In Christ Realities – Part 7 Lawson and Aaron Perdue
In Christ Realities Part 7 with Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today you’ll learn how to renew your mind and why it’s so important to do it.
Redemption Package
Redemption Package includes two CD series from Pastor Lawson Perdue that will help you find the redeeming power of Christ. This bundle consists of the Redemption CD Series and the In Christ Realities CD Series.
In Christ Realities Part 7 Transcription
Friends, it’s so good to have you today on the broadcast, I’ve got my son, Aaron here. We are teaching on Renewing Your Mind. And there are so many believers today that even though they’ve been born again, they’re saved, the Spirit of God lives in them, they have never renewed their mind, and they are stuck. And you need to know how to renew your mind with the word of God so that you can begin to move in to what God promised for you and fulfill his plan. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us. We’re gonna continue to teach on who we are in Christ and today we’re sharing specifically on renewing our mind. You know, there are so many believers, Aaron, that they’ve been born again, but they really don’t know who they are. They really don’t know what they have. They don’t understand that they got a Bible full of promises, that Jesus paid for them to have, that God wants them to have, that the Holy Spirit’s given them power to have, but they don’t know it. And what you don’t know can hurt you. You know, we read the scripture, talked about the scripture yesterday in Hosea chapter four, verse six, that talks about how my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. And also Isaiah 5, verse 13 says, “My people are kept in bondage because they have no knowledge.” Man, we need to find out what the word of God says. Amen. Find out the promises of God and then begin to believe them. You talked about this that a lot of people don’t know they have promises and all the promises of God, it says in Second Corinthians 1, verse 20, in Christ are yes and in Him amen to the glory of God by us. God gets glory when we walk into promises, not just sit on the promises. Praise God, we need to get ahold of the Word of God, start believing what God says about us. You know, my life dramatically changed when I got filled with the Holy Spirit and began to understand who I was in Christ. That happened when I was 14 years old. When I was 8, I was born again, but I didn’t get a revelation of who I was in Christ until I was 14.
The Holy Spirit really impacts your mind. I think a lot of people don’t quite understand that. I had a good friend in college who was a pretty strong believer. She read the Bible a lot. She went to church a lot, but she was just kind of, kind of thought, you know, things in the world like, well, that’s okay if people act that way. It’s okay if people think marriage is not traditional. It’s, but when she actually got filled with Holy Spirit and it’s just like a light bulb went off and she just saw that a a lot of things that are accepted as normal in the world really aren’t right, it’s not true. Just the Holy Spirit really reveals truth to people, really helps point you in the right direction with what you’re thinking.
You know Jesus talked about this in John 14. He said, I’m not gonna leave you as orphans. I will come to you, talking about the Holy Spirit but he said the world in verse 17, John 14:17 cannot receive him, but when you’re born again, you can receive the Holy Spirit. And in John 14, verse 26, Jesus talks about the comforter, which is he’s talking about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Paraclete, the one called alongside, your advocate. When he comes, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance whatever I’ve said to you. The Holy Spirit really causes the word to come alive to you. I mean, I remember when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, man, the word exploded to me I just, I couldn’t get enough of it and it really changed my life. You know, if I wasn’t baptized in the Holy Spirit, nobody know who I am. You know, I just wouldn’t be where I am, doing what I’m doing. When God filled me with the Holy Spirit, he called me to preach and transformed my life. But so many people, even though they’re born again, have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit. If you haven’t been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you need to call in and talk with our prayer ministers and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, receive your prayer language. You know, the advantage, and this is not what we’re teaching on today, but the advantage of being baptized in the Holy Spirit is a lot of times we don’t know how to pray like we should, but when we get baptized in the Holy Spirit, we begin to pray languages that we’ve not learned. And I believe it’s like a hotline to heaven. You’re praying the perfect will of God. The Bible talks about when we pray in tongues that our understanding is unfruitful, but yet our spirit is being edified, it’s being built up. Praise God. We get built up in the things of God.
You know, we’re gonna be talking about how to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, but I really believe that you need the Holy Spirit for that. You know, the word of God will….. you can renew your mind with the Word of God, but man, the Holy Spirit, it just lights up the word of God. So it’s like adding nitro to that fuel of the word. So it really, it’s really impactful, you know, and it really takes the word of God, just from a place of knowledge, a place of information to
[Lawson] Revelation.
