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.