Bill Johnson - How to Renew Your Mind and Walk in Great Faith
The renewed mind is the mind of Christ. The renewed mind is the mind of wisdom. Paul said in Romans 12:2, «Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.» So, there’s no transformation apart from the transformation of the mind. A transformed life is consistently aligned with a transformed mind—no more, no less. A transformed mind transforms a person. Yes, don’t be conformed to this world; be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove the will of God.
So, what’s the will of God on earth as it is in heaven? The best definition of the will of God is found in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples: «Pray like this: Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.» What does the renewed mind do? It proves the reality of heaven on earth. You’re going to make me work all night on this, aren’t you? I can tell. The renewed mind is somehow able to put on display the reality of God’s heart, which is to transform this world. So, when one person is ministered to and has lived with torment their whole life, and it’s gone—guess what? The kingdom came. The will of God came, and it was because someone had enough of a renewed mind to demonstrate or display that which God intended to do for everybody.
To seek first the kingdom is to seek first His rule in any given situation where we have influence. We’re not praying for a military invasion of heaven on earth. We’re not praying to go to heaven. We’re praying for the will of God to be demonstrated in every broken situation where we have influence, and the renewed mind sees this: the answer more than the problem. The enemy works to make us more aware of the problems we face than the solutions we carry. If he can emphasize my problems in my thinking and my awareness, he can increase my consciousness of those problems. This is true for everyone in this room: if he can somehow highlight or increase my awareness of the problems I face, I will live in reaction to those problems. They will influence me.
I don’t mean the devil controls me. I just mean I live in reaction to him. Jesus didn’t live that way; He lived in response to the Father. Oftentimes, people live in reaction to the devil and feel spiritual about it. You have a sense of purpose when you react to the devil, and I don’t want to say it’s entirely wrong; I’m just saying it’s inferior. My anger doesn’t intimidate the devil; my determination, my strong will, does not intimidate him at all. It’s the blood of Jesus that intimidates and tenderizes. Today, functioning under the influence of being a forgiven one allows me to replicate that in people’s lives. In other words, the redemption I have experienced is the redemption I get to minister.
Colossians 3:1 says, «If then you were raised with Christ,» how many of you were raised with Christ? His resurrection is important to understand. His resurrection is your resurrection— that’s the whole point. The Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the spirit of resurrection. He is the one who dwells in you. That’s why surrender to Him is key to every aspect of victory we could possibly have in our lives, because He is that power of resurrection capable of producing a resurrected life through you and through me. Verse 1 of chapter 3: If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth. Why? Because you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Now, let me read from the Passion Translation: «Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at a place of all power, honor, and authority. Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities and not with the distractions of the natural realm. Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life. Now, your true life is hidden away in God in Christ, and as Christ Himself is seen for who He really is, who you really are will also be revealed, for you are now one with Him in His glory.»
Now, I don’t know, these are pretty large thoughts; they actually hurt my head. It’s hard for me to comprehend this, and I don’t know what you’re like, but I know my tendency when I read lofty thoughts is to skim over them and move on, almost like, «That’s too big for me,» or «Too big for now.» Some of these things just need to be prayerfully meditated on. This would be the kind of thing where you would sit in your car or your prayer closet or wherever, and you would pray. You say, «My mind is set on heavenly things.» I imagine, I wonder about unseen realities—the realities of God’s rule, the reality of His world. Those are the things I get to feed my soul on; those are the things I get to feast on. I’m going to set my eyes on those things; I’m going to set my mind on those things. I want to engage with things that I don’t understand because I want Him to teach me what His world is like.
What you do is you pray it, you talk it, you sing it, you confess it. You find scripture of this nature. Please, please be willing to write your own cross-references in your Bible when you see another verse like the ones I just read to you from Colossians 2 and Romans 6. They fit perfectly within lofty ideas. Anytime you find these threads through scripture, write them down in your own reference because one day you’ll read that verse and you’ll wonder, «Why did that stand out to me?» You’ll notice another verse, and you’ll be further down the journey, and as you turn to that second passage, it begins to open up. This is one thing I do: I mark why a verse stood out to me and I note my own references. That will take me through my own history, my own journey in scripture. This means, in a sense, this is my diary. It’s not filled with a lot of explanations; it doesn’t need to be—it just has the right things marked.
