The Benefits of a Sound Mind

In this episode, we explore the importance of taking responsibility for the condition of your body, mind, and emotional wellbeing, recognising that prolonged stress can affect how you think, function, and relate to others. Listen now and learn how to guard your inner life, pursue greater spiritual maturity, and become better equipped to serve others.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Some people don't know why we shout like that, you know, after service, um after prayer, sorry. Um let me just remind you, you are it's a it's a shout of victory. It's a shout of victory. It says that you are you are a victim. You won. Praise God. You're shouting because irrespective of what you're seeing, you know that the results are in your favor. Amen. We've the word of God has demonstrated this so many times, and I think it's time you start to believe that. Praise God, believe it, believe it that you're a winner. I'm a winner, you're a winner, and you know, when you don't feel like a winner, I taught you on the different levels of meditation when you don't feel like a winner, sometimes you have to go in a private place and shout your mind into place. Praise God, shout your mind into place, talk your mind into place. Sometimes the mind can take you, you know. It's interesting. I think uh the creators of all the multiple social media platforms, the way they designed algorithm is like the mind, it's a lot like the mind. Sometimes your algorithm will land you on posts that have nothing to do with you. Strange recommendations, and you ask yourself, what what what what am I doing here? Praise God, and the mind can be like that, the mind will land you in strange places, and what I'm asking you to do is equivalent to you know, on uh Instagram, you can press not interested, it's the same thing. I'm teaching you how to do that with your mind.

unknown 2:49

Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Shout your mind into place.

unknown 2:53

I'm a winner.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So you may have noticed that maybe this week I would drop just a confession in there in the GC. Amen. It's because I could feel the pressure of some of you in my prayer time. I'll go into prayer and I feel the pressure from some of you where your mind is going. Amen. And I would have to remind you that you can tell your mind what to do, and it will listen. Don't be a victim of your mind. I'd like you to write this down. The mind makes a brilliant servant, but a terrible master. If you put your mind in charge, you're in trouble. Thank you, Lord Jesus. So today we're looking at the benefits of a sound mind. The benefits of a sound mind. The benefits of a sound mind. Now, if this the for the rest of the year, if there's a podcast that you have to listen to, yeah, it's this one today, and internal management. Jump between internal management and this one, very important. Okay, very, very important. Because some of you just don't, you still haven't got this thing, you haven't understood this thing called life, you still don't get it. You know, when I was in the place of prayer and I was uh praying many many years ago, I was praying, and I finally cracked the code to life. I screamed in my prayer, I got it. I screamed, I got it, and I was so broke and a little bit ill around that time. Amen. I was broke, overweight, ill at that time, in the prayer room, and I screamed, I got it.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Come on now, amen.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

