December 20, 2010
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Understanding the Mind Part 2 by Pastor Don Moore
SAY AMEN, SHOW 170, UNDERSTANDING THE MIND Part 2 taught on 10-24-10
This is the closed captioning transcript for this show. What is in [brackets] is what the congregation said.
Alright now, lift it up. Lift it up, come on. This is [this is] the Word of God [the Word of God] It’s in my hand [it's in my hand] in my heart [in my heart] in my mouth [in my mouth] I love [I love] the Word of God [the Word of God.] Amen. [amen]
The human mind is an amazing and very amazing piece of equipment. It can process thought, but it also stores thought. It stores information. It begins working at the moment conception is achieved and then it works until the day we leave our body. The problem is that if we do not understand the mind, then the mind can be just as much a problem to us as it can be to our advantage and can be a blessing to us.
In Romans 1 verse 28, I think, yeah 28. You there? [yes] Anybody there? [yes] Look what it says. ”And even…” verse 28, Romans 1. ”And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;…” God gave them over to a reprobate mind. You know what that means? He permitted them, listen. He permitted them to follow the dictates of the flesh of the mind.
See, you can get to a place where you chase and lust after the wrong thing and God then, after awhile says, “There ain’t no need speaking to his spirit mind because his flesh mind has locked all gates of receptivity.” … [my God] And so, He says, release them. Give them over. They want to smoke, let ‘em smoke. They want to get drunk. Let ‘em get drunk. They want to lie and cuss, let ‘em lie and cuss. Just release them. What’s the point? They’re gonna, they’re doomed to their own destruction. Let ‘em go. Well wait. We’ll sit here. We’ll sit here and wait to see if they ever wake up. If they ever get a right mind.
Do you know the scripture talks about getting in the right, having a right mind? [yes] Remember the Prodigal Son? The Scripture says he took his stuff, left daddy, went to a country, partied up all his money. Got broke, finally he’s in with the pigs, wants to eat the leftover corn that they ate, and guess what the Scripture says? It says, “Finally, he came into his right mind.” … [hallelujah]
Well, what does a right mind look like? Lord have mercy. Don’t mess with me. You know what a right mind looks like? It says, my mind, I have stayed my mind on Christ. And therefore what? I have peace. [yeah] Getting a right mind means what? I’m listening to what my spirit man has to say. And therefore, I’m in my right mind. The flesh mind is the wrong place to live. Wrong place to live. But He says, you can get into your right mind. Which means that when God is speaking, now, whooooo, You can hear what He’s saying. [whooooo]
I think sometimes that’s why God whispers. It says, in a still small voice. Sometimes I think He whispers because it’s at that point, I had a teacher in Junior High School, Mr. Goldman. Mr. Goldman’s 6’4″, huge guy. And so I figured, first day of school he’s going to start screaming. And he could overpower us. He’s going to overpower us. Mr. Goldman just stood there, the class is going crazy. 8th grade. They’re just going, we’re going nuts. We’re just nuts. And he just said, “You will be good.” Didn’t say it any louder than that. [laughter] Then he said, “You will be good.” … He looked at, “You will be good.” After a while, all us little juvenile delinquents were wondering, what is this big guy saying? We couldn’t hear him. [laughter] So we had to get quiet to hear him.
Jesus speaks quietly to us. Cause He wants us to get quiet so we can hear Him. Because if He roars, He is then competing with the nonsense that’s roaring in our minds. [alright] I got in my car the other day and I put on the news, I wanted to listen and I got nothing against our local radio station. But they play too much what I call be bop ta boopin and I can’t always hear God. And so, it’s just going on and on, and the spirit just very quietly was saying something. I turned off the radio to hear what He’s saying. And He was saying, put on Scripture. [amen] I don’t know about you, but I keep Scripture in my car. I have it on CD and I have it on cassette. Poot. Pup. I pushed the button just like that, got in touch with the presence of the Lord.
