Harnessing Your Emotions Part 5

So he told his friends, "I can't do it.""Why not?" they asked. "Because I'm a new person."

I'm sure he didn't know exactly how to explain it to them and it probably didn't register with them. But the point is, he had switched images on the inside. He saw that he was a different person. He no longer saw himself as a thief, so he couldn't be a thief. He no longer saw himself as a thief, so he couldn't be a thief.

See Yourself as Jesus Sees You Strip yourselves of your former nature - put off and discard your old unrenewed self - which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through l.u.s.ts and desires that spring from delusion; And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind - having a fresh mental and spiritual att.i.tude; And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in G.o.d's image, (G.o.dlike) in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:22-24 AMP AMP You can't be a thief if you don't see yourself as a thief. You can't commit adultery if you don't see yourself as an adulterer. You can't be a liar if you don't see yourself as a liar.

If we were really able to see who we are in Christ, we could see how holy and pure we have become through Jesus. Then this new image of ourselves would be reflected in our emotions and in our actions. That is powerful!

Imagine a woman who was a prost.i.tute before she got born again. Suppose she really asked the Lord to save her. She truly put her faith in Him and believed she was forgiven. But imagine that she didn't change her image of herself. If she saw herself as just a forgiven prost.i.tute, eventually she would go back into prost.i.tution, or at least into a promiscuous lifestyle. Why? Because it would be impossible for her to consistently operate differently from the way she saw herself.

On the other hand, suppose that same woman was not only born again, but renewed in her mind. Suppose she could see herself as a new person - righteous, holy, pure, and clean. If she could get a vision of that, I guarantee you, it would be reflected in her life. She would no longer stoop to that old lifestyle, because she would not want to take the great gift G.o.d had given her and put it back into that kind of situation.

Christians are failing in the area of controlling their actions and emotions because they don't know who they are in Christ. They are looking at their physical circ.u.mstances and listening to what others are saying about their old person. They aren't listening to what G.o.d says about that new, born-again part of them. They see themselves as failures, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Psychology and our society call this a lack of self-esteem.

Self-Esteem or Christ-Esteem?

I agree that the area of self-image and self-esteem is critical, but it all comes down to which self self'is being esteemed. It is not our old, carnal self, but our new, born-again self that we need to focus on and esteem. being esteemed. It is not our old, carnal self, but our new, born-again self that we need to focus on and esteem.

It's not really accurate for Christians to use the term self-esteem. self-esteem. It would be more accurate for us to say, "Christ-esteem." As Christians, we are not to esteem our old, fleshly, carnal selves; rather, we are to esteem our new, born-again selves. When we do that, not only will our actions and our emotions be affected, but when we blow it, we won't be surprised and discouraged. We will recognize that the old fleshly part of us, which has never been saved, has been allowed to rule. It's not going to be saved, but it is eventually going to be replaced. It would be more accurate for us to say, "Christ-esteem." As Christians, we are not to esteem our old, fleshly, carnal selves; rather, we are to esteem our new, born-again selves. When we do that, not only will our actions and our emotions be affected, but when we blow it, we won't be surprised and discouraged. We will recognize that the old fleshly part of us, which has never been saved, has been allowed to rule. It's not going to be saved, but it is eventually going to be replaced.

Our spirit is already brand new, but our soulish part and our physical body have not been saved yet. They have been purchased - salvation was purchased for them at the cross - but it's not a reality yet. Our physical body has to change and our soul has to change. Our spirit is the only part of us that is completely saved.

Our soulish man is not saved and it's not getting better. It's corrupt and it's never going to be any better until we go to be with the Lord or until He comes back for us. If we understand that truth, then when we have negative feelings and emotions, instead of being shocked or thinking, How could I think such a thing, How could I think such a thing, we will realize, we will realize, Oh, that's just my old flesh, because my new man doesn't think that way. Oh, that's just my old flesh, because my new man doesn't think that way.

When we esteem our new man, we focus on Jesus and esteem Christ in us. This makes us aware that we are a brand-new spirit. And when we keep ourselves spiritually-minded, we can more easily walk according to the spirit and not the flesh. If a person isn't very conscious of who they are spiritually, it's easy for them to slip back into the physical. Let me give you an example.

