 Amen. Amen. It's good to be in the presence of God. It's good to be in a place where you can learn when you can discover things about you, who you are, who God is in you, and who is your enemy that you are facing and challenging and fighting and discover the the victory that God has given, the superiority that we have as children of God as Christians. Amen. You know, we talk about and we you know, sometimes people say, well, your church or you guys are, you guys are, you know, a demon chasers and I like how the pastor answered this this comment, he said, no, we're not demon chasers, we're God chasers and demons get exposed when you truly chase God and so when you truly walk in anointed in the power of God, Jesus comes into the temple, he wasn't chasing demons, he came, he said, that the Spirit of God is upon me and as soon as he said that demons couldn't stand the anointing of God, couldn't stand the anointing of the Holy Spirit and they were exposed, expelled, life were saved, life were healed, delivered, and people lived on happy and purpose-driven lives. Amen. Let's put our hands together for Jesus Christ. We chase the Holy Spirit, we chase his presence and fellowship with him. Amen. This is our goal and this is our purpose in life. Today I want to talk about a subject that we've talked a lot about it and today it's just gonna be, it's not gonna be something new, it's just gonna be a reminder of something that you might already know, but it will encourage us, it will encourage us to continue to work to and work through the process that we're in. Today the title of my message will be a mind called Mind Management and we're gonna talk a little bit about our thoughts and gonna draw a couple things from the Word of God that will help us, will help us to to set our mind on a proper course and to live a victorious life. We understand that mind management is essential to a life of victory. If we are to live a life of victory, if we are to live a life of a life that we, that successful life, a life that can accomplish much, we need to learn how to manage our mind. Without managing our mind, without managing our thoughts, we will not be able to achieve and accomplish the very things that God has called us to accomplish. Every successful person and every person that accomplished much in life understands one thing is that your mind has to be sharp, your mind has to be focused, your mind cannot be wandering around, your mind can be a sidewall that allows everything and everyone to walk upon. Mind management is essential for the life of victory, to live a life of victory. A prophet, Ibn Jasha, always quotes and says that to the extent that we think the thoughts of God is the same extent that we will be able to walk in the power of God. To the extent that we think the thoughts of God is the same extent we will be able to walk in victory in our life, is the same extent we'll be able to live in blessing and prosperity in our life. To the extent that we allow God's thoughts, become our thoughts, is the extent that we'll be able to walk in healing and health in our lives. We have to understand one simple truth and fact that the quality of our thoughts, the quality of our mind will determine the quality of our life. If we examine our life and we see where we are at today, it would reflect the place where we are at with our mind. So if we don't like the place where we are at in life, if we don't like how far we achieved or how far have we gone or what we have accomplished, we should examine our mind and we should examine our thinking and our thoughts to see maybe there are things in our life, there are some things in our mind that need to be changed and need to be challenged and need to be uprooted. Now we have to understand that there are seasons in life that we go through and a season in our life does not determine who we are and where we are at in the quality of our mindset but if what we've been going through has been already for generations or it's been already since the time we were born or it's been for prolonged for many many years already in our lives, maybe we should stop to consider and to re-examine our patterns of thinking in our thought life. And so this morning I just want to shine a couple, shine a light from God's word on couple parts of our thinking and give couple practical things for us to be able to manage our mind better and to be overcomer in our mind. Bible says in Proverbs 237 that whatever man thinks in his heart so is he. A lot of times and I used to say that that whatever man thinks so is he. So what that how what that kind of what what I was thinking is that you know if I had a bad thought that means I'm a bad person. But Bible says that whatever man thinks is in his heart so is he. There is difference of having a one-time thought or a time or a thought sliding through your head or coming to your head or a thought that or thoughts or patterns of thoughts that constantly spring forth in your life in your mind that things that constantly come out of your heart. There is a saying is that you can't stop a bird flying over your head but you can stop a bird from nesting on your head. There is difference between a thoughts that come through in your mind, thoughts that run through your head and thoughts that constantly dwell in your mind. Scientists somehow discovered and after some kind of a study that they did that they said that about 70 to 80% of your thoughts are repetitive thoughts. That means it's the thoughts that you taught yesterday, it's the thoughts that you were thinking the day before and the day before and so forth and so on. When I read that quote you know I actually kind of start looking and experimenting on myself. Could it be really true that 70 or 80% of our thoughts of