To revel. It brings out the spirit and the life and the truth of the word.
Amen. You know, in Romans 12, 1 and 2, the scripture says, “I beseech you now therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice, which is holy.” And you know, “which is your reasonable service.” And he says, “which is holy and acceptable to God, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” And when that in verse 2 says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind”, it’s talking about you need to have an absolute renovation of your mind. And we’ve gotta renovate the way we think otherwise we’ll just be stuck. And we talked about this a little bit, but in the first 11 chapters of Romans, Paul is talking about who we are in Christ about God’s plan of righteousness for Jews and for Gentiles. But then in chapter 12 through chapter 16, the last five chapters, he talks about how we work that out. And right, the transitional verse is right there in Romans 12, 1 and 2, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We gotta renew our mind in the word of God.
I like that you mentioned that scripture that’s talking about how we’re to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. I was just reading right before we were filming today through Leviticus, and this phrase kept popping up and really struck me and it said, an offering made by fire, an offering made by fire. And I just felt God’s was saying that we are that offering, we are to be that living sacrifice. But the thing that really makes that offering happen is the fire of God. And you know, when the day of Pentecost happened, those believers that were gathered together, they wanted to live for God, they wanted to offer themselves up to his service, but they needed to be an offering made by fire. And you said, just wait till the fire, you know, to…
And on the day of Pentecost. You know Jesus talked to his disciples after his death and resurrection. He was seen of them 40 days and 40 nights and then he ascended into heaven. and he told them don’t leave town till you receive the Holy Ghost. And then 50 days after, just 10 days after he ascended into heaven on the day of Pentecost, which was, you know, seven weeks, one day. So Jesus was raised from the dead on Sunday, and the Holy Spirit was sent on Sunday. They were all gathered together in the upper room, 120 of those disciples, of those followers of Jesus and the Holy Spirit came and sat on each one of them like four tongues of fire and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And then these different Jews that were gathered together from every nation under heaven, this was God setting up world evangelization. And they said, are these drunk with new wine? And Peter got up and preached and said, no, this is, it’s only nine in the morning, they haven’t had time to get drunk yet. This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. In the last days God said he’d pour out of his spirit on all flesh, but says, we, they said, we heard them speak with tongues and magnified God in our own languages. You know, it was a miracle really, of tongues. And they heard them speaking with tongues and magnifying God, praising God in their own language. And, you know, we could speak with tongues and magnify God and praise God. And when I’ve received the baptism of Holy Spirit my life was transformed. Praise God. And if one thing will help you renew your mind, it’s praying in tongues. You know, you get revelation. The Bible says in Jude verse 20, you build up your most holy faith praying in the Holy Spirit. And if you’re not filled with the Holy Spirit as a believer you need to get filled with the Holy Spirit. Praise God.
And you know, I was actually recently talking to a gentleman after church. He’s newer to the church, but he’s never prayed in tongues before and he was asking me about it cause I mentioned it when I was preaching once. And he’s gonna ask me like, aren’t you, don’t you receive the Spirit when you’re a believer? And I said, you receive the Spirit of Christ in you when you’re a believer, but it’s separate from being baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Yeah. There’s a great example in the scripture of that, and it’s Acts chapter 8, when Philip went down to Samaria and preach Christ unto them. They saw the demons come out. They heard the demons come out, they saw the miracles he did, they gave heed to the word that he spoke and there was great joy in this city, and many believed on Christ. But then Philip went and got Peter and John, right and brought them down, right and they were already saved, right and then when Peter and John came down, they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues. They had already been saved, they had already been water baptized, they had received the Spirit of Christ in them, but you know there’s a greater anointing of that Spirit when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit. And it’s like a river flowing out of you to other people. And so, man, if you’re not baptized in the Holy Spirit, get baptized in the Holy Spirit. Amen. Receive the things that God has for you. Praise God. Now, we are talking about, as we renew our mind in the word of God, now how do we renew our mind? You know, the Bible actually says in First Timothy chapter 2 verse 4, that God would have all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. So there’s, you know, being saved, right, but then there’s coming to a knowledge of the truth. And Psalm 1 verse 1 through 3 says, “How blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” That’s an unholy progression. Walking in the counsel of ungodly people, standing in the way of sinners, sitting in the seat of scornful people where they scorn you. But he says, his delight is in the word of God and in it does he meditate day and night. You gotta begin to meditate the word. And he says, “He will be like a tree that’s planted by the rivers of living water. He’ll bring forth his fruit in his season, and whatever he does shall prosper.” I believe that’s God’s will for every believer as we meditate the word of God, that we become like a tree that’s planted by the rivers of living water. And when it’s our season, we’re on a brain force fruit.
