The renewed mind is trained by faith. A renewed mind illustrates, demonstrates, manifests, and proves the will of God, which is Heaven on earth. Bill Johnson delivers an impactful sermon about the significance and purpose of the renewed mind. As we yield to God’s way of thinking, we will display the heart and mind of God.

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several months ago i mentioned to you i

wanted to take time

uh to review subjects and i’m going to

do

a review again probably

the way it feels to be honest with you

it’s going to be for the next several

months whenever i’m here i’m only here

every once or two or three weeks because

of

taking care of my wife which by the way

shadow a little surgery on her lung

because of a fluid issue and but she’s

doing really well and regaining strength

very appreciative appreciative of your

your prayers for her for us

and are very thankful for

just the increasing strength in her body

but what i want to talk to you about

today

is the renewed mind

a very very familiar subject but i’m

hoping to hit it at an angle that will

refresh

at least

if not to give us new insight and

instruction

if the mind wasn’t important it wouldn’t

be worth renewing

god values the the mind the intellect of

the individual

so profoundly so

that jesus went through great extent of

suffering to protect that mind

knowing that

the unrenewed mind is hostile towards

him and is at war with god according to

romans 8.

so he takes the risk to

to protect something

to keep people independent in their

thinking

so that they can

be instruments if you will instruments

of god of hearing what he’s saying doing

what he’s doing to illustrate heaven on

earth to illustrate the actual will of

god through their uh yielded imagination

a yielded imagination becomes the

sanctified imagination a sanctified

imagination is positioned for vision and

dreams

it’s the sanctified imagination it

becomes postured to hear and to see from

god

i believe that there’s a whole new

release of creativity

that’s about to take place

through the church

uh for the sake of the world for the

nations for uh in medicine science

technology all these areas i i believe

very strongly let me also insert here it

wouldn’t be good for us

for all the creative ideas to come from

the church

we become way too proud and arrogant and

independent and think we’re something so

thankfully the lord knows what measure

but i do think

if we reposition ourselves in our

thinking

he will he will release ideas

uh to us all right

so the the renewed mind

the renewed mind

is the target of the lord

in your life every single day of your

life

he’s constantly

speaking to us

leading us into experience encounters

that will reposition us for thinking not

just creatively but thinking like christ

the renewed mind is able

to create a context for faith

it’s important you understand this

faith doesn’t come from the mind the

bible says it’s with the heart man

believes under righteousness so faith is

not an intellectual matter

but the renewed mind creates the context

for faith

much like the banks of a river

create a context for the river to flow

in

so the renewed mind it was the centurion

who understood the ways of god and the

nature of the kingdom that caused jesus

to respond

so impressed with his understanding

and he called it faith

so unimpressive his understanding he

called it faith he said go your way your

servant lives

so faith will often demonstrate itself

in kingdom understanding

it is not the product of discipline

self-discipline i believe discipline is

important and i i play it down some so

forgive me for that

somebody else will balance it out

but it won’t be me

i i believe in discipline i really do

but it creates the context for something

to happen

faith comes

from surrender not striving

it’s the product of

yielding to the spirit of god and the

word of god and the encounters or

experiences that he takes us into to

think and to see

differently

there are enemies to the renewed mind

obviously everything that the enemy

would want to do

in our life is to disengage us from

the renewed mind the reason is he wants

people that think in ways

that

even though they appear

logical and reasonable they’re actually

hostile towards god and the ways of god

the mindset on the flesh romans 8 is

hostile towards god

it’s not neutral

it’s not like the mindset of the flesh

is just having a bad day no it’s at war

with the things of god

it’s important to understand that the

mindset on the flesh but the mindset on

the spirit is life and peace the mind

set on the spirit is capable of moving

in great faith

a couple more comments saying well we’ll

read that did i tell you where to go

james 3

no

how many of you were there i just want

to see how many discerning people there

are in the room

none all right well

i’ll give you another chance james

chapter 3 turn there in your bibles

we’ll we’ll read out of there in just a

moment

i think

now i

i’m i’m perceiving something

like you remember the the phrase looking

through a glass darkly that’s where i’m

standing right now is i’m i’m peering

through a glass

and this is i can’t see it clearly but

i’ll tell you what i do see

the scripture says by faith we

understand the worlds were made out of

nothing by faith we understand the

worlds were made i have nothing by faith

we understand

by faith

we understand

i believe that the lord is

is

introducing us

to an understanding

that will benefit humanity

an understanding that doesn’t elevate

you or elevate me as some

christian smartypants

i said i see a t-shirt no i don’t

do not make that t-shirt for me i will

not wear it

christian smarty pants

it just came to me i’m not sure it was

the lord though all right

yeah yeah probably not

he’s not interested in elevating

the believer to a place of

applause and worship

what he is

wanting to do

is to elevate the fact that he has the

entire world in his heart

and there are practical solutions for

every problem

and he understands what they are and

surrendered yielded people will come

into those so i do believe that as we

expand and grow in our own faith in

these areas i think that there’s going

to be more dreams more visions more

just simple uh sometimes you get a dream

and a vision and it seems supernatural

sometimes you just work hard and come to

a right conclusion and that also is the

work of god

sometimes i i know our teams that write

songs they’ll have these uh i know from

uh from talking with brian there’s these

moments where songs just seem to come

and and you know two-thirds of the song

is written but the last third is is

grinded it’s ground out over a period of

time and and both are necessary does

that make sense to you so so i i i

believe that the lord is going to

release understanding for us

to for creative uh creative solutions

expressions etc all right

by faith we understand let’s go to james

chapter three what we’re going to see

here is we recognize that the devil

doesn’t come to us

in a red rubber suit with horns and a

pitchfork he doesn’t make himself known

as the devil he makes himself known as

something we would value

he actually has to parade his thoughts

as virtuous thoughts for us to embrace

them

that was a good point bill that was a

really good point

he has to actually parade what bible

calls him the angel of light so he has

to parade himself in a way

where we think or feel that we are

discerning

or

moving

in some sort of a virtue the problem is

is that way of life that way of thinking

does not carry peace with it it does not

bear the fruit of peace or righteousness

so let’s go into this

passage out of james chapter 3.