Now I want to demonstrate something to you. I should by now have convinced you that you have a flesh mind that goes where it goes. It does what it does. It desires the things of the flesh. It desires stimulation and so forth. But you also have a Spirit mind that is in there trying to get your attention, all the time. Everybody with me? Wave at me if you’re with me, cause it makes no sense if I go on. Now, what is the process then of this battle and how does it play out?
The Bible tells us very clearly that when you were born, when you’re little… certain experiences began to happen to you. These experiences began to get stored in your fleshy mind… Are you listening? When you’re born and you’re little, you’re playing in the sandbox, you’re two or three years old, and some little kid throws sand in your eyes, and you go, “It hurt! Ow! It hurt! I hate you! I hate you!” And you grab some sand and threw it back. And your flesh mind says, “Yeah, don’t take no crap from nobody. Anybody does that to you, you get him back.” [yep, laughter] Right? [yes] Right.
Now, a year later, You’re in a gymnasium, you’re playing and somebody hits you real hard with the dodge ball. Boop. Boop… [laughter] Well wait a minute. What has been recorded in your flesh mind? [get him back] Your flesh mind has recorded get him back. So then, what do you do? You run, get the ball. You don’t care whether you are supposed to be on first base, second base, third base, or home. [laughter] You run across the playground, you get in front of him and you wham! And give him a good one right between the eyes. Because why? It has been recorded in your flesh mind, if they abuse you, you get ‘em back. Get ‘em back.
Age 12, age 12, age 12, … you see him cruising across the classroom. … [laughter] Your perfect picture of the man you’re going to marry. …. [laughter] 12 years old. So you put on your walk. … [laughter] You put on your walk, and he floats right by you, doesn’t say, “Hello.” Or notice you. So you go, “Hi, Tommy.” [laughter] Tommy’s thinking about football practice today. He gives you the scant look, and floats on. What have you been programmed to do? You have now been programmed, he dissed me. He was mean to me. I’m going to get him back… After your third divorce, [ooooh] after your third broken marriage, you are still getting people back.
You are still the one that is the victim and you haven’t changed because you have been programmed that way from a child, and you’re still holding on to the same railroad track that should have been pulled up and destroyed, but you didn’t know and you didn’t want to give it up because it’s the way your mind was put together. I’m trying to help somebody here. …
Life is like a railroad train and you’re going on the track. Let’s say these aisles are the track. These aisles are the track. You hear a message like today, and you say, I’m gonna change. I don’t have to always get ‘em back. Stand up in the aisle. (asks a member to stand in the aisle like a roadblock) In the aisle. And you’re going down life and you’re saying, “I’m gonna be different. Ha, ha, I’m going to change. I’m going to change. But you’re going down the aisle of life. Your brain has been programmed. It has been locked in. And your thought life takes you. Well, I could keep going down this new road and be different.
But, but….the programming of the mind blocks your way and sends you back down the detour aisle you’ve been going on for all of your life. And you go, “Yeah, you threw sand in my eyes, shouldn’t forgive you. Yeah, you didn’t do me right in fifth grade, yeah, you walked by me on my way to football practice. You were a terrible first husband. You hurt my feelings.” [laughter] ”You hurt my feelings. I’ll get you back. Get you back.” You remember then in the conditioning of your mind, your second husband, you killed him and he doesn’t even exist anymore.” [laughter, oh wow] So then you take all of your rage that you’ve been conditioned, that’s your hurt, your victimization, on to the third one. And then you go, “Wait a minute. I don’t even know you.” [laughter] You can sit down. [applause] … But I know if you had time you’d do something against me. [laughter] …
Now you’re back on the road. Life is working good, Ooh ah, There’s room to move. I’m not a victim anymore. I’m doing good. It’s alright. Hah. The flesh is quiet. Everything’s alright. Everything’s good. You get to the same place on your job, your new boss says something, you’re not sure why he’s said it. Or what he said. But you triggered. Your mind steps up again, your mind steps up again. [I think he's talking to you, laughter] blocks your ability to get past your boss in the confusion, and you return. [oh no, don't do that again, laughter]
Why are people so mean? They’ve been mean to me since I was little. They’ve been difficult to me, if I could get that boy in the sandbox I would kick his butt now, boy. aaargghaahg. [laughter] You dissed me too. You did. You dissed me too. And you did the worst because you walked by me. You walked by me. If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have married those three beat dogs. [laughter] Oh, there he is! aaargh I hate you, it was all your fault. It was all your fault. all your fault. Hah. I forgive you this time. That makes me a true saint. [laughter, oh, oh] I can be nice to you. … [laughter] …. But Jesus loves me. And He’s going to bless me because I’m being nice to you. ….
