Aggregate Document – Phase Two, Soul Detox Principles

SOUL DETOX 101

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou may prosper
and be in health, even as your soul prospers. 3 John 2

The greatest thing that you can invest in is the thing that has the greatest value. 
And the asset that has the greatest value is your soul.

Over the years, I have read a LOT of books on success, self-image, goal setting, people skills, financial success, etc.  These books, both Christian and secular, were valuable to me in my personal growth and the results that I was able to achieve professionally, financially and all areas of life.

The challenge for me was I would read an absolutely awesome book, full of great information, and I would highlight it of course, but it would go back up on the bookshelf when I was done, and I may never think about it or refer to it again.  No matter how “pumped up” I got, no matter how much my faith was “stirred up,” after a few days the information was pretty much forgotten.  All the great wisdom and nuggets I gleaned from the book would soon be a distant memory, more times than not. 

My solution to this problem was to transcribe highlights/cliff notes of my favorite books, as well as key excerpts of books and newsletter articles.  My intent was to distill the meat/nuggets, i.e. the primary concepts being taught in these books/articles to a format that is readily accessible and at my fingertips at all times vs. putting the book back on a shelf.  Again, in most cases, once a book is back on the shelf it is out of sight, out of mind, no matter how impactful the content was. 

Reading a book one time will have little to no impact on your thought process and daily walk!

In response, I have compiled a series of “Book Summaries/Cliff Notes” and “Thought Conditioners” which represent some of the most powerful teachings and instruction that I have read broken down by topic.  The purpose of this content is to begin thinking God’s thoughts instead of the world’s thoughts.  To program myself with God’s truth instead of a lie. To stress the absolute importance of regularly renewing my mind in God’s Word, as well as understanding the principles for successful living taught from the Word of God. Proverbs is very clear – “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” 

As we transform the way we think, we transform our lives – thank you Jesus!!

It is so important to fill your mind with the knowledge of God and his Word. You need to see life from God’s perspective and respond accordingly, as well as to gain wisdom and understanding for how to live your life. 

Nothing, including the mind, gets better on its own. Everything left to itself decays, loses power and declines. You don’t have to exert any effort, for example, to get out of shape. That will just happen.

In the same way, a lazy, negative mind comes naturally, but a sound, disciplined mind takes work. And it is worth working on, because the human mind left to itself will become stagnant.

The lack of a sound, disciplined mind is a major problem in many people’s lives today.

Jesus said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”  Mark 7:20-23

When contemplating this scripture, we shouldn’t blame the devil when it’s really our thoughts that open the door for evil and failure in our lives. If we don’t strive to develop a sound mind, the things Jesus spoke of will begin to consume our minds and manifest in our circumstances.

When you plant the proper seed in your mind, you will reap a proper harvest.

HOW THE MIND WORKS
Your mind is the control center of your entire life. Your mind controls decisions and choices. In your family, business, finances, health and all you do, your mind is the controlling mechanism.  So again, when you change your thinking, you change your whole life. That can happen in a negative or a positive way.

The degree that your mind is renewed to the promises and principles from
God’s Word is the degree of change and a transformed life that you will experience.

What happens in your mind controls what happens in your life.

Spiritual and mental fitness happens with the proper feeding of your mind. If you aren’t feeding your mind, it will get weak just as your body will if it isn’t fed. If you go for a day or two without feeding your body, you will begin to get tired and weak. If you fast long enough, your body will cease to function and you will die.

Many of us have had our minds on a fast because of a lack of proper nutrition and training, and as a result they are weak and tired. For struggling believers, the problem isn’t in their spirits; it’s in their souls. Though their spirits have been recreated, their souls are still old.  Their minds haven’t been renewed. So one of the first priorities in renewing the mind is to reprogram it for productivity and freedom. We must be purposeful to get our minds strong, active and healthy.

Spiritual well-being comes with the proper feeding and exercising of the soul.

The first step in feeding your mind is to be balanced in how we invest our time.  We need to be cognizant of how we use our time and what we allow into our minds through what we read, watch and listen to.  I try to be very intentional in minimizing non-productive time and what I lovingly refer to as “space-out time.” This is the time we tend to waste mentally by watching hours of TV or surfing our favorite social media sites. This doesn’t sharpen our mental capacity; it is non-productive and a waste of emotional energy.

When a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian spends an inordinate amount of time in front of their TV or computer, he or she is acting no differently than the teenager whose mind is captivated by a video game – the kid is oblivious to what is going on around him and is just absorbing junk food into their mind.