I had a friend who loved the Lord. He had been the pastor of a church and is a great man of G.o.d whom I really appreciate, but he went through some hard times. He was out of work for over a year and his physical circ.u.mstances were negative. He began thinking and entertaining emotions that he should never have thought and entertained. He got to thinking that he wasn't providing for his family, so he got down on himself. He was looking at things in the natural - seeing himself as a failure rather than seeing himself in Christ. Because of that, in a moment of weakness, he got angry at G.o.d, threw his Bible out the window, and actually took an overdose of drugs, which is what he used to do before he was born again. As a result, he wound up in the mental ward of a hospital.

I went to visit this man with my a.s.sociate minister. By the time we visited him, he had come down off the drugs and was aware of the mess he had made of things. When we walked in, he really didn't want to see us. He was so embarra.s.sed that he didn't want to talk to us. It was a terrible sight to see. He just kept saying over and over, "I can't believe I did this. I thought I was more mature than this. I thought I was beyond this. How could a person who has loved G.o.d, witnessed for Him, and been a pastor do something like this?"

Basically, the way we ministered to him was by pointing out to him, "It's your spirit man that is complete. It's that born-again part of you that has the ability and the life of G.o.d. Your flesh is not capable of living a Christian life. Instead, it is capable of anything you were ever capable of. All that happened was that you quit operating by who you are in Christ, and instead went back into that old man. Instead of esteeming Christ in you, you esteemed yourself and you failed. That doesn't mean you have lost a thing. You still retain your righteous position with the Lord. You are still the same person spiritually. All you have to do is That doesn't mean you have lost a thing. You still retain your righteous position with the Lord. You are still the same person spiritually. All you have to do is step back into the spirit." step back into the spirit."

It's like flying in an airplane. Because of the plane, you are able to do things beyond your physical ability. You are able to fly. You are able to reach alt.i.tudes and speeds you could never reach on your own. But you must remember that it is your union with that plane that makes it all possible. The moment you get back into self and step out of a flying plane, you will fall to the earth like you always would have.

Likewise, it is only our union with Jesus Christ through our new born-again spirit that gives us power to overcome. When we step back into our old self, we are destined to experience the same problems we had before.

That is so simple, yet most people don't grasp this concept. They don't understand this new self - the born-again self. They try to improve the old self, the old man, and when they fail, hopelessness sets in. They have to go back to ground zero and start over.

G.o.d is not out to improve your old man. He wants you to deny it, turn from it, recognize that it's a mess, and realize that it's not getting any better. Retreat from it and go back into the spirit. Become that new person you are in Christ.

Whose Thought is That?

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

2 Corinthians 2:11 Satan tries to keep Christians ignorant of who they are in Christ by deceiving them in the realm of their thoughts.

For example, instead of coming to a man and announcing, "I'm the devil. Look at that woman over there. Don't you think she's beautiful? Wouldn't you like to...?" he places a thought in the man's mind, "I like that woman over there. She's beautiful. I really would like to..." The devil doesn't come in the form of a demon on the outside, he comes in the form of thoughts on the inside. And most Christians aren't smart enough to figure out, "Hey, this isn't my thought. This is the devil's thought. That's not me thinking these things. It's Satan."

One of the first times I became aware of this fact was not long after my wife and I were married. We were at my in-laws' house for the holidays and they asked me to say the blessing over the food. As I started to pray, a terrible, blasphemous thought against the Lord came to my mind. I couldn't believe I was thinking such a thing. I didn't say anything to anyone, of course, but for days I prayed about it. "Lord, what did I do to bring on such a thought?" Finally, the Lord showed me that it wasn't my thought; I had never thought that way in my life. It wasn't me; it was the devil who spoke that thought to me. But he spoke it in the first person and made me think that it was my thought.

How do you determine if it's the devil who is putting thoughts, att.i.tudes, and images on the inside of you? How do you know whether it's the devil or G.o.d? How do you know if it's your old man or your new man? There is a very simple answer. You go to the Word of G.o.d, which tells you exactly what your new man is like - how your spirit thinks, feels, and acts.

For the word of G.o.d is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 The Word of G.o.d is alive. It is the only thing that can be one hundred percent accurate in dividing between what is your spirit, that new, born-again you, and your soul, the old unregenerate you. It is the only thing that can discern between the thoughts and the intents of your heart. It is the only thing that can tell whether your thoughts are from G.o.d or from the devil.

