Romans 12:1 He said, "I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which
is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that
you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God." Please read verse two with me
out loud. "And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that
you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God." Thank You Lord. I want us to begin this evening
a new series entitled Transformed. Transformed. Can we be transformed? Right here it says so. Transformed. Now what did He tell us not to
be? Don't be what? Conformed to the world, this
world. Don't be conformed to this
world. Why would the Lord tell you
don't be conformed to that? Because there's a danger that
you will be if you don't make an effort not to be. But instead of being conformed
to this world, what did He say to be? Be transformed, transformed. How many like the idea of being
transformed? Conformed, doesn't even sound
good does it? Who wants to be conformed? No. Who wants to be transformed? And how is it that we can be and
will be transformed? By the renewing of our mind. Glory to God. And what is the result of this
being transformed? Read the rest of the verse. That's you may what? Prove has to do with proving,
and testing, and discerning and -- what is the word I'm looking
for? Identifying what is the good,
acceptable, and perfect what? Will of God. Is anybody in here interested in
the will of God? Finding the will of God. Knowing the will of God. Doing the will of God. I became convinced in my early
teens, as a teenager, that if I could find out the will of God,
I had it made. I know it's just a few years
later -what are you laughing about? I know it's true. Why? Because I had already determined
that if I found the will of God, I was going to do it. And I just knew if I'd do the
will of God, I'd be okay. The Lord would take care of me. He would provide for me. It would work out right. Do you believe the same thing? And isn't it sad that there so
many Christians that seemed bewildered about the will of
God? Don't they? I mean, I've have talked to
people so many times, ministers included, wondering if this is
the will of God. "Wonder if that's the will of
God..." Looking for the will of God. "Do you think this is the will
of God? Is it the will of God to do
this? Maybe this is not the will of
God. I thought this was the will of
God, I guess not." This ought not be. Our Father God is not hiding His
will from us. He's not making it hard to
understand or perceive. I mean, if He hadn't wanted us
to know His will, He would've never had given us this Book. And He would never have given us
the Author of the Book to live in us twenty-four seven help us
get it. He's done everything that we
would ever need to get it. So why then so many problems, so
much ignorance, so much confusion about it? Right here is the problem. If our thinking was already
okay, our minds would not need to be renewed. Do you, do I, do we need to
change our thinking? That's weak. Do our minds need to be renewed? Renewed. That word "renewed" means
"renovate." Like what we did when we moved
in here and we tore out all the walls, we took out all the
chairs, and ripped up all the floors. How many know something needs to
come into your mind and rip some stuff out. Oh, there needs to be some
demolition in your mind and my mind. Of what? Of stuff we got from this world,
conformity. We should not think like
everybody else on the planet. If we do, we're acting like
unsaved people. Let me read some other
translations of this verse. The New Living translation says,
"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let
God transform you," say let God transform you. Do you like the sound of that? Let God transform you, "Into a
new person by changing the way you think." Is it that simple? That if the way we think is
changed, it will change us into a different person. Is that true? Transformed. "Then you will learn to know
God's will for you," is anybody interested in this at all? I think we ought to get excited
about this verse right now because we have found how to
become a different person. A better person. And we have found how to discern
and know the will of God. It's right here. Would you agree that's very
important? You'll learn to know God's will
for you, "Which is good and pleasing and perfect." I think some people have tried
to find the will of God in the wrong way. They keep asking other people,
wanting everybody to pray for them. The Bible didn't say you would
be transformed by fasting. Did you hear me? People have tried numerous other
things. "I'm going to pray all night and
all day for three days." Praying is good, but what will
change you into a different person and cause you to find the
will of God? Changing the way you think. A lot of folk would rather do
anything except that. They'll climb a mountain,
they'll swim the lake, they'll fast for forty days, they'll
pray for nine days straight, they'll read the New Testament
three times. No. If you don't change the way you
think, if your mind is not renewed, then you're not going
to be changed as a person and the will of God is going to be
hazy and difficult for you. I want you to believe God with
me. You know how we do, don't you? Are we close to finishing up
tonight? No, no. No, no, no. We're going to believe God. We're going to get light. And the Lord is going to show us
how to renew our minds. And we're not just going to be
talking about it, it's going to be happening. While were being taught about
it, it is going to be changing us, hallelujah. And I believe this verse is
true. We will come to a place where we
will be able to discern and know what the will of God is. We'll know. I will be transformed. And people will say, "Boy,
they've changed. They're like a different person. They have changed. What happened to them?" Got transformed. I've been transformed. The Scripture says - let's see. Today's English version, let's
read that. So many of these are good but
for time's sake, Today's English version says, "Do not conform
yourselves to the standards of this world," have you ever heard
the term peer pressure? You hear this all the time
especially concerning kids in school and teenagers and
everything else, well, I have a flash for you -- it didn't stop
with high school and college. There is a pressure to conform,
to not rock the boat. To be like everybody else. If they're using these new
