Prison Break:Seeing in 3D
Prison Break:Seeing in 3D
““We are in an actual war. Most days, it just doesn’t feel that way. Life just seems normal.””
Sometimes you get used to living in chains. They’ve been there for so long that they feel like part of the uniform. They are certainly not your idea of fashionable accessories, but you can’t figure out how to get them off. You don’t question the status quo and accept the fact that’s just the way it is.
I’m not talking about the chains you can see. These go much deeper. They are the ones rubbing blisters on your heart, imprisoning your mind, hijacking your thoughts, driving your emotions, and controlling your reactions. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The ancestor of every action is a thought.” What he didn’t say was that some of those thoughts are more like land mines just waiting for you to take one wrong step and make you a casualty of a war you didn’t even know you were in.
In the last blog, we explored the concept of freedom. The funny thing about freedom is that you can be free and not know it. You can be paralyzed, trapped, and incapacitated by a lie. When I was growing up, bedtime held a secret terror for me. One of the downsides to being a kid who loved to read and had an active imagination were the stories my mind could conjure up seconds before I fell asleep. I was convinced that there was a preternatural being (for lack of a better explanation) that would wait until I was asleep, come through the vent in my room, and stand by my bed. I wrapped myself up in blankets completely covering my head, willing myself to stay as motionless as a statue, and whatever I would do, I couldn’t peek from under the covers or this Mist Monster would do heaven only knows what to me! The footsteps were nothing more than the sounds of an old house settling, and the feeling of someone standing beside my bed was my mind playing tricks on me. None of it was true, but it still affected me as though it was. I was safe, but I didn’t feel safe. If we know Jesus, we are free, but that doesn’t mean we always feel free or live free.
The next couple of blog entries is me fighting for freedom in my life by changing the way I think. The Bible calls it “renewing our mind.” I am convinced that if we can grasp this truth in our lives, it will change the course of our destiny. This is why I’m asking you to stick with me for the next few weeks, especially if you recognize some places in your life that need liberated. We are not attempting a prison break. Prison breaks are man-made attempts to find freedom and usually end up with the prisoners captured and back behind bars. I’ve attempted many spiritual and mental prison breaks and thought I’d make it past the guards only to be hunted down and placed back in chains. That is not the kind of freedom I am looking for, and I don’t believe you are either. I want the kind of freedom that Jesus talks about. I want to walk in wide-open spaces without fear of being hunted down or discovered as an imposter or a fake.
Before we dive deeper into this subject, I’m going to come clean with you. I’ve lived most of my life in some dark, lonely prison cells of depression, anxiety, and fear. But one of the most destructive and unrelenting prisons I’ve done time in is the fear of man. I’ve spent years believing that I am not worth knowing. For almost as long as I can remember, I have believed the lie that I don’t have anything of value to say. Every encounter, every relationship hangs under the shadow of time—give it a little time and as soon as people know me, they will discover the “real” me. And that Missy isn’t worth the time and energy to put into a conversation or a relationship. I’ve listened to well-meaning people (my husband being my best advocate) attempting to convince me of my misperception. But as hard as I try, as much as I want to change my thinking, I just can’t make it stick. Time and again, I would break out of my thought prison for a while and then my lie would handcuff me and drag me right back where I started. That’s why I’m sharing this blog with you. That’s why I’m inviting you on this journey. I believe the Word of God is true, and I refuse to be bound by lies any longer. Let’s start this adventure with some foundational truths:
The war for our destiny takes place in our mind.
The ancestor of every action is a thought, and those thoughts control the trajectory of our lives.
We can choose to think the way God wants us to think—our thoughts create life or death.
Seeing In 3D
For this to make sense, we need to understand that we are 3 dimensional beings—spirit, soul, and body. We are spirit beings created in the image of God. But when Adam and Eve chose Satan’s lies over God’s truth in the Garden of Eden, we inherited a fallen nature infested with sin. Our spirit died, and the fellowship between humans and God was fractured. Suddenly our spirit was engulfed in darkness, truth stayed shrouded in lies, and our eyes were blinded to what our spirit used to see so clearly. Enter Jesus to rescue us, restore relationship, and awaken our spirits. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are made a brand-new creation in Christ! We aren’t remodeled versions of ourselves; we are a new creation that never existed before God breathed life into us (2 Corinthians 5:17).
This is where the battle ensues. Our spirit is a completely new, free from the lies of our past, but our body and soul are not. As much as I wish God would give me a new body, I must put up with this one until heaven. I believe that God wants us to take care of our bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 declares that “your body is now the sacred temple of the Spirit of Holiness, who lives in you…the Holy Spirit lives inside your sanctuary…use your body to bring glory to God.”
I confess that scripture makes me feel a little guilty. If I knew that God was going to physically come to my address, live in my house, eat my food, and hang out with me forever, I would want my house to be Pinterest pin worthy—a real showcase. The truth is God does live in this house called my body—eats my food, hangs out with me every moment—but this space is anything but sacred or Pinterest pin worthy. I’ll leave that for another blog topic!