Nahum 1:7 says, «The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him.» Look at it again: «The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who trust in Him.» I want you to make a mental note once again of that stronghold. This time it’s a stronghold of the revelation of the goodness of God. Another place in scripture says that the name of the Lord is a hiding place; it’s a tower of strength where we hide ourselves. So, if you can picture it this way: a people who understand a truly heartfelt understanding of the goodness of God automatically have a hiding place—a stronghold—in which they dwell. It’s evidenced by what we trust in when problems arise. It’s very easy to think of an individual or a repeated problem with hopelessness and blame it on the lack of character in the individual, which essentially declares, «Father, this one is out of Your reach.»
And what happens when I do that? I create a stronghold of thinking that removes me from being a part of a redemptive solution because I have categorized that individual. In that specific place, I have fallen into a trap, believing in things that are unredeemable. Nobody would ever say that, because we know that God can do anything. But it’s not your theology; it’s your lifestyle. It’s not your theology—every believer says God can do anything. Yet when they have a problem, they don’t believe He will fix it. So the theology is right, but the lifestyle is wrong. The lifestyle is fueled by thought life, so the thought life is not just focused on finding the lie and removing it. Because He says to take every thought obedient to Christ. A thought pattern is not transformed until I am seeing a situation through the eyes of Jesus, thinking the redemptive thoughts that He thinks. That’s right. Until then, I’m still in that place of need. I’m not in the place of bringing change.
The Lord is good; He is a stronghold; He knows those who trust Him. Do you ever wish you could read the Bible for the first time again? I love the simplicity of faith in a brand new believer. In fact, I got this Bible last week that belonged to Smith Wigglesworth. His little pocket Bible—he wrote in the back of this Bible, saying, «Never compare this book with other books; comparisons are dangerous. Never think or say that this book contains the word of God; it is the word of God. It is supernatural in origin, eternal in duration, inexpressible in value, infinite in scope, regenerative in power, infallible in authority, universal in interest, personal in application, inspired in totality. Read it through, write it down, pray it in, work it out, and pass it on. It is the word of God.» This is what he wrote in the back of his Bible. It’s not complicated—if He said it, it’s true; if He didn’t, it probably isn’t.
It’s simple: if I have more input from social media than I do from the word of God, my discouragement is self-inflicted; it’s a calculated decision. I find myself thinking about this person: they will never change. At what point do I stop the lie? Because I’m building a hiding place for the demonic that will actually help fulfill the very lie I’ve come to believe. I would never say it, but my approach to a problem often reflects that it’s a stronghold. The Lord is preparing us in this season to be able to address the impossible. We’ve said this for 20 years, so this is nothing new, but I feel like He’s heightening our awareness of something today. He’s enabling us to recognize where we have fallen for the lie—where I have entertained the enemy’s ideas in my personal castle. I sense that through this strangest season of my life, the Lord has been training us for something we’re unaware of. I assume that all of us are in this boat, though perhaps not in the same way.
I’ve never seen so much swirling in thought, ideas, and arguments in the air as in recent days. I feel like the Lord is allowing us to be exposed to the chaos so we can unmistakably recognize peace. The peace of God is the complete absence of chaos. That’s the definition. The peace of God is the complete absence of chaos. He has allowed us, if you will, to be exposed to some of the craziest things ever—not so that we walk through life being victims. If you experience sorrow, perhaps a friend has fallen into some deception. I got news this week of a dear friend who is getting divorced, and I never would have expected it. I don’t know what happened. But when you have pain like that, if you just feel sad and do nothing with it, you’re wasting your time. God gave you the ability to feel so that it would lead you to Him.
I don’t know how to pray for this situation, but I do know that the enemy has had his way. So I pray for God’s mercy to come upon this couple, His mercy to touch each individual heart. «God, I don’t know what’s happened or where they are,» and this is where you pray in tongues a lot. He always gets it right! I may pray, «Oh God, give me a Ferrari with 700 horsepower,» and then as I pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit says, «Man, don’t give him that car; he’ll kill himself.» That’s what I’m praying in tongues. I’m praying, but I don’t even know it, and He just cancels out my prayer. I’m praying; that’s how this works for me.