my day are the same that was yesterday and the day before yesterday? And to shock in reality I discovered that actually true in my in my own life and if you closely examine your thoughts you begin to what you think every day from day to day you will discover that it's very very similar. Good portion of your thoughts, the dominant portion of your life of your of your day are the similar thoughts. It is those thoughts that are dominant and predominant in your life. It's those thoughts that are occupied most the time of your life, majority time of your day is those thoughts that really matter. You know we all have two things that we need to worry about, the things that we have to think about. We got jobs, we got bills to pay, we got you know we got things that come up throughout the day. It's not these thoughts that matter, it's the thoughts that are predominant in my life, the thoughts that repeat over and over and over again. These are the thoughts that I'm going to be talking about today. These are the thoughts that we address in today. You know as I begin to learn about thinking and the importance of thinking and importance of control in your mind and managing your thoughts and mind I was I found myself almost in a helpless situation because then you know you get so many thoughts and so many things and you don't know where to start from. And like I said in the beginning is that our concern is not the thoughts that come in and go, our concern are about the thoughts that come, the thoughts that stay and the thoughts that we entertain. And so we're not, you have to understand that we are as a person, we are a combination, we are a sum of thoughts. A person that is in a white house and a person that is under the bridge, they are the same kind of people. They have two legs, they have two arms, they have two eyes, they have years to hear, they got all the same faculties of bodies like you and me do. What sets them apart is that four by four box in their head, that's all that sets them apart is the pattern of thinking, the thoughts that they've developed, how they think about themselves, how they think about others and how they view the situation, the circumstances around them. That's what sets a president and a bum on the bridge apart. That's what sets a person that works a minimum wage job and a person that owns a multimillion dollar business. It's not necessary the talents that it gives in their abilities, but a lot of times, most of the time, it's the mindset that they carry. Most people that are very successful, very rich people that accomplished a lot, people that influence our society and our history a lot, were actually not the most talented people. A lot of times they were actually an outcast. A lot of times there were people that actually did not, didn't think that they have a certain talent or certain ability, so they focused their time to develop their mind and they became, as a result of it, they became great. So we, we can make one thing clear for ourselves is that it's not what we have or don't have that defines us, it's not even the gifts or abilities that we have that determines who we are or where we can be, but it's the quality of our mind, the quality of our thoughts and our pattern of thinking. Paul said, when I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child, but when I grew up, I put away, I put away child's things, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 11. Many people, they start off like Paul, like everybody else, they start off as children and it's normal for a child to live and think and reason as a child, but many people maintain and stay at the level of thinking as a child. They are very emotional, they allow their emotions to control them. I have an eight month old child and when she was two, three, four months, she was just a child, not much, but now she's beginning to grow a character and she's beginning to show attitude, she's beginning to show emotions and when she was hungry, like for instance this morning, she doesn't care about golden egg, that you play for her, she doesn't care about her favorite brush, she doesn't care about entertainment and usually if she's cranky, you bring her up to the balcony and show her things and she likes to be outside and she starts coming down. She didn't care about none of those things, she wanted food and she wanted milk and she showed her attitude because she was driven by her desire and she's controlled by her at this stage and so a lot of people, as they matured physically, mentally maintain as children and Apostle Paul says when I was a child, it was okay, I reasoned like a child and I thought like a child, but when I begin to grow up physically, I begin to, I continue to grow mature, I begin to, I continue to grow mentally and this is the problem that we sometimes even have in our society is that we have, we have, you know, children become boys and then stay as boys, you know, mentally but physically they become fathers, you know, and they play video games with their children when they grow up, you know, it's fun and cool when you just do it as a once in a while type of a thing just to entertain yourself with the child and have a time with the child but when you do that and you play more video games than your child does, that's a problem, okay, that's that's a bit of a problem and so it's a funny example but it's an example that shows us clearly that the epidemic that we're facing in our society that we can be matured in body and physical appearance but very little matured in our mind and our pattern of thinking is completely bad or wrong Bible says that in Romans 12 to don't copy the behavior and customs of this world but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think many people get