I knew that if I if I now my my issue is no longer a revelation, my issue is practice. It's just to practice this thing. If I can be consistent with my practice, the next 10 years of my life glorified from glory to glory to glory to glory to glory to glory. Hallelujah, yeah. Crack this thing called life, cracked it by the spirit, cracked it by the spirit, amen. Yeah, yeah. So I would like to share some of that with you. Can I share some of that with you? The benefits of a sound mind. All right, so I want to give you a synthesis, all right, from the American Heart Association, the NHS, and the World Health Organization. Praise God. So I'm gonna read some stuff to you that I went off and researched for the purpose of today's message. Alright, so take a listen to this, and you can write down your or paraphrase if you want to. Frequent extreme anger makes the heart work harder. Research suggests that even brief anger can temporarily impair blood vessels and blood vessel function. Although one episode does not mean someone would develop heart disease. I'll be making comments as I read. But just reading that alone makes me appreciate the scripture because God knew that when he advised us in the Bible. Did you hear what he said there? Frequent extreme anger makes the heart work harder. Makes the heart work harder. Now, right stress. Headaches, muscle tension, fatigue, digestive problems, poor sleep, and a reduced concentration. Now, as I'm communicating with you, you may find that you align with some of these things. Even at a young age, you're identifying with some of these things. Stress puts immense pressure on the brain. And the brain doesn't respond to pressure. Praise God. Now, underneath stress, right anxiety. This is what anxiety does to your body. A racing heart, sweating, trembling, dizziness, breathlessness, nausea, and a feeling of dread. So another word for dread is a discouragement. Just discouraged. Totally and utterly discouraged. After anxiety, write anger. Anger can cause increased heart rate, blood pressure, tense muscles, flushed skin, and reduced impulse control. You find that angry people are very impulsive. Under anger, right? Now, sadness can cause tiredness. Heaviness. This heaviness is more like um fatigue. Okay, so your body feels heavier than usual to carry, to move physically. Your appetite changes, your sleep pattern changes. Withdrawal and reduced interest or pleasure. You know, when I was when I was looking at all of this, I thought to myself, some some people that you think are demon-possessed are just ill. They're just sick people. Praise God. So you may look at someone and you look at their behavioral patterns. They are erratic, impulsive, they're not interested or disinterested in anything. They have a very lax attitude towards life. Um, and you think maybe it's a spirit, but they could be ill, they could be sick. Praise God. Now, as a Christian, you should not be experiencing these things. Maybe you've never heard this, what I'm saying to you. Some people will use Christ as an example and say, but Christ cried. The Bible says he was distressed. Yes, but he was to die on a cross. Are you dying on a cross? Not only that, Christ knew this cannot be changed. This has to happen. I have to die for humanity. Praise God forever. Your own case can be changed. Your case can be changed. So, why should you experience these things? At your stage, why should you be demotivated? Praise God. Now, what I just read to you, these are from official medical houses. Praise God. Official medical houses. This is public information. You can go and actually check out the things I was just saying just now. Now, let me ask you another question. Just look at the stress category, yeah? Headaches, muscle tension, fatigue, digestive problems, poor sleep, reduced concentration. Can God talk to you like that? Your concentration is off. Can He talk to you like that? Brothers and sisters, you have to be the guardian of your body. Be the guardian of your body. Don't just be the guardian of your soul, be the guardian of your body. God will not protect your body because He gave you instructions on how to do it. You have a right to destroy your body or to improve your body. And when I say body, the mind is included, the heart is included. All right, the things you think about are included? Can you see stress? Can you physically see stress? Can you see anxiety? Can you see anger? Can you see sadness? So how then do you protect yourself against something you can't see? The way I like to see this thing is why should I give so much authority to these things? Why should I hand over so much authority to them? All over the Bible, all over the scripture, the Lord Jesus, not only him, but the apostles he raised and those that they raised would say multiple different things to steer the church away from stress and anxiety and the pressures of life. They would speak so much about the power you have at your disposal, so much about the power you have at your disposal. We've normalized stress. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? You sound very carnal. You sound so carnal. Stressful time of my life. Stressful time of my life. Now, these are the kind of messages that empty the chairs. Yeah, these messages empty the chairs. The ones that fill up the chairs are God will do it for you. Amen. Yeah. The Lord will deliver you out of the shadow of death. Amen. People start praise breaking. Yeah. Wherever the enemy has set a trap, God will deliver you from it. Amen. Is that not what you're used to? Is that not what you're used to? The messages I'm giving you put total onus on you. So if you do nothing, guess what? Oh no, that's wrong. No, that's wrong. If you've been listening to me, that's wrong. If you do nothing, something will happen. It's the opposite to what you want. Yeah. Listen, listen to me. Something always happens. Something is always happening. I have to remind you of these things. I gave you the example, someone mentioned it just now. I gave you the example of the garden. If you if you if you do not tend to a garden, what happens to the garden? So some of you said if you don't do nothing, you get nothing. So if I don't tend to the garden, the garden will stay the same. No, if I don't tend to the garden, the garden will look more ugly. Terrible things will grow in there, and those terrible things will. Invite terrible animals, you know, things will just go wrong. Say, I have to do something, God has put me in charge, so I have to do something. Christianity is mind to wield. Praise God. The benefits of a sound mind. Can we look at more uh facts? So, right, prolonged emotional distress, and don't worry, I'll go into the word uh as in I'll give you some scriptures. All right, I just want you guys to take on these facts and go off and uh fact check them and take a look at what I'm saying here. Prolonged emotional distress can cause anxiety disorders. So, this is this is a a person who's consistently worried. You know, you've made it your responsibility to be worried. You're a worried person. You wake up in the morning worried, you go to bed worried. On your way to the train station, worried. Ah, will the train come on time? Will I get to work on time? Yeah, and you're in deep thought. Every time we see you, you're sitting down thinking, Will I get married? You look up for me? Look at the position that doctrine has put you in. Will God do it for me? That's a terrible position to be in. I remember the last time I asked myself that question. Will God do it for me?