So, I don’t know how it works for you, but He always refines my prayers. He says, «No, he’ll kill himself if he has that car; don’t do that.» But if you feel grief or pain or are troubled, if it doesn’t take you to Him in prayer, you’re wasting your sensitivities. It’s a gift—like eyesight. If you see something coming at you that’s going to hit you and you don’t duck your head, you’re wasting your eyesight. We perceive because He has positioned us to make a difference or react accordingly.
Let’s read this passage one last time in 2 Corinthians 10:4. «The weapons of our warfare are not carnal; they are mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.» At this point, we learn to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. It’s an interesting picture, that last phrase: bringing every thought captive. When I think of bringing every thought captive, I envision a soldier warring against us. Let’s just take that thought for a moment. Let’s say we’re in an army, and we have a soldier I take him captive, but he becomes so captive that he becomes a soldier for us. It’s not putting him in restriction where he doesn’t function; it’s seeing that thought process so transformed that it now works for us—taking every thought captive to what? The obedience of Christ. What is that? It’s the mind of Christ, taking that deceptive thought about your neighbor captive until it starts reflecting the mind of Christ about your neighbor.
Hostages! Taking our thoughts hostage until they’re transformed in nature and reflect the fact that there is nothing impossible. He has a redemptive solution for every situation. He will cause every situation that pertains to my life to work for good, which means for His glory and my strength. Cast down that vile thought that has isolated that person into an unredemptive position in their life. Take that vile thought that says there is no solution to your economics, that you’ve tried everything, and there is no solution. Take that vile thought and cast it at the feet of Jesus, who is Himself Jehovah Jireh. Take that thought that says your marriage cannot be healed or restored. Take that thought captive because it was born in the pit of hell. Come on! Take it captive, and cast it down, and bring into subjection all these things that you’re thinking, seeing, and feeling until what you’re thinking, seeing, and feeling reflects His heart and His nature.
I love seeing glimpses of how He works, how He thinks, how His world operates. Every glimpse of His world equips me to release His influence on earth. There are many people who think His influence on earth is going to come when He returns and there will be this military invasion. Who knows what that’s going to look like? All I do know is that I have the assignment now. He didn’t give us authority to keep us busy until He returns; He gave us authority to make a difference in this world we live in. Most of this stuff is not dealt with face to face with an individual. I’m not saying to avoid conversation or all that—I’m just saying that so often, the powers that be are demonic realities surrounding an issue. That’s where we go to battle. That’s where we get on our knees. That’s where we make prophetic decrees. We are not fighting against people. That’s right! Everyone has had a bad idea at some point and has actually partnered with the enemy, not with God. Each of us, and probably most of us, more than once or twice. Someone was merciful to me, so let’s show the same mercy.
The enemy is not people; there are powers behind realms of thought, standing behind even geographical areas. I don’t want to get weird and spooky on you, but I’m just telling you, there are certain places that are dark because individuals have partnered with the demonic realm at such a level that stronghold must be broken over those people’s lives. You see it with the man of the Gadarenes. Jesus brought deliverance to this one guy. In fact, some gospels say there were two, but the point is, they got free. Yes! Jesus brought deliverance to the one person, and the people were so freaked out. It says that this demoniac had so many demons that he was possessed by them. He was set free; it says he was clothed and in his right mind. The city was afraid. As long as a guy was writhing and breaking chains, running around naked, everybody was fine. But somehow, when he got freed, the people got concerned. It must be that cult; it must be that church down the road.
It says the people were afraid because there was a power that operated outside. Listen, every person around you doesn’t mind a God who looks like them. They will try to reduce the nature of God to their nature instead of having a God to whom they must give an account. The responsibility in this moment is as Jesus brings deliverance to this guy; the city gets afraid and chases Jesus and His disciples out of the area. Sometime later, it says when Jesus came back to that area, every person from every village came to hear Him speak. What happened? One credible witness! One person upon whom the kingdom had come! Something was bound, something was loosed; he was a living illustration of what that world looks like. He had sanity and engagement with people; he was a different person.