Therefore, and when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, that your Father in Heaven may forgive you. [hallelujah] The mind, the mind. The fleshy mind will take you back to the hurt. It’ll take you back to the hurt, until you break the cycle. Until you break the cycle it’ll take you back to the hurt. It will take you back to the witchcraft that you were looking to escape. It will take you back to the abuse, it’ll take you back to the problem. It’ll take you back to your anger, it’ll take you back till your thinking and you will go back in the same cycle. [laughter] Until you take your thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. [hallelujah, applause] You will not escape. You will be bound by the pattern.
It is a, are you ready for me now? [yes] It is a physical scientific proof now. We have the proof now. Pastor’s been preaching it for years now. One of these days they’re going to prove me right. They have the pictures to show the evil, painful hurts, in your brain. It shows up as these dark places in your brain. [whooo] That until you get the mind of Christ, they will bind you to continue to go through the detour. [come on] It’s a scientific fact that unless you take the steps and change your brain patterns, your brain will every time you go to step forward, will take you back to your blockage.
What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it? You’ve got a space in there where, yeah your daddy died. Yeah your momma took drugs. Yeah your first, your first boss fired you and you hate your old girlfriend who stepped over your dead body as she went to the prom with the guy you hate most. It’s all still in there. It’s all still in there. What are you going to do about it? I don’t know about you, but I’m going to tell you how you get it fixed. [alright] (laughs) Ok.
The first thing that you have to do is honestly acknowledge, you got to acknowledge it, yeah… You got to just first take off your coat and get down dirty with yourself. Yeah. Your father was a piece of crap. … Let’s just accept that. Let’s stop dancing around it. Let’s stop running, let’s stop running from one bad romance to another looking for your daddy. Daddy messed up, is gone, forget about it. Time to get that part of your brain fixed. Because, see, it’ll keep triggering and you’ll keep going down that same road. You’ll keep triggering. You have to acknowledge, you have to get an awareness of self. Take the blame for what you did.
I love how women get in a divorce situation and it’s all the guy. By the time they get through their fourth marriage they finally start figuring out they were part of the 50% of each one of those marriages. Come on somebody. Teenage kids, I would be ok if it wasn’t for my parents. Well, wait a minute now. Hold on. You parents aren’t holding your hand, now leading you down every road. It’s the brain pattern that you’ve established that’s leading you down the road. [come on] … How are you all doing? Alright? Young black boys have been so abused, when they get through the system, that when they get into the world it’s whitee is the problem. Well you know, it’s all whitee’s the problem. At some point blackie gotta take responsibility for blackie. [come on, pastor] … Russell they tell me I get too real. Well, we just tell it like it is. [amen]
Some of you in here are all upset, I can’t get a job. It’s they’re fat phobic. … [laughter] They won’t hire me because I’m overweight. My boss has fat phobia. My boss has woman phobia. My boss has, what’s another phobia? No, no, homophobia. [whoa] … Curly hair phobia…people with curly hair want to straighten their hair. People with straight hair want to curl their hair.
I’m saying you have to figure out where is it I am? What is my excuse? What is my excuse? … What is it that I’m phobic about? What is it that is conditioned my brain and it’s not letting me think straight. And you’re not thinking straight. If you’re facing the same problem over and over and over again. You need to figure out that there’s something wrong with your thinking. Doesn’t make you psychotic. But it makes you neurotic. And we have to put up with you. [laughter] …
This is only for people that really want to get it together. If you’re really happy going over the same track, running around the same mountain, year after year, then fine. I’m talking to the people that say, “You know, I need a change here.” It can’t all be everybody else. I need to get my carnal mind, line it up. I need to face some facts here. I’m going through, I can’t be blaming my parents. They love me and did the best that they could. And what I’m lacking right now is there’s a trigger in my brain that takes me back to that same place all the time. [right] … Come on, wave your hand at me. Don’t, come on, and we keep going back to the same place. Having the same fight. Having the same problem, not realizing your brain has been conditioned to do that.
