Many of us know the renewed mind is the key to releasing the power of God in our lives. Unfortunately, many of us read scripture after scripture and listen to teaching after teaching and still struggle with the same sinful and defeated thoughts year after year. We then wonder, why isn’t this working? In this article, I want to share some valuable insight about Holy Spirit’s role in mind renewal that many of us have neglected. I believe this insight will help you renew your mind.
I personally struggled with this question about the renewed mind for years because I studied the Bible and had good biblical doctrine (the same doctrine as people like Andrew Wommack and Joseph Prince), but I didn’t seem to get their results when I prayed. I would think to myself, “Why aren’t things working the way they are supposed to? Why don’t I have more victory?”
The key to all of this is understanding what the renewed mind is. The renewed mind is not just having solid biblical doctrine where we replace lies with truth. That’s an important key, but there are many people who have strong doctrine and intellectually know truth and live in defeat. The Greek word for renew is anakaínōsis. This word means to renovate.
When a person renovates their home, they shift things around. They tear into the substructure, knock down walls, and in some cases even raise the roof. A renovation is more than a fix-up where a person paints a wall and adds a knew sofa. When a room is renovated, it looks completely different. We see the room with a new perspective.
This means renewing our mind is more than just legalistically memorizing scripture. Memorizing scripture can be helpful, but the secret to mind renewal is inviting the Holy Spirit to breathe life on the scriptures we read and help us to see from God’s perspective. This is why 2 Corinthians 3:6 says for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
This is all so different for many that I’m going to say it again. The renewed mind isn’t just memorizing scriptures. The renewed mind sees from God’s perspective. This happens through the Holy Spirit, which Paul revealed in Ephesians 4:23:
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind…
Paul didn’t want us to just add spiritual truth to our current frame of reference. He wanted to shift our frame of reference to the same one Jesus has, which means we see from heavenly places. Seeing from victory is far different than seeing from flesh trying to obtain victory.
This isn’t just theory to me. It’s something I’ve lived out personally and it has given me victory. For example, several years ago I had a friend hurt me really badly. I knew I was supposed to forgive them and I intellectually wanted to, but I just couldn’t make myself. I was angry with them and I wanted to end the relationship, but I received counsel that wasn’t wise so I maintained the friendship. I spent the next year of my life trying to forgive that person (they had already repented to me), but I just couldn’t get my emotions in line and get over my hurt and anger. Deep down I resented them and just wanted them out of my life. I hated I felt that way, but it’s where I was and I couldn’t seem to change.
Finally, out of desperation and wanting freedom, I cried out to God and asked Him to show me them from His perspective. God then showed me a picture in my mind of Him walking them toward me and restoring the relationship. Intuituively, I knew our friendship was blessed and I would be able to trust them again. After living through almost two years of anger and resentment, my mind and heart were healed and I forgave. Now, the friendship is as good as ever. That is an example of a renewed mind!
The Apostle Paul didn’t just want us to intellectually know what God knows, He wanted us to see from God’s perspective so we could have a renovated mind. This is why Paul prayed the eyes of our understanding (imagination) would be opened in Ephesians 1:15-20:
15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
I’m praying these verses over you as I close this article. I pray the Lord gives you eyes to see things that you don’t currently see so you can see from His perspective and walk in a greater degree of freedom. I hope this article has encouraged you. If you’d like to learn more, check out this message I recently taught at Grace Life Church.