SPEAKER_01 24:27

Well God.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

He did it for me already. Prolonged emotional distress. It makes you it pushes you to be reliant on substances. Tobacco, food, alcohol, drugs? Praise God. It affects your affection for others. Have you noticed that depressed people always want to be alone in a room? And what color is the room usually? Dark. What association does darkness have to do with a depressed person? Ask yourself that question. The room is dark, black. Say, I just want to be alone with my thoughts. You know how many times I've heard that this year. I just want to be alone with my thoughts. Why don't you try being with the Holy Spirit? Being alone with your thoughts will land you in trouble, major trouble. Don't be alone with your thoughts. Be with the word. It's a safe haven. It's the sure way. Do you understand that? Nothing can get me down. Nothing. Doesn't matter. Nothing can get me down. Nothing. Nothing can get me down. Bad news, good news, bad things, the news, social media, romantic issues, financial issues, children issues, health issues, nothing. Nothing. When the Bible says you are dead and Christ lives in you in Colossians chapter 3, which we're gonna read, Christ lives inside of you. Do you know why uh Paul was bitten by the snake and he didn't die? Because, factually speaking, the life of a human being is in his blood. But when you give your life to Christ, he removes life from your blood and puts it in Christ. So for them to kill you, they have to kill Christ. It's a revelation for the upper class, it's for upper class. This is upper class stuff. Paul was bitten by a viper, a snake. He didn't panic. Look at the reaction of a person who knows who he is. Everyone around him was panicking. They said, Ah, he must have done something bad. And God has cursed him. The Bible says Paul looked at the snake, shook it into the fire. He didn't say, In Jesus' name, no, he was bitten. You know, I'm imagining that he probably let the snake finish. And then shook it into the fire. And the Bible says those around him were waiting for him to die. First day, he didn't die. Second day, he didn't die. Third day, he didn't die. Seven days, he didn't die. They went from pitying him to worshiping him. They said this man must be a God, and they were right. I'm saying, Pastor, you're saying Paul was a God? Yes, he had Christ in him, the hope of glory. You don't understand who you are. Christ in me. So is Christ king? Is he God? If he's in you, what does that mean? You're God. I'm God. Praise God. I haven't even started yet. Let's look at this stuff. All right. You become reliant on alcohol, food, tobacco, substances, increased inflammation, worsening of existing medical conditions. So that thing that you are battling when you were young that came out of nowhere, it's come back again. You know why it came back? Prolonged emotional distress. So the matter of fact is you don't need prayer, you need discipline. I would like to think myself an efficient man. Okay, and then an efficient man of God, an efficient pastor. So I don't like unnecessary work. Unnecessary work can age you. And I would like to stay youthful and strong to raise my children and love on my wife. Amen. I've also toned down the prophetic. I don't know if you've noticed, I've toned it down. You don't build with the prophetic. You build with the word. Amen. You know what builds? The word. After I teach you this, you can help yourself. Praise God. Do you have emotional prolonged distress? Digestive problems. Yeah, this thing can bring digestive problems. Altered bowel habits. And remembering and making decisions. Difficult in making decisions. You find it very hard to be sure in what you're saying. You know, the worst of it all, yeah, and I want to categorize this for a second, and then I'll go into the scripture. Is to marry someone like this. If you marry someone like this, your journey has ended before it has started. Praise God. It even says here that it lowers sexual desire and possible reproductive disruption. Praise the Lord. I remember an individual came to me some time ago and said, Pastor, my partner has little to no affection. For me, it just doesn't show me affection at all. Amen. And I knew immediately that this is a case of a depressed person. Depressed people cannot cater to you. They cannot be selfless. Try getting a depressed person to sow a seed in church. They will attack you. Try putting a depressed person in a department in church. They will disrupt that entire department. Praise God. Depressed people are self-serving. It has to be for them, about them, to them, and with them. Hallelujah. I am expecting you to be quiet. At least you're learning. Amen. At least you're learning. You can serve. Ministry means to serve. Yeah. Ministry to serve. You can't serve if you're depressed. Because depression puts all the focus on you. And an interesting fact about depression is that it doesn't even focus on the good things about you. Depression will make you focus on all the terrible things about you. And will lead you to live your life like that. And in some families, this is normalized. People have been in depression for so long that they don't know that they're in depression. I've walked into some houses and all the lights are dim. I thought it's awfully dark in here. And uh I think to myself, you know, being a