words, then you use the new words. If they dress like this, you
dressed like that. If they do this, you do this. There is a continuous pressure
to conform. You know, that's how they make
parts for cars and a whole bunch of stuff. They'll just take a piece of
metal and they have these machines that have all this
pressure and they'll just squeeze it, and when they get
through there's a fender there. They conformed that metal to
that shape. Thank You Lord, I'm getting
revelation. And that is what the Lord is
wanting you to let Him do, is to be formed in the likeness and
image of Christ. But it's up to us what we let
form us. And how we choose what we let
form us is by choosing what we think on and how we think. Thoughts are transforming. They haven't been esteemed like
they should. You know, we've been camping on
the subject of words and we've talked about that. Far too many times people don't
esteem words. They don't value what a word is. Well, what is a word? A word is a thought capsule. Think about it. A word -- if somebody spoke to
you something in another language that you did not
understand, what would you get from it? Nothing. And yet, their words mean as
much to them as your words mean to you in your language. But you didn't get anything out
of it, it didn't mean anything to you, why? Because it failed to convey that
thought to you. So, what are words? Words are thought containers. Thought capsules. What's going on right now? A lot of us are on the same page
and a lot of folks are getting things before I even say it. Why? Because it's not just my
thoughts. The Source of the thoughts I'm
getting is in you. Just like in me. That's why some things you get
and understand before I have a chance to finish the sentence. God's thoughts. Oh, somebody say glory to God. God's thoughts. Say it out loud, "God's
thoughts." Say it again, "God's thoughts." What are God's thoughts? Whoa. This thing has grown on me
immensely just in the last few moments. Go to Genesis. Genesis 6:5. God made the Earth. God's thoughts are revealed in
His creation. We take a lot of it for granted
because we've already seen it, but what does God think about
and what kind of thoughts does He have? He thinks flowers and trees, and
mountains and oceans. He thinks babies. He thinks life. You didn't come up with that. I didn't come up with that. Adam and Eve didn't come up with
that. That was God's thought. I think when we get to the place
that He's prepared for us and we see heaven and paradise, I think
some of us will be excited and glad to see that some of it's
familiar. Some things are like some things
down here, minus the curse and the death. Because He's the One that came
up with this. We see His taste, we see His
thoughts, we see His ways in the Earth. But after man fell -- you know
in the beginning God came down and communed with Adam and Eve
in the cool of the day. What were they communing over? How were they communing? They were sharing His thoughts,
aren't they? How else do you commune? God comes down and Adam says,
"Come on, let's go, that's God." They come around, "Hi God." "Hey, Adam. Hey, Eve." So what did they do? What did they talk about? His thoughts. They shared His thoughts. And it was beautiful beyond
description. It was amazing. It was glorious. It was perfect, it was pure,
amazing, awesome. You'd have to talk in tongues. But after they fell -- how did
they fall? Satan introduced other thoughts. Didn't He? "You will not surely die." A lying thought, a deceiving
thought. And they received it, and they
thought it, and they acted on it, and they sinned, and it
changed them into something. Do you know what it did? It conformed them into the
origin of that thought. They stopped being just like the
Lord and they began to be like the devil. Whoever's thoughts you receive,
you become like. And after generations of this
going on it got worse, and worse, and worse, and worse
until the whole earth was filled with ungodly, devilish thoughts
and thinking. And Genesis describes it. "And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth," and what? Every what? "Imagination," of what? "Of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually." That's when you know the
destruction came. Now think about how powerful for
evil a wrong thought is that it brought the whole creation to
this point. The point of total destruction. Thoughts are not insignificant. This is one of the first areas
our mind needs to be renewed in is the importance, the
significance of every thought. No such thing as thinking on
something and it doesn't matter, and has no effect, and as long
as I don't do it, it's no big deal. That is a lie. I said, that is a lie. Whatever you yield to, to think
on -well, I'm getting ahead of myself. Notice every imagination of the
thoughts of the heart, He used that phrase. And this word "imagination"
helps describe to us what a thought is, helps to define I
should say. What is a thought? Have you ever thought about it? What is a thought? Let's characterize it, let's
define it. What is it? Let me tell you what it's not. It's not material. Is it? It's not physical. Well if it's not material, what
is it? See, people have created this
world called mental. What is mental? The Bible talks about in Romans,
we'll get to this eventually, being carnally minded and
spiritually minded; it doesn't give a third category. Thoughts, if they're not
physical, if they're not material, they're Spirit. And they come from different
sources, places, but they're not physical, they're Spirit. What is a thought? If you look up this word
imaginations, it literally means in the Hebrew a forming, a
forming or a shaping. And it is just - it is the same
idea in Genesis 2:7 when it says, "The Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and man became a living soul." Before God formed, shaped man
from the dust of the ground, where did man exist? Where was man before God formed
him out of the ground? Where did that forming come
from? Before God formed it in the
Earth, it was formed in Him. An idea, a thought, is a shape,
it is a form, and it is a spiritual force that can shape
something out of the Spirit into the physical. Get the picture of a potter
forming a vase. He's at the wheel. There's no vase, and yet there
is. Where is the vase? Come on, are y'all with me on
this? "Well the vase doesn't exist." Yes, it does. The fact that the vase is
created and developed and is beautiful in people, proves it