Amen.
And whatever we do prospers. You know, the other day I left the gym and there’s this Jewish man when I was leaving the gym early in the morning, and he told me, now you make it a good, a successful day. And I thought, you know, that’s a good statement. How do we have good success? Joshua 1 verse 8 says, “This book of the law, this word of God shall not depart outta your mouth but you shall meditate there in both day and night that you may observe to do according to all that’s written there, and for then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success.” So if you wanna have good success, if you wanna make your way prosperous, you need to meditate the word of God, speak the word of God, act on the word of God. Don’t just meditate it to look at it, but meditate it to like, I’m going to go do this. I’m gonna let this word change me so that I become like Jesus wants me to become. Man, when you do that, it’ll change your life for good. Praise God. So we need to keep meditating the word of God. And so we renew our mind. Number one, we’ve gotta begin to meditate the word of God. We’ve gotta begin to let the word of God transform the way that we think about our life. You know, renewing your mind is not just cramming your brain with scriptural facts. Renewing your mind is beginning to see God for who he says he is. See yourself for who God sees you and beginning to see others and see the world the way God says it is. Praise God.
So it’s to meditate too. I know I’ve studied this out before in the Hebrew, the word for meditate one time in scripture, it’s translated as to roar over us. And one time it says as a lion roars over its place, it roars over its prey. Now that it’s that same word that’s used for meditating.
It’s hagah
Hagah, yes so to meditate over, it’s like a lion roaring and that means you’re gonna hang on to that thing, you know.
To utter, to mutter, to roar, to ponder, to think. You begin to ponder and think about something and you get it on the inside of you to where that word gets bigger on the inside of you than the natural problem or situation you’re dealing with on the outside. And it begins to come outta you and it’s like a roar. Praise God.
Well, if you’re out in the jungle and you see a lion catch it’s prey, you’re not gonna go try to take that prey away from that lion. It’s got a hold of it. You know, some people with the word of God, they say, well, if it happens, it happens.
But yeah, well, it’s, you’re not gonna get a lot of what God wants you to have.
You’re not gonna let go of it. Yeah.
If you just think whatever will be will be, that is a sorry way to think and you’re not gonna get very far. You’re not gonna accomplish very much. You gotta begin to meditate, dream, think, ponder on, to where that just possesses you to where you can’t help sometime but say something, praise God. So God works not only in our spirit, but in our mind, in our soul, mind, will and emotions as we meditate the word of God. So number one key, right, if we’re gonna, you know, this process of identity is we must be born again. You receive a new identity when you believe on Jesus. You’re born again, you, and you’re saved, but you realize your new identity as you renew your mind in the word of God. Now, we’re gonna come back right after this break and we’ll continue to talk about this very necessary principle of renewing your mind in God’s work. We’ll be back right after this break. Thank you.
Friends. I’m so glad you’ve been watching. Today, we’ve been teaching on the subject of redemption and who we are in Christ. This is some of my best teaching. In fact, I got a revelation of this over 40 years ago in Andrew Wommack’s meetings when I was just a child, and it revolutionized my life. And I believe if you get a revelation of who you are in Christ and what happened in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, it will literally transform your life. And so we have a lot of great teaching on Redemption, what Jesus did for us in his death, burial and resurrection, and Who we are in Christ. I encourage you to get this teaching. I believe just like it transformed my life, it will transform your life. So get on the internet, give us a call, we’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much and God bless you richly as you allow his word first place. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’ve been talking about renewing our mind. Aaron, what are some areas that we need to renew our mind in?
Pretty much in everything, you know, if you just go the way the world, you’re gonna, if you thank the way the world thinks about things, you’re gonna you’re not gonna be rethinking the way the word the way the word thinks. You need to renew your mind about many things.