Maybe the mental junk food you’ve been feeding your mind with isn’t TV. For you, it might be the internet, social media, novels or magazines.  You might get out of balance keeping up with your favorite sports teams or the latest happenings politically. But junk food is junk food. And in order to effectively change your thinking and renew your mind, you must break the junk food habit and be cognizant of both non-productive and space-out time.

You must be intentional in how you use your time i.e. what you
are doing with your mind and what you are allowing into your mind.

Scheduling the feeding of your mind is just as important as scheduling the rest of your life – family activities, job responsibilities, working out, etc.  So prepare a simple schedule. Eliminate the non-productive time and replace it with nourishing your mind and you will see a change.

If you are not intentional in feeding and nourishing your mind, it will go into atrophy. Without the proper nutrition and exercise, your mind will become so lazy that you won’t be able to initiate or create the ideas, opportunities, thoughts and plans necessary to succeed and prosper in life.

God says the things you meditate on will decide whether you prosper
and have good success or struggle through life just trying to make a living.

Soul Detox – The Problem, The Solution, Soul Prosperity

The most valuable asset that we have is our souls.

Our souls must be brought into alignment with God’s Word.

THE PROBLEM
Why does it seem like our lives aren’t working the way we need them to work? Why do we lack the power to live the way we want? Why do we often make so many irrational and self-defeating decisions? Why do we try so hard to change but end up doing the things we hate?

Strongholds of fear, anger, poverty, low self-esteem, pride and selfishness continue to control many Christians years after they are saved. Though they have prayed about them and try to get deliverance, the problem persists. And these things will never change in their lives until they are transformed by the renewing of their minds.

I have gained a much greater understanding of why so many Christians never walk in the peace, joy and freedom of their salvation.  We will not live the life Jesus died to give us if we hold onto old, traditional, carnal or negative ways of thinking.  But we can walk in the freedom of God’s blessed, abundant life through the renewing of our mind.

So many “pew warming” Christians have been raised so long in the religious culture of just making a living and trying to hang in there that they don’t know God’s abundance even exists. The environment they were raised in keeps them in a perpetual state of doubt and unbelief, which leads to confusion. They’re constantly frustrated. Their lives are not what God willed. Their vision is not what God planned. What they see for tomorrow is not what God sees for tomorrow.

You can’t believe any further than you have knowledge.

How many Christians hang onto the thoughts and attitudes of the world and never renew their minds to the Word of God? So many stay in their wilderness of depression, sin, stress, poverty or whatever problem may come along, and they never experience the promised land that God has made available.

Christians spend a lot of time reading their Bibles, but many of them have a negative mental attitude about everything. The reason that their mental attitude is not right is because they are only reading the Bible, and they are not meditating upon the Word. The Bible stresses the importance of meditation in God’s Word.

So many Christians struggle through life with negative attitudes, sin, failures, financial issues and depression and wonder why it’s all happening to them. The fact is, they are still conformed to the world, and because their mind has not been renewed, they can’t prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God in their lives. (Romans 12:2)

Do you want to change from being weak, inferior and bound by all kinds of problems into someone who releases and experiences the abundant life of God from within? The Word of God reveals that the way to do this is by the renewing of your mind. You must become intentional in planting the seed of God’s Word into the fertile soil of your heart.

THE SOLUTION
The Word of God is infinitely above anything on this earth. The Word of God is filled with precious supernatural spiritual seeds that are filled with the living power of God Himself. If you continually plant these precious seeds from God’s Word in your heart, you actually are planting the power of Almighty God deep down inside of yourself.  If God’s Word is planted in your heart, you’ll receive. It doesn’t matter what you feel — God’s Word will produce a harvest.

The whole kingdom of God – the Christian life, your victory, your success as a believer – is as simple as taking the Word of God and sowing it in your heart. If you will just cooperate and let the Word of God germinate, you will change effortlessly.

God’s Word contains His life in it. If you would take His Words, His sayings, His promises, and put them on the inside of you, then God’s kind of life would start flowing through you. You would find that healing, financial provision, joy, peace – everything Jesus provided – are contained in God’s Word.

Keep your soul strong with the Word of God.
Continually meditate on God’s Word in order to prosper your soul.

We think it’s God’s responsibility, it’s His turn to fix this problem, when the truth is that God has done his part. He gave us the seeds of his Word, which will grow the solution to our problem. He’s given words that have life to them. All you have to do is take that Word, stand on it, and begin to release the life that is in that seed – the Word of God.