But you can change it. The power of God is available to break through that darkness and re-order your mind. [applause] What does the Bible say? Go to Romans, Chapter 12. What does it say? Come on, let’s have church now. Let’s go to Romans, Chapter 12, what does it say? Verse 2. ”And do not be conformed…” what does it mean? It says don’t keep riding the same track. Don’t be conformed to it. Don’t …”be conformed to this world, but be transformed….” changed. How? ”…by the renewing of your mind…”
Why is that in the Bible? You don’t have to sit up and listen to some guru. Jesus said it, they just read it and figured it out, and changed it to their own advantage. The reality is, from the Word of God, your mind can change. You can be renewed. You can think different than you ever thought before. [applause] Glory be to God. He will renew your mind. [applause, yeah] You just have to make an assessment of where you are, and what needs to change. You must assess that.
There is no drug. There is no power. There is no, listen. Get off of this, people have to treat you kind. Why do they have to treat you any kinder than they treat anybody else, unless you are a broken track. And your mind is saying, the people have to treat me, the people have to treat me different, people … are you? … You are a broken track. But you can be fixed.
Look what He says. ”…do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…” To transform means change. You can throw the switch at that juncture of the track, and renew your mind. [amen] … Lord have mercy.
I want to give you a shocking piece of Scripture that I found. Romans, Chapter 7. This is shocking. Chapter 7, verse 23. ”But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” … A law, there’s a law in my members. Warring against the law of my mind. I never thought of that. That my mind has established a law. Gosh sha na ma ma neh … Somebody get that. [yeah] Your mind has established a law. Your mind has established that, when pressure comes upon you. Listen to me. When pressure comes upon you, when something happens that you didn’t want to have happen, when somebody said something that you did not want to have said, you will return to the law of your mind, which says, “Get ‘em back.” [yup] Which says, “I’ve been abused.” Which says, “I hate him.” Which says, “I act like a little child, since I was a little baby, he didn’t chughl, guglsugh,” Oooh hooo hooo, I just cagukhgljulsa.” That was pretty good acting. [laughter] But it is a law in your mind.
Your mind has been trained that any juncture of stress, any juncture of competition, any juncture of opposition, you revert back to what you tried to learn back in 5th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, and you get back on that same track. But it is a law, a law of the mind.
I got another good one for you. Chapter 8, verse 5… I’m trying baby. Somebody’s going to get this thing. Chapter 8, verse 5. ”For those who live according to the flesh…” How do they get loaded to the flesh? They set their minds on the things of the flesh. [yup] … Can’t pay your bills, finances are not working out. You do the same thing that you’ve always been trained to do. Well, I don’t have enough money to pay the bills, let’s party. [laughter] I’ll get around that. We’ll go spend that money… Lord, have mercy. I’m working here. Don’t mess with me.
Look at verse 8:27, 8:27 There’s so much truth in the Word of God. 27. ”Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” In other words, there’s a way out. Lord have mercy. Come on, I’m giving you. There’s a way out. Here’s what Jesus said about it. You can look this up in Matthew Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, Chapter 22. Jesus said the same thing. He says it all over the Bible. Here’s what He says. He says, listen, don’t take a thought and then speak it out of your mouth… He says, don’t say what you’re thinking in your mind. [come on] If it doesn’t line up with God. If it doesn’t line up with the Word, don’t then take a thought and then speak it out of your mouth.
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This is extra that did not get on the video:
Pastor Don gave us a list of questions to ask ourselves:
1. What is blocking me in my brain?
2. How does my mind beat me down?
3. What are my goals?
4. What is my strategy to achieve my goals?
5. Am I willing to make a nonstop commitment for 30 days?When we want to change a habit it takes 30 days to do so.
