The Laying On of Hands Can't Fix Bad Decisions: Manage Your Mind

Sermon outline

Prayer and the anointing cannot make your choices for you: fill your mind with God's Word until you think His thoughts, because the quality of your decisions decides the quality of your life.

1. You cannot receive everything by the laying on of hands

   Hands can impart gifts of the Spirit and healing, but the choices you make every day are decided by the information in your mind, which is why the Bible speaks of an unregenerated mind and a renewed mind. Many believers make decisions out of feelings, hurt and rejection and then ask for prayer. Pastors therefore owe the church a steady flow of the Word, and the church must become students of the Word.

   Illustration: Someone slapped you in 1966 and in 2008 you are still reeling from the shock, making every decision out of rejection. Even if you come to the altar and the anointing gets on you, he says, you can still go back and make foolish decisions.

   “You cannot receive everything with a laying on of hands.”

2. Solving life's problems: he is going to balance you

   He lists the subjects of the series: spiritual management, mind management, managing your emotions, improving your personality, financial management, goal setting, time, talent, vision, optimism, body and excellence in life. Much trouble comes from selfishness and from a life that is out of balance, and he promises that by the end people will be balanced, aligned and moving. Financial trouble is mostly poor management, not a failure of God's Word.

   Illustration: A brand new car with air conditioning and airbags still rattles and shakes if the wheel alignment is off. A Christian salesman who witnesses all day and brings in a tenth of the sales of his unbelieving colleague has forgotten his purpose and is stealing his employer's time.

   “Christianity is not about magical charms.”

   • Romans 3:4
   • Proverbs 11:1

3. Present your body and renew your mind

   The church reads Romans 12:1-3 aloud with him. Because it is called your reasonable service, it can be done. Offer God spirit, soul and body and your decisions will change fast. Renewing the mind means thinking God's thoughts, which are found in God's Word, and by wise decisions you can change your world, your own sphere of influence. He reads the Amplified Bible, where reasonable means rational and intelligent, so spiritual worship goes beyond lifting hands, singing and giving. Everything works by the Word, so do not hitchhike on someone else's faith.

   Illustration: All week he added one request to every prayer: 'Lord, give me a fresh love for your Word.' He contrasts that with people who take the Bible off the shelf on Sunday morning and think that diligent believers get their results by magic.

   “If you can get enough and sufficient of God's word in you, in your mind, you will think the thoughts of God and your decisions will be based on the word of God.”

   • Romans 12:1-3
   • 1 Thessalonians 5:23
   • Matthew 4:4

4. Do not be conformed to this world: faith-based, not fear-based

   The world's thinking is built on fear, and two people can do the same outward thing, one in faith and one in fear, with different results. A renewed mind has new ideals and a fresh attitude of 'I can do'. You prove for yourself that God's Word works, and he uses tithing as the test case: settle it between you and God as His system of economy, and do not recant under pressure.

   “All of the world's thinking is fear-based.”

   • Romans 12:2

5. Join a Word-based church and your boat will be rocked

   The devil is not worried about a religious church, but when you move from a dead place to a living one he sets up barriers and roadblocks. Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tested straight after the voice from heaven. So when challenges rise, do not say 'I don't know what God is doing'. Your real enemy is the devil, and the Word teaches you to break the strongholds of poverty and sickness in your mind and jump the barrier.

   Illustration: You get a puncture that Sunday morning, or your lift does not arrive. Catch a bus, run or grab a bicycle, because the enemy knows your life will change if you get there.

   “Your real enemy is the devil.”

   • Matthew 3:17
   • Matthew 4:1
   • Ephesians 6:12

6. The devil's strongest weapon is the power of suggestion

   He suggests things to you, and without enough Word inside you cannot make a quality decision. Most believers are not making decisions of quality, so the results that face them are not quality results. The only way to have God's ways is to capture God's thoughts, a line he wrote down that morning in prayer.

   “You want God's way but we don't want to capture His thoughts.”

7. Think higher: you are kings and priests

   He says he is anointed to change the way the church thinks, away from 'broken, busted, disgusted'. Believers are kings and priests and must function like kings, thinking big because God thinks big. That is not arrogance, only stating what God's Word says. He no longer thinks along racial lines: you are a new creation. Do not let other people's opinions move you, and a healthy self-image will keep you out of poor relationships.

   Illustration: 'Many Diwalis ago' he read a restaurant menu by the prices and went for the low-budget dishes, and at the bank he used to perspire because he had so little that he did not want the teller to know. He trained his mind to think higher. A newborn whose first words were 'I'm a porcupine' would be told, 'no, honey, you're not a porcupine'.

   “You come in like a caterpillar, I'm going to make you a butterfly.”

   • Revelation 1:6
   • Ecclesiastes 8:4
   • 2 Corinthians 5:17
   • Genesis 1:26

8. Your mind is your greatest asset: watch what goes into it

   As a man thinks in his heart, so is he, so choose the quality of the books you read and the programmes you watch, and invest in your mind and personality. Throw out what is not Bible-based, even things your parents taught you. Do not be 'spooky spiritual': show the fruit of the Spirit, keep control of your emotions and be single-minded, because a series of small wrong choices can wreck a life.

   Illustration: His wife calls him Mr National Geographic: he watches nature programmes, not films, and reads business and finance books and above all the Bible. He read Proverbs the day before and wanted to highlight everything. Some believers, he says, will pay for a burger or a pizza but find a good book too expensive.

   “The greatest asset you have is your mind.”

   • Proverbs 23:7
   • James 1:7-8

9. If you think right, you'll ink right

   What is in your mind comes out in how you speak and write, and people can pick up a mean spirit from a letter or an email. Managing your mind includes managing your emotions. He points the church to his book Talk Back to the Devil: filter the thoughts that come, hold on to the good ones and kill the bad seed, and choose all week what you will and will not look at.

   Illustration: A man ended an email to him with a nasty insinuation. He was angry, drafted a reply, then deleted his last paragraph and wrote only that he would not respond to those comments.

   “Some people are more committed to killing weeds in their garden than to kill bad thoughts in your mind.”