verse 13

who is wise and understanding among you

let him show by

good conduct that his works are done in

the meekness of wisdom i love that

phrase meekness

of wisdom

my goodness don’t pursue wisdom without

meekness

or don’t think you have it unless

there’s meekness

meekness is not weakness

meek this isn’t weakness meekness is

yielded strength

the biblical illustration of meekness is

the wild horse that becomes trained it’s

still as strong to jump the biggest

fence it just only does it at the

commander’s

word

verse 14 if you have bitter envy

self-seeking in your hearts do not boast

and lie against the truth

this wisdom does not descend from above

but is earthly sensual and demonic

for where envy and self-seeking exist

confusion in every evil thing are there

but the wisdom that is from above is

first pure then peaceable gentle

willing to yield

interesting

full of mercy

and good fruits without partiality and

without hypocrisy

now the fruit of righteousness is sown

in peace by those who make peace go back

to verse 14 and 15 then i want to talk

to you for a bit

if you have bitter envy

self-seeking in your heart do not boast

and lie against the truth look at this

phrase this wisdom

does not descend from above but is

earthly essential and demonic

what’s the key here

bitterness

offense

jealousy envy

all of these things

carry with it the appearance of wisdom

that’s why a christian would embrace it

it makes us feel discerning

it just doesn’t bear the fruit of peace

of righteous living

if i were to call out what i think is

the number one

enemy

that i’ve seen at work in the body of

christ in the last two years it would be

offense

and it’s it’s connected to this right

here it appears

as wisdom

it comes

with reason have you ever met a bitter

person that didn’t have a good reason

it’s their reasoning

offense is that way

offense just inspired a bunch of people

to vote for abortion that are totally

opposed to abortion

it moves people that dramatically

because it has the appearance of wisdom

and it is not

i’ve been on a a little journey myself

for the last

i’ve mentioned it before and a few

months ago

but over the last i would say maybe six

months i

i’ve been asking the lord

man i don’t want i don’t want any

trace

of offense in my heart about anything

ever

i i don’t want to live under that

influence and i i i to be honest with

you

i

i’m one of the most forgiving people i

know

and i i’m i’m that’s an arrogant thing

to say but i really don’t care at this

point

i

i

uh honestly i

i am so quick to forgive

and yet i’ve asked the lord show me

any place for this offense because

because you don’t have to be bitter to

live under the influence of offense

i’ve i’ve dealt with the unforgiveness

stuff as to much as my knowledge i have

dealt with

but you can still

unknowingly live under the influence of

an offense and still not be bitter guard

your heart but you live under the pain

of that when you don’t need to

so i’ve been asking the lord to just

show me this stuff for the last six

months at the most random times i’ll be

just driving down the road and i will

remember

something somebody said to me in high

school

really

do we have to go that far back

or something it was done in grade school

or something was done last year i mean

just all kinds of very random things

the conversation at the chicago airport

with a young man

who

had certain opinions and conclusions

about me

so that comes to mind i i can see his

face i can take you where we were in the

airport

and i say

i give up my right to be offended

[Applause]