uh you know, someone who who is optimistic. Yes, I think to myself, there's they're saving money, this is electricity, they're saving money. This is this is how I'm thinking. And the Lord says, No, the Lord says, No, no, this is a reflection of their souls. You walk into the house, everything is you're struggling to see. You know, if you come from a house like mine, where the lights are bright, and then to go into a house where everything is dim, you you will struggle to kind of see, you know. So I'm looking, how do I get to the front room? So I'm reasoning. So I I have to ask the guest, can you lead me? Oh, yeah, follow. So I'm I'm now following the voice. Come this way. I'm you know, I'm following with my ear. Praise God, and I find myself in the front room. You get in the front room, the lights are even more dim. What's going on? Now, I may be describing some of your houses. Praise God. It wasn't a nice sight to see, but some some of these habits have been normalized and they are associated with depression. Some people love a quiet environment. Raise your hand if you love a quiet environment. Why are you afraid? Raise your hand. You love a quiet environment. Yeah, helps you to focus. Thank you. Thank you very much. Helps you to focus. Amen. Well, what does it sound like when you go to a cemetery? I just want you to think about that. Are you learning something? Please signal me on time. Thank you, Holy Spirit. There's a scripture that is in my spirit that I want to show you. Okay, before we go to let's go to Colossians 3. I mentioned that I quoted it earlier, so let's go there. One of the things I said was extreme anger makes the heart work harder. So you're putting stress, much stress on your heart. Amen. Much pressure, pressure that your heart is not designed to have. Your heart is not designed to feel that kind of pressure. So if you study the scripture and you study the things I'm telling you now, you can diagnose someone, okay, in your mind just by looking at them. With all the information I've been teaching you on the podcast, you could see someone and say, Yep, that person. You know, after internal management, how many of you could identify when you are being like Martha? And how many of you now can identify when another person is being like Martha? So, with more information, you can now self-diagnose, you can also diagnose another person and say, Yeah, this person is not really a good person for me to be around at this stage of my life. Praise God. And if any of the things I'm mentioning, you find in your wife or your husband, because some of you are going to be married soon, have an honest conversation with them because you cannot build with this kind of person. Trust me. Let me change that. Trust God. Don't trust me. Trust God. Trust the scripture, trust the word. You cannot build with someone like this. You know this thing I'm describing here, you can't build with someone like that. You can't. When I say build, you can't build a business, you can't build a home. Alright? You can't have a business partner like this. No impulse control. Very, very sporadic. Praise God. Now the Bible says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Verse 2 set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. That's what I said earlier on. Your life is hidden in Christ. Your life is hidden in Christ. But I want to start with if ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. That is, you're not too attached, not just to materials, but to things of the world. What does things of the world mean? It could be a good thing. Some people are very good Christians until you take food away from them. Take food away from them. Christianity out the window. Some are very good Christians until you remove attention from them. Some are very compliant until you stop paying them. They serve money. Without money, their behavior shift. They start thinking different because God is not their God. Mammonis. They serve money. They serve money. It's a terrible thing. Terrible thing. Praise God. So their Christianity is set on things on the earth. That's not true Christianity. He said, set your heart on things above. Now let me let me tell you what that looks like. Yeah. There are things that God has kept secret for his children that he only wants to share with us. Principles that can change the quality of our lives. We don't need professionals to tell us these things. God can tell us, and he has told us in his word. Yeah. But there's information that God can give you that will shoot you forward. And he says, set your heart on knowing those inner thoughts of God. For example, I remember this is three, four weeks ago, I was getting um, picked up my vehicle. I was going home, and I saw some dirt in the car and some bottles of water and stuff like that that um I had used, but I just didn't have the energy at the time to clean. And I came out the vehicle, parked it home, came out the vehicle. I looked at the vehicle, it wasn't too washed. And you know what the Lord said to me? He said, I want you to maintain the quality of this vehicle. I said, Why? It's my car, you know. I said, You know, I'm talking to God. I said, it's my car, you know. And and the Lord says, No, I want you to maintain, he's so kind. He said, I want you to maintain the quality of this car, just in case I ask you to give it to someone else. What a mind-blowing revelation.