Even though it does not make sense to attempt to receive a harvest without planting seeds, this is exactly what many Christians do. Many Christians attempt to receive a harvest of (healing, deliverance, financial provision, etc.) without faithfully planting the seed of the Word in the good soil of their hearts.

The number one reason why people aren’t receiving from God is because they literally haven’t taken the truths of his Word and planted them in their heart…… You’re wondering, why isn’t God answering my prayer? He’s given us the seeds but we haven’t planted them!

Your spirit is already recreated.  In your spirit, you’re exactly the way you’ll be throughout eternity.  And your body is basically your soul’s caboose. Whatever you think in your soul, your body will just go along for the ride.  Therefore, it’s your soul – your mind, your thoughts and your attitudes that determine whether you experience victory and the life of God in your circumstances or the defeat and death of the fallen natural realm. Renewing your mind to the Word facilitates your transformation!

Anyone who studies Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:1-3 will see the importance
our Father places upon meditating on His Word.  He promises wonderful
rewards to His children who meditate day and night on the holy Scriptures.

A prospered soul cannot live and stay strong on the Word that you received last year. Don’t try to rely on what you remember from the Word. You keep God’s words in the midst of your heart by attending to the Word, inclining your ear to the Word and letting the Word not depart from your eyes.

Do not attempt to intellectualize this process. Continually plant these magnificent spiritual seeds with unwavering faith in Almighty God. If Jesus told you that His Word is a seed and that the good soil to plant these seeds is your heart, that is all you need to know. You should be determined to plant as many seeds as you possibly can into the fertile spiritual soil of your heart.

SOUL PROSPERITY – MORE THAN AN ACADEMIC UNDERSTANDING
In order to prosper your soul, you need to do more than just know God’s Word; you need to internalize it. More than just mental ascent, God’s Word must be settled in your heart.

Prospering your soul takes conscious effort. If you are just going to give God an hour or two a week, your mind will not be renewed. The Word won’t be implanted in you. You might know it with your head, but it’s the engrafted Word in your soul that changes you.

You can’t just know the Word intellectually. You must meditate on it so it becomes living and active on the inside of you. Most of us don’t meditate on the Word as we should. We are occupied and don’t have time, and we are upset with God when we don’t receive His favor or blessing in our life. That’s just as foolish as the farmer who didn’t plant his seed but was upset when he didn’t receive a crop.

The Word has to be in your heart for it to begin to activate the life of God. You can’t just read it with your eyes and take a little truth into your brain. You have to put it deep down on the inside of you. You must meditate on the Word until it literally takes root on the inside of you. That’s when it will just start supernaturally producing.

Some Christians only know God in their minds. Our Father wants each of us to know Him intimately in our hearts. We think with our minds and we believe with our hearts.

God’s Word will only grow in our hearts to the degree that we constantly meditate on it. Head knowledge isn’t sufficient to activate any of God’s laws. God’s laws come from a spiritual realm that is completely different from the natural world that we live in. We can’t receive a full revelation of God’s laws with our minds.

Our Father doesn’t want us trying to figure out His laws with our human understanding. The key to activating His laws is to get them down inside of our heart.  

Our souls will prosper as we fill our hearts and our minds with God’s Word!

As Your Soul Prospers – 3 John 2

I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health, as your soul prospers (3 John 2)

We must believe that what’s inside us – not circumstances outside us – controls our lives

 As Our Soul Prospers, Our Life Prospers
The apostle John was an old man when he wrote one of the last letters to be included in the canon of Scripture. He had walked with Jesus since he was a young man. His revelations in the gospel of John cause us to realize the depth of his relationship and understanding of the Lord. It was after many years as a devout follower of Christ that John wrote this letter.

John realized that the prosperity of our whole lives, including the health of our bodies, hinged on the condition of our souls. John understood that what is in us controls what comes out of us and ultimately produces life’s experiences. He is telling us that as our soul prospers, our life prospers.

So many Christians wonder about God’s will when it comes to prosperity and health. It should be obvious to anyone who believes the Bible that John wouldn’t pray a prayer that was contrary to the will of God. Neither would he have said that he prayed this prayer above every other prayer if it weren’t so. If it weren’t God’s will for His people to prosper and live in health, the Holy Spirit would never have inspired John to believe it or record it as a part of holy Scripture.

The key to John’s prayer in 3 John 2 is the soul. Theologians refer to the soul as the mind, emotions and will.  Your soul controls, to a great degree, how you experience life. You will prosper and live in health even as your soul prospers, or you will struggle and be weak, even as your soul is weak.