If what you are thinking or feeling lines up with the Word, then that's the new, born-again you. If what you're thinking or feeling doesn't line up with the Word of G.o.d, it's your old self or the devil. If it's your old self or the devil, you simply reject that thought or emotion based on the Word of G.o.d.

Say, for instance, someone begins to criticize you, and you start to get so angry at this person that you're ready to let them have it. Suddenly you stop and ask yourself, "Is this right or wrong?" You go to the Word of G.o.d which says in Ephesians 4:32 that you are to be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as G.o.d for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as G.o.d for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. In Galatians 5:22,23 you read that In Galatians 5:22,23 you read that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. After reading these and other such Scriptures, you see that you are to walk in love with all men, and you are to forgive even as G.o.d has forgiven you, meaning that you forgive even before they ask for your forgiveness. After reading these and other such Scriptures, you see that you are to walk in love with all men, and you are to forgive even as G.o.d has forgiven you, meaning that you forgive even before they ask for your forgiveness.

As you listen to the Word, you say to yourself, "This emotion of anger toward this person is not the born-again me, because it doesn't line up with the Word of G.o.d. It's not my new self; it's my old self." So you say, "I refuse that thought. I reject it in the name of Jesus. I am going to love this person."

Always line your thoughts up with G.o.d's Word. Operating on this scriptural principle is part of letting the Holy Spirit rule and reign over your emotions and actions, and this can make a powerful difference in your life.

The Life of G.o.d And you hath he [G.o.d] [G.o.d] quickened quickened [given new life], [given new life], who were dead in trespa.s.ses and sins. who were dead in trespa.s.ses and sins.

Ephesians 2:1 Some people misunderstand this principle of applying the Word of G.o.d to their lives and say, "What you're preaching is just mind over matter. You're saying that all we need to do is start thinking positively and everything will be okay."

No, that's not what I'm saying. That's what the humanists say. The humanists tell us that if we will all visualize world peace, it will come to pa.s.s. They tell us that if we think good thoughts, everything will be good. What they're missing is that a person who doesn't have the life and ability of G.o.d on the inside cannot produce life on the outside - no matter how hard they may try. It doesn't matter how we get our thinking straightened out; if there is nothing but death on the inside of us, all our mind can release is death. But the mind of a person who is born again and has the life of G.o.d on the inside is like a valve that opens the flow of G.o.d's life-giving Spirit.

Imagine the right-hand side of yourself as being your spirit that is now born again with the life of G.o.d. Imagine the left-hand side of yourself as the world, including your physical body and person. In the center is your mind, which is like a pipe or a valve. It can either be closed, blocking the flow of the spirit, or it can be open, allowing everything that's in the spirit to pa.s.s into the physical realm.

The mind is important. The way you think and the way you perceive yourself in the spiritual realm is going to determine what happens to you in the physical realm. But if you are a lost person you don't have a new spirit. Because you aren't born again, the spirit that is within you is dead in trespa.s.ses and sins. It is by nature a child of the devil. (See Ephesians 2:3.) If your spirit has nothing but corruption in it, then no matter what you do with the valve of your mind, nothing but corruption can flow into the physical realm.

If you had the best faucet money could buy, but if you hooked it up to sewer lines, then whatever it was plumbed to would be what would come out. Likewise, our minds are like faucets that release or block what is in us. Only Christians who have the life of G.o.d on the inside of them can release life by the renewing of their minds.

Mind over matter may affect your feelings temporarily, but you can't really release life if there is no life on the inside. But if you're born again - if you have the life of G.o.d in you - then your mind is the critical factor. It is important how you think and how you perceive yourself. The image you have on the inside is going to determine whether your mind is closed and is operating out of your physical, human ability, or whether you release the life of G.o.d into the physical realm around you.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Philippians 3:12 NIV NIV There are times when I experience great victory in the area of emotions, but I'm not perfect. I haven't arrived, but I have left! If a person gets mad at me, I am still tempted to feel bad. But when I feel depression, rejection, hurt, anger, bitterness, or any other negative emotion rising up in me, I know exactly why I feel that way. It's because of the flesh - the old me. Emotions just serve to warn me that the reason I am feeling that way is because I am living in the flesh. I say, "Father, forgive me. I'm a new person in You and in Christ. I'm going to start releasing Your love."