existed there. Its existence here proves it
existed there. If it hadn't existed there it
could never have come here. Oh, are y'all with me saints? And it wasn't formed when he put
his hands on the clay. It was formed in the thought. It was shaped, it was formed. Somebody say glory to God. Thoughts are not insignificant. Thoughts are not to be
trivialized. Every thought comes from
somewhere. And every thought is endeavoring
to form something and shape something. Every thought. There are evil thoughts,
there are destructive thoughts, thoughts of death, thoughts of
failure, thoughts of poverty. But there are thoughts of
prosperity. There are thoughts of holiness. There are thoughts of life and
freedom and deliverance. Somebody say glory to God. I want you to think a moment
about the power of these things. There are thoughts that you can
begin to think and immediately it will raise your heart rate,
it will raise your blood pressure, it will make you
perspire, and all you did was think about this. Does it have power? There are other thoughts, you
begin to think about them, and you start to calm down. Begin to relax. Some thoughts, just the thought
of it, thrills you. You begin to think on it and it
just thrills you; you can't help but smile and all you're doing
is thinking a thought. You think glory to God, glory to
God. Glory to God. I saw it just a few minutes ago. I came in here a few minutes ago
and y'all were fine and okay but then I began to share with you
God's thought, that though your beginning was small, your latter
end would greatly increase. I saw that thought come up in
you and you began to smile and you begin to go yeah, yeah. Nobody put money in your hand. What did that for you? Oh, but friend, that thought has
the power to come into this realm and shape it and form it
in your life. But I tell you what. The devil would sow a bad seed
to you as well. There are thoughts that will
absolutely pull the joy right out of you. Thoughts that will terrify you. And if you lay on your bed at
night and think on them and ponder them, it will rob you of
your peace. It will rob you of your joy. It will put all your systems
into overdrive. If you think on them year after
year, it will make you old before your time. It will absolutely strip you of
your potential. Prevent you from being what you
should be and having what you could have. Somebody say, "Thoughts." You and I are today what we have
become, not what we have to be. People say, "That's just the way
I am. You just have to accept me." A lot of times, you shouldn't
accept the way you are; don't try to get me to try to accept
it. "If you love me, you just have
to love me the way I am." No, sir. No, ma'am. I can love you without loving
the way you are. "You have to accept me the way I
am." No, I don't. Nor do you. You can be transformed. I can be transformed. You and I are the way we are. We've become this way over a
period of time. Think about it. The stuff you've done, any
skills that you've developed, there was a time when that was a
thought. The places, the associations,
the relationships. Married folks -- there was a
time when you just saw them across the way and thought I'd
like to meet them. I'd really like to meet them and
get to know them. It was just a thought. It turned into a relationship,
turned into a covenant, turned into a family. It was a thought. "I think I'd like working at
that. I think I'd like to learn how to
play that instrument. I think I'd like..." There was a time you didn't know
one chord, one note, nothing about it - you had a thought. "I think I'd like to learn how
to ride a motorcycle. I think I'd like..." Think. I think. Look in Proverbs, please. Thank You Lord. Somebody say thank You Lord,
thank You Lord. Thank You Lord. Thank You Lord for Your holy
Word. Thank You Lord. Proverbs twenty-three. Glory to God. What a glorious thought. What a wonderful thought. Don't be conformed to this
world. Don't let this world make you
like itself. Don't become a cookie-cutter
copy of everything else and everybody else; people that
don't believe in God, don't know God. You are destined to be
different. You're supposed to go upstream. You're supposed to be up when
they're down. Say yes when they say no. I will when they say you won't. But we must realize how
dangerous it is, these thoughts that are all around us. They're all around us. I mean everything is permeated
with thoughts of fear, thoughts of selfishness, thoughts of
deception. It's everywhere. That's why it's good to have a
place where you can come in here and shut the door and say world
stay out. We're only going to think on
what He said. And yet, we're not to hide and
put our light under a bushel. We're supposed to go out and
shine. But you need to read your
chapter, and you need to getting His thoughts and reminding
ourselves of them on a regular basis, because they're so much
around you trying to press you, trying to conform you and make
you like the whole unsaved world. Say it out loud, "I refuse to be
conformed to this world. I'm in this world, I am not of
this world. I refuse to be conformed to this
world." Make up your mind I'm not going
to be like this. But what is happening with you? I'm being transformed. What is transformed? It's the word that we get our
understanding of metamorphosis. Just like a caterpillar to
butterfly. It is an internal, cellular
level change. It is a complete change - the
original words bear that out. Other translations bring it out,
the complete renewing of your mind, entire renewing. Our thinking doesn't need to be
changed a little bit. It doesn't need to be modified
slightly. The Word needs to come in there
and tear out some stuff, tear down the walls and pull up the
floors, and the carpet, are you listening to me? And then open the fire hose and
blow it out and then get the sandblaster -- are y'all
listening to me? We need some major stripped down
renovations. Now see, that didn't happen when
you got born-again. There's people looking at me
like -- no, it didn't. You became a new creation in
Christ Jesus. Your Spirit became new, not your
mind. And that has confused a lot of
people. They knew something happened to
them, but then next week they were struggling with some of the
same thoughts they had before they got saved. The devil will come and tell
you, "You didn't even get saved. Look at you." No, that's not true. It wasn't your mind it was
re-created. It was your Spirit. And as soon as you get