God Wills For Us To Be Prosperous and Well
3 John 2 is a great truth and provides great insight into the heart of God, who inspired it. God does want us to be prosperous and well.  Notice that this prosperity happens as our souls prosper. We can’t really prosper outwardly if we aren’t prospering inwardly. Our spirits are already perfect (2 Corinthians 5:17; Hebrews 10:10, 14, and 12:23), but our souls only prosper as we renew our minds (part of the soul) to what we already have in Christ (in our born-again spirits).         

When people are born again, they become totally new creations in their spirits. Their spiritual salvation is complete. They don’t need any more faith, joy, or power. They are complete in Him (Colossians 2:9-10).

However, it is not God’s will that we only be changed on the inside. He wants to manifest this salvation in our physical lives also. That takes place through renewing our minds and prospering our souls according to God’s Word.

We each have a spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). As born-again believers, our spirits are as perfect as they will ever be in heaven (Romans 8:18). If we will change our thinking so that we believe what God says in His Word about who we are and what we have, then this agreement between our spirit and soul forms a majority, and our flesh will experience the life of God that has been deposited in our spirits.

If we fail to renew our minds and thereby prosper our souls, we can live our entire time on this earth without experiencing the abundant life that Jesus provided for us (John 10:10).

The apostle John wrote 3 John 2 by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The word “wish” here means that it is His will. God’s will is for us to be prosperous and well. Once we see His will revealed plainly like this in His Word, there’s no reason for us to pray “if it be Your will” any longer.

God’s Truth, Not Tradition
The apostle John had walked with Jesus since he was a young man. For months he followed Jesus in the flesh and was a part of the Lord’s most intimate experiences. He saw Jesus transformed on the mount with Moses and Elijah. He laid his head on the Lord’s bosom during the Last Supper. And he went with the Lord into the Garden of Gethsemane.  So I’m sure you would agree that this old apostle knew the Lord and His ways on a very special level.

Looking again at how in 3 John 2, John starts his letter by sharing a prayer that he prayed above every other: Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

This introduction and prayer of John’s establishes several very important truths for the Christian. As stated before, we know that John wouldn’t pray something that was contrary to the will of God. And even if he would have, the Holy Spirit wouldn’t have it recorded and placed it in the canon of Scripture.

So by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John prays that we may prosper and live in health. This is God’s truth, not tradition, so we must realize it as God’s will for His people before we will actively search it out.

By misunderstanding the words of the apostle John and many other passages of Scripture, the church world has preached doctrines of sickness, poverty and defeat that have enabled the world to dominate the Church. These

doctrines have discouraged many from entering the kingdom of God. But that’s not God’s will!  We must accept God’s Word as the highest and the final authority.

Poverty and Sickness Are Not God’s Will
John explains how God’s beloved are to prosper and live in health: just as your soul prospers.

All success in the Christian life starts on the inside of the person and flows out.  Jesus said in Matthew 12:35, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart [the spirit and soul] brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”

When our souls prosper, we have good treasure, which we can bring forth.

But when our souls are poor, or full of negative thoughts, attitudes and beliefs,
we have evil treasure which will bring forth defeat, despair and problems.

When we buy into the lie that the things outside of us are controlling the outcome of our lives, we enter into bondage. So many people really believe that if the government were different, if their workers’ union would do something or if their company would make a new policy, their lives would be successful. The fact is, although those outer things may have some minor influence on life, what is in you controls the kind of life you experience.

Outer circumstances may bring certain difficulties our way, so we must choose how to deal with those things. It is up to each individual either to rise above his circumstances or be defeated by them.

When you have the truths of God’s Word embedded in your soul,
you will bring them forth and see them manifested in every area of life.

The Truth is God’s Word
In 3 John 3-4, John says, “For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”

So the apostle tells us here that the foundation of having a prosperous soul is to walk in truth. He gave us the example of a group of Christians—the truth was in them, and they walked in it. There is a twofold insight here that I believe is very important for us to see.

The first insight is this: Truth is God’s Word. Remember, Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you continue in My word, then you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 

In John 17:17 He said, “Your word is truth.”

We must accept God’s Word as the highest and the final authority. It is higher than religious traditions, church decrees, family and cultural traditions and every other order of life. God has exalted His Word even above His name. (Ps. 138:2.) Heaven and earth will pass away, but the Word of God will stand forever.

Only when we have heard, received and renewed our minds to the
Word of God is the truth in us. This is the foundation for a prosperous soul.

Above All Else, Guard Your Heart
The choices you’ve made up to this point in your life have built your inward treasure, and what you are experiencing in your life is the consequence of what you have chosen to think and believe. You control what you think and believe. But after you make that choice, it controls you. So choose carefully! 

