Mental Detox: Rebooting the Mind and Creating a New Normal

Taking old habits into a new chapter will only produce the same results - Changed beliefs will produce a different outcome.

*If you always do what you have always done, and you always think what you have always thought you always get what you have always gotten…

Deut 30:19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

Strongholds DEFINED - A stronghold is a faulty thinking pattern based on lies and deception. Deception is one of the primary weapons of the devil, because it is the building blocks for a stronghold. What strongholds can do is cause us to think in ways which block us from God's best.

HOW IT STARTS - It often starts with a wound we experience, a hurt or disappointment that makes our heart fertile ground for seeds of lies to be planted. On this foundation, the enemy then begins to build brick by brick, a wall of lies, inaccurate ideas about the person of God, wrongful interpretations of Scripture, prideful thoughts, and distorted perceptions of how God sees us and feels about us when we sin.

His 3 greatest weapons against us:

1. deception

2. temptation

3. accusations

Stronghold is a - Thought process, way of thinking, patterns, paradigm, mental construct, and visualizations that have formed over time and slowly induce us to believe something that is no whether it be about us, others or God. - invisible yet powerful - they’re located in the mind - we see people’s attitudes and those are just an outward expression of their inward state of mind.

Breaking Strongholds (4 R’S)

1. Reveal

2. Repent

3. Renew 

4. Resist 

Now when you say one thing and do another repeatedly over time research (through the use of functional MRIs) has proven that this faulty thinking referred to a “Cognitive Dissonance” creates toxicity in the brain developing into what we know as brain fog at times increasing stress levels and creating inflammation. When we suppress (lie to ourselves) in order to avoid confronting an issue it damages our whole being.

REMEMBER: your default mode is POWER, LOVE and a SOUND MIND…not fear, stress, and reckless behavior.

You have the capacity through the connectedness with the HS to produce LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, GENTLENESS , FAITHFULNESS and SELF-CONTROL • change your belief • a changed belief produces a different behavior • different behavior will produce a different outcome

TAKE AWAY: You have to get to a point in your life in which you start to understand that you are not a victim of your biology, you are not captive to your genealogy, you are only a result of your psychology. In other words you cannot control circumstances or life events however you can control your reaction to such circumstances and events and that will determine the course of your life; for good or for evil.

NEURO-PLASTICITY - the brains capacity to become malleable and adaptable, changing moment by moment every day. Science has now concluded that the brain is not a hard wired machine unable to adapt. After years of research they have concluded that the brain has the capacity to renew itself. 

Romans 12:2 (NLT) 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. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND) The SPIRIT is REGENERATED in CHRIST The MIND needs to RENEWED by our choice and decision.

Steps for Detoxing the Mind

1) Identify (bring thoughts into consciousness / awareness) - Psalm 139 (NLV) 23 Look through me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. 24 See if there is any sinful way in me and lead me in the way that lasts forever.

2) Focus (deep thought, visualizations, reflection produces physical changes in the brain / neuro-plasticity) Phil 4:8 (NLT) 8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 

3) Write (this action will consolidate the new thoughts connecting both hemispheres of the brain and activating the basal ganglia, cerebellum and motor cortex / writing it will bring more clarity and will allow for the thought to go from short term to long term)

Habakkuk 2:2 The LORD gave me this answer: "Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance.

4) Rehearse/Revisit (good intentions aren’t enough / intentions coupled with discipline and consistency are key) James 1: 22-24 (The Message) Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.