surprised that Christians act don't act like Christians supposed to act well because they are still growing as Christians and we shouldn't be surprised and sometimes maybe we could catch ourselves acting a certain way that we shouldn't be acting as Christians if we don't allow ourselves if we don't submit ourselves for training on mind if we don't actively engage into mind management we will continue to think the way we were thinking before the way we grew up thinking the way the world and the customs of this world taught us how to think and we will remain at the level where we're at so I hope you with this small intro you begin to realize and renewed the urgency and necessity for mind management for you to begin to actively begin to engage into working on your mind our thoughts they create expectations and our crew and our expectation creates our situation we must understand that if we want to change our life around if we want to be different if we want to have a different situation that our circumstances where we live if we want to change the family that we're in if we want to change the kind of income we make if we want to change our relationship with God if we want to change our relationship with our spouse with our children we have to change our expectation and in order to change our expectation you have to change the way you think because your thoughts will produce certain feelings and expectation in your life example there was just recently on your news Fox News just literally last week or a week before this woman was pregnant with her first child they were excited to have I believe it was a baby girl and right about but halfway through her pregnancy she said I got this this weird feeling in expectation that I will have a c-section and that the I will not come out from anesthesia you know they put you under anesthesia and I said and she and she's like and I had this weird feeling that I'm gonna have I'm not gonna give birth through you know normal means but I'm gonna have a c-section and I'm gonna go under anesthesia and I'm not gonna come out so she goes into labor guess what happens she can't give birth for some reason so they have to do an anesthesia they have to do c-section and they put you on anesthesia and guess what happens she does not come out she does not wake up from anesthesia and so and not only that her health begins to deteriorate really really quick and she goes on life support they can't wake her up they put her in a in a medical seduce coma and just a one of the nurse had an idea what if we put a newborn child on her chest and have a child be maybe he'll help her to keep fighting for her life and sure enough when the mother heard the cry of the baby she began to her vitals improved suddenly she began to fight for her life and she woke up from the coma and it was a year later that or nine months later that she was they were on at Fox News and they were given she was given that story about herself but my point is this is that she got a thought that something's gonna go wrong those thought produced feelings that produced expectation and expectation produced negative results produced the situation that she was in thank God for his mercy for his grace that she was rescued and she was you know now they have both of them are healthy and both of them are well our life is determined by the quality of our mind by the quality of our thoughts or lack of it and so if we want to change our situation our circumstances around we must change our thoughts so that our thoughts can produce proper expectation and that our expectation will produce the situation and circumstances desired in our life we must pay very close attention to what we think and not allow ourselves to think negative to allow ourselves to think in a way of defeat to allow ourselves to think in a way of poverty of bad health and things of that sort because those things they pave a way for these situations and now I want to explain couple a couple things on Bible talks about strongholds and we're gonna we're gonna read a scripture here soon and of removing strongholds in our mind and I want us to kind of lay a foundation before we go into the scripture about strongholds what strongholds are if you can put that up put up this line stronghold is basically a mindset a mindset the way my mindset is get gets developed is mindset is developed by collection of thoughts we get multiple collection of thoughts and that's the way our mindset is developed and the way we get collection of those thoughts is by repetitive thoughts is by rehearsing those thoughts for example let me give you an example they probably most of you can relate to somebody does something wrongs you unfairly and you begin to think you walk around and you begin to think oh I would say this to them I would do this to them and I'm gonna tell them this and I'm gonna tell them that and so you're walking around rehearsing what you're gonna say what you're gonna do what you're gonna do and so if you're not careful if you don't deal with it properly you're gonna begin you begin to form so you begin to have multiple different collection of thoughts you begin to think from this angle and I would say this and I would do this and and this is why they're wrong and this is why I'm right and all the stuff so you begin to form a bouquet of collection of thoughts you begin to form a certain mindset of the person and that becomes eventually a stronghold in your mind that even if you find out later that this person is you know you you try to mend things you try to reconcile but you have this already a stronghold in your mind that for some reason you try to be good you try to do good with that person but it's just something stopping you it's a stronghold that needs to be destroyed in