i give up my right the lady who flips me

off in the car

i pull over to have a conversation with

her

i give up my right

to be offended

the money that was stolen

the dishonesty in this deal

i give up my right to be offended

and what happens is you just have this

stuff just just dial up now i i need i

need you to understand because there

could be a horrible misunderstanding

i don’t recognize anything yet he’s

brought up where i have harvard

resentment or bitterness

but there’s something powerful that’s

done in my heart

i don’t know how else to say that

something’s powerful is down in my heart

when i look at that the guy who met me

at the airport here in reading

and just

read me the riot act and

on my eternal destination

i can still see his face

i give up my right to be offended

honestly i’ve tried to take it a step

farther in cases like this

i pray for great mercy great grace

but the point is i i don’t want

i don’t want the

the poison of offense to cloud my my

vision my scene

i don’t want it to affect my thinking my

reasoning because it does that’s the

target the target is to get a fence to

get bitterness envy any of these things

to get it somewhere

influencing the reasoning

so that i’m not able

to demonstrate the heart of god on

planet earth in the measure he desires

so i want you to look with me at romans

12

and we’ll uh

we’ll take this for the remaining

part of the morning

you guys still alive

i don’t know what i’d say

would i do if you said no but

i

i do prefer people surviving the meeting

verse 1 of chapter 12 romans 12

i beseech you therefore brethren by the

mercies of god

that you present your bodies

a living sacrifice

wholly acceptable to god which is your

reasonable service i think one of the

translations may be new americans says

reasonable service of worship

present your body as a living sacrifice

your reasonable service

becoming a living offering is the

intellectual thing to do

have you discovered yet that god thinks

different than you

guess who’s not going to change

what repentance does

is it re-engages with the way he thinks

that’s what repentance is

repentance is reconnecting with the

perception of god regarding a matter

his perception is different

most of our lives are spent in the

middle of challenges difficulties

problems victories whatever it might be

and in the middle of these issues we are

crying out to god for him to come and

help and to fix the situation

but jesus modeled a different way of

living

i hope that we can come into this in

instruction and experience more

thoroughly in the next couple years

some have referred to it as the ascended

life

it sounds too abstract perhaps but just

follow me with this

in john 3 jesus says to to the

nicodemus and the guys that are hanging

out he says no one has ascended to

heaven

except for the son of man

who is in heaven

think with me

the son of man who first descended and

who is in heaven all right so think with

me in this

this is john 3 this is early in the in

the game

jesus hasn’t died yet

which means he hasn’t resurrected

he hasn’t ascended to the right hand of

the father and he hasn’t been glorified

yet and yet in this passage he announces

to the group he said no one has ascended

into heaven except for the son of man

who first descended from heaven what is

he saying

do you want to know how

he knows what the father’s doing

how he can say i only do what i see my

father do how i can say only what i hear

my father say is because

he illustrates for us what it’s like to

live in heavenly places towards earth

everything he did he did brokering that

world into this one

through his obedience but it was the

ascended life it was literally dwelling

in that sense of presence and living

from there

most of us live inferior

asking for him to invade not wrong not

evil just weaker

i can’t prove this yet so let me just

throw it out as an idea

for me the difference is the difference

between a servant and a son

all right

verse 2

do not be conformed to this world

but be transformed by the renewing of

your mind

that you may prove what is that good and

acceptable and perfect will of god when

there’s a verse like this that is so

familiar the temptation for me if i’m

sitting where you are is i know it by

heart so i don’t need to look at it but

i will often go the extra mile

because i want to be re-exposed to what

i might be overly familiar with

sometimes intentionally looking it up in

a different translation i want it to

rattle my my thinking so i don’t get

stuck

stuck in my in my thinking so he says

don’t be conformed to this world be

transformed

my

i think maybe my favorite illustration

of this word transformed is found in

luke chapter 9

where jesus takes a few of the guys and

they go up on a mountain

and he the bible says he is transfigured