Jesus says in Matthew 12, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” 

Out of your heart, you will bring forth good things or evil things.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23

What determines what you bring forth? Heredity, good luck, how you were raised or the environment in which you live? No, what determines what comes out of you is simply what is already in you i.e. what is in your heart…

• Your life is a manifestation of what is in your heart.
• Your marriage is a manifestation of what is in your heart concerning marriage.
• Your children are a manifestation of what is in your heart concerning children.
• Your finances are a manifestation of what is in your heart concerning finances.
• Your business or job is a manifestation of what is in your heart concerning work.

Whatever is stored in your heart is either good or bad treasure, and that is what you bring forth every day. Perhaps your stored treasure is partly good and partly bad. You may not have “evil” treasure inside you, but you may have mediocre treasure.

When you begin to renew your mind in alignment with the truths and principles from God’s Word, you quit dealing with the outward symptoms of failure in life and begin to change the kind of treasure that is within you.

It is the “treasure” that is inside you that produces change and
when you change the treasure, you will change what is brought forth.

We are the ground. Our heart is where we either allow the seed of the Word to have its complete rule, or we can let the Word be choked by the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things.

Our heart can become hardened towards God and not give His seed a place to germinate. Our heart can affect the growth, but it’s the seed – the Word of God – that brings forth fruit. All I am is ground. (Genesis 2:7) I’m just dirt – a place for the seed to germinate. I provide warmth and nutrients, but it’s the Word that produces the fruit.

Keep God’s words in the midst of your heart by attending to the Word, inclining your ear to the Word and letting the Word not depart from your eyes. Keep your spirit strong with the Word of God. Continually feed yourself with God’s Word in order to position yourself to prosper and be in health as your soul prospers.

 To Get Different Results, You Have to do Something Different

You won’t manifest much of the life of God if you’re plugged into the world through radio, TV, newspapers, and the internet. How can you expect different results when you read, watch, listen to, and think all the same things as your unbelieving neighbors? It takes a lot of effort—real effort—to keep your focus on the things of God and to guard the treasure of your heart.

Sure, you might be able to add a devotion and intellectually know that God wants you healed, prospered, and delivered from oppression. You may even have a desire for and a sensitivity to God that others don’t have.

But as far as results go, you won’t really experience any more of God’s miraculous power in your life as long as you continue thinking on the same carnal things that people in the world do pretty much all day long. To get different results, you have to do something different!

 King David said it this way, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”  Psalm 1:1-3

This scripture gives us insight into the benefits of controlling your thoughts and renewing our minds to the truths and principles from the Word of God.  Once again, we see the vital importance of keeping God’s words in the midst of your heart and what the positive outcome of doing so will be. 

Faith is not a mental process.  Believing in the heart comes from time spent in the Word of God. It takes more than just a mental decision (head knowledge) to cause your thought life and vocabulary to be in line with God’s Word.

It’s not external circumstances that controls your future; it’s what’s in you.
In fact, your future is in your heart.

Three Ways of Feeding the Mind and Prospering the Soul

1)  Meditate the Word
The number one way to prosper the soul is to read the Scriptures daily. Meditate on them. Personalize them – it is God speaking to you!  As you meditate again and again on a specific promise from God, the passage of Scripture will become a part of your innermost being. Don’t take the promise lightly, you must believe that it is a Word from God to you personally. As you do, it will take up residence in your heart.  You will program yourself with the promises of God instead of submitting yourself to the bad news of the world and the enemy behind it.

The scriptures dealing with your specific goals or
situation (health, anxiety, finances) should be the top priority.

The goal is to be intentional in programming (or reprogramming) your mind for breakthrough.  Christians who have financial challenges should plant financial seeds from God’s Word in their hearts.  If you have sickness in your body, you should continually plant healing seeds in your heart. These supernatural seeds from God’s Word will drop from your mind down into your heart as a result of continual Scripture meditation. You cannot saturate your mind with the promises and principles of God’s Word continually without producing any effect. 

Go to   Scriptures by Topic (https://phlibrary.com/library/the-word-of-god/) section of the PH Library to access hundreds of promises from God’s Word broken out by topic – faith, finances, overcoming adversity, prayer, healing, salvation, etc. 

2)  Speak the Word
We release enormous spiritual power when we boldly speak the Word of God over our lives. At the Declarations Home Page  (https://phlibrary.com/library/declarations/) of the PHLibrary, you will find declarations for Health & Healing, Total & Absolute Victory, Finances, Spiritual Warfare and more.  Speaking God’s Word in faith will bind the strategies of the enemy and loose God’s angelic forces to minister on your behalf.

