The Bible Speaks - Words of Inspiration - A Sound Mind

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Bible Speaks with Elgin Carelock. The Bible Speaks is a weekly ministry of harvest international. Our prayer is that the Bible speaks for encourage you in your study of God's Word.

[00:00:38] You will be able to contact Elgin at the address given at the end of this broadcast. And now here's Elgin. Brothers and sisters, I welcome you in the name of our risen Savior Jesus Christ, to another edition of Words of Inspiration.

[00:00:54] And today we have the pleasure of Ms. Couswella Shaw, licensed mental health counselor. And she is going to talk to us and share with us today on the topic of a sound mine. Our Squirtual Inspiration comes from Second Timothy, Chapter 1 verse 7, which reads,

[00:01:20] For God have not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mine. The spirit of fear mentioned here does not refer to the ordinary healthy fear that

[00:01:35] acts as a human protective mechanism such as the fear of touching a hot stove. Instead it refers to a debilitating paralyzing type of fear that hinders one ability to act, think or respond according to one's Christian's calling and responsibilities.

[00:01:53] This kind of fear is seen as not from God because it does not produce any fruitful or positive outcome in a believe his life. This verse serves as a direct encouragement to Timothy who may have been experiencing fear

[00:02:09] or anxiety about his responsibilities, potential persecution or his leadership role in the church. By reminding him of what God has provided, Paul Boasters Timothy's confidence and resolve to continue his work despite difficulties. For all believers, this verse is a reminder of the resources they possess through the Holy

[00:02:33] Spirit. He encourages him not to succumb to irrational fears or anxieties but to rely on divine indeliment of power, love and sound judgment. This is particularly pertinent in times of crisis, decision making or when facing opposition or challenges in life and in ministry.

[00:02:57] So for me a sound mine is about peace. Even though we may have a scenario that seems just insurmountable, I don't know what I'm going to do. I need $10,000 to pay my bill in this $2,000 in my account that peace that comes from the

[00:03:22] Lord, the peace that surpasses all understanding is in my opinion what a sound mine is but with that I'd like to ask Ms. Shaw to share her thoughts on what a sound mine means. Thank you so much.

[00:03:42] A sound mine as we relate it to our Christian walk and hearing it throughout our time of going to church, hearing mom or grandma or someone saying a sound mine. Many times it was related to a psychotic something.

[00:04:02] We tend to think I got to bring my mind in because I don't want people to think I'm crazy. So we have two different scenarios going on here because when we think about the man

[00:04:15] that was in the cave and he said, you know, my son and he tends to throw himself in the flame and so we would tend to say he's not of a sound mine.

[00:04:27] And so when I think about having a sound mine look at how Jesus handled that for him and he brought him out and he was able to maintain himself. He was able to sit and think rationally.

[00:04:39] I believe many times as Christians when we find ourselves in these hard places, we tend to lose that regulation of the sound mine. We tend to focus more on whatever that situation is than the God that says, I am saying to you a spirit of sound mine.

[00:05:05] There's a difference. Yes. Okay. There was a lunatic spirit on that young man. That's right. And so he said, okay, let me give him a spirit of a sound mine. And when we find our mind just illuminating on all these different things, how bad it is,

[00:05:22] how hard it is, why I'm here, what is this about? That's where we're saying this and hold on. Bring your mind into captivity of the spirit of God that he may give you that sound mine. Yes, that's right.

[00:05:40] And it also you may be thinking of pulling down strong holes because sometimes the disruption in your mind are things that have always been, how you respond to something. And it prevents you from having that level of peace and that sound mine.

[00:06:01] And because it's like when I was a kid growing up in Washington, D.C., if you walk through any neighborhood in D.C., you won't get chased by a dog. Okay, I mean, it's just how it was. You can get chased by a dog.

[00:06:15] And so even though my grandparents had dogs and I played with those dogs in, I began to build a fear of dogs. Yes. Even though I grew up with them, but yet I dealt scenarios. Kind of I did not know then how to overrule. Absolutely.

[00:06:36] Those those feelings and those thoughts based on my past. And so part of our sound mine is really staying our mind on Jesus. Absolutely. And understanding that if we truly believe that he is all powerful

[00:06:53] and he is truly able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all we can ask for think. Right? Then our ability to have a sound mine rest there. Absolutely. Bring it to him and leave it.

[00:07:07] I think the struggle comes with leaving it because we tentatively do not have our minds trained to say I'm not going to allow what I see to contaminate what I believe. Yes. Because right, we walk by faith and not by sight.

[00:07:30] But because we live in a carnal world most of the time we tend to lean more into that carnal aspect of our mind saying I have to do something. But remember he said even if you're in that space at your greatest extremity when you

[00:07:47] don't know what to do where to go who to talk to how it's going to work is my greatest strength. And what I believe is we fail to give him that place in our life because of our mind. Yes. Right?

[00:08:03] Because we were not renewing our mind in the fact that he said okay hold on. How give you peace that passes understanding. Yes. What we're doing is trying to figure out how he's going to give the peace that's not our job. That's right.

[00:08:17] Our job is to say okay God, you said, right? We bring it back to him and then he said that when we bring that back to him that he will do that concern in us.

[00:08:28] But how many of us actually walk through that process to take it back to him and then we feed our mind something different. Yes. Or we spend our time trying to do his job. Absolutely.

[00:08:42] Because if he is the one who gives the increase then we just hand it over. Absolutely. When we say you know Lord, I trust you and the Hebrew boy said our God is able to save it. But if he doesn't. Absolutely. That's where a sound mind comes from.

[00:09:02] When we have grown in our spiritual maturity to where as we said in our conversation on yesterday that you can look at whatever's in front of you and say, never less. Yes. Never to less.