Yeah.
About
Your physical health.
About your physical, I mean even about who God is, that there is a creator. You know, the world doesn’t really, the, you know, the public school system doesn’t really teach that there’s a creator.
That’s why we have so many teenagers committing suicide.
Yeah.
Because they have not been taught that they have a purpose in life.
You need to renew your mind concerning who God is, who he says he is. You need to renew your mind concerning who God says you are.
Amen.
And not what the world says you are that you’re
Amen. You know, Aaron, we’re developing this new children’s curriculum at Charis Christian Center. I’m so excited about doing this and the number one thing that we teach is who God is. Then we teach people who Christ is, who the Holy Spirit is but then we teach them who they are. And you begin to understand who God is. That’s what the Old Testament teaches. It’s a progressive revelation of who God is. And then when you look at the Gospels, it’s a revelation of who Christ is. And you can see the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and in the life of Christ but then you get to the Book of Acts, this is who the Holy Spirit is, and then you get to the epistles, this is who you are. That’s exactly what we’re gonna teach. Amen. I’m so excited about this. We’ve got it rolling. We’ve got people working on it right now, praise God and we’re beginning to move this thing forward. We’re gonna begin to teach them what the promises of God are, about faith in God, about the grace of God and people need to renew their mind. And renewing of your mind means an absolute transformation of your mind for the better, for the good. And we, so we need to see God for who the Bible says God is. A lot of people don’t have the right image of God. They think God’s angry. They think God’s out to get you in a bad way. The very first thing that we taught about God, number one, that he’s the creator. but number two, that he’s good. Man, I want people to know that God is good and so he’s the creator, that he’s good, that he’s life, that he’s love, that he’s light. And then the nature of God, that he’s our provider, he’s our healer, he’s our protector. He’s our sanctification, he’s our righteousness. He’s ever present. He’ll never leave us or forsake us and he is our peace. You begin to see that. And then see how Jesus represents who God is. A lot of people don’t really know who Christ is. Jesus said, told Peter, “On this rock, I’ll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” On the rock of the revelation of who he is that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And so we gotta get a picture of who God is, who Christ is, who we are. Amen. And who the Holy Spirit is on the inside. Amen. So we need to renew our mind. What does God say about your health? What does God say about your wealth? What does God say about your spiritual condition? What does God say about your emotional condition? Amen. What does God say about your children? What does God say about your family? You know, I mean, we just gotta begin to change the way we think. And you know, you may think, well, I’ve renewed my mind. It’s a constant process because we’re in a world that’s been affected by sin and Satan. Satan is the God of this world. He’s not our God as believers, but he’s the God of this present evil age so we’ve gotta constantly renew our mind in the Word of God so we can come against. You know, you are no target for the devil if you’re just going his way and not making the difference. But when you start believing God and believing the promises of God, it changes your life and you know, the devil will fight you. You know, the Bible talks about this in Hebrews chapter 10. It says, “Immediately after we were illuminated, you received a great fight of afflictions.” The devil’s trying to keep you outta what God has for you, but you don’t have to accept it. Praise God.
The devil can’t really attack your spirit.
No.
You know, you have so much you have the spirit of Christ in you. He can’t attack your spirit. The way he attacks believers is really in their mind, in their thought processes. And that’s where we need to just really be spending time with God, spending time in his word cuz that’s….. he can’t touch your spirit.
Amen.
He’s……. the devil’s no comparison to Jesus.
Amen. You know, Andrew Wommack says this, I preach this, I actually believe it. The only power the devil really has over us as believers is deception. And Colossians, you know, we’re gonna talk about how we begin to walk this out, right. We received a new identity when we’re born again, we realize it through renewing our mind, but then we walk it out as we surrender to Jesus. But it says this in Colossians 2, verse 5 to 7 it says those very things. But verse eight says, “Beware lest any man spoil you lest they cheat you, rob from you, take from you that which is rightfully yours through philosophy, through vain deceit after the basic principles of this world and not after Christ.” Man, we, you better beware. The devil wants to keep you out of what God has for you. You have a new position in Christ. It goes on to say, “For you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and authority.”