before them

imagine going to a prayer meeting

and you’re dozing off

it’s a long prayer meeting it’s one of

them all-nighters

jesus loves these all-nighters

and all of a sudden

jesus turns into

this transformed person

it says that he looked other looks he

looks different but not only that it

says his clothing is as lightning

so you’re sitting here dozing off all of

a sudden jesus is dressed in lightning

how many think it might wake you up from

a boring perimeter that’s what happened

to the guys right here

is is they they are in this moment where

suddenly they see and that’s why they’re

so inspired to build tabernacles you

know for moses elijah and jesus it’s

this moment where they are electrified

literally by what they are seeing jesus

clothed in lightning

that word transfigured where jesus is

transfigured is this word here

transformed

it’s just an idea but it’s my personal

conviction

the renewed mind

looks like

jesus dressed in lightning in the spirit

world and the unseen world the renewed

mind is so unique and so distinct

it’s not passive it’s not subtle

it is brilliant

as it illustrates the heart and the mind

of god for planet earth he still has a

plan for this planet

and you’re a part of it

so here it is

don’t be conformed to this world be

transformed by the renewing of your mind

that you may prove

the will of god

that which is good acceptable and

perfect

what is the will of

god your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven say it with

me your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven say it again

your will be done on earth as it is in

heaven what does the renewed mind do

it proves the will of god heaven on

earth

that’s amazing

that’s amazing the renewed mind

see some of what we think is going to

come at the return of christ is supposed

to come in the renewed mind of christ

the transformation of a person’s life

is no greater than the transformation of

their mind

it’s the reason the word repent means to

change the way you think he’s targeting

not just merely the discipline of right

thoughts which has value

he’s talking about

living from the perception

of reality that is greater than

everything you can see which is inferior

this world

paul teaches in romans this world

everything you can see is temporal

what you can’t see is eternal faith

functions out of the eternal towards the

temporal

towards that which

is the greater reality towards the

inferior reality

the renewed mind lives

conscious

of that

now this word here says uh that you may

prove the will of god that which is good

acceptable and perfect i

i remember growing up i would hear

people teach on the good acceptable

perfect will of god there was a perfect

there was a good and there was an

acceptable will

no no those are three terms for the same

thing don’t don’t don’t don’t try to

skim by

i’m gonna do the acceptable will of god

it’s just permissible

no slap yourself that’s stupid

but the word here to prove is is a is a

very interesting word it actually is a

word some of your translations have it

means to approve approve the will of god

it doesn’t mean that somehow you and i

are the ones who give approval for what

god’s doing on the earth doesn’t mean

that at all

but let me illustrate it this way

let’s say that you just received

an inheritance

of a great estate

in europe somewhere

this should make you happy start

fantasizing with me here

you just received notice that you just

inherited this vast estate

big castle

lots of acreage

lots of animals for hunting on my estate

on yours it’s just a zoo it’s all right

i’m i’m not offended

i’m not offended

so

we hear the news and we arrange to fly

and we fly back

um and uh we we come to the estate and

the people in charge take us and they

show us what belongs to us

we stayed there for you know several

weeks just kind of processing what’s

ours and scouring over the grounds and

what’s in the

castle and

you go up into this attic area

and you see that there’s a lot of stuff

there that’s been stored and you look

over in the corner here’s about six to

eight uh different pieces of art

paintings

and you start

peeling through them and and one stands

out to you just so noticeably and you

look down

in the corner and there’s this signature

that says van gogh

and you don’t know if this is a copy

counterfeit you don’t know if it’s real

you don’t know

you just you look at this or you pull it

out

and you think man i need to find out if

this is if this is the real deal and so

you call me

because in this story i’m the van gogh

expert

when you tell the story you can be

whoever you want but i am the van gogh

expert

so you call me and you tell me i’ve just

inherited this estate

found a bunch of paintings some may have

value i’m not sure but there’s one that

has the signature van gogh

