Mind-Sets
When we are unwell, or in need of something, as a servant of the most High God the first place we should go for answers to our problems is God. I take my concerns to Him by praying, worshiping and soaking in 'Him' - which is simply resting in His presence and waiting for a response. Sometimes I will receive an answer immediately, sometimes it can be days later, but rest assured God will always answer our questions. We are all seeking those miraculous forms of healing which of course God is able to do, but in my experience most healings take time and need to be outworked through a series of events. The key here is to know the voice of our Lord and Saviour and obey that voice. We are to seek what ever means He is using to answer our prayers. If He is telling us to wait on Him for that miracle, then wait. If He is telling us to go to a Healing Ministry, a doctor or even to seek deliverance then go! Sometimes though as Christians we can develop stubborn fleshly mind-sets and wait for God to supply our needs only through the way we think it should be done. God's ways are not our ways! We wait and do not recognize the promptings of God for our answered prayers. This stubborness can be a hindrance for many and may prevent us from receiving the blessings God is pouring down on us. We all love and desire God's supernatural miracles, but sometimes God wants to use His natural creation such as herbs and plants to achieve His miracle, or He wants to humble us to seek prayer and deliverance. Many Christians believe that Christians cannot have demons, or if they do believe they can, they believe that they themselves cannot. This mind-set can hinder God's plan as they will not seek inner healing and deliverance.
This brings to mind a story I once read:
The Flood
A man was trapped in his house during a flood. He began praying to God to rescue him. He had a vision in his head of God’s hand reaching down from heaven and lifting him to safety. The water started to rise in his house. His neighbour urged him to leave and offered him a ride to safety. The man yelled back, “I am waiting for God to save me”. The neighbour drove off in his pick-up truck.
The man continued to pray and hold on to his vision. As the water began rising in his house, he had to climb up to the roof. A boat came by with some people heading for safe ground. They yelled at the man to grab a rope they were ready to throw and take him to safety. He told them that he was waiting for God to save him. They shook their heads and moved on.
The man continued to pray, believing with all his heart that he would be saved by God. The flood waters continued to rise. A helicopter flew by and a voice came over a loudspeaker offering to lower a ladder and take him off the roof. The man waved the helicopter away, shouting back that he was waiting for God to save him. The helicopter left. The flooding water came over the roof and caught him up and swept him away. He drowned. When he reached heaven and asked, “God, Why did You not save me? I believed in You with all my heart. Why did You let me drown?” God replied, “I sent you a pick-up truck, a boat and a helicopter and you refused it all. What else could I possibly do for you?!”
Don't let mind-sets hinder you from that 'miracle' you are waiting and praying for. The absolute key to your 'miracles and healings' is listening and learning the way God speaks to you. God once told me that healing begins within - then the external manifestations follow. Simply put what is going on in our soul directly reflects what we see in our physical body. Chances are our physical infirmity may get healed when the wounds within our soul are delivered, cleansed and healed. The key is to trust God and have such a relationship with Him to know His perfect choice for you.
So many of us think that God doesn't speak to us, that we don't hear him. We tend to see the Prophetic Christian's with their amazing prophetic giftings and believe that 'we' all need to hear God in this way and if we don't we tend to seek them out to receive a 'word' instead of seeking for ourselves. God created us all uniquely and each with a purpose for Him. He equips us all with an ability to hear Him whether it be through Rhema (spoken word) or His written word (Bible) or simply through circumstances. There are so many ways God will communicate with us, sometimes He may simply guide you to a place of revelation and understanding. He doesn’t always give an actual word. Often He chooses to guide you as if His hand steers you to the choice/place/path that He should desire... that way it brings all things previously unseen to light and the revelation is more impacting. We just need to be open minded and willing to receive God. The Lord showed me that He is frustrated because He is speaking to his people and some are simply not receiving Him. "But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Luke 8:8, NKJV). If we all took time out of our busy days to seek the Lord and 'listen', we would soon recognise when our Lord is speaking to us and through obedience we would start to see an abundance of miracles operating in our lives. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8, NKJV).
You may be reading this article and thinking 'I believe in all ways that God can heal and am open to them all, I seek God and put aside time to be with Him, but I am still not receiving answers to my prayers'! Chances are there still may be a mind-set, but in a different area.
What actually is a mindset?