your mind and that's how the stronghold gets created and it goes in every area of our mind a lot of times what happens is a person begins to entertain a thought something happens in their life as some kind of tragic or trauma some kind of incident person begins to entertain a thought that I'm lonely I'm rejected nobody wants me and they begin to they begin to work on these thoughts they begin to think repeatedly on these thoughts they begin to collect all kinds of evidence in their thoughts all kinds of different different point of views and angles and it becomes a mindset in their life and then it becomes a stronghold that they battle and they constantly feel a rejection or fear or poverty mindset same goes in the opposite side when you have a successful mindset when you have a mindset that everything's gonna work out everything's gonna be good everything you begin to develop proper strongholds you begin to build proper things in your mind you begin to break build proper mindset in your life it goes both ways but here's not here's the here's the most important part is that every stronghold has an occupant every stronghold that you build either attracts holy spirit into your life or it attracts an evil spirit into your life rarely a person gets demonized or demon possessed because of one act one accidental act usually what happens is is through a series of thoughts to repeat it set of collection of thoughts that becomes a mindset and becomes a stronghold and then through a sin demon enters their life and stay in their life because of a stronghold Satan enters into our life because of sin but stays in our life because of a stronghold and so if we want to get rid of so in our lives when we have when we allow thoughts of fear thoughts of anxiety of defeat I'm nobody nobody loves me God doesn't care for me nothing goes good in a life that attracts demonic spirit so if you constantly entertain negative thoughts of fear you attract spirit of fear if you are constantly to change thoughts of loneliness you attract thoughts of loneliness if you constantly entertain that I'm nobody nobody made it my life I'm never have enough money I'll always be hand you know from paycheck to paycheck you will attract the spirit of poverty into your life but on the opposite if you entertain the thoughts that I'm got son God is on my side Holy Spirit involves in me he empowers me to overcome I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me you attract the spirit of God and enable him to work in your life and manifest himself manifest those things in your life so that's why our thinking life it's so important if you want to prosper in your relationship with God you will not prosper in your relationship with God without proper mindset without proper thinking it's so important that in our life that we pay closer attention to our mind and we manage our mind we manage our thoughts so how do we do that let's go to 2nd Corinthians verse 10th verse 2nd Corinthians verse 10 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 I'm sorry verse 4 I'm gonna read this follow along on the screen we use God's mighty weapons not worldly weapons to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false argument we destroy every proud obstacle and keep that keeps people from knowing God we capture the rebellion thoughts to teach them to obey Christ now Apostle Paul is addressing that to people but today we're gonna use this principle and we're gonna use this scripture to help us and to give us a blueprint and to give us steps how to manage our mind and how to defeat strongholds in our mind because you know we we can't go uprooting and conquering and capturing other people's thoughts and if our own thoughts are running rampant and if our own thoughts are out of control so we're gonna take this verse and we're gonna break it down to a few things and we're gonna learn a couple practical things to help us establish proper thinking proper mindset and the way to do it so first thing I want you to see from this verse I want you just to leave this verse on he says that we use God's mighty weapons not worldly weapons what is he talking about God's mighty weapons what is the weapon of God it's the word of God Bible says that the word that the word of God is the sword of the spirit we use it to fight against the against against the enemy the word of God when we take the word of God make it a standard of our life when it take when we take the scriptures when we memorize the scriptures when we arm ourselves with the word of God with the promises of God I'm the head I'm not the tail everywhere I go I'm blessed he God is with me God is on my side I am favored of the Lord he's supporting my position when we begin to arm ourselves with this promises of God with the scripture of God when we begin to allow the word of God to become when we allow our words to become one with the word of God when we begin to confess then we will be we begin to fight against those things those strongholds those things that in our life are running rampant those thoughts and we conquer it with the word of God so the word of God and the positive confession the faith confession and meditation upon the word of God is our weapon against every weapon of the enemy Apostle Paul also says that we use God's mighty weapons not worldly weapons what are the worldly weapons worldly weapons are we we you know we can see it and especially in a day and age we have many religions especially new age and positive thinking running rampant it almost seems like the same thing as as the word of God almost seems like they took God's principle and they twisted it and put it a worldly twist on it but and so what is the worldly weapons the worldly weapons can be positive thinking behavior