In Romans 12:1-2, the bible talks about presenting your body a living sacrifice. It talks about renewing your mind, and it talks about knowing the perfect will of God. We all desire as Christians to be led by God, to hear His voice, and to follow Him. We look at these scriptures, and it looks like they are saying if you will present your bodies as a living sacrifice and renew your mind, then you will know the perfect will of God.

What we’re being taught a lot of times is that to renew your mind is to do. You read your bible. You pray more. You make confessions. You fast. It’s all about “you do.” That’s what the scripture sounds like it’s saying, present your bodies a living sacrifice.

If you’re a person with a problem with commitment, laziness, sticking with certain things–especially spiritual things–if feels like it’s impossible to change. It’s impossible to get your mind renewed. It’s impossible to know the will of God or to be walking in His perfect will.

Yet, the bible says that’s all of our destinies. We’re thinking it’s impossible for me to get there because I can’t even step up to the plate. I want to present mind renewal in a different light and in a different way.

First of all, it’s not manual, meaning it’s not by your works. Your being consistent reading the word. Your being consistent in prayer. Your doing anything consistently if you have a problem with that. You can still achieve being led by the Lord because it is the Lord who changes you.

The bible says the Holy Spirit leads you into all truth (John 16:13). He will lead you into a stronger walk with the Lord, a more committed walk with Him.

Renewing your mind happens when the Lord shows you where you’re believing wrong, and then He presents to you the truth. Then you have the choice–and the power–to make the choice for good. Then you follow that thing. When you do, boom, you start to get free.

Either you get free instantly from whatever it is that challenged you, or over time He gradually leads you more and more into freedom from that thing.

An Example of Instant Mind Renewal

I’ll give you an example of an instant change.

I used to be afraid of the dark outside. I was terrified that someone would jump out and get me. I live in a great neighborhood, so that thought was just silly and unlikely to happen. I had that irrational fear, and I couldn’t shake it.

One night, I was reading the bible, and Jeremiah 23:24 jumped out at me. The scripture talks about how God fills the entire earth and that no one is hidden from Him. That scripture jumped out at me that night, and I had such joy and peace in my heart as I read that.

I knew God was speaking this word to me. That’s all I knew. He gave me these warm and fuzzy feelings over it. I enjoyed it. Thank you, Jesus. Oh that’s wonderful. Hallelujah. It feels so good. Thanks. Then the feelings faded, and I went on reading the bible.

Two or three days later, I was outside and coming home from church. That same terror of being outside after dark came over me. I ran up to my door and jammed my key into the lock. Then I froze.

I closed my eyes and thought of that scripture I had read just days before and how God illuminated it to me. I said, Lord, you fill this entire earth. You fill this whole neighborhood. You fill my whole house inside. As soon as I said all of this, the fear broke. After that night, I was never again afraid to be outside after dark.

That’s an example of an instant change. That’s an example of a mind renewal. It wasn’t something I did. I didn’t pore over that scripture that talked about God filling the earth. I didn’t meditate endlessly over it or read it again and again.

That’s not to say I haven’t meditated on scripture and gotten results, because I have done that several times. What I’m talking about is when you’ve got a problem in your thinking or in your mind when you can’t seem to be devoted to doing something yourself. The Lord renews your mind.

Getting over that particular fear is an example of how God renewed my mind Himself. He presented me with the truth. A few days later, I experienced the fear, the area where my mind wasn’t renewed. I remembered how He had revealed the scripture to me, and I chose the truth.

In that moment, I had the knowledge of the truth and I had the power to choose the truth. In that, my mind was renewed, and I no longer feared. That’s the of renewing the mind we’re talking about. That is how your mind gets renewed when it’s not manual.

I’m presenting this information to you so you’ll realize that if you’re that type of person where you can’t be devoted, you can’t seem to stay in the word, you can’t pray as much as you think you should. You just can’t be consistent. There’s hope.