And just recently on television that there is the Grammys and you know, they give awards for different types of music and from pop artists to jazz to classical and a pop artist actually dressed up as the devil and had people worshiping him and I just thought, that is so stupid. Like what? You know, and it doesn’t….. it’s just a reflection of how idiotic the world is and how dumb the world is and just how the world is so corrupt. But I know that that does not have any impact on me. You know, if people wanna worship the devil and follow the devil like that’s not gonna affect me. I have the man Jesus.
Greater is he that’s in you than he that’s in this world. You know and so much of the church is so focused on the devil, the devil, devil.
The devil’s a complete loser and if you wanna worship the devil like you’re…. why would you wanna worship the biggest loser, the biggest.
Liar.
Liar. The….
Yeah, and he is a defeated foe. You know, the scripture actually talks about this in Isaiah 14. It’s a prophecy and it says, we’re gonna look on him and say is this him who caused the nations to fall? Mark Hankins talks about this, how he had this prayer warrior and said, you know, and these prayer people, sometimes they can get really up. And he said, when he was pastor, and he said, pastor, I saw the devil. He said, well, tell me about it. He said, well, there’s this big noise coming out from a big rock and I went around there and looked, and it was just a mouse with a bullhorn. That’s how the devil is. He walks around as a roaring lion, he is not a roaring lion as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The Bible says, whom resists steadfast in the faith. Praise God. You gotta resist the devil, stand up against the devil. I like what David Engels wrote years ago. “The devil comes as a roaring lion but Jesus kicked his teeth out and all he can say is meow.” Glory to God. Man, the devil is not what he used to be. And that’s the good news of the New Testament. That’s the good news. You know, in the Old Testament, the devil is hardly mentioned, and it’s because they didn’t have power and authority over the devil like they do about a dozen times, about ten of ’em in Job, one of ’em in Isaiah 20, see, what is that, Isaiah 14, another one, maybe Ezekiel 28. I mean, the devil’s hardly mentioned and then you get into the New Testament in the life of Jesus, man, the devil is here, the devil is there but Jesus defeated him every time with the word, praise God. and he shows us that we have authority over the devil. And Colossians talks about that “You are complete in Him who’s the head of all principality.” That’s what we’re teaching, in Christ realities. Amen. Jesus won, Jesus conquered the devil in his death, burial and resurrection, and when you identify with what Jesus did for you, you can begin to walk in the victory that Jesus already won for you.
That’s awesome.
Amen. Praise God.
And don’t worship losers.
Hallelujah. Amen. The devil is the greatest loser. He’s awesome there.
He’s the greatest. I don’t, and it’s just dumb. And Jesus is the greatest conqueror, the greatest champion and he loved us, he gave his own life for us. Man, I wanna worship Jesus. I wanna worship the Lord of all.
You know, somebody may be watching us today, and you’ve never received Jesus. But if you ever see how victorious Jesus is and how defeated the devil is, and how much God loves you and how amazing God’s plan is for you, you are gonna be done serving the devil right here and right now. I don’t wanna serve the devil for one day. I don’t wanna serve him for 10 minutes. My life is too short.
Yeah. And I love that one, Paul, when he talks about being transformed by the renewing of your mind, he said, you’re gonna live a better way.
[Lawson] Praise God.
You’re not gonna live like the world lives, you’re not gonna think like the world thinks you’re, it’s gonna be disgusting to you.
Amen. It is disgusting. You know, some of these believers that act like the world, I actually look at ’em, I’m like, you know, I don’t believe I could be born again and live like that. That’s not how I think. That’s not who I am and it is disgusting.
When you’re born again, God’s gonna change the desires in your heart. You’re gonna have a desire to live like Jesus, to be like Jesus, to want to follow the truth, follow after his righteousness.
If you have never been born again, I invite you right now to pray with me. Say, heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus name. Right now, I receive the forgiveness of your sins and I’ll serve you Lord Jesus, as you give me the strength. In your name I pray, amen. If you prayed that, you call in today. If you want product, if you wanna become a partner, call us today. God bless you. We love you.
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Friends, I certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed the program today and it’s ministering to you to move into that which God has for you. And I want to say a great big thank you to all of our partners for helping us share this gospel across the United States and across the world. It’s because of our partners that we can take this message of grace and faith around the world. If you would like to join our partners and receive that blessing, give us a call today. Blessings.
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