Dear One,
The Lord bless you!
LAST CHANCE TO SOW INTO LIGHTBEARERS IN 2024!
We have a huge mandate from the Lord to get our schools of ministry into every nation by the end of 2030. Next year we will finish Africa. Plus Carl and Joe are leading HCs all over the USA, and about a dozen other countries. We are training teachers of the gifts of the Spirit online, and developing the Pneuma Institute, to train world leaders in the gifts of the Spirit, especially the genius anointing. Can you help us accomplish these things?
You can mail a check to:
Lightbearers Ministries Inc.
PO Box 3245
Costa Mesa CA 92628
Or you can just use the DONATE button below. Love you!
THE SOUND MIND
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Ps 147:3 NKJV
What does normal look like for a Christian? How would you define what a healthy thought life looks like for a believer? Our love and our faith flow out of our minds and our thoughts. Indeed, all the issues of life flow out of our hearts. So, to understand what a sound mind is and then how to receive is crucial to our living a more abundant life. What is the normal thought life of a believer?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Gal 5:22-23 NKJV
Back in the day, the US Secret Service was the best in the world at what they did, and one of their mandates was to protect the US dollar from counterfeiters. How did they go about and train for that task? Potential Secret Service agents were trained in the explicit detail of what the genuine dollar looked like, so that it was easy to spot the phony bills. They knew what NORMAL looked like in specific detail, so they could identify the false bills immediately. What does ‘normal’ look like when it comes to the thoughts and attitudes of the born-again ones?
The Lord puts huge importance on our thoughts and attitudes. You can do the right thing for the wrong reason and still jeopardize the blessing of God. One time someone sent a cash gift to the ministry I was working with but also sent a note saying he didn’t want to be part of what we were doing anymore. I sent the money back to him, saying you need this more than we do because your heart is not in your gift. Man looks on the outward appearance, the Lord looks on the heart.
So, what does a spiritually healthy heart and mind look like? It looks like the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace! Whenever I minister deliverance to an individual or a group, the first thing I ask them when we are ending the session is, do you have peace? I release the ones who have peace, and we go to work again with the ones who do not have peace. Demons can disrupt the inner harmony of a child of God to the end they don’t have peace, they are lacking in joy, and love is nothing more than an idyllic concept rather than a manifested reality. Children of God are supposed to have the fruit of the Spirit!
For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. 2 Cor 7:5 KJV
There are times when we are spiritually attacked and going through a heavy season. But like every storm, this should pass and we get back to the normalcy of the Fruit. Sin can be a powerful disruptor of the Fruit. Jealousy is a form of hatred and can block someone from receiving blessings. The antidote for jealousy is to rejoice in the success of others which then positions you for your own favor and advancement. The murmurers and complainers before the Lord died in the wilderness, not because the Lord killed them, but because they broke themselves against the immutable laws of gratitude and rejoicing. Do you see how important your thoughts and attitudes are?
One of my dear friends Joe confessed recently that one of the secrets of the success of his ministry is his attitude. When you are around Joe, you see that he is full of joy and ready to laugh continually. Joe has the fruit of the Spirit!
So, how do we obtain and keep the fruit of the Spirit? I want to hit the basics first and then advance to even covering some of the principles of self-deliverance. Yes, you may need deliverance, and you can drive those filthy demons out of your life without anyone else praying for you!
How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. Ps 119:9 NKJV
Remember, what NORMAL looks like is the fruit of the Spirit. We bought our first property in 2001. It was virgin land, having never been touched or developed. Before we could build our house, the first thing that had to happen was that the land had to be cleared of excess brush and trees, cleared and leveled. To do that our developer brought in a massive bulldozer and an operator who truly knew how to operate that equipment with great efficiency. By the end of the first day, he had the land cleared and leveled and had spared the big maple tree in back that I wanted and the two big pines trees in front. Then he went to work digging out the septic system and the foundation plot for our home. In short order he transformed that land into a property that would be useful for us!
The Word of God is more powerful than that bulldozer, and the Holy Spirit is a far greater Operator than that wonderful young man that drove that piece of equipment. As you read the Word, taking heed to what it says, the Word and the Holy Spirit will prepare the ground of your heart to make it a property fit for the King. When I first got saved, filled with the Spirit and into the Word, the HS turned my life upside down for over a year. I couldn’t find my old friends, but I was making new ones. The old shameful things that I did before I couldn’t do anymore. I didn’t look so different on the outside but on the inside the ground was being prepared as for a home for the King. Finally, after about a year, I got released to go back to my old friends and they either got saved, died or went to jail. My life was being cleansed!