As with anything, the more you proclaim these declarations over your life and circumstances, the more proficient you will become and the more you will position yourself to receive God’s blessings and favor in your life.  Eventually, these declarations will be so embedded in your heart that you will just make proclamations as you are led by the Spirit – POWERFUL!

3)  Do the Word
Jesus Christ placed great emphasis on the importance of doing what God’s Word tells us to do.  “Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”  (Matthew 7:24–25)

As we yield our lives to God’s Holy Spirit within us and as we study and meditate continually in God’s Word, we’ll do much more than just memorize verses of Scripture. We’ll do exactly what God’s Word tells us to do and, as a result, we will position ourselves to receive the blessings and favor of God.

This is what “separates the men from the boys” spiritually. Strong faith demands action. If we really believe, then we’ll do exactly what our Father’s Word tells us to do.  “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own self” (James 1:22)

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful
hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:25)

Soul Detox – Key Scriptures

Listed below are a few of the key scriptures for meditating on the Word and renewing the mind to God’s precious promises.  They are powerful reminders of the principles God has made available to us in order to prosper the soul and experience breakthrough. With sixty-six books in the Bible, they are just a start…..

KEY SCRIPURES – SOUL DETOX
Beloved, above all things I wish that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. (3 John 2)

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. (Proverbs 23:7)

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. (Psalm 19:7)

Wise men store up knowledge in mind and heart. (Proverbs 10:14)

Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way of the Lord.  (Proverbs 23:19)

An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. (Proverbs 18:15)

Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; he who guards his soul will be far from them. (Proverbs 22:5)

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.   (Psalm 19:7)

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7)

If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  (John 8:31-32)

Though our outer man is progressively wasting away, yet our inner self is being progressively renewed day after day.  (2 Corinthians 4:16)

My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity.  (Proverbs 3:1)

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2)

So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how.” (Mark 4:26) 

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (Deuteronomy 11:18)

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1:8)

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.  (Ephesians 4:17-18)

Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,  and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.  (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies, nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. (Proverbs 3:13-16)

My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thy heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:20-23)

Jesus said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”  (Mark 7:20-23)

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper (Psalm 1:1–3)

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.  (Psalm 112:1-3)

If your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.  The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:92, 105, 130)

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.   They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.   “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.  (Lamentation 3:22-25)

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:7-11)

Soul Detox – Thought Conditioners

THE NEW BIRTH CHANGES THE SPIRIT—RENEWING THE MIND CHANGES THE SOUL

 YOUR SOUL MUST PROSPER BEFORE YOUR LIFE WILL PROSPER

Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way of the Lord.  Proverbs 23:19

If you are wise, you will have a burning desire to “direct your mind in the way of the Lord.”  You will turn away from the influence of the world. As you consistently renew your mind in God’s Word, you will think the way your Father wants you to think. You will live your life the way your Father wants you to live. You will react to the conditions in the world the way your Father instructs you to react.

 The Soul Detox is more than simply increasing your biblical aptitude.  It’s getting God’s Word from the six inches between your ears to where the knowledge is absolutely settled in your heart.

In order for us to prosper as our Father wants us to prosper, our souls must prosper. In order for our souls to prosper, God’s Word must dominate our lives. God’s instructions to us must be the absolute center of our lives. Everything that we think and say and do must revolve around his instructions to us.

The greatest thing that you can invest in is the thing that has the greatest value.
And the asset that has the greatest value is your soul.

Your soul has more value than silver & gold so don’t spend your time investing your life and your energy into chasing money. Spend your time pursuing God.  Spend your time rightly diving the truth of His Word. Spend your time investing in your soul because your soul has greater value than the wealth of this world.  “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36

Abundant life has been provided! But you must possess it. It won’t fall on you like rain from the sky. Daily change is the life destined for every born-again Christian. If you aren’t willing to change, renew your mind and prosper your soul, you may live your whole life without receiving much of what God has provided for you. But if you are willing to change and begin renewing your mind to God’s Word, you can start living the abundant life that God has made available to those that believe.

God’s wish, will, and desire is that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul (your mind, will, and emotions) prospers. This is a law of God. He wants you to prosper and be healthy. God wants you to be a world overcomer. (1 John 5:5.)

God says the things you meditate on will decide whether you prosper
and have good success or struggle through life just trying to make a living.

Understanding that the soul is not the same as the spirit, you can see why it is possible to be a born-again Christian with a saved spirit but struggling in life because of an un-renewed soul. This is why in Romans 12:2 God tells every believer to be transformed by the renewing of their mind.