[00:09:16] And so when we are operating in the point where we are giving it, we're giving God us. We represent our body holy and acceptable. That includes our mind. I think we tend to separate that because we're saying my body because we look at scripture

[00:09:36] sometimes and we look at it in that text of it's instead of it being literal. He's using figuratively speaking and many times people are trying to look at that in a figurative speech or in a literal space when it really he's just giving you an example. Yep.

[00:09:59] And so I think us changing that part of our thought process and then asking God every day, Lord, I need you to help me have that spirit that you talked about, of power, of love and a sound mind.

[00:10:17] Help me Lord to have that spirit of a sound mind. And then what do you need that to be? What is that thing that's concerning you and say, I need a sound mind God. You're concerning my child or concerning my grandchildren or concerning that work situation.

[00:10:35] Whatever that is because when you get there, you're all round up. Your mind is not sound. That's right. That's right. And that the proof is those things that I've done how I'll only speak for me. That when you say to yourself, I can't believe I did that. Absolutely.

[00:10:53] What was I thinking? And this because you weren't. You were reacting. Right. And then the other side of it is that when we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, what

[00:11:06] we find, or at least what I find is that you move away from the thought of Father how is this problem going against all two? Father who do I need to be in order to get past here? Yes.

[00:11:25] And he will invariably show you whether it's to worry, to be serving. Sometimes it's a song that you hear and it's just the right song. I remember one time I was really going through and I listened to a song that said, God held me together.

[00:11:40] Make sure that I didn't lose my mind. Yes. And I'm riding down the street crying like a baby. Well, if I look over like her, look at them, you're like I'm crazy because I'm happy guy. They all just look at them. But that word was God reminded me.

[00:11:55] Yeah. It was reminding me that. They were like, I got this. Absolutely. And I think it's just those moments that we tend to overshadow them with everything else that's going on because he's spoken to each and every one of us in some way or another. That's right.

[00:12:12] It's letting ourselves recall that moment. And God, if you did it then, I know you are the God that can do it again. And you can do it in this situation and allowing ourselves to really operate in that space,

[00:12:27] believing that he's going to do it not in intimidation of it. But operating in a space where I get up in the morning and I'm saying good morning Holy Spirit and I'm allowing him to take over my day.

[00:12:40] And as I go through my day, I don't have a sour face. Right? I use the less muscles in smile than it takes the frown because I'm trusting God. And I want God to see that my behavior lines up with what I say I believe and what

[00:12:54] I value. That's right. And so that's where we talk about having that spirit of a sound mind. And it will lead to on the natural side. It will lead you to better decision, it will lead you to better relationships. It will lead you to better emotional management.

[00:13:14] Yes, absolutely. Because you can pause and think clearly. Yes. So when we think about what Paul is writing that we receive, I just wanted before we wrap up to talk about power, right? Which refers to inner strength and boldness given by the Holy Spirit.

[00:13:33] And they will enable in us to face persecution, carry out our ministry and overcome obstacles. And that is the power. The love, well, this point is the selfless sacrificial love that is characterized by God and Jesus. And should also be characterized by us. Yes.

[00:13:55] It is the love that casts out fear and motivate service to others. And then finally a sound mind sometimes translates as self-discipline or self-control. Yes. And then refers to the ability to think clearly, make wise decisions and manage ones emotions and just said.

[00:14:18] It implies a discipline mind that can evaluate situations without being clouded by panic for irrational fears. Absolutely. And I think we understanding that the scripture that tells us that he wants to be in control of ourselves. Yes.

[00:14:37] And when we know that we can look at ourselves and I know I can. I can look at myself and look back and see, I didn't have that sound mind, that spirit of a sound mind. And I did not have that self-regulation. I didn't have that emotional regulation.

[00:14:53] How do we look at that? Because back then you were cursing people out, no matter what they did, whether it was intentional or not, you're going off on people. Your mindset was always on goal and you're going from zero to a thousand in a minute. Yes.

[00:15:12] That's that unregulated emotions and mindset that we're talking about here. And God is saying, listen, I can give you that. Yes. I can give you that. You don't have to react to people. I want to teach you and help you be able to respond because reaction doesn't take

[00:15:29] you to think. That's right. Right. That's right. I think I plan and then I may act and sometimes we don't have to. And that spirit of a sound mind will tap you on your shoulder, he'll let you know, you don't need to say anything. That's right.

[00:15:46] I have this one for you. That's right. You may not see it right now in the moment but he will allow you to see, he handled that for you. And so I think getting in that space where he says, I need you to have this spirit about you.

[00:16:00] Yes. And that sound mind fits into that that song that says, and we'll understand it better. Bye. Bye. And by. Right. That then rip that when we calm down and we understand, we let go and let God.

[00:16:16] Then I've read a great quote that said life is live forward but it's understood back. That was wow. Right. And so that that sound mind allows us to be present and will allow the Lord to speak

[00:16:31] to our situation and speak to us to say, you know, I can remember my wife and I had an emergency with one of our children. And Holy Spirit said, don't worry about it. But sin her because she ain't going to sleep.

[00:16:45] So I told her go see our baby and she's hopped in the car and she drove up and everything was fine but Holy Spirit told me immediately that no, it's fine. But yeah, you need to send her because she ain't going to sleep. So absolutely.

[00:16:58] But it's when we have that level of trust and relationship that gives us that sound mind that makes I mean, will we still make mistakes? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, we're not perfect.

[00:17:12] But what it does is it gives us the ability to not get locked up when things really get tight. Right. Because there's just times, you know, I think Satan's biggest weapon and his most effective weapon is simply doubt. Absolutely.

[00:17:28] So when he can get you doubting that he knows that