When that leaven was put into the lump of dough, that entire region that had rejected Christ, when that leaven was put into that lump of dough, when Jesus came back, they all wanted to hear what He had to say because something was bound and something was loosed. David made this statement: «Daily, I set the Lord before me.» It’s a strange statement—"Daily, I set the Lord before me.» Just so you understand, you can’t grab hold of God and put Him where you want. He wasn’t saying that. I believe what he is saying is, since you can’t imagine a place where He isn’t, you might as well imagine Him with you. Is He everywhere? Yes! That means He’s here.
What is abiding in Christ? It’s acknowledging the presence of God who is with you to a point of engagement, relationship, and awareness. Something happens in that heartfelt connection with the presence of God, the Spirit of God, who is with me and will never leave me. Something happens in that heartfelt connection where I live more aware of what He wants. I live more conscious of His will. The way I like to describe it is I live more aware of His mood, and I don’t mean He is moody in a temperamental way—I mean I just live more conscious of how He feels about a given subject or a given person.
We’ve talked before about how several years ago, I was looking through a magazine that had all these different conferences listed. When I got to the end, I realized that I had skimmed over every conference. I looked at the speakers with almost disregard and thought that kind of complacency of heart toward another brother in the Lord is not healthy. So, I actually went back to the beginning of the magazine and slowly turned the pages until I came to a conference. I looked at each speaker, and this took me a while. I looked at each speaker until I could feel the pleasure of the Lord for that individual. When I could feel the pleasure of the Lord for that person, then I turned the page and went to the next one, feeling the pleasure of the Lord.
When I did this, something changed in my perception. I found that my attitude had been careless. I’m embarrassed to even say it, but I was careless in my attitude towards those who were not part of our stream. It wasn’t a conscious thing that was there; I didn’t know it was there until it surfaced as I looked at these speakers. I felt embarrassed and ashamed. I knew enough not to think critically, but the answer to not being critical was just to ignore, and that’s not the Kingdom. The opposite of love is not hate; it’s complacency. Finding that pleasure—you feel you can sense that heart of God for any given issue. It may be a politician or somebody who is completely opposed to anything you think. You take that extra moment to realize here is someone made in the image of God! Come on! I have the responsibility to treat them as one made in the image of God. Policy issues are other issues; they cannot color my approach or value—prayerful value for an individual.
It’s a deception. The religious spirit and the political spirit are both vying for influence to color my perception of people, of groups of people. If a person I find repulsive, or if I want nothing to do with them, then I’ve cut off my ability to demonstrate the love of Christ. He didn’t say, «Bill, you’re assigned to a few, and you can be mad at the rest.» You can love this person and that person, but the rest of them can be hated. It’s just silly! The fact is, whoever He puts before me, I have to be able to honor and celebrate.
So here we have this responsibility. Jesus said the ecclesia, the two or three people that work down here at such-and-such a grocery store, come together during their lunch break in Jesus' name. When they come together with this predetermined idea, «We will partner together for the invasion of God’s blessing and presence upon this business.» I don’t own a business; I am here as a representative of another world. The government of God is resting upon the two or three, but not just the government—the Governor! The one who runs the government is with us as we gather.
If we had just a heightened awareness of purpose and the reality of presence, we would live, think, and pray differently. Our decrees would be much more intentional. Our pronouncements, our prophetic words that we release would be much more anchored in a faith that sees a possible outcome. Paul in Romans 12 talks about people who would prophesy according to their faith. Faith is supposed to be the guiding power behind the prophetic. By faith, I see what isn’t naturally visible, so I’m perceiving something that isn’t yet, but it’s about to be, because I’m about to speak it; I’m about to declare it.
So you take the ecclesia; you take the two or three. It may be a husband or wife in our homes. We’re tired of letting the enemy have his way. We are here representing another world! God Himself, the Governor of that world, is present with me. He says if I will just connect my heart to Him and live aware of Him, letting His words infect my soul, I will think what He thinks, want what He wants, dream what He dreams. As that abiding presence becomes that kind of influence in my consciousness and unconscious mind, I can ask anything!