When you are born again, your spirit is instantly transformed into the image of God. The spirit is the part of you that takes on the nature of God. According to the Word, once that happens you should immediately start the process of changing your soul. The Bible calls it “renewing the mind.”

While your spirit is re-created instantly when you make Jesus the Lord of your life, your mind, which is part of the soul, must be changed through an ongoing process. It is not an instantaneous change. It takes commitment, determination and desire to bring it to pass. Making that change is called renewing the mind. And though it is the key to all Christian growth, most Christians do little of it because of a lack of knowledge or a lack of discipline.

Your spirit is already changed, and your body is basically your soul’s caboose. Whatever you think in your soul, your body will just go along for the ride. Therefore, it’s your mind i.e. your thoughts and your attitudes that determine whether you experience victory and the life of God in your spirit or the defeat and death of the fallen natural realm. Renewing your mind to the Word facilitates your transformation!

The more you know the Word, the more you conform to the image of Jesus. When you are born again, nothing is wrong with your spirit – the life of God is in there – but you are hindered from living a free and productive life by a soul (mind) that thinks like the world instead of like God.

Spiritual growth is determined by how much your soul is changed by the Word of God.

Your soul, which is what the Bible calls the mental-emotional part of you, didn’t automatically change when you received Jesus as Lord. It’s subject to change, but you have to renew your mind to experience change in your mind and emotions.

The Word has to be in your heart for it to begin to activate the life of God. You can’t just read it with your eyes and take a little truth into your brain. You have to put it deep down on the inside of you. You must meditate on the Word until it literally takes root in your heart. That’s when it will just start supernaturally producing.  The result will be lasting change – as long as we continue to abide in the Word.

Godly prosperity and health begin on the inside of your soul. Notice the phrase in 3 John 2 “as your soul prospers.” The outward, external health and prosperity seen by others is only an expression of a far greater health and prosperity inside of you.

When the mind has been renewed with the Word of God, the Spirit through the renewed mind can control the body. The soul (mind) will then take sides with the Spirit because it knows the Word. The soul / mind is renewed with the Word which will allow the Spirit to dominate.

If we want to experience transformation here in this life, our minds must be renewed. (Rom. 12:2)

God wants us to renew our minds because he wants to restore our souls – to make them “brand-new.”  We must get rid of our old ways of thinking and replace them with thoughts that align with the promises and instructions from God’s Word.

As believers in Christ, we are to conform to the image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:29). You and I ought to act just like Jesus. The only thing that stands in the way is our soul. Without a renewed mind, our faith walk will be compromised and we will not walk and act like Jesus.

The truth is, when you were born again, God put His power, anointing, victory, joy, peace—everything—in you in abundance. The only reason they aren’t manifest in your soul and body is your unrenewed mind. It’s not that God didn’t give it but that you’re still looking at and surrendered to the physical realm instead of His Word.

At the Second Coming of Christ, or when you die and go to Him, the change in your soul will be instantly completed. Then when the Lord returns, your spirit and soul will be reunited with your glorified body. At that time, all three will be perfect. But until then, the Christian life is renewing your mind and acknowledging the perfection already in your spirit so that your soul and physical body can experience the benefits of salvation.

If we don’t continually renew our minds, we leave them wide open to doubts, fears and anxieties about the worldly situations that surround us. Our souls cannot prosper unless our minds are under control and our minds won’t be under control unless we can cast out all negative imaginations and bring every one of our thoughts completely in line with the Word of God.

If our minds are properly renewed, we will decide what we are going to think
about. We will refuse to let any external situation control our thought process.

The transforming change that God desires for His children starts in our spirits when we are born again. The change, however, must continue in the soul realm if we are going to accomplish all that God has for us. Notice that Romans 12:2 says we reach the perfect will of God only as we renew our minds.

If you obey your Father’s instructions to renew your mind and prosper your soul, you will be able to successfully pass the tests that the trials of life will bring upon you. You will be much better equipped to handle adversity if you work hard each day at studying God’s Word. You will learn how to control your emotions when you face adversity.  “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7)

If you desire certain kingdom fruit in your marriage, relationships, finances, health, emotions – whatever it is – take the seeds (promises in God’s Word that speak about those specific things) and plant them in your life. If you will give this seed the proper nourishment, (continue in faith – believe the Word, meditate the Word, speak God’s promises; reject fear and doubt) then it’s inevitable that you will prosper your soul and reap the fruit you desire.

