I'll start telling people my testimonies on what God has delivered me from and the things that he's done and they're saying like we never would have thought that. Like listen. You know, you know, I'm who God created me to be. What can I say? What can I say? Anyways, living according to the flesh really just looks like living and walking your life out knowing that there is more knowing that some

11:51of the things that you're doing like I always have this feeling deep down that I was not doing what I should have been doing. I knew it. I understood that full well. And yet I did it anyways. And so it's really listening to those tempting voices. It's listening to, you know, that feeling deep down. I want to do this. So guess what I'm going to do? That's right. I'm going to go do it. It's even understanding like let's say you are a Christian, you can still live according to the flesh because you can understand what the Word of God says. You can know what the Lord calls you to do and still decide to do what your flesh desires. You know what? Let me actually pull up that verse that tells us what the what the fruit of the spirit is versus the fruit of the flesh. I'm going to pull that up real quick. Okay, here it is right here in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit.

12:51Actually, let's back up verse 19, the acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissentions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. So there's a list of what it's like to live according to the flesh. I mean idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of anger, like all of this stuff that we understand inherently isn't good for us and yet oftentimes we step into it anyways. It's when you're living according to the flesh, it is very easy to step into those things. I don't know what it is. I would I was never an angry person, but I know some people who were living according to the flesh and they were very angry and I was the person that was like, Ciao, are you okay? And the thing about the flesh is we are

13:55able to let those things go. They're very obvious to us. You can tell when your flesh acts up, like I had a conversation in our leadership meeting a couple weeks ago where I was asking for critiques and I mean, look, it's hard to take critique. It's hard. Okay, I know it's not just me, but it's kind of difficult. I was asking for people's critiques on an event that we had somebody brought up a specific critique that I felt was like, I was like, I don't know how I could have done anything about that. And my pride said, make sure they know that while that's a verin valid what? While that's a fair and valid thing to say, there's no way that you could have planned for this. You are not God. So make sure they know that. And it's just crazy the way that like pride will try to sneak in, but I knew like as soon as we have that conversation as soon as it

14:57was over, I was like, yeah, I'm going to have to call them and apologize. I called on the lower first. I prayed first. I was like, Lord, forgive me because that was not okay. But the acts of the flesh are obvious. And so when you think back on your before Christ's days and you think about your mindset at that point in time, as you were giving your flesh, everything that it wanted, you're feeding your flesh in whatever ways or maybe you weren't, right? Maybe you were better than me. Think about your mindset. Where was your mind at? And now let's transition to your after Jesus days. Hallelujah. Thank you. God. He saved us all. Praise the Lord. And if he hasn't saved you yet, salvation is available. Check out the end of this video. Okay. We got a video for you. Think about your mindset after Christ. Now I told you all that when I came to Jesus, one of the things I brought to him was, Lord, you're going to have to heal me from this depression

16:00because I will not carry that through the rest of my life. And the Lord did just that. One of the biggest shifts that I've seen in my life since coming to God is that my mind has been transformed through this book, through reading this book, the Holy Bible, the Word of God has changed my life. Not even kidding. Because when I read verses like Romans chapter eight, verses five through eight, I can recognize that there was a time in my life where my mind was so set on what I desired that I was missing God completely. But when I shifted my mind to begin to look at what my spirit desires to look at what God desires for me, that is when I experienced the greatest breakthrough.

17:02When I stopped being so worried about self and started being worried about the God who created me, everything changed. Not only did my mindset shift, but my actions begin to shift to line up with that mindset shift. It was like, for example, and I use this example a lot because this has been one of the most prominent things that I've seen on the Lord shift within me when it comes down to my struggle with lust, right? The Lord showed me just how he viewed this stuff in the spirit. He showed me his original design through his word. This is what I have for you. This is the good that I have for you. And this is where you are. I'm sorry. And this is where you are.

18:05Here's what I have planned. And it's so good. It's so great. You're over here. And while you may think that you're experiencing what I have for you, you're not. Because it's a good that I have for you that you can only experience in obedience to me and you're over there. And so it was through God shifting my thought process. I remember the day that God told me, Tia, this is not the good that I have for you. And when he told me that my actions begin to shift to line up with the shift that he was doing within my mindset. So we have to remember that we are changed. We are transformed through the renewing of our minds. And the best way that we can renew our minds is to continue to come back to the word of God. We cannot allow our flesh to take over one of the biggest words in this season, not only in my life, but in honestly, I believe the community of Christians is

19:10obedience. It is, are you being obedient to what God has told you to do? Are you walking in obedience with him? Have you been obedient to the last thing he told you to do? If not, go back and do it. And it takes shifting the mind. Because when God tells you to do something oftentimes, your mind and your flesh fights back, it resists. Because the flesh, the flesh is not attracted to what the Spirit is attracted to. They oppose one another. They literally go in opposite directions. And so when your father, when the Holy Spirit speaks to you and says, do this thing for your life, your spirit is going to say, yeah, and your flesh is going to say, no, we don't want to do that. And what you have to do, then, is to go where the father has said to go. But you got to fight against that flesh. And if you have not been renewing your mind to know that what God has for

20:12you is good, that he will not harm you, that he is only calling you into something that he's going to walk through with you. Right? Remember Psalms 23 where he says, even either I walk through the belly of the shadow of death, have no fear. For I am with you, like, I'm right there. I'm right there with you. So if you feel like in your life, you still can't seem to feel the fruit of the Spirit. You know what? Let me, let me read that to you as well. Same place, Galatians chapter five. Let me tell you what the fruit of the Spirit are when you begin to walk in the Spirit, when you begin to shift that mindset and truly listen to what the Spirit is saying. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So when you begin to truly shift your mind to have it focus on Jesus Christ, to have it

21:16doing the things that bring life, the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. When you shifted, you began to experience the fruit of the Spirit, which was given to you a salvation, right? You have it, but you just have to tap into it. Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If God has already promised us all of those things, why do we continue to live according to the flesh? Why do we continue to allow our mindsets to be opposite of what God has for us and what he desires for us? Why do we continue to walk towards death and our actions? And in the way that we think, why do we continue to speak negatively about our lives, speak things that God has never spoken over us? Why do we continue to do so? We need to begin to check these things on today to check our mindset. What is your mindset? What is the mindset that you have each and every day? And how can you begin to shift it to look

22:20more like Jesus? Thank you guys so much for joining me for today's episode. I truly hope you enjoy talking about mindset. All right, what is your mindset? What is God doing and shifting and transforming your mind on today? Make sure you are in your word, okay? Be transformed by the renewal of your mind through the word of God. If you have not done so already, please hit that like button. If you love this video and if you would like to support this channel, please consider subscribing and hitting that bell so you can be notified when we upload every other week, every two weeks. There's a new episode on Tuesdays at 7 a.m. I do have a question for you and I want to talk to you down in the chat. What is one thought pattern that God may be inviting you to surrender to him on today? What is one thought pattern? God may be inviting you to surrender on today. If you did not know a thousand of one steps, it's also a live Zoom Bible study that happens every Monday at 7 p.m.

23:23Eastern Standard Time. If you are interested in digging in the topics like this, but really digging into the word and getting into the root of the word, like really digging into the word, studying the word, you should join us for Bible study. It is amazing. It's a group of young adults who understand that we could have taken a thousand steps away from God in this lifetime, but he was always one step away from us. I love you guys so much. I will see you all in two weeks. Bye!