born-again, it's your job to do what you're supposed to do with
your mind to let Him renew it. We have a responsibility to do
something with our mind and get it renewed. Can you say glory to God? In Proverbs, did you have that
place? Proverbs 23:7, well, let me back
up and read some more of this. Verse six, "Eat thou not the
bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his
dainty meats: For as he thinks in his heart, so is he: Eat and
drink, says he to thee; but his heart is not with you." His actions and his words are
not what he is. What is he? He is what he thinks. He's saying some things that are
not representing him properly. "Oh yeah, come on in. Eat, drink. Help yourself." But he's thinking begrudgingly,
and so he's not what he's saying and how he's acting; he is what
he thinks. Your thoughts. Another translation says it like
this, Young's Literal, "... For as he has thought in his
soul, so [is] he, 'Eat and drink,' saith he to thee, And
his heart [is] not with thee." Our thoughts -- somebody say,
"Our thoughts." Our thoughts. There was a time this church was
a thought. There was a time Phyllis' and my
ministry was a thought. It was a thought. I remember we were back, what
would we have been, Phyl? Eighteen years old? In our little Marriott mobile
home. We paid three thousand seven
hundred dollars for it. And doing what we knew to do. And got a hold of some Word. Heard things like redeemed from
the curse of the law. Hadn't got over it yet. Things like by His stripes you
were healed. Call those things that be not as
though they were. Beloved, I wish above all things
that you prosper and be in health even as your soul
prospers. And we began to grow, we began
to develop. We got some materials from the
Copelands, we got some materials from Brother Hagin. And they began to send us their
monthly publication. There was a publication of the
graduating class of that year and they were all dressed in red
on the front. And I picked up that little
magazine in our little mobile home and I looked at it. And just for a moment a thought
came across my mind -- wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't that be great to be a
part of a group like that and to have that kind of training, and
that kind of the Word put into you, and that kind of
preparation. And to have that kind of an
active part in the kingdom of God. That thought came across my
mind. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be a
part of that? And it lasted all of about 15
seconds. And then I thought nah, I'm a
country boy doing this and doing that. I don't have enough money to get
out there to the school much less go. But where did that thought come
from? Anybody know? Where did that thought come
from? Help me out. But then what shot that thought
down? It was another thought. What about that? Nah. That's just wishful thinking,
that's not reality. Come back to earth, boy. Where did that thought come
from? And can you see that both of
those thoughts are trying to shape me? Can you see that? One of them is trying to shape
me and tell me you could be used of God. You can have a part in the end
time harvest. You can be in the ministry. And another one is telling me
no, you can't. You don't have anything, you
don't know anybody. You can't do anything. Both of those thoughts have
shaping power. I'm so thankful the Lord didn't
give up on me just because I let that shoot His thoughts down. Thank God He knew how ignorant I
was. He knew I was clueless as to
even what was even going on. And He brought it back to me. I wasn't getting it at all. At all. But He got this thought across
to me about believing God and going out to their camp meeting
in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That was the biggest step of
faith we'd ever taken. We didn't have a car that would
make it out there much less the gas and a place to stay. No, we didn't have it. But the Lord had gotten enough
faith in us through His Words and His wonderful thoughts that
we believed He could do a miracle and it would work out,
something would happen and we could go. And we believed. And we stood, and we said it,
and we confessed, and we praised God, and we stood, and we
believed. I won't go into all the detail
but it worked out perfectly. I got time off, Phyllis got time
off. Somebody loaned us their almost
new car. We had a little bit of money, we
didn't know if we had enough, but as we were driving down the
road to go to the meeting she starts pulling out money people
gave her. I started pulling out money
people gave me. We had plenty of money. Plenty of money to go, to stay,
to eat, to come back for the whole week. Glory to God. And while we were there, He
dealt with us to take the tour out of the campus there at
Rhema. And while we were walking around
on the campus, that thought He had been trying to get to me for
a year and a half or two came up in me strong. And this time I didn't knock it
down. Come on, are y'all listening to
me? And Phyllis and I talked about
it - and I'm not saying we didn't wrestle with it a little
bit more, but we eventually embraced that thought and we
followed that thought. Has that thought shaped us? Has that thought formed us? I can tell you, I was there and
now I'm here. We are different people. Very different people. And there was a time when it was
a thought and I thought - and pitched it over in the corner
and went about my business. Should we pay attention to the
thoughts the Lord gives us and not let other things overpower
them, overshadow them, and knock them down? Let me give you an identifier,
one of many, of God's thoughts. When God gives you a thought, it
will excite you. I said, it will excite you
because it's wonderful, it's glorious. It's only after the initial
excitement and you get in your head and start trying to figure
out how to do it, that you realize you don't know how and
you can't as far as you can tell. Then, if you let the other
thoughts in, you're in trouble. "Why doesn't God show me how
He's going to do it?" Then it wouldn't require any
faith. He wants to give you a thought. You know that's why Abraham was
His friend? Got to hang with God. Why? Because he's the kind of guy God
can take him outside and say, "Look up in the sky, look up in
the sky. See all those stars Abraham?" "Yes, Sir. That's a lot of stars. Sure are pretty." "How many stars is that
Abraham?" "Oh Lord, I don't know. I can't even see all of them. How would I know how many?" He said, "That's how many kids