I take the valve of my mind and start opening it so I can allow the new person on the inside of me to start flowing out. I start thinking about love, joy, and peace. I start seeing that the same love that filled the mind and heart of Jesus has now been deposited on the inside of me. As I see Jesus loving the people who mocked Him and crucified Him, I start loving the people who are ridiculing me and saying bad things about me. As I think the way Jesus thought, the life of G.o.d that is in my spirit starts flowing right through my physical body. I begin to express it in my emotions and in my actions.

That's why it is so important for us to renew our mind and conform to the mind of Christ.

Renew Your Mind - Renew Your World I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G.o.d, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G.o.d, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of G.o.d.

Romans 12:1,2 In our spirit, we have everything we need to live the victorious Christian life. So what is stopping us from doing that? We haven't renewed our mind.

According to Romans 12:1 the first step in serving G.o.d is the giving of our entire life to the Lord. But the second verse goes on to say that we are not to be conformed to this world. I like to say, "Don't be poured into the world's mold." So the next step is the renewing of the mind.

When we present ourselves as a sacrifice unto the Lord, He comes and lives on the inside of us, but the rest of our Christian life is spent being transformed by the renewing of our mind. In the Greek, the word translated "transformed" in this verse is metamorphoo, metamorphoo, which is the root of the word metamorphosis. (See James Strong's, which is the root of the word metamorphosis. (See James Strong's, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1890), "Greek Dictionary of the New Testament," #3339.) This is the process which takes place when a caterpillar spins a coc.o.o.n, lives in it, and is tranformed into a b.u.t.terfly. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1890), "Greek Dictionary of the New Testament," #3339.) This is the process which takes place when a caterpillar spins a coc.o.o.n, lives in it, and is tranformed into a b.u.t.terfly.

To have that kind of transformation take place in your emotions and your actions, you must renew your mind. Go through the New Testament and read and meditate on all the scriptures that describe who you are in Christ. Recognize that when you made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, you were born again. again. You don't just get a new start or a new beginning, you have an entirely new life. There is a totally new person on the inside of you. You don't just get a new start or a new beginning, you have an entirely new life. There is a totally new person on the inside of you.

Then recognize that just as you were incapable of saving yourself, you are incapable of living the Christian life. It's not just hard, it's impossible for your old man to ever measure up to the new life. G.o.d had to give you a new man - a new person who is exactly as Jesus is, with His life, His nature, and His ability on the inside.

Get a mental picture of who you are in Christ. As you think in your heart, that's the way you are going to be. If you think of yourself as an old sinner saved by grace, that's how you will be. If you think salvation wasn't a transformation, but just a canceling of your past debt, you will continue to see yourself as a sinner. If you don't see yourself as a new person, but only a sinner saved by grace, you will wind up sinning again and again and never be an overcomer.

But if you can begin seeing yourself as a brand-new person in Christ, you will begin to emotionally feel and physically act the way you are in Christ. Your mindset will be reproduced in your lifestyle. The Word of G.o.d - how G.o.d describes you - will be your image of yourself.

Get a real revelation of that concept and begin changing the way you think. Change the perceptions you have of yourself from the old nature to the new nature. You are today the way you see yourself to be. (See Proverbs 23:7.) If you're defeated, angry, bitter, depressed, or lonely, it's because you see yourself that way. You are seeing yourself in light of your problems. You are looking at failure and receiving what you see. But if you can begin to see who you are in Christ, then you can begin to reproduce that image in your actions and your emotions and find hope for today and tomorrow.

When you get saved, the Lord makes you a new person. If you have never made that commitment, I encourage you to do so today. Let the Lord make you a new person. Be born again by accepting His only Son, Jesus Christ, as your Savior and Lord. Receive His Holy Spirit to teach, guide, protect, and empower you. Then you can begin to esteem that new self we have talked about and the life of G.o.d will pour out of you, transforming your life.

Let Christ live through you, and you will discover the real meaning, purpose, and joy of life as G.o.d intends it to be.

Chapter 6

Renewing the Mind.