The dictionary defines mind-sets as a fixed mental attitude, habit or disposition that predetermines a person's responses to and interpretations of situations. A fleshly mind-set is a demonic stronghold in our minds, thoughts and habit systems. There are many kinds of mind-sets. God wants to remove our fleshly mind-sets and replace them with Kingdom mind-sets ~ the mind of Christ. Mind-sets can cause unbelief and lack of trust in God, which in turn block us from receiving from God. Matthew 13:58, NKJV Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. When we have mind-sets it can hinder us moving in the spirit. Mind-sets can block us hearing Gods word, both written and spoken. Our minds are so set in the way they operate that we cannot hear or see what the Spirit of God is saying. They block us from receiving the truth! Only God can break these mind-sets, which He can do after they are revealed to us and we repent of them. He wants to demolish all mind-sets so we can be intuitive to His prompting, and be able to work with Him whenever and where ever He needs us to. A mind-set can also affect our lives and circumstances. We can actually bring to pass what we think and what we declare. If a person has the mind-set of negativity and sees everything in a negative light, he or she will reap fear, panic, misery, lack of peace, anxiety etc. Thinking negative and confessing negative things will hinder God's blessings! We may have a mind-set where we believe we are worthless. This kind of mind-set will hinder God's blessings in a huge way as we do not see ourselves as righteous. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, NKJV). This scripture clearly shows us that seeking His righteousness and seeing ourselves as righteous through the blood of Christ needs to be first before all other things are added to us! We may try to stand on scriptures and pray that we are righteous, but if we don't believe and trust in what we are saying, we may not reap the rewards. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them (Mark 11:24, NKJV). You will never rise above the way you see yourself or your circumstances. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7, NKJV). Trusting in God is one of the biggest keys in receiving the abundance that Jesus promised. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10, NKJV). If we are not trusting God we are not fulfilling the first commandment. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’This is the first commandment (Mark 12:30, KJV). We need to ask God to help us trust Him. Positive declaration of what the word of God says about us and our circumstances, and believing it is a way that we can change these kinds of mind-sets. Meditate on scriptures that come against weaknesses in your life and declare them out loud when the enemy comes against you.
I myself had a massive mind-set that hindered God healing me from fear and anxiety. I suffered anxiety and fear in nearly every situation. It was beginning to rule my life. In the past when I had attempted to do things and step out, fear would cripple me and I would ask God for peace. I prayed against fear and claimed scripture fervently, all to no avail, ending up in a state of panic and terror, until God showed me I had a mind-set. The mind-set I had was a spirit of foreboding and unbelief. I saw everything in a negative light. I didn't trust God that 'all things work together for good', I had already convinced myself of the worst possible outcome and believed it. This in turn made God's word inactive in my situation. I had unbelief in God and His word. As soon as I had repented and He broke that mind-set, I was able to believe God at His word and truly trust Him. Romans 8:28 is now my favourite scripture 'And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose'. Immediately after God broke this mind-set I saw a vision of myself walking around a bend, and God said to me "You have turned the corner". This was the beginning of me being able to conquer fear. Now when I pray for peace and quote Isaiah 26:3 (You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You) I have a voice of reason within me rebuking the voice of foreboding. God is so awesome!
Using this worked well for me for a while but then the spirit of foreboding changed tactic, got inside my head and started to work on my fears again. I still believed that all things worked together for good but I was worried about how much I would have to suffer and face before the good was outworked! God then one day spoke to me during a time when I was in a state of fear and the conversation went like this:- "Do you really believe that all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)"? I replied "Yes". He then asked me "What is all things working together for good in your opinion"? I replied "All things that happen to us no matter how bad they may seem that glorify God and save souls at the completion of it". He said "You are afraid though that what is good for God and others may not be so good for you. You are afraid of what you need to face to glorify God and save souls". I told Him that I was very afraid of this. I would listen to the spirit of foreboding and would live in fear instead of believing in blessings and good things. God then said "My Word promises that I want to give you good things. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7-11, NKJV). He then said "If you don't believe this then how can I give you good things. This is unbelief and unbelief blocks the blessings of God. Can you let go and trust me that I want to give you good things. All you need to do is believe so that you can receive"!
A friend of mine had blocked emotions and couldn't receive love from God the Father because she had an orphan mind-set. This is where we feel we must be 'holy' to earn God's favour. There is insecurity and self-rejection - you may compare yourself to others. There is difficulty receiving correction, feelings get hurt easily, and you can be un-teachable. Always wondering what others think of you. There is fear and lack of trust. Rooted in abandonment and rejection, especially from the father or mother. We cannot fully receive Gods love when we have this spirit of slavery, it separates us from Him. We may even view God in the same way we view our natural parents, we don't believe we are good enough to receive His love. She repented for believing God didn't love her enough, and for not seeing herself as God saw her, then forgave her parents for rejection, and was able to receive God's love. The love of God removed the blocked emotions.
What do you believe - What the enemy and circumstances tell you, or what God tells you? Change your mind-sets by breaking partnership with the lies and instead partnering with the truth. When you believe what God tells you instead of what the enemy is showing you, your whole life and circumstances will change!
Prayer for breaking mind-sets: "Dear God please show me any mind-sets I have that have hindered Your plans for me". (Wait on the Lord and see what He shows you - this may come immediately or at a later date).
(PRAY) - "Dear God in Jesus name I repent for mind-sets, unbelief and lack of trust in You. I ask for forgiveness that these things have hindered Your plans for me. I repent for all negative thoughts and self confessions that have affected my circumstances. I give You permission to break all mind-sets, attitudes, thought patterns, habits and beliefs that are not of God. Help me to trust You. I bind my mind to the mind of Christ and pray for a change from fleshly mind-sets to Kingdom mind-sets. I ask that you teach me new concepts and strategies to change my life and bring about change.
In the name of Jesus Christ I command all demons at the root of strongholds in my mind causing mind-sets, unbelief and lack of trust to leave immediately. And 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 (Romans12:2, NKJV)."
See also Healing of a wounded soul
By Tania Francis