you're going to have." He didn't have any. Didn't have one. Looked like he couldn't have
one. So do you know what he says? "Great. Okay." He struggled with it, you know
the whole story, but Romans tell us how he wound up. He was fully persuaded that what
God had said, He was able to perform it. He embraced that thought with
not one clue as to how God could do it. And that pleases God. Oh, that pleases the Father. If He'll bring you a thought and
you get excited and not have one clue of how it could ever
happen, but you still receive it. And you just cling to it and you
go yes, God can do it. How? I don't know how, I don't have
to know how. He knows how. He knows how. Somebody say, "He knows how." Does He? Yes, He does. He knows how. His thoughts will excite you. His thoughts will thrill you. His thoughts are exhilarating. His thoughts, you'll laugh and
cry and won't know what to do with yourself. His thoughts. Did you find the Psalm? What are we talking about? His thoughts. Psalm 92:5. I'm liking this series already. I'm liking this. Psalm 92:5, "O Lord, how great
are Your works! And Your thoughts are very
deep." Deep. How deep are His thoughts? Look into the night sky. Look across the Pacific as far
as your little eyes can see, which isn't far. His thoughts are so vast,
they're so wide, they're so high, they're so deep. And here's the amazing thing. He's created us with the
capability to think on them. Paul prayed for the saints at
Colossae that they'd be able to comprehend the height, the
width, the depth of the love of God that passes understanding. Why? He has created us with the
capacity to embrace His thoughts and think His thoughts. That is huge. And we're not operating in the
fullness of it at all. But it's not over. This is just the beginning. I was talking with Phyllis the
other day, we were riding down the road. You know, preachers preach. And I said you know, you and I
have really changed in the last thirty years. We think differently. We are able to comprehend some
things we had no clue of thirty years ago. What about ten thousand years
from now? Because we're going to be
around. What about three hundred
thousand years from now? We won't be the same as we are
now. Come on now, think about it. How many would say the Word has
changed me? And you're talking about what? Ten, twenty, thirty, forty,
fifty, sixty years? That's a flash. What about from where you are
now? You just keep going and
embracing His thoughts. And how many have read
Scriptures that didn't mean a thing to you twenty years ago
and now you wept and cried and shouted over that verse? Why? The verse is not what was
lacking, it was your ability to comprehend His thought and think
it. Well, how about your ability to
comprehend His thought expanding for next the million years? What will you be able to grasp? And what will that do to you? What kind of being will that
make you? A son of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be but when we see Him, we will be like Him. And we will commune. We're not just going to be
sitting around a cloud playing a harp. I guess if you want to sit on a
cloud and play a harp, it may be okay, but that is not all you
will be doing throughout the ages. And it is -- anybody want to
know what's out there? Me too. God is out there. Aren't you glad you're not an
ignorant unbeliever? Limiting yourself to your little
senses, and little knowledge, and so arrogant that you don't
understand that it can't exist. It's pitiful, isn't it it's
pitiful. It's bad to be dumb, but it's
bad to be ignorant and don't know you're ignorant. That's really bad. What do they need? They need to receive His
thoughts, don't they? And let His thoughts transform
them into something else. His thoughts are very deep. Say it out loud, "Lord, your
thoughts are very deep." Psalm one thirty-nine, turn over
there. And the more you ponder His
thoughts, the more you think on them, the further you see into
them and the more it thrills you. The more it blesses you and
excites you. What if you don't think on them
at all? What of God is not in your
thoughts, ever? Then you will lead a very
shallow life, won't you? Should we think about Him in the
morning? Should we think about Him all
the through the day? Should we think about Him when
we lay our head on the pillow at night, when we get out of bed in
the morning? Should we think about Him all
the time? Can you think about Him while
you're doing other stuff? Yes, you can. Everything that you see can
remind you of Him. If it's bad, you can remember
His grace and how that all things are possible. If it's good, you can remember
that every good and perfect gift came from Him. There's no beautiful thing but
what came out of Him. Psalm 139:17. "How precious also are Your
thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are
more in number than the sand," what's more in number than the
sand? God's thoughts. And, "I am still with you." His thoughts. Oh, I can sense the Spirit of
God pushing against the veil of the flesh. He has thoughts for you. He wants these thoughts, He
desires these thoughts to get through to you and me. Oh, the devil fights them. He wants us to be negative, He
wants us to be defeatists, unbelieving, worry all the time,
threatened, yield to His thoughts and experience death. God has a thought. How many know one thought from
God will to show you how to walk right out of your situation. Maybe you've been embroiled in
it for years, you see no way out and no answers and no hope, one
thought from the Almighty, come on, one thought from Him Who
made the heavens and the earth. His thoughts are light. His thoughts are life. And one thought from Him and you
just go "Well, of course. Sure. I'll just do that in the
morning." And it will start unfolding and
just start working. What it took the devil to mess
up ten years to do, how many know God can fix it a day? In a day, less. But we have to be open to His
thoughts. Now that's some point we'll be
getting to 2 Corinthians where it's says you have to take every
thought captive to the obedience. Somebody say, "Every thought." Then is every thought
significant? Does every thought matter? Every thought. Say, "Every thought." Say it again, every thought. Every thought. Because these thoughts are
spiritual. And these thoughts are from
somewhere. And if they're not from God, we
have no business thinking them. And they're trying to form us. Everything about you, everything