This is perhaps the most incomprehensible verse in the Bible, which is saying something because most of them are incomprehensible. But he says in verse 19, «To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with the fullness of God.» Wow! There are planets out there bigger than our galaxy! Since the day the Lord spoke, «Let there be light,» His word has been traveling through empty space and creating. It’s expanding at least at the speed of sound, if not the speed of light. That God holds all of that in the palm of His hand and said His intention is to fill us with His fullness. Wow! If you don’t leak, you’re bound way too tight!
These are not poetic phrases to inspire us; they are literal decrees that are so far beyond the reach of our imagination that there’s no way in the world we can make them happen, nor can we understand them as they’re happening. But what we can do is surrender to His intent. I can acknowledge it. Acknowledge it in that I see it. Well, what did Paul say? Through a glass darkly, I see the shape of it. Although I can never fully describe it, the Christian life is going from one mystery to another, to another, to another mystery. One of the great tragedies, especially in the western world, is that we tend to reduce the gospel to what we understand. I don’t want to downplay intellect. The Lord protected human reasoning with His own death. Literally, He protected our capacity to think critically; He even invites us. He says, «Come and reason, let’s reason together.»
I believe very strongly that the Lord wants to reveal Himself through human intellect but never be contained by human intellect, if that makes sense. Your heart will take you where your head can’t fit. What the Lord is doing is bringing us into measures, realms, and levels of surrender because it all has to do with the heart. Why? Because His supreme value is faith. Faith is not anti-intellect; it’s just superior to intellect. In Hebrews 11, it says, «By faith we understand that the worlds were made out of nothing.» By faith, we understand. Faith comes first; understanding follows.
Understanding is perceiving something beyond comprehension. By faith, we understand that the worlds were made out of nothing. The reason He deals with the heart is that the heart is where faith comes from; it says, «With the heart, man believes.» It doesn’t say, «With the head.» I’ve gone over this so many times, so forgive me for repeating, for you old-timers. But the mind is important. You’ll see Jesus acknowledging the centurion. If you remember the centurion, he acknowledged the extraordinary faith revealed through his understanding of authority. He said, «I’m a man under authority, and I say to those under me, 'Go do something, ' and they do it.»
So, he was giving a picture of the kingdom. It was his understanding that captured Jesus’s attention and released a miracle into his servant. It’s an extraordinary story. Faith is not anti-intellect; it’s just superior. And because it is superior, now realize we’ve all seen fake faith or attempts at faith that fell far short, and probably most of us have done it. But genuine faith is superior to human reasoning, and it is so superior that it inspires the mind into the mind of Christ. The renewed mind is like the banks of a river; it creates the context for faith to flow in.
So, pursuing understanding is important, but I never want to restrict my obedience to my understanding. I don’t need to understand to obey. If I restrict my obedience to my understanding, then I’ve created a God in my image. I have a God who’s my size, so it’s vital that my obedience is ready to go at the word of the Lord. It doesn’t have to make sense to me; I just need to know it’s Him.
Wow, it looks like I’m going to be really thirsty tonight. If this is any sign, it’s going to be a long meeting. But we will need a break now. Both of these are unopened bottles, so they’re pretty full. You know what? I’m just going to do it this way—I’ll just deal with one now. This bottle is full enough to sell as full, but it’s not full. It’s pretty full now! But it’s still not full. Now it’s full! See, fullness is measured in overflow, not by what you contain. Jack Havir taught us years ago that abundance in the Kingdom is not measured by what you have; it’s measured by what you’ve given away. The same concept exists in the fullness of the Spirit.
When the scripture talks about us being filled with the Spirit—the fact there’s a commandment: «Don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.» It’s actually a command. Fullness is measured in overflow; it’s not what you contain! It’s not your Merry Christmas; you caught it! That’s good, because it would have wrecked your iPad!
Fullness is measured in overflow, and you were designed for this purpose. Jesus had 12 guys; one flaked out, so He had 11, and He spent three and a half years with them, showing them what it’s like to be full of the Spirit. He never put it in those words, but he modeled it so profoundly that they acted for what He had. See, we owe people an encounter with God, and the only way to ensure that can happen on a continuous daily basis is for us to be full, in the same way that I just illustrated—full of the Holy Spirit. We are vessels that leak. We’re broken vessels, every one of us, which means I have to stay continuously under the spout that keeps me full!