on the lower right hand corner of that

painting

and then i say well what what uh

uh what does it look like so you

described the painting so you know

there’s there’s no record of a van gogh

painting with that subject in it and so

tell me more

and finally we arranged to have a

meeting and you bring to my uh

studio where uh there’s great safety and

protection for all the art that’s there

and i take

four weeks and i study i’ve studied

every brushstroke of van gogh every

known painting

i’ve studied the medium i’ve studied the

oils that he used the colors he would

use the subject matter i know his life

backwards and forward i’m really

fluffing myself up in this one i

i know

i’m feeling so good about myself in this

moment and i’m going to go buy an art

book when we’re done

so i but i’ve studied literally every

brush stroke every every bit of his

personality that was displayed in every

one of his paintings

i do

the carbon tests on the canvas

on the paint everything

and i call you to my studio

and i say

this is what i’ve done for the last four

weeks

and i am 100 certain

this is an authentic van gogh painting

one

that nobody

knew existed

suddenly

the piece of art that might be worth a

hundred dollars is now worth in excess

of 100 million dollars

what happened

after thorough examination

i approved

i romans 12 did it

let’s say that you get

a report from the doctor and you’ve got

something going on

that’s just not good not got not good

news not a good report

and a really uh

good friend of yours a

strong

pure living passionate lover of jesus

calls you one day and says hey i had a

dream last night

jesus came to me in the dream

and he told me to tell you

he’s given you this affliction for a

brief season

he will then heal you and it will be

glorious

two weeks later

you get another dream

from a friend

who calls you

and they say

i had a dream last night jesus came to

me in the dream

and he told me to tell you

this disease is not from him

and he will set you free

what just happened

you were given two pieces of art

both with van gogh written on the bottom

but they’re not both

authentic paintings

so what you do is you go to matthew mark

luke and john

and you examine every brushstroke

every brushstroke

and without rejecting the individual

that had the contrary dream

without shaming or spitefully

uh speaking to them

we embrace one and we put down the other

and we say after thorough examination

for the word of god

and the spirit of god who lives in me

i would like to declare

i approve

this is the will of god this is the

authentic

painting

that’s what it means

you and i

have

opportunity and responsibility

to illustrate the heart and mind of god

i i’ll have i have a pastors will come

to me fairly often

and they’ll ask me a question or they’ll

write me or call me or whatever for

friends and they’ll say bill how do how

do i want to increase the miracle level

in my own life i want to increase the

level of miracles in our church what do

i do

and so there’s several things that you

know that i’ve i’ve

practiced and still in practicing to see

greater and greater breakthrough and

i’ll tell them just about my own journey

i’ll talk to him oftentimes about

just being in the environment of the

anaheim vineyard 1987 and how i came

home with something i didn’t go with i

came home with an anointing that began

to display itself that next week and i

had never seen it before in my life

and uh it wasn’t through laying on our

hands is by being in the atmosphere and

i’ll tell them my story but then i’ll

say at the end they say but if you want

the shortcut and who doesn’t like

shortcuts if you want the shortcut

just go with randy clark to brazil

just go with randy clark to brazil

you will see

in a week

miracles

than holy ghost-filled faith-filled

believing believers see sometimes in a

lifetime

you’ll see in a week i remember one i

remember one time i got there like two

days after this thing had started and uh

randy met with me and we were talking

about what had been happening and he

said

man he says we’re in this meeting

there’s like 9 000 people in this uh in

this coliseum stadium

and he said 8 000 of them got healed

eight thousand

eight thousand

and one of the stories he said he said

i he i think it was him doing the

praying he just prayed god let the uh

let the wind of the spirit or something

like that just fall upon the death there

was a death section

and there was this it was in this big

tent and the wind blew and uh lifted the

flap of the tent and rain outside came

into the tent and landed on the deaf

section and a whole bunch of deaf people

just got healed just like that

now

so let’s put this in practical terms you

and me were there all right

and uh you go to the first meeting

and uh you had prayed specifically god i