about me, the way I carry myself, my southern drawl, the
phrases I use, the way I see things, everything about you
came as a thought. It was a thought. You saw it, you thought it, you
emulated it. You saw it, you thought it, you
conformed to it. Well, no matter where we came
from or what we've been, now you are the sons of God. You are the sons of the most
high God. And He has thoughts. He said I know the thoughts I
think about you. Didn't He say I know the
thoughts I think about you? What kind of thoughts? Anybody remember? Good, good thoughts that will
give you an expected end. Thoughts that will produce
something in you so that you wind up a different way. People think I need money, I
need healing, I need... you need a thought. You need His thought on the
matter. If you have that, everything
else comes with that. This planet you and I are
sitting on this evening, before it existed, where was it? Every tree, every animal. This chair, before it was a
chair, it was in somebody's mind. Thank You Lord. The car you drove over here in,
you take it for granted that there was a time when it didn't
exist, and yet it did exist. And before that thought wound up
in some engineers mind, it was in God's. Every good thing, every perfect
thing, every complete thing, everything that works and helps
and is good, it came from Him. Everything, everything that
kills, steals, and destroys, came from the devil. It came from the destroyer. But before it existed here, it
was in Him. How did He get it here? How did there ever become such
thing as a space shuttle? A jet that strick across the air
at the speed of sound? They were in a person before
they were on paper or in the computer or in steel or in wood. But before they were in that
person, they were in the Creator. Aren't we thankful for
everything Lord has given us? I know people are using
technology and machines and everything else for evil, but
they weren't intended for that. They were intended for good. The Internet was not built to
hurt people, it was built to get the Gospel out. And you can use it for some
other things, good things, but that's the main thing going on. Somebody say glory to God. Glory to God. Hold your place in Psalms and go
to Timothy. We're going to go from 1 Timothy
four to Psalm one. The first Psalm. Thank You Lord. Don't be conformed to this
world. That's not my words, that's not
just Paul's words. How many know that's the Spirit
of God speaking? That's God talking directly to
us. What did He tell us? Don't be conformed to this
world. You be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. Say it out loud, "My mind is
being renewed. I will know, I will prove the
good, the acceptable, the perfect will of God. I'll think it, I'll know it. By His grace, I'll do it." Thank You Lord. And how will it come? A thought will come. Phyllis and I, about this time
of the year, earlier, over in a condo here in Branson praying
about the will of God. This church was a thought. No money to speak of, certainly
not enough to do that. Didn't know anybody here. But we had a thought from the
Almighty. Just a matter of months ago,
that church in Sarasota, it was a thought. Now it's a piece of land. Now it's a building. It's not a church, it will be. And it won't just be a building,
it will be full of people like you and me. And they'll be glad to hear
about God's thoughts. They'll be excited. And their life will change. And they'll quit just living for
themselves. And they'll quit just being only
aware of this life. Their mind will open up and
their Spirit will open up and they'll love God. They will praise Him and they
will serve Him. And in a few days this will be
over with and then we'll all shout together throughout the
ages. And God will share His thoughts
with us. And after we grow up for another
hundred thousand years, He'll be able to share some things with
us that we couldn't have even related to right now. Do you think we'll be
mesmerized? Do you think we will be in awe? Do you think we will praise and
worship Him? And here's a neat thing. We can do it for nine days
straight and not get tired. We'll shout to the top of our
voice for a month and not be tired. And feel better. Somebody will say, "What's with
them?" "Oh, they've been shouting like
that for ten years. Let's go join them." "Why?" "God showed them something and
they got wind of His thoughts." Because His thoughts are deep
and they're precious. They are life itself, light
itself, love itself. PART 3: First Timothy four, God
was sharing His thoughts, the Spirit of God through Paul, to
Timothy. And He told him this. First Timothy 4:15, What did He
tell him? "Meditate upon these things,"
that He had been telling him, these thoughts, meditate on
these things, and what? And, "Give yourself wholly to,"
these things that you've been meditating, and what will
happen? "That your profiting may," what? "Appear to all." Now how is it going to appear to
all unless it happens out here where all could perceive it? I want to see something friend. It was meditation, now it's
appearing. He said meditate on these things
and give yourself completely to them and what will happen? The profiting of it, the
benefiting of it, the increasing of it, will appear to everybody. They'll see it. They may not understand and know
how it came, but they'll see it. They'll see the increase. The profiting, the benefit. Somebody say glory to God. Does that sound like
transformation? That's exactly what it is. Psalm one. I'm thinking about closing. It's a thought. We'll have to discern where that
thought came from. Which is another message. How many know we're going to
have to identify the source of these thoughts, aren't we? Can you see that's going to be a
big part of it? We have to find out where these
thoughts are coming from and we have to tag them before we just
sit around and think on them. You say no, no, I can't think on
that. I'm not going to think on that. Why? Because we should understand if
I think on that, what's going to happen? It's going to mold me. It's going to shape me. Somebody was talking about some
criminal activity and some people that had committed some
terrible crimes. And the authorities were
discussing it and saying that these individuals, they had
found out in their personal life, they had just watched
hours and hours and hours of these terrible crime movies and
awful perverted things. They were asking the question