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Ephesians 4:23 As a result of some teaching that has taken place in the past few years, many Christians have started putting new information into their minds. They now know intellectually that it is by the stripes of Jesus they were healed. (See 1 Peter 2:24.) But they still see themselves sick; they still think they are infirm. They have changed their knowledge, but they haven't let that knowledge change their outlook. Their viewpoint hasn't changed. They have new information in their minds, but they don't have a new way of thinking. It is vitally important to see the difference. a result of some teaching that has taken place in the past few years, many Christians have started putting new information into their minds. They now know intellectually that it is by the stripes of Jesus they were healed. (See 1 Peter 2:24.) But they still see themselves sick; they still think they are infirm. They have changed their knowledge, but they haven't let that knowledge change their outlook. Their viewpoint hasn't changed. They have new information in their minds, but they don't have a new way of thinking. It is vitally important to see the difference.

In Ephesians 4:23, Paul tells us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. The New International Version The New International Version says we are to be made new in the att.i.tude of our mind. says we are to be made new in the att.i.tude of our mind. The Amplified Bible The Amplified Bible says we are to have a fresh mental and spiritual att.i.tude. So in this verse Paul is not just talking about what we think, but also the way we think - our att.i.tude and our entire outlook on life. says we are to have a fresh mental and spiritual att.i.tude. So in this verse Paul is not just talking about what we think, but also the way we think - our att.i.tude and our entire outlook on life.

For instance, pessimism is an att.i.tude just as optimism is an att.i.tude. Given the same facts, a pessimist and an optimist will have totally different mental dispositions. They have programmed themselves to respond differently to those facts. A pessimist will look at a situation and focus on the negative side of it, while an optimist will look at the same situation and focus on the positive side.

In order to manage our emotions, we must change the way we think. We have got to recognize that with Jesus Christ on our side we now have a supernatural ability we didn't have before we came to know Him as Savior and Lord. We need to quit comparing ourselves with the world and expecting the same results the world expects, because the world does not have G.o.d actively involved in their lives.

G.o.d wants to be involved in everyone's life. To most people He is on the outside, whereas with Christians He now lives on the inside. G.o.d has deposited His life and His supernatural ability on the inside of us; therefore, there needs to be an entire att.i.tude change within us. As our att.i.tude changes, our emotions follow along and change with it. Our emotions follow one hundred percent what we think and how we think.

We have already established these truths in Proverbs 23:7, Romans 8:6, and Isaiah 26:3. Review these Scriptures to see how they relate to your emotions.

Thinking in Pictures For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Proverbs 23:7 This shows us in greater detail how our thoughts affect every part of our everyday life. I once heard someone say that every person has a picture on the inside of themselves. They picture not only themselves, but everything around them.

We think in pictures. If I asked you to think of an apple, you would see an apple in your head. You wouldn't picture the word "apple," you would picture the real thing - the object itself. That image could be refined with words. If I asked you to think of a big red apple, that is what you would see rather than a small green apple. I could even change it further by asking you to think of a dry, overripe apple. Immediately, you would start imagining the apple being all shriveled up. I could say there is a worm coming out of the apple, and that would paint yet another picture in your mind.

Words spoken from the outside paint pictures on the inside, and pictures on the inside determine actions on the outside.

Each one of us has a picture of ourselves. It's like a snapshot on the inside of us of who we are. That inward picture determines the way we act and react to things on the outside.

For instance, if you see yourself as an angry, violent person, then you are going to behave and react accordingly. If you see yourself as a brute, you are going to act like a brute. If you see yourself as insecure, inadequate, weak, and incompetent, you will have no confidence in yourself at all. The mental image you have of yourself will dictate your response when a challenge comes your way.

People can be placed in the same situation, yet respond to it differently. For instance, if different people are confronted separately by a mugger, some will respond violently. They will become so strong and resist so hard that they will intimidate the mugger and drive him off. Others in that same situation will respond in fear and timidity, totally withdrawing from any possible conflict. Some may even have an extreme reaction by fainting, panicking, or becoming hysterical.

The exact same situation can cause radically different reactions because of the differences in the way each person thinks and the way they view themselves. You could probably determine what mental image they have of themselves simply by their reactions.

Your life is departmentalized and every area has a self-image. That image dictates the way you respond emotionally and physically to every situation in life. Again, your emotions are determined by your thoughts and perceptions.

You may try to hide your true feelings, and you may hide them very well for a time. But eventually, your true thoughts and emotions will surface and your actions will reflect those thoughts. No one can consistently perform differently from the way they think - the picture they have of themselves at that time and in that situation.

How Do You See Yourself?