unknown 46:06

Did you hear that?

SPEAKER_00 46:07

He said, Just in case I ask you to sew your car to another person, keep it clean so that they get it in good condition. What a God! You know, but you can't hear those kind of revelations if your heart is not set on things above. That revelation absolutely catapulted me to the next level of my finances. Oh, yeah. I don't need to see it physically. I knew I've just been promoted. I was just promoted a minute ago. I said, Thank God, thank you. And I said, Lord, I'm sorry because my response was a bit discourteous. So yeah, I'm sorry. God didn't even respond because he didn't even see that. So kind. His thing was just follow the instruction, keep the car clean. What has he told you? Or is the voices in your head the ones that you are communing with? Because you have emotional, prolonged emotional distress. Praise God forevermore. Look at this. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. That's a massive revelation. Then he says, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. So whose responsibility is it to set the affection? Who has the power to set affection? So it means you can choose what you like. Oh, this is not an area that people like, Pastor. I'm only attracted to these kind of men. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute. You can set your affections. You have the full authority and power to put to take your affections and set them on something. Pastor, why is it that church things are usually boring and I enjoy concerts and going out? Because that's where you set your affection. So you see, when you meet the father, he will say to you, Did you know that I gave you authority over that, what you just said? That's an ignorant Christian, a Christian that doesn't know the authority they have. Pastor, I enjoy parties, you know, and you know, certain types of gatherings more than I enjoy church. That's your fault. That's your fault. Why am I saying it's your fault? Because he said, set your affections. Set your affections. Say, I will set my affections on things above. Now, before I started, I said to you that if you find your mind driving you in a direction, shout your mind down. That's the same way you set your affections. Every day you walk around saying, I enjoy the things of God. I love the things of God. I love ministry and I love church. The Bible says in the book of James that where my mouth goes is where my life goes. So if I keep saying that church is boring, what happens? What happens? Exactly. So I just I just I'm trying to enjoy church. Exactly. You're trying. How about enjoy it? How about enjoy it? Praise God. Pastor, I'm I've just been feeling really down lately. The moment you say that, what do you think happens? Can I tell you what happens? Programming. You've programmed your body to respond to only things on that frequency. This is too deep. My ten minutes is up. We're gonna have to continue on Sunday. Praise God. You have to you have to listen to this over and over and over again. He says, set your affections. Set your affections. I will set my affections on things above. I will set my affections on things above. Purposely set my affections on things above. I can't be affected. I can't be affected or infected by worldly things. The things of the world. Like love and relationships. And money. Bad health. It doesn't affect me. My mind is set on heavenly things. Begin to speak over yourself. Thank you for listening. For more information, find us at Christ Congress Global.