When Brother Hagin was younger in ministry, he had an accident and injured his arm. It was while staying in the hospital that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and said:
“My best is that My people never even be sick or have an accident. But very few people ever walk in My best.
Now, there’s a number of reasons why My people get sick, have accidents, have to go to the hospital, have to be operated on, and have to go to doctors. The number one reason is because most of them don’t know what belongs to them. The number two reason is if they do know these truths, so many of them are weak in faith. The number three reason is because they are in disobedience.”
(Jesus then told Dad Hagin that the reason he had this accident was because he was in disobedience, so he had gotten on the devil’s territory, and the devil attacked him.)
It’s sobering that Jesus said, “…very few ever walk in My best.” I want to walk in His best, and I know you do too!
I want to focus on what Jesus listed as cause number two. “Even if people do know what belongs to them, so many of them are weak in faith.”
Renewing the Mind
If we are to have strong faith, we have to think right. If we think right, then we will believe right and speak right – then we will receive right. If we think wrong, we will believe wrong and speak wrong – then we will have wrong things happening.
God can only work through right thinking, but the devil can only work through wrong thinking. That’s why he seeks to interject wrong thoughts into our thought life. Wrong thinking opens the door to the devil and closes it to God. But right thinking opens the door to God and closes it to the devil.
What is right thinking? God’s thoughts – thinking in line with the Word of God. Wrong thinking is thoughts that aren’t in line with the Word of God.
Romans 12:2 instructs us, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye TRANSFORMED by the RENEWING OF YOUR MIND….”
What’s the remedy for wrong thinking? Renewing the mind with the Word of God – taking on God’s way of thinking.
Our greatest defense against the devil is a renewed mind. Any Christian who is in bondage is not in bondage to the devil – they are in bondage to an unrenewed mind.
Christians who fail to renew their mind with the Word of God will live harassed, troubled, and mentally beat up. But we don’t have to live that way. We are not supposed to live in mental torment and harassment while on this earth. Our lives can be transformed as we renew our minds.
Learn that every thought that comes TO you doesn’t come FROM you. The devil will speak thoughts to the mind, and we must recognize them when he does.
Fear and doubt have an offspring called worry. Recognize that worry is a flow of fear and take a stand against it. We must learn to recognize wrong thoughts – like thoughts of fear, worry, and doubt – and resist them by refusing to entertain them – refusing to turn them over and over in our thought lives.
We can’t fight thoughts with thoughts – we fight them with words. We must cast them down by answering them with the Word of God, then spending time worshipping God to help hold our attention on God and off any wrong thoughts!
We can’t make the devil leave us alone, but we can learn how to be completely untroubled by him – by not listening to him and not giving his thoughts our attention.
In a recent interview, I was asked, “What was your darkest hour?” No event has been my darkest hour. The hardest time of my life was when my mind wasn’t renewed – when I hadn’t yet developed skill at disciplining my thought life. Permitting wrong thoughts of worry and fear made life hard.
A renewed mind still gets opposed, but it just refuses to open the door to opposition and let it in. It refuses to give it attention and a place in the thought life.
Any troubling of the mind we experience is an invitation to further renew the mind and to gain greater skill at disciplining our thought lives and holding our attention on God and His Word.
Just knowing scriptures and being able to quote them does not mean the mind is renewed. The mind is not renewed until you are DOING that Word in your everyday life – casting down every wrong, troubling, worrisome, fearful, doubtful thought by answering it with God’s Word, then holding our attention on Him and His Word through worshipping Him.
Many have learned “faith lingo” and won’t confess wrong things to others – but what do you SAY TO YOURSELF? Saying it to yourself is still saying it! Pay attention to what you are saying to yourself and thinking about. Discipline your thought life. If a thought doesn’t lead you to peace, resist it, then turn your attention away from it.
The devil imitates how God works. When God speaks to you, there’s an influence you sense called the anointing – that anointing helps you to receive what God is saying. When the devil speaks, he also sends an influence – you can feel what he suggests – feelings of fear and thoughts that try to race. They can seem real and true, but don’t believe what you feel.
Your thinking affects your faith. You can’t develop strong faith without renewing your mind. A renewed mind AGREES with the faith in your heart instead of arguing with it.
Right thinking closes the door to the devil and opens the door to God. So, keep renewing your mind, keep growing your faith, and live days of Heaven on this earth.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace (uninterrupted peace), whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3).