We must believe that what’s inside us – not circumstances outside us – controls our lives

Many people are trying to take a shortcut. They keep their mind in the gutter, exposing themselves to all the things of the world. They allow the sewage of this world to flow through them, but they want the results that God produces. They think, if I just pray and ask, I can receive. There’s more to it than just praying and believing. You must also cooperate with God’s spiritual laws. God operates through us when we get our heart and mind stayed upon Him.

For many, the Bible and church are perceived as religious traditions that aren’t a part of the real world and their daily lifestyles. So there must be some major adjustments in their thinking to get started in the process of prospering the soul.

Many Christians have been taught that if they just read their Bibles, pray and go to church regularly, they will become “stronger” Christians. But it’s too bad we never examined the fruit of that thinking. The fact is, multitudes of people have done these things all their lives and they are still in bondage – they aren’t living joyful and productive lives in Christ.

Romans 12:2 clearly shows us there is more to Christian living than what many think. It is possible to read the Bible, pray and go to church and yet never renew your mind. The person who sins all week but is a faithful church attender proves that. The pastor who preaches great sermons but is eventually caught in adultery proves that. Renewing the mind is so much more than going through religious motions. It is an intentional and ongoing effort to prosper the soul.

Walk by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, not your own power and might!
Tap into the creator of the entire universe and mind of Christ vs. relying on your own intellect!

Every problem, weakness or difficulty you have could be solved immediately if you could know the mind of God. But it takes effort, dedication and faithfulness to renew your mind. Mind renewal is not like the new birth. It is a process and doesn’t come overnight. Though your spirit is renewed and transformed, your soul must be saved. Saved from what? From the world’s influence and thinking.

This takes conscious effort. If you are just going to give God a couple of hours a week, your mind will not be renewed. The Word won’t be implanted in you. You might know it with your head, but it’s the engrafted Word in your soul that changes you.

The devil has been defeated! Jesus is Lord! So why do we still struggle sometimes? The answer 
is right between our ears! It is our thinking that paves the way for victory or defeat in our lives.

The reason God is so concerned with the sanctification or purifying and renewal of your soul is that without it, you will be constantly controlled by your fleshly desires.

A prosperous soul is one that hears and chooses to follow the spirit man. The Bible promises that as we do that, we will prosper and live in health in every realm of life. This prosperity is not an extravagant lust for money or material things. It is having your needs met and enough abundance to be a blessing to those around you.

Only when we have heard, received and renewed our minds to the Word of God is the truth in us. This is the foundation for a prosperous soul.

We must accept God’s Word as the highest and the final authority. It is higher than religious traditions, church decrees, family and cultural traditions and every other order of life. God has exalted His Word even above His name. (Ps. 138:2.) Heaven and earth will pass away, but the Word of God will stand forever.

When your spirit says, “I want to pray for thirty minutes and seek the Lord this morning,” your flesh may object and claim, “I’d rather stay in bed and watch TV.”  You must understand that your soul is the controller and it has the final say.  Your soul will determine which one you’re going to follow. The Christian with an unrenewed mind will follow the flesh; the Christian with a prospered soul will go with the leading of his spirit.

“Busyness” is not conducive to a relationship with the Lord.  It is not conducive to doing the spiritual disciplines necessary to renew the mind and prosper the soul. There needs to be a balance in life, but most people aren’t walking in it. Most of us are far too occupied with things other than God and his Word. If you were to ask the average person how they’re doing, the majority of their responses would center around how busy they are.

This process of prospering the soul requires making time in the Word a top priority and putting
other reading, sports talk, social media, TV and other non-productive distractions on the back burner.

Every Christian is responsible for his or her own maturity and freedom in Christ. Nobody can make you want to change and grow and pursue this process of prospering the soul. That’s your decision and daily responsibility. Thankfully, however, none of us walks through the disciplines of personal transformation and freedom alone. The indwelling Christ is eagerly willing to walk with us each step of the way.

If you don’t have faith for God’s blessing in your life right now, keep planting the seeds of the Word in your heart until you get it! After all, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Deposit an abundance of God’s Word in your heart today. Find time to hear the Word, meditate on the Word and talk the Word. Guard your heart— and let the wisdom of God’s Word overflow out of your spirit!

Read, study, meditate, listen to podcasts, watch videos of good, faith-filled teaching EVERY DAY until God’s Word is more real to you than the circumstances or adversity you are confronting. Keep on keeping on until, like Abraham, you stagger not at the promise of God through unbelief but grow strong in faith as you give praise and glory to God!

Renew Your Mind – Redeem Your Thinking – Prosper Your Soul – Revolutionize Your Life