did they think that that had any effect on them. Do you have to ask? Some of them committed the very
things they saw in these movies and in these things. Why? They immersed themselves in it. They thought it night and day. They meditated on it and gave
himself wholly to it. And their perversion appeared to
all. Do you see this? You can only hide it so long. You keep feeding on it, it will
make you into that. You will become that. "Oh no, I can handle it." You're kidding yourself. "I can handle it." Nobody can handle it. Oh, but you think about Jesus,
come on now. You immerse yourself in
everything Jesus said and every word that He did until you've
got red letters just swimming around in your head. I mean, the Epistles and the
thoughts, redemption, healing, increase, righteousness. You will become that. That's not a fairy tale, that's
not hype. The Bible said as we behold like
in a mirror the glory of God, we are what? We're changed into the same
image. We're changed into what we're
looking at. Second Corinthians three. And the glory is in here. Oh, thank You Master. Thank You Master. Oh, let's just lift up your
hands and praise Him some. "Father, we worship You. We worship You. Oh, we worship You. How precious are Your thoughts
to us. We want to know what You think. We care what You said. We want to know Your thoughts. Oh, we worship You. We worship You. We seek Your glory. We seek Your will. Hallelujah. Thank You Father. Thank You Father." Psalm 1:1. "Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly," what is the counsel of
the ungodly? That's their thoughts. What kind of thoughts are they? What is an ungodly thought? Un-God is no God. God is not in it. It's an un-god, not a God
thought, but an un-God, without God. Blessed is the man that doesn't
walk in the counsel of the ungodly and he doesn't, "Stand
in the way of sinners," now perhaps we'll get into this. If you understand somebody's
thoughts, you learn their ways. Do you want to know the ways of
the Lord? You have to find out how He
thinks. If you find out how He thinks,
then we'll begin to see not just - we won't just see what He has
done and view Him from a historical perspective, we learn
how He thinks. And then therefore begin to
understand some about His ways. How He does things. And you could already see how
this would make it so easy for you to discern His will. Because when something comes up
you go oh, that's Him. How do you know that's Him? That's how He thinks. How do you know how He thinks? Because you've been thinking His
thoughts. That's Him. That's the way He does stuff. How you know that's the way He
does stuff? Because that's what He said,
that's His thought. You learn how He thinks, you
begin to understand His ways, then you're not clueless about
the will of God. Somebody tries to tell you this
is God and you go... that's not His way. That's not the way He does
things. That's not the way He thinks. "Who are you? You think you know how God
thinks?" We can begin to know how He
thinks. No, we don't claim to know the
breath of His thoughts, but we can begin to know. What is the mind being renewed
if not beginning to know how He thinks. What He thinks. Too much of the church world has
just given up and said His thoughts are higher than our
thoughts and they didn't read the rest of the passage or
anything else that went with it, and they say, "We can't think
like God does. He's holy and perfect and high. And we're dumb and clueless. Maybe over yonder by-and-by
we'll get a God thought." No. This Book you have in front of
you, why did He give us that? The Spirit of God, the Author,
why did He put Him in us? So we could know. Hold your place in Psalms and go
back to the Book of 1 Corinthians, or over I should
say. You know, religion, man-made
religion, is one of the most hinder some destructive things
in the world. First Corinthians 2. People take a verse, take a half
of verse, make it say something it never said and use that as a
basis for not believing God. And for not even trying. Quitting and laying down. Is it possible for you to think
some of God's thoughts and understand some of His thoughts? Is it possible? Yes, it is. It's supposed be happening on an
increasing basis. First Corinthians 2:9, "But as
it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has
entered into the heart of man, the things which God has
prepared for them that love Him." And people stop. They put up a stop sign. They build a wall there. And they go, "See, see, see. See. You just never know. The eyes have not seen, the
earth not heard. It's not even entered into your
heart and to your own mind and God is big and you're not and
you just don't know when you're not going to know. You little haughty too big for
your britches man. You just sit down because you're
dumb and then you need to admit that you're dumb. And stay that way. That's just the way it is." If they would only read the next
verse. Somebody help me. Let's be brave. Let's go to the next verse. Let's go where no religion has
gone before. Come on, are y'all ready? Come on. Let's go to verse ten. Eyes have not seen, ear has not
heard, it's not entered into the heart of man that thing that God
has prepared for them that love Him, but, but, "But God has
revealed them," them what? Them what? The things that I hadn't seen,
and ear hasn't heard, and hadn't entered in, God has revealed
them to us, "By His Spirit..." Glory to God. Say it out loud, "I can think
the thoughts of God. I can understand of His ways." Certainly we don't claim to have
arrived or will arrive in this lifetime, thank God we have the
rest of eternity. But we don't have to wait until
then to start. We need His thoughts now. We need to know how He thinks to
deal with things in this life. We need to know, come on, so we
can have the right kind of relationships. So we could raise our kids the
right way. Come on, are you listening? So we can be the right witness
and find the will of God and do what we're supposed to do. You're not going to do any of
that without getting His thoughts. Said out loud, "Lord, I love
your thoughts. They are precious to me." Glory to God. Back to Psalm one. Psalm 1:1. Let's read it again, "Blessed is
the man," anybody want to be blessed? Blessed. Blessed. That means empowered, enabled to
prosper and to succeed. "That walks not in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in
the seat of the scornful." There are thought you don't need