modification meditation worldly meditation by emptying by emptying yourself empty in your mind versus God's meditation is where you feel yourself with God's word you know and and to draw a clear picture the story comes to mind of David and Goliath both confessing positivity both are bold both confessing victory yet Goliath falls and David stands victorious so we must for ourselves we must make a decision to use God's weapons not worldly weapons not only you know not be deceived by only positive thinking yes positive thinking is fine it's good and it works to certain degree but but positive thinking cannot stand against the attack of the enemy it cannot stand against Satan and demons himself only God's word has the power and authority to overcome those things and so if I will tell you if I would if we had to go to war and I you come into the room where you had or you had to go in the fight and we would go into the armory into the room and I'd say pick any weapons you got knives you got blades you got pistols you got rifles and which would you pick you would pick a rifle you would pick a gun it's superior why bring a knife to a gunfight you know the famous saying so our choice of weapon is God's word because it's far superior than any other weapon it's far superior than any meditation it's far superior than any positive thinking yes word of God has positive thinking yes word of God has a meditation but word of God is far superior than any other means or any other worldly ways of defeating and fighting and overcoming and we see clearly in the in the in the story of David and Goliath so the next next thing is that bringing down the strongholds of human reasoning so we talked about strongholds there are strongholds of human reasoning thoughts of what is reasonably possible with human strength human connections and human mind let me be clear on this one human reasoning is not wrong it has its place and some watch you use it a lot more often okay but human reasoning has limitation human reasoning has it cannot be understood it cannot be understood by with human reasoning you can't understand faith and you can't measure spiritual things with human reasoning and there's a lot of strongholds of things that are possible and things are impossible in our lives that are stopping us from achieving from obeying God and from achieving what he has to store for us for example we understand that because of the law of gravity men couldn't fly and couldn't be up on the air and that was human reasoning men can fly but then when became when the revelation came and a discovery came of the law of air dynamics that was superior to the law of gravity men was able to fly this is kind of what it is that the human human reasoning a lot of times limits us to what is possible what we can do what our resources the family we kind of grew up with I can't go beyond this I can't dream beyond this because this is what's possible and a lot of those strongholds they need to be removed anything that's contrary to God's to what God's word anything that's limits us anything that's not according to the word of God needs to be removed okay another stronghold stronghold of false argument false argument is the is the strongholds that tell us that bring us all the arguments against us why we can't be who we can be the arguments that say that you are not loved you are nobody God doesn't love you people don't care for you is those arguments is those voices in our heads that bring arguments is that you never make it you will never achieve anything you will never amount to anything Bible says that we using God's word God's weapon the sword of the spirit we must take down human reasoning every limitation and we must take down every false argument every accusing voice everything that says you will not amount to nothing you tried hard and you failed you will not be able to succeed everything that says that you you are sick in your body and you cannot be made well there is no cure for you God doesn't love you every false argument needs to be removed by God's word that was a story and you got some of you remember them the the story the testimony we played of a lady that she because of a horse accident she wasn't a horse and she fell off she began to she got brain damage I believe or something happened to her that she started having severe seizures and epilepsy and when one time she heard the word of God through CBN and the word of God deep into her spirit and she knew at the moment she was healed and from that point on she stopped she had seizures for like 10 or 17 years or whatever I mean she was bound to the wheelchair so it was a terrible situation but from that moment on when she heard the word and she accepted that stronghold was removed in her life and she received that she was healed and for whole month she didn't have one seizure but in one day one day she got severe she seizures and she said it felt like all those 30 30 days were combined into one she used to have seizures every single day but she said it felt like all those 30 days were combined to one and she had the severe the most the worstest the severe seizure and epilepsy episode that she ever had that she thought she almost died and those false arguments in her head were screaming in her see I told you you are not healed see I told you God doesn't love you see you are not healed you will never walk you will never have a normal life you will always be this person you always be sick and she said I fought with every fiber of my being that I could to remove those thoughts and declare no I am healed and I strike down every false fear every stronghold of the enemy that says I'm sick because I have received a new revelation I received a new thought I received a new new word from God I have a sort