Getting back to the point, God doesn’t miraculously transform my body to be young and healthy when I become a Christian. He also doesn’t spontaneously change my soul. When we refer to our soul, we are talking about our mind—the thinking, reasoning, feeling part of us. The soul can be renewed, revamped, and restored but this is a process that is not automatic.
The tension between the spirit and the soul is the topic of Romans 7. Paul admits that his spirit wants to follow God. That makes perfect sense! If we are brand-new, filled with revelation, open to truth, our heart is to follow Jesus! But we have residue left from our old way of thinking. “The longings to do what is right are within me, but willpower is not enough to accomplish it. My lofty desires to do what is good are dashed when I do the things I want to avoid. So if my behavior contradicts my desires to do good, I must conclude that it’s not my true identity doing it, but the unwelcome intruder of sin hindering me from being who I really am (Romans 7:19-20 TPT).
This is such good news for those of us trapped in prisons of our old lives! Paul confesses that the struggle is real, and there is no way that he can make the prison break on his own! Those lies hunt him down and drag him back as well. But did you hear what he said? “My behavior contradicts my desires to do good, I must conclude that it’s not my true identity doing it…” Let me say it another way…Jesus paid the price for us to be pardoned from the thoughts, actions, and guilt that keeps us behind bars. We are free! We don’t have to stay there anymore, and we don’t have to accept the lie “this is just who I am.”
If you’re anything like me, you are thinking “that sounds great, but I’ve heard that before and I’m in the same place I was years ago.” This is why you need to explore this with me!
How do I know the battle is in my mind?
Remember the Apostle Paul? He is the one we just read about who admitted that he didn’t always do what his spirit being wanted to do. But he didn’t leave us hopeless. He reveals the core of our problem. We are in a war for our thoughts. In Romans 12 Paul explains “Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you (or don’t be squeezed into the mold of this present age) but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think (TPT).
Every second, circumstances, people, and culture are vying for your thoughts—trying to tell you what to think and how to think about it. That’s why Paul is so adamant about not imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture. What does the mold of this present age look like? Depression, anxiety, and fear are on the rise leading to a mental health crisis. Stress contributes to 75% of illnesses and diseases. According to neuroscientist, Dr. Caroline Leaf, 75% to 98% of mental, physical, and behavioral illnesses come from our thought life. 1
A Fork in the Road
It doesn’t take much discernment to realize that our thoughts are leading us down dark paths, and this strategy of the enemy is crippling an entire generation. Deuteronomy 30:19 was written thousands of years ago, but it could have been written this very day: “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live” (NLT). The thoughts we choose to entertain this very moment will determine our actions in the future. The impact can last for generations. Will we choose life or death—blessings or curses?
Are You Ready to Dive Deep with Me?
I am using two resources on gaining freedom in my thinking (along with the Word of God which is the absolute foundation), and I’d love to have some fellow travelers to help me out along the way. If you’re feeling enslaved and really want to get free of some toxic thought patterns in your life, join me for the challenge each week. Grab a journal to record your thoughts, notes, and scriptures. If you’re super serious and love having a book in your hand, you can order Craig Groeschel’s book, Winning the War in Your Mind. Much of the insight and exercises are adapted from his work. Dr. Caroline Leaf’s book, Switch on Your Brain is also an excellent read. I will share scriptures, principles, challenges, and reflections each week, so if you’re ready, keep reading for our first challenge!
Challenge for Week 1
If the battle for our lives is won or lost in our minds, then we need to know what we are spending our time thinking about. This week choose one day and document your thoughts. Write down the actual times (or as close as you can get) and jot down where your mind takes you. Make this work for you. If you like lists, use bullet points and record your thoughts as words or phrases. If you are a journaler (like me), use paragraphs, metaphors, word pictures. If you’re an artist, use doodles or drawings. Anything that will make you stop and deliberately document your thoughts.
After one whole day of putting your thoughts on paper, think about your thinking. (Teachers call that metacognition). Use these prompts to help you reflect:
Do you see a pattern?
What do you think about the most? Is there something your mind keeps coming back to?
Are your thoughts mainly positive or negative?
Did you notice any triggers for your thoughts? For example, did something happen that made your mind jump to a certain topic?
How did you react or respond to your thoughts? Do they create certain emotions in you? Do your thoughts cause you to behave in a certain way?
When I completed this exercise, I realized just how much control my thoughts had over my emotions and the way I reacted to situations during the day. On our next journey inside the circle, I’ll share some of my personal revelation and help us get to the next step in the process of fighting the battle in our minds. If you would be interested in an online group discussion on this topic, click the link below and let me know. I would love for this blog topic to be an interactive dialogue where we can dive deep and join each other inside the circle.
Until next time...Dive Deep and Drown Willingly (and always stay inside the circle)
https://www.insidethecirclewv.com/contact
Groeschel, Craig. Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life. Zondervan Books, 2021.
1 LEAF, CAROLINE. Switch on Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health. BAKER Book House, 2018.