want to see tumors disappear i want to

see cancer disappear so you go to the

first meeting somebody comes up to you

they’ve got a big old growth on their

neck you pray it disappears

then somebody comes up to you and a

woman says i was just diagnosed with

breast cancer she lays her hand on her

own breast you put your hand on top and

you pray a simple prayer and she begins

to probe and find out it’s completely

gone

and the next day the same thing and the

next day and the next day and the next

day same thing happened how do you know

after about 10 of those experiences

you’re looking for tumors

you didn’t look for them before you went

but since you entered into a flow of the

mind of christ i could call any number

of things the flow of the spirit of god

the demonstration of the power of god it

would all be true but for this

illustration you stepped into a

demonstration of the mind of christ and

suddenly

you are thinking different

why

because the word of god the spirit of

god and your personal experience

illustrates what it is to have a renewed

mind and all three of those things are

necessary for you and for me to live

with a renewed mind

yes amen amen

i think that’s pretty much it why don’t

you stand

the renewed mind illustrates

demonstrates

manifests

and approves

of heaven on earth

we see it with the deaf ears

that open

we see it with

the new idea

for an expansion of a business

we see it in

the key

to reconciliation

in that broken family

he manifests in so many different ways

but it’s always to his glory and to our

strength

don’t be conformed to this world

i don’t like when people try to stand

out

but if you’re going to have the mind of

christ you will stand out

i don’t like

i don’t like the attention thing you

know

but maybe that’s why in james he said

wisdom with meekness

maybe that’s why he said with wisdom

listen with wisdom you’re going to be

brokering my world into this one just

stay low as you do it

restrain strength

restricted or directed strength

so father that’s my prayer for us

put your hands out in front of you or on

your heart or something but let’s just

take a moment to pray father

that’s uh that’s my christ our cry

together

uh for our family online that watches

from all over the world we bless them we

pray that together there would be this

corporate illustration this corporate

experience of the mind of christ

in ways we’ve never known the true

wisdom of god in ways we’ve never known

we do pray on earth

as it is in heaven

god we love your will we pray on earth

as it is in heaven

inspire the dreams

help us to deal with the little offenses

and the things that just seem to creep

up

now and then just help us to be a people

that just give up our right to be

offended

give up our right to be offended we want

to embrace fully the mind of christ

i pray this in jesus name

[Music]

anytime there’s this many people in a

room there’s always

a chance that there are folks here that

don’t have a personal relationship with

jesus

i believe it’s why we’re here i’m going

to ask that no moving around please this

is not the time to move

i believe it’s why you’re here that the

lord jesus

would set the stage for you know you to

know what it’s like to be forgiven of

sin and brought into a personal

relationship with the almighty god to

know what it is to be born again

to be forgiven

it’s available to everyone here

we have so many online that watch

thousands who watch online every week i

declare the same word to you

that you would know what it’s like to

have a personal relationship with jesus

if there’s anyone in the room that would

say say that bill i don’t want to leave

the building until i know what it is to

be forgiven until i know what it is

to have a personal relationship with

jesus then i want you just to put a hand

up where you are

and i just want to recognize you where

you are put it up quickly

be bold be courageous

yeah right over here right down here yep

right here’s one beautiful thank you

wonderful anybody else real quick

[Applause]

[Music]

it’s beautiful

anyone else real real quickly and those

online please just make a note in the

chat box because we have pastors online

that will talk with you and pray with

you we’ve had so many people we’ve had

oh goodness i think as many as 15 or so

people just born again in a service

online that receive christ from all over

the world so one more moment just want

to make sure that everybody has

responded god’s just tugging at your

heart this is the moment to respond

his invitation is here

so father i thank you for this i’m gonna

ask help this the one here who put their

hand up just help them come and receive

some prayer and i just want them to know

what he got into all right so why don’t

you give an offering of thanks to the

lord