of the spirit that I can find that I am healed and after that epilepsy episode she never ever once already for decades that she ever had that episode ever once again let's put our hands together for Jesus the third thing that that obstacles the strongholds that we need to remove is proud obstacles we need to and I'm not gonna stop on that I'm just gonna quickly mention we need to rid of every thought of pride or every thought of self-righteousness thinking that you know things that we can achieve with without God every thought of self sufficiency and self dependence anything the thoughts that I don't need God I don't need to I can do it on my own I can over I can I can become somebody on my own that I don't need God every stronghold every thought every mindset of independence is self sufficiency of self-righteousness needs to be removed in our lives how do we do it Bible says capture rebellious thoughts as I should have that point it starts by identifying every thought that is contrary to God's word it starts to recognize the thoughts that that are running rampant in your mind it beginning first thing that begins first thing that you have to begin to do is begin to identify those thoughts and be specific don't be general and begin to work towards it I remember I was talking to one gentleman this week actually and and he said you know what I begin to see something in my my family and in my life you know my grandparents my parents my siblings and now I and I see that these certain emotions these certain thoughts these certain mindsets are running rampant in my life in my life and running in my family and I see how it's destroying and limiting from us us going forward and he says but now he's like the difference between me and my family and my siblings is that at least now I see them I recognize them and so even sometimes I'm not able to at the moments to snap out of it to be and to overcome it but at least I'm aware of it now and I'm working towards it it starts by capturing your thoughts it starts by first realizing which thoughts in your life are not from God not based on God's word coming out of pain hurt fear anxiety coming out of bad past experience begin to identify those thoughts number two he says by capturing the rebellious thoughts and teaching them to obey Christ number two is you have to teach yourself how to think properly you know we think like but the biggest lie I think that I've had to battle with and and accept God's truth is that well I don't have control over my thoughts my thoughts are what they are they do what they do they are what they are and I just have to accept the what what I think but it's not true even if you think about it if you stretch your hand everybody stretch your hands okay and now tell your fingers to move they're moving okay so we can from this example we see that weak with our thoughts with our mind we can tell about our body to do something now do the same thing tell your thoughts to your consciousness to think of your mom or your dad thinking about the first car that you got you're telling your inner man is telling your consciousness of what to think and what to do so strip that lie I think what I think and I can't control it it's not true it's not right it's the discipline that you have to exercise you have to understand that you're inner man your spirit your subconscious Bob or Bob calls a lot of times your heart has a dominion and tells your mind what to think you have a control and you can patrol your thoughts in your mind your mind is subject to your heart to your inner man to your spirit your mind is like a child it must be trained and as a I have a child and the child is growing up and as a responsible parent what I do is I train my child I tell her no you can't touch this no you can't do this you have to do this for now it's mostly no but we'll get to the stage where it will be yes okay but this is how it is how we start as a as a mind is that we have to treat it like a child that needs to be trained a lot of times in the beginning of our stage when we begin to take control of our mind and learn to manage our mind a lot of times what it's gonna be is no no no you're gonna have to say no I'm gonna think not gonna think about this I'm not gonna think about this I'm not gonna think about that and positioning yourself and focusing is focusing yourself on the other things now the key to it is not to say no to everything like Pastor once said if you try to take a bone from the dog you're gonna get bitten you know the way to take the bone from the dog you have to toss him a meat to toss him something to get distracted with so you replace him with God's word and this is the biblical way of doing things you must take responsibility over your mind and you must you must teach it to obey Christ you must teach it to obey the word of God and in conclusion you have to understand that it's a process it takes time it took you many many years some of you 20 25 30 35 40 50 60 years to get to the place where you're at to develop the mindsets and the mind that you have at this point you have to give God time you have to give Holy Spirit time to work with you to develop a proper mindset but it will not start unless you start it's not automatic it doesn't just happen mind management that means you have to have a manager you have to have a person you have to have your inner spirit that will be willing to manage your thoughts the way you do it is by reading the Word of God memorizing the scripture surrounding yourself with proper people that can challenge you they can point things out in your life the way you do it is surround yourself with podcasts positive things proper things so you can learn to be a person that manages your mind and as a result you manage your life