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as gra.s.shoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Numbers 13:33 When the children of Israel faced a powerful enemy, they saw themselves as gra.s.shoppers. They became so fearful, they refused to go in and take the land G.o.d had promised them. As a result, G.o.d led them back into the wilderness until that entire faithless generation had died off.

When a powerful enemy is standing before you in the form of trials and tribulations, how do you see yourself? Do you shrink from the G.o.d-given power and authority that is in you, or do you boldly stand up to that enemy and proclaim the promises of G.o.d?

It doesn't matter how your enemy sees you. The important thing is how you see yourself. The Israelites saw themselves as gra.s.shoppers. That's what defeated them. In contrast, David saw the giant Goliath not as a giant but as someone without G.o.d's covenant. (See Samuel 17:36.) He saw Goliath as only having physical strength, while he had G.o.d's strength.

When I was drafted into the Army, I was put in a situation where there was unG.o.dliness around me in a way that I had never been exposed to before. There was great pressure on me to conform. At times, I was literally the only person who had any moral foundation at all.

For example, while I was in Vietnam, the United States government actually paid for Filipino women to be brought into what was called a "stand-down area" by the troops sent there for R & R. Technically, these women were performers; they would sing, dance, and entertain the troops. But in reality, they were prost.i.tutes. The government supplied all the liquor the troops could drink and provided little shacks where they could party, drink, and have s.e.x with these prost.i.tutes. There were times when I was literally the only person out of hundreds who didn't partic.i.p.ate in that activity. As I sat there by myself, many times I would be mocked, ridiculed, and made fun of. Believe me, I felt the pressure!

Many of those men were considered to be upstanding, moral citizens in the United States. But when they got over there and were separated from everything and everyone they knew, they became so lonely and pressured that they did things they would never have done at home. Why? Because they didn't have a firm, established direction for their lives. Many of them would never have lived a life like that in the United States, but when they got into that negative situation, they found themselves sucked into that lifestyle. They did things that I am sure they now regret and are ashamed of, things they have probably never shared with anyone else. Their problem was that because they had such a weak self-image, they allowed themselves to be shaped into the wrong mold.

Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of G.o.d.

Romans 12:2

I didn't go the direction of all the others. I was in the exact same situation as the rest of those men, yet I had a different, predisposed att.i.tude. I had already chosen the course for my life, and it kept me from going in the wrong direction. Instead of responding to that situation negatively and being sucked into it, my mindset hardened me and made me that much more committed to the path G.o.d had already shown me to be right for my life.

I once heard an Army chaplain put it this way, "Sure, the Army's a fire, and it'll melt you, but you'll fit into whatever mold you've already picked for yourself."

That is exactly what happened to me. By the time I was drafted and sent to Vietnam, I had already made a total commitment of my life to the Lord. I was determined to live for Him with everything I had. Every pressure that came my way just drove me that much closer to G.o.d. Other people there had been mediocre Christians before they went to war. They weren't bad people and they hadn't done anything particularly wrong, but they had not set their minds and committed themselves totally to the way they knew to be right. As a result, as soon as the pressure came, they melted into the mold of everyone around them.

As Christians, that is not the mold we are to be conformed to. We are to be conformed to the image of Christ by renewing our minds in the Word of G.o.d.

Your Mindset Determines the Outcome

Emotionally conforming to something other than G.o.d's Word happens to Christians all the time. They end up conforming their lives to a standard they never would have chosen for themselves on their own, because they don't have their lives already planned in their mind. They don't see themselves as total overcomers in any certain area. They may have knowledge about it, but they still view themselves as failures. They still view themselves as losers in some area, and it turns out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is evident in the area of finances. I know a certain woman whose husband died and left her enough money that she should have been satisfied for the rest of her life. This woman was already in her sixties, but within a year she was in poverty. She had spent some of the money wisely, but the majority of it was just blown away.

You may ask, "How could that happen?" It happened because this woman grew up in poverty. For a large portion of their lives, she and her husband had been alcoholics before they were born again. They had lived that way so long, it had become a mindset on the inside of them. Although they had ama.s.sed some money over their lifetime, they still saw themselves as poor. They talked poor. They acted poor. They bought the cheapest things available. They had an att.i.tude of poverty. Although the wife inherited all of her husband's money, within a very short period of time, she was right back where she started because that's the way she saw herself.