Mind & Soul

THE MAKING OF A MINDSET

We have often heard it said, “We are the sum of our environment.” If this is the case, then our mentality is shaped by experiences we encountered within these diverse environments.

DIRECT EXPERIENCES

Direct experiences are circumstances, situations and relationships we actually lived through. Our very thought patterns are rooted and grounded in what we have seen,

heard or felt. In some instances, we might have been able to maintain a degree of control as to the disposition or outcome of these circumstances, situations and relationships. In others,

that might not have been the case. In such instances, helplessness and fear factors would magnify the effect each of these circumstances, situations and relationships had on our personality.

HARDSHIPS

I was born-again, but I woke up one morning and discovered that after many years of marriage, I was a single parent with three children to raise, no job and a non-financially rewarding career in evangelism. Oh, up to that point I had been strong in the Lord. I had never wavered in the midst of external temptations. I took pride in the fact that regardless of how hard things were, I would never betray God. My resolve was to wait on God who would surely bring about a change in my situation. After all, I was working for Him. Well, a change did come. Things got worse and I got tired. I got tired of living on thirty and forty dollar offerings. When I did minister in a setting that was able to raise a three or four hundred-dollar love offering, my bills were so far behind that it didn’t seem like very much at all. There was never enough to come out of the hole. First, the lights were turned off, then the water. We lit candles to eat by and dipped water out of the swimming pool in order to bathe. I needed to get a job or do something else. Preaching the gospel was not supplying the needs. I was frustrated, depressed and heading into deep despair.

All these were direct experiences that had a tremendous mental effect on my children and me. Regarding the knowledge of God and godliness, I was a babe in

comparison to what I know now. Therefore, my responses to these experiences were also those of a babe. I knew nothing about purpose, son training or walking in the Spirit. I simply wanted relief from the situations of my life. For those who are born-again, keep in mind that we are discussing the roots of behavior patterns that are the

characteristics of the old man; (the man who did not know Christ). It is true; the born-again believer is a new creature, regenerated by the Spirit of God. Nevertheless, if he should ever move off course, or rather walk outside the boundaries of the faith, he too, would walk in that which he remembers or once lusted after. He will return to the old ways of the old man.

BETRAYAL

A friend of mine discovered her husband was cheating on her with one of her friends. She divorced him and vowed that she would never allow anyone else to get that close to

her again. She actually lived through the horror of knowing her husband was having an affair. She lived through the drama of her best friend betraying their friendship. The

experience left her bitter and never trusting anyone else. She is having severe problems in her second marriage due to a lack of trust and the unwillingness to become

completely vulnerable to her present husband. Without spiritual development and the knowledge of the truth, direct experiences can have a very negative effect on your perspective of life. Begin to think on those negative direct experiences you have lived through, and try to judge whether they have shaped your personality in a way that hinders you in relationships with God and/or man.

INDIRECT EXPERIENCES

Indirect experiences can be characterized as exposure to or the witnessing of the experiences of others. This may be seen in our personal relationships, various forms of news

media, and in one of the greatest influences on the mind today, television.

Little do we realize that everything our five senses entertain makes an impression on our soul. In the case of television, many are not aware of the deep messages engraved in

the mind, even from childhood. These messages have formed mindsets, shaped the thought patterns and in many instances, the behavior of many adults today.

FEARFUL AND UNBELIEVING

A young man listens to the news regarding a plane crash killing all 246 passengers. He vows never to get on a plane. He fears it so much until when an emergency arises that requires him to fly to the city in question, the trip becomes extremely stressful. Even if he experiences a perfect flight, he has a mindset about flying. He is unable to consider flying without anticipating a tragic accident. The television news afforded him an indirect experience that has hindered his servitude to God and man to this day. His mindset about flying is grounded in fear. This

he knows and understands. He is also aware of how it totally negates his testimony of trust in God. However, he has developed another mindset that circumvents that

lack of trust, i.e., “I don’t have to answer to or discuss my disposition with anyone, I am an adult. If I don’t want to fly, I don’t have to.”

Every instruction of the Holy Spirit must also contend with that mindset. If God should have need of the young man in places that require flying to get there, then He too is an intruder seeking to invade his rights as an adult. The only hope to change this response is to go to the root of the problem. You see, our relationship with God must be one of trust, which includes loyalty to truth and obedience to His will. We cannot say that we are slaves to His will in one breath and usurp authority over that will in another. Nevertheless, such responses manifest our walk in the flesh.

The scriptures declare fear to be torment and it will continue to be torment until overcome. Perhaps one day the young man will come to the revelation of these truths, relinquish his rights to self guidance, and allow the Holy Spirit to lead him into a trusting relationship with God, as well as the rest of the world that needs what God has deposited in him.

IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR

I found myself counseling a beautiful young lady regarding her extreme defensiveness towards her husband in the midst of the smallest of issues. She was overly aggressive whenever there were occasions wherein they disagreed. She immediately concluded any disagreement to be authoritative opposition and an infringement of her human rights.

In prior relationships, she never allowed anyone to penetrate the protective wall she had built over the years. Now she was married to a wonderful husband who was

becoming more and more concerned about her irrational behavior. They would get into heated arguments about things that really were not that serious. It was in counseling I learned that she really loved her husband and knew he was a wonderful person, who looked out for her best interests. He was a marvelous father to her two children. One would never have known they were not his biological offspring. What was the problem? The wife was desperate to save her marriage. She was willing to attend one of our Lifesavers Clinics, which

focused on unlawful emotions. Almost immediately, she discovered that she was the problem. It was her mindset; her thought pattern regarding marital relationship.

She grew up in a household where her father was very controlling and abusive to her mother. She listened to his verbal abuse and even witnessed him physically abuse her mother. She saw her mother as helpless and stuck in a marriage simply for the sake of the children. She saw her mother struggle to get them out of the ghetto, while carrying the weight of a non-supportive husband. As a child, just barely a teenager, she took a stance in her heart (soul) vowing never to allow a man to take advantage of her. Nor would she allow anyone to control her. Thus, at the first sign of disagreement in a relationship, her defenses would go up. At that point, every spoken word became the utterance of an enemy trying to break her will

and bring her into captivity. She would explode and say things that were totally irrelevant to the situation. She was fighting for her mother. She was freeing her mother from fear and the possibility of any more abuse. It was not her husband she was battling with, it was her father. As you can see, indirect experiences can have just as powerful an effect on us as direct experiences. I thank God for the knowledge of the truth. It saved their marriage and now she is able to counsel other young women suffering some of the same or similar dispositions.

MINDSETS

A mindset is an established attitude regarding people, places, things, or issues. Mindsets are formed by the method and elements we use to judge situations, circumstances and relationships, or simply, the way we process direct and indirect experiences. A mindset then becomes the dictator of our actions or responses to the things we experience.

On a broad scale, we can look into the past experiences of some cultures and see how these experiences have formed mindsets that govern a whole nation. For instance, the

Holocaust formed a “never again” mindset in the Jewish nation. Likewise, we can see how the mindsets of social groups changed history; for example, women’s rights groups that fought for a woman’s right to vote. Each of us has mindsets formed out of direct or indirect experiences. In the darkest moments of my youth, a man walked up to me on the street, pulled me into his office, filled out some paperwork and in two days I was back in school on an OEO (Office of Economic Opportunity) scholarship grant. This changed my life forever. No, I didn’t go on to get all the degrees that would have established me as an accomplished and distinguished citizen of this world, but it took me out of the environment and the dead-end street I was on. I was given an opportunity to see that I could do something important with my life. But this direct experience also created a mindset in me that says, “Sometimes all the worst of us need is a little help, love or concern from our fellowman.” Therefore, I have spent the last thirty-five years of my life reaching out to help those who seem beyond hope.

The mindset I gained from this direct experience is to ‘never give up on anyone.’ The question is, “Where do mindsets fit inside of our salvation?” A mindset is a manifestation of a spiritual disposition. It is a revelation of our true heart or desire. Whether good or bad, mindsets that were developed as a result of our exposure to direct or indirect experiences are not legal currency for getting into heaven.

In truth, if a mindset was formed by a positive or negative human experience, then the same can surely change it. Mindsets are a collection of human experiences that manifest identity and character. We are quick to conclude that only negatives mindsets are detrimental to our salvation. However, any mindset that was not formed as the result of a direct relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, is a manifestation of the influence of the flesh. Therefore, it is the mind of Christ we must submit to. His mind has no flaws in its thinking. This is not something that is so hard to accomplish. We have been made one with God and Christ. We are inHim and He is in us. We have the mind of Christ and we can access it through simple obedience to the Word. To obey God’s Word is to walk in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is a manifestation of our oneness with God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have often heard ministers say that God likes diversity; and that diversity was evident when He structured the Body. I totally disagree with this philosophy. Jesus prayed....

John 17:11

11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou

hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

John 17:21-22

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

The answer to this prayer leaves no room for diverse mindsets in the Body of Christ. We all may have and exemplify many different natural preferences regarding personal likes and dislikes in responding to our physical environments, but our mind is one regarding spiritual things that influence the flesh. We all have the mind of Christ. We all should have the same sentiments regarding one another and also the world. There is only one mindset capable of influencing the flesh that is lawful for the Sons of God “...Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work (John 4:34).