to hear. There are thoughts you don't
need to be around. We need to treat it seriously
and not just sit hour after hour on the phone, or just stay and
let people fill our ears and minds with this junk. There are places we don't need
to walk. There are places we don't need
to stand. And there are places we don't
need to sit. Because it's ungodly counsel. There are thoughts we should not
think. Verse two, "But his delight is
in the law of the Lord," now we have not only the law, we have
the New Testament, we have the whole Word of God. His delight, is your delight in
the Word of the Lord? Does His Word contain His
thoughts? "And in His law does he," what? Does he what? He, "Meditates day and night." What did the Spirit of God
through Paul tell Timothy? He said meditate in these things
and give yourself holy to them. What would happen? You're profiting will appear to
all. This is the same thing. Meditate in it day and night,
what will happen when you meditate and it day or night? You're pondering God's thoughts
all the time day and night. You don't think on the scornful
and the sinner and the ungodly. You refuse to be conformed and
think that, and talk that, and live that, and be that. It starts trying to mold you and
shape you into sit down and shut up, you're nothing, you'll have
nothing, you throw it off and you say no, I'm not sitting
here. I'm not sitting here. I'm not hearing it, I'm not
thinking that. I'm thinking greater is He
that's in me and he that is in the world. I'm thinking all things are
possible to him that believes. Got supplies all my needs. I'm thinking He that has begun a
good work in me will perform it. He will complete it all the
away. He's the Author and He is the
Finisher of my faith, my life. And I am going to meditate in
that every service. Every time the church doors open
and the preachers preaching something worth hearing, I'm
going to meditate on it. I'm going to hear it. And even once in a while I might
play a CD or something. Why did I say that? Okay, you meditate on it for the
thirty minutes, hour and an half, two hours, depends on
where you go to church, and then you don't until next Friday. That leaves a lot of time. And you're going to be thinking
something. You don't just go around night
and thinking nothing. You're thinking something. What are you thinking? Where did that thought come
from? What is it doing to you? Come on, read it again. He'll do what? What will he do? He's gonna meditate on it when? When? Day and night. Well it's either day or night. Well it's not quite night. Then it's day. It's not quite day. Then it's night. So if it's day, do you know what
to do? Meditate in the Word of the
Lord. What if it's night, do you know
what to do? Let me if these guys over here. If it's daytime, what do you do? On what? What He said. Things that He said. If it's nighttime, what do we
do? Meditate, think on it, ponder
it, meditate. When? What if it's the middle of the
day? Late at night? It's either day or night. And if you meditate upon it,
would that affect your mind? Would your thinking change? And what would be the result? Come on, read the next verse. His profiting will appear. Come on, are y'all listening? His profiting will appear. He will be, now he was thinking,
now he's being. He was meditating, now he's
being. He shall be, he wasn't, but he
shall be. "Like a tree planted by the
rivers of water," how many know rivers means you have more water
than you will ever, ever need? If you have an apple tree you
could to soak up water and make apples until the ground is
covered with apples and you don't have to stop because you
have plenty of water where that came from. You can just soak it up, soak it
up, and make apples in the morning, and apples at night,
and apples every day. Whatever you are. You can bear fruit, you can
produce it, "That brings fort fruit in his season," every
time, "his leaf also shall not wither," when other people are
drying up, you don't. Why? Well why are they drying up? To be currently minded is death. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. Why are they drying up? We don't even have to know the
details to know they're thinking of things they shouldn't be
thinking on. They were thinking wasn't going
to work, they're thinking and they're not going to make it,
they're thinking death and failure and defeat. And it disconnected them from
the rivers. But this is the guy who won't
stay in the seat of the scornful or the way of the sinner or the
counsel of the ungodly. He won't stay there. You can't make him stay. You say something and he goes... La-la-la- la. I'm not hearing that. Show me the door. I will not die but live and
declare the works of God. I'm coming through this. We're more than a conqueror,
more. He always causes me... "Well, you might not...and you
better watch...." La-la-la-la. He always causes me, always,
always, always. "Yeah, but you just never know." Get behind me. How many know that is the
counsel of the ungodly? And it's dangerous, it's
dangerous. Dangerous. Why? Because if you get to thinking
on it, it will form you, it will shape you. Next thing you know you'll lose
your peace and lose your joy. You be shaken, you'll be upset. But this guy, soaking up the
water. People say, "Man, what a
drought. Things are getting burnt up all
over the place." He says my leaves are green and
they don't wither. "Everybody's leaves wither." Not mine. Not mine. "Everybody's leaves wither." No. My leaves shall not wither. "You win some and you lose some,
some things..." "Whatsoever he does shall
prosper." Somebody say glory to God. Glory to God! Glory to God. Say glory to God. Glory to God. Come on, stand up on your feet
and say glory to God. Glory to God! Glory! Lord, I give You glory, I give
You praise. I give You thanks, I give You
praise. I give You thanks. Thank You. Come on, tell Him - just close
your eyes and speak right from your heart and tell Him how you
value His thoughts. "Oh, Lord, how precious are Your
thoughts to me. I desire them." Come on, tell Him out of your
own mouth, out of your heart. Say, "Lord, I want to know Your
thoughts. I want to know what You have
thought about every thing, in every area. Your thoughts are right. Your thoughts are true. Your thoughts are perfect. And I want to know. And I thank You, thank You,
thank You for sharing them with us. Allowing us to think them,
revealing unto us by Your
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Spirit.
