WEEK 4
TOPIC: Your Mindset (Part 2) – Factors That Shapen Your Mind
TEXT: Rom. 12:2.
As we have already seen, your mindset is the way you reason and approach life generally. This reasoning system does not just happen overnight, it is developed overtime due to certain factors in our daily life. Whether or not you know it, certain things are affecting your way of thinking already positively or negatively.
- Life Experiences: The life of a man is full of experiences as he goes through time. Some are positive while others are negative. These experiences can unknowingly become a template for your thinking pattern sub-consciously. Many people have their mindset conditioned by what they’ve been through in life. The danger in this is you may never have value for principles anymore. One reason God documented His word in the Bible for us is so we can use eternal principles of truth as a template for measuring the credibility of every experience. Many folks are not kind anymore because they have experienced backstabbing as a reward for their kindness. So that experience has conditioned their mindset against the sanctity of the principle of kindness. Child of God, don’t let experiences of life shapen your thinking pattern or else your personality will be altered wrongly. Satan desires to use experiences to condition your reasoning system so he can change your character. Refuse to let this happen. No matter the experience you go through in life, let the word of God form the paradigm of your thinking. No matter the financial experience, think liberality. No matter the corruption, think integrity. Experiences should not change you, instead let the word influence your thinking pattern so you can alter your experience through the power of faith.
- Environment: Your environment matters in programming your mindset. Yes, there is the reality of ancestral forces in sharpening a man’s character and you better know this. But do you also know that certain traits in a man’s personality are not ancestral but environmental. Even spiritual forces many times operate environmentally. That is why a certain way of thinking can be prevalent in certain environments because of the spirits prevalent there. If you can go to Las Vegas in America till date, and you are not careful, you will start liking gambling in all its forms because that spirit is prevalent there. The truth is the kind of environment you find yourself per time can conditions your thinking pattern. That’s why the Bible warns that evil communication corrupts good manners (1 Cor. 15:33). Communication takes place in environments. God admonished us not to forsake the assembly of the saints (Heb. 10:25) because of what that holy environment can and will do to our thinking pattern.
You remember the Israelites couldn’t get their minds to think freedom. They kept desiring to go back to Egypt at any slight challenge because the environment of Egypt has conditioned their mind to slavery mentality. Child of God, watch your environment per time if you don’t want to develop a mindset that can truncate your destiny. Even in church matters, there are certain churches you find yourself in overtime and the consciousness of who you are in Christ, the inner faith and boldness will begin to die in you. Mind the environment you find yourself if you want to develop excellent mind.
- Models: The place of role models is also a critical factor in shapening your mind. The world today is full of the models of different kinds, and they are influencing especially the young folks daily. The church must keep having great role models in every field of life or else our next generation will come under the influence of wrong models. Satan has brought up wrong people and given them great amount of “global success” as it were so that they can influence young folks that fancy them with his thinking pattern. The church must rise up and produce more successes for God because of the next generation that is looking up to them or else we will loose a whole generation to wrong mindset through worldly models.
Points to note
- Mindset is not something out of the blues, it is developed over time due to certain factors.
- Experience of life can affect our thinking pattern positively or negatively.
- Environmental factors are powerful tools in sharpening people’s mindset.
- When good and successful role models don’t rise up in the church, the next generation will be influenced wrongly by worldly models.
Prayer/Declaration
In Jesus’ Name, I declare that my mind is being conditioned by the word as I’m divinely positioned in the right environment. My path is directed to the right men for excellent mentoring by the spirit in Jesus’ Name.
Questions for meditation
- Do people just grow up to think in a particular way? Give reasons for your answer.
- How has your environment programmed your personality?
Satan wants to make worldly people powerful and successful for a reason. Discus?