 renewing of your mind today, and we're going to take a key verse from Romans 12, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I will read you a quick story. Elephants are huge creatures, but are being held by only small a rope tied to their front leg, no chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could at any time break away from the ropes they were tied to, but for some reason they do not. Once a trainer was asked why these beautiful magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. Well, he said, when they are very young and much smaller, we use the same size of rope to tie them, and at that age it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds, but because they believed they could not, they were stuck right there where they were. And that's how strongholds work. Now, deliverance from strongholds. We know that demons, they come for the purpose to destroy our lives and also to build strongholds in our minds. Demons can exit and enter very quickly, but strongholds are built with time and so they are destroyed and brought down with time as well. Strongman is a demon. Stronghold is a house of thoughts. Freedom comes from two things. We know that through Jesus' touch, in the Bible it says, whom the sun sets free is free indeed, and also through Jesus' teaching. And in John 8.31 and 32 it says, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. So those two things we can receive freedom from those two things. Presence of the truth does not make you free. It's the knowledge of the truth that makes us free. It's the same thing if we have a bucket of paint, purple paint standing by the wall, but we all know that it's only when we apply that paint to the wall we can see the color on the wall. Same thing is with the truth. The presence of facts, they can actually bind us, but only the truth and when we apply the truth, that sets us free. I'm going to share seven steps on how to renew your mind. Number one, stop waiting for an outside miracle to change your mind. The biblical example of God is Israelites. We know that the more miracles they saw and they saw a lot of miracles. God performed so many for them and most of them still died as victims in the wilderness. And also we see the Pharisees, they believe the same lie and they ask Jesus to perform miracles, a sign for them. But even with the resurrection of the dead and the amount of miracles that Jesus did on the earth, they remained unconvinced and still in unbelief. So no matter the amount of miracles you see, it cannot change and transform our minds. Number two, stop believing that you can't control your thoughts. The Bible commands us to think on those things. Philippians 4-8. And then you shall meditate on a day and night, Joshua 1-8. On his law, he meditates day and night, Psalm 1-2. That shows us that it's a choice on which thoughts we choose to meditate. And we know that our minds can be attacked, but it's because our mind is always a battlefield, it's not a playground, and the mind is a servant either to your spirit or to your flesh. When the spirit is weak, your mind runs errands for your flesh by thinking negative thoughts. But in the same way, when our mind is influenced by the Holy Spirit and it comes under the influence of the Word of God, it begins to overcome negativity and negative thoughts. Number three, this is interesting, I'm going to read. What you feed your mind with becomes a mindset. A mindset is what controls you. The mind is what you control. The only way to change your default and automatic thinking is by feeling your conscious mind with new information of God's truth. Your subconscious mind is 30,000 times more powerful than your conscious mind. Most of your behaviors are automatic. This is why we set goals and we usually don't reach them. Setting them is a function of a conscious mind and reaching them is a function of a non-conscious mind. A normal human can speak at the speed of 200 to 300 words per minute, where the subconscious mind can think at the rate of 1,000 plus words per minute. The information processing capability of a subconscious mind is absolutely mind blowing. It can process 40 million bits of information per second compared to the capability of conscious mind, which can process only 40 bits of information per second. The subconscious mind makes up 88% of a human brain's capacity. The subconscious mind does not work on any logic. Therefore, it believes anything that it is told by the conscious mind. Number four, confess what you believe, not what you feel. We possess what we confess. For example, we possess our salvation when we confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. And in the same way, we possess God's promises for our lives when we confess them out of our mouth. We have to fight our thoughts with words. The Lord instructed Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. He didn't say from your mind or your heart, he said from your mouth. And Jesus did the same thing in the wilderness when he was being tempted by the devil. He spoke the word of God out of his mouth. He wasn't just thinking it, he spoke it. Do not speak all the time of what you feel, because in that way we cannot actually change our minds or renew our mind. We have to speak the opposite, the word of God. And the Bible says in Joel 3.10, let the weak say, I am strong, which is the opposite of what we feel. If you feel weak, just confess that I am strong in Jesus Christ. Number five, resist negative thoughts and assist positive thoughts. Positive thoughts are not going to stay, they need to be assisted. And the negative thoughts, they will not leave, they need to be resisted. And in the parable of Jesus about the seed soil and the sower in Matthew 13, Jesus shows us that bad things like weeds, they have to be pulled out. And the good seeds, they need to be planted and watered and assisted for it to stay. So anything bad in your mind, it has to be pushed out with the force. And anything good, it's not just going to stay in your mind, it has to be assisted, watered, confessed and possessed through the word of God. We must assist the word of God by making room for it in our hearts and resist the evil thoughts of the enemy by taking them captive and bringing them into submission to Christ. See 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 5. Let me tell you a little bit of my story, what happened to me. There was a time when I was struggling with depression, negative thoughts, loneliness, all of that stuff and I was receiving deliverance and I believe I received a deliverance from an evil spirit, and it also took me years to actually renew my mind and to break down those walls of strongholds that the enemy has planted in my mind. And it took a long time, I was listening to podcasts, I was praying, I was reading the word of God out loud. Sometimes it was so painful to my brain to think positively and all I was used to is thinking negatively, but I would still do it on purpose because I knew that this is the only way I can renew my mind and assist my mind to overcome the demanding strongholds that were built in my mind. And it took me about, I would say three years to overcome and the depression was gone, the anxiety was gone and a lot of other things were gone and right now they are no longer dominating my mind like they used to. I could not function at all and right now I am set free because of this simple truth is when we resist the thoughts of enemy and we plant and water what God is planting, what we are planting, when we are planting God's word in our minds. Number six, celebrate the process. It's going to take time to change your mind. The example is very awesome that we find in the creation story in the Bible. When God created the world, He created it in six days. Have you noticed that it wasn't created in one day even though God could? Each day when something, God created something, He finished it and He said it was great. He focused on what He has done, not what He has not done yet. There was five more days ahead of Him to create a lot of good stuff but He celebrated what was done, not what was not done. And celebrate small victories and focus on what God is doing in your life, not what God has not done yet. This is how we can renew our mind. And number seven is expecting something good to happen. It's always a choice and an act of faith. There are people who constantly expect bad things to happen to them. They think and dwell on negative stuff and maybe they have a backup facts for that. It's because this is what's been happening to them all their life, is bad things. But when we choose to renew our mind, our expectation is a breathing ground for miracles. God can come and create something when we create the room and expectation for the Holy Spirit to move in our lives. When you wake up, expect good things to happen. Now it doesn't mean that bad things will not happen in our lives but it's going to mean that we're not going to dwell in negativity and we're going to be constantly drawn back to our past but God wants to create something new in your life. And when we create the room for the Holy Spirit, we will see miracles. When we expect good things to happen in Jesus' name.