There are other areas in my life when I felt mental limitations. Like for example, we all have the mandate to go out and tell the world about Jesus. Let’s say you’re shy. You can’t seem to make yourself do it, and you’re wondering how you can renew your mind so you’re not shy. Regardless, you can’t do this or that because you’re also inconsistent.

Your Inner Workings and How God Changes You

The Lord is the one who renews your mind by presenting you with where your thinking is wrong–your believing in your heart is wrong. Actually it all starts in your heart. Whatever you’re believing in your heart, your mind will follow after. Whatever your mind is thinking on, your actions are going to follow that. The diagram below gives a good illustration of your makeup and how God works on you from the inside out.

When you think you need to present your body as a living sacrifice somehow but you can’t seem to make yourself do it, it’s because it hasn’t started in your heart yet. When it starts in your heart, you will make yourself a living sacrifice. You will be devoted to the Lord. You will be consistent. You will keep following the Lord.

It starts with that commitment in your heart. The Lord even helps you do that too. He helps you to make that commitment. All you need to do is ask Him, talk to Him. Lord, I want to make that commitment to You in my heart because I know it starts in my heart. Then He will, and you’ll find yourself committed.

When I found out that I needed to make a commitment to God in my heart to follow Him and to be led by Him, I knew I didn’t have the commitment in my heart. I was saved. I was a Christian. I never doubted that or was wishy-washy about it. The commitment to follow after Him and to hear His voice and to be led by it, I knew that commitment wasn’t there.

Previously, I had learned to gauge the atmosphere of my heart. I mean I could look in my heart and “see” whether I had the commitment. At that time, I opened my heart to Him. I was willing for Him to show me and help me to make that commitment. A few days later, I looked inside again and there it was. I’m not even sure when it happened.

This wasn’t even a manual thing with the commitment because I just said, Lord, I want You. I want that leading.

The Power to Pray You Already Have

You can look at Romans 12:2 where it talks about knowing the acceptable, good, and perfect will of God and say to the Lord, I want that in my life. Teach me how to make myself a living sacrifice. Teach me how to be committed. Show me those places where I’m believing wrong, Lord, where my heart is not aligned with Your word.

Guess what? He will do that. It’s not a work of your own. It doesn’t start out as a work of your own. When your heart believes right, the works follow. This is really powerful.

When your heart is believing right and in alignment with the will of God, and what He spoke in His word or to your heart, you will act on it. It’s not something you’re going to have to force yourself to do. It’s not something someone has to tell you to do. Go talk to someone about the Lord. No one is going to have to tell you to do when your heart is in alignment.

If you find that you’re not doing something, it’s because there’s a misalignment in your heart. But it is the Lord who illuminates that to you. It is the Lord who renews your mind on these things. All you need to do is turn to Him. Lord, I want to make that commitment. I want You to get these things right in my heart. Let’s work on it together. He’ll start doing it.

The decision to talk to the Lord and ask Him these things is already within your grasp. You already have the power to do that much. It is an instant thing you can do. You already have the ability to turn to the Lord and say, Hey, Lord, I need You. It’s You. It’s not me doing something. It’s not manual. It’s You who brings these things to my attention so we can work on them, so I can change.

Reading the word more, praying more, consistency will come. For now, don’t feel guilty. Don’t feel like you have to be the super disciplined person when you know that’s one of your biggest challenges.

Start right here, where you are right now. Talk to the Lord. Ask Him about that commitment thing and helping you to make the commitment. Then let Him lead you into the mind renewal. He will do it. That’s how we start having these experiences that the bible says we should have. It’s not our manual doing.  It’s for Him to show us the way.

The Holy Spirit leads us into truth.

———–

Please check out my book Simply Led. I tell the story of how I learned to hear God’s voice and talk about my journey toward a closer walk with Him. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Check out some of our other teachings on this website to gain a better understanding of what God is like and how He made you to be. You can also watch us on YouTube, where we share videos on a weekly basis.

 

*Some of the above links are affiliate links, which means if you purchase after clicking through, I will receive a small commission. This at no additional cost to you.