“Stop imitating the ideals and the opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.”

Romans 12:2 (TPT)

There is an intentional discipline that must personally take place to ensure that this scripture produces fruit in our lives. This is true for any scripture, if we expect the fruit of The Word to manifest in our lives. All of our decisions produce fruit, the kind of fruit they produce is based on what we are aligning them with.

Throughout this current season we have seen, assisted, sympathized and even empathized with numerous people who have been affected by the current condition of the nation, of the economy and of this pandemic. If we’re honest, we may have even thought, wondered or filled our minds with ideas that are outside of the TRUTH of God’s Word due to the ever-changing state of these circumstances. It’s for these very reasons that we must ensure we are aligning our lives to the Word of God. In Romans 12:2, one translation says, “renew your minds, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” This is a DAILY renewing of our minds that we MUST do, especially during this season when nearly every form of media is saturated with a reinforcement of fear and uncertainty.

There are spiritual disciplines that are vital to our daily lives, to include, but not inclusive of, prayer, fasting, a devotional life and fellowship with like-minded believers (attending a life group and church services weekly). Each one of these disciplines assists in the renewing of our minds and the refreshing of our spirit. As we continue to surrender to God daily, He will empower us and strengthen us to sustain these disciplines. These spiritual disciplines help us to align our lives with The Word, taking the focus off of our circumstances and focusing our hearts on being in His presence. Being in His presence is what causes our lives to truly be transformed.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
About a year ago, during a layover in Chicago, we went to see a movie called Alita: Battle Angel. In the movie there was a scene that has resonated with me ever since. For me to remember a scene in a movie is a pretty big deal, because movies are normally just paid naps for me and I’m totally well with that.

In this movie, Alita was a female cyborg, which meant that although she was artificial intelligence (AI) she had an original human brain. There is a point in the movie that Alita loses her body in a battle and the cyber medic that originally found her in the scrapyard performs surgery to put her “battle body” (that she knows exists, but doesn’t fully remember why it exists) back on for her to survive and still be able to fight in battles. After her new body is attached the medic says that the “adaptive technology” is allowing her body to “re-configure to her subconscious image of herself.” Because she had a human mind, she had a conscience, an inner image of herself. He says that in the re-configuration her body was making “micro adjustments throughout every system.” Micro means extremely small, her body was making extremely small adjustments throughout every system which collectively transformed her into an elite warrior. These micro adjustments resulted in her body being reconfigured into that of an elite warrior. Lastly, in the beginning of this scene, the cyber medic said, “no one will dare harm you again.”

I occasionally replay the clip from that part of the movie and this is what I hear the Holy Spirit say to me — “It’s the adaptive technology of the Word in you, the Holy Spirit, that helps your mind to reconfigure to the subconscious image of yourself because the Word is so alive on the inside of you. Subconsciously, this is how you see yourself, as an elite warrior. My Word will make micro adjustments throughout every crevice of your body’s system and your life, and NO WEAPON formed against you will dare harm you!”

What subconscious image do you have of yourself? What micro adjustments can you make today to ensure your life is ALIGNED with the Word of God that will help you to step out of this season as the elite warrior He has created you to be. If we weren’t expected to show up in battle as an elite warrior God would’ve never made a complete set of armor and instruct for us to put it on EVERYDAY. Armor is for battle (Ephesians 6:10-18). (Nicole Farmer)

TODAY’S DECLARATION
“I choose to RENEW my mind with The Word of God DAILY, to be able to discern the good, pleasing and perfect will of God for my life!”

TODAY’S BIBLE READING

• Old Testament: Jeremiah 1-2; Ecclesiastes 1
• New Testament: John 1:1-18; James 1:1-11