So, the first key to the Fruit is to be reading the Bible daily in love. I once spoke to a group of bishops and asked them how many of them read five chapters of the Bible every day. Not one hand went up! I proceeded to tell them how unhappy the Lord was with them, and the reason they lacked the fruit of the Spirit was because they were ‘desperately dry’ when it came to the Word. They didn’t invite me back, nor did I invite them to go with me…so!
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Rom 8:13 NKJV
Praying in the Spirit, for all its wonderful benefits, will help you put to death the things that damage or corrupt the fruit of the Spirit. Speaking in tongues will build up your faith, one of the fruit as well. The fruit also work in a reciprocal relationship with the gifts in that they make them, especially the fruit of love, much more efficacious in our lives. Gifts and fruit, gifts and fruit; they walk hand in hand!
In the greater context of the subject of the sound mind, lets talk about self-deliverance. The first key in all deliverance is honesty, especially honesty about yourself. Let me say that you are responsible for your thoughts. You are not a victim. If you are miserable, you must take responsibility for your miserableness. Only then can you change things! Let me illustrate.
The old prophet got up in church and said out loud, “Consider your ways, says the Lord!” Instantly, I was down on my face, in the aisle, considering my ways. “You have three strongholds in your life,” the Holy Spirit said. “Pride, jealousy, and prejudice towards My people Israel.” Bam! Like getting hit with a strong wooden post right been the eyes! I had to acknowledge those strongholds before I ever would get delivered of them.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-10 NKJV
Unconfessed sin opens the door for strongholds. A stronghold is a pattern of thinking that accepts as unchangeable something that you know is contrary to the will of God. Poverty can be a stronghold. Sickness, deformity or disability can be a stronghold. Anything that is contrary to the will of God but you consider to be hopeless can be a stronghold. A stronghold can be the home of a ‘strong man.’ In deliverance, the strong man must be attacked and thrown out and the stronghold destroyed. Here’s one example…
One time I was having nightmares. I knew it was a demon, so I decided to attack him. I got up in the middle of night and said, “Mister demon, you stay right here because I’m going to read you the word of God out loud.” I didn’t get halfway through the first chapter of Ephesians before I saw in a vision that thing leaving me, and my house. It flew out a window, and I had peace. We are in a fight! What they teach you in martial arts is that if you are under attack…then attack!
This is real. Demons are real. I once heard Derek Prince say that he thought 80% of the people in congregations he ministered to needed personal deliverance. I’ve needed deliverance. Pastors have had pornography addictions. One time I heard a hotel manager say that a youth pastors conference had the most accesses of porn channels on their in-room TVs in the history of his hotel. Youth pastors! And yes, your hotel monitors such things…and they know who is in your rooms.
But you can overcome any demon and any stronghold. You can do this five-step process all by yourself, just you, the Lord, and the demon. Be thorough, be honest, be simple, be direct. Ask the HS to guide you through each step!
First, confess your sin before the Lord very specifically, with no excuses. Gut level honesty and transparency are required at this point.
Secondly, forgive from your heart anyone or thing that has ever hurt you, or you perceived that they hurt you. Say who they are, what they did, then say, I forgive you, and I love you. There is no true forgiveness without reconciliation. This is painful, but it is your path to freedom. You can even forgive the Lord. Some of us have grudges against God because, for instance, prayers weren’t answered when a child died. The Lord is totally righteous and just, but you perceived that He wasn’t, so He says, “Forgive Me, my beloved child!”
Third, destroy any physical thing associated with your sin. If you tied someone up in sex, or wore womens clothes, or had despicable written material, or subscriptions to awful things, destroy it all. Burn it. Don’t give it away, or care about its value. Destroy it.
Fourth, command the thing to go in the name of Jesus. If you have been honest and thorough about the first three steps the fourth should be easy. Many times the demon leaves before this fourth step. You should have peace, like a heavy weight has been lifted from you when this step is through.
Finally, fill your heart and mind with the Word of God until it fills all your thoughts, and the Word becomes your meditation all day long. You must do this or the demon could come back with seven of his friends, and you are back in the soup again.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Tim 1:7NKJV
A sound mind leads to a happy, blessed and favored life. The world says, “Happy wife, happy life.” But it is not true! Never surrender your happiness or your wholeness to the control or manipulation of anyone else. Then you can’t be a minister because you are a victim. The Lord gives you the strength and the authority to represent Him with your heart filled with joy, even in the midst of storms. Let’s rejoice in Him because, like Joe, we are filled with the fruit of the Spirit. Amen? Love you!
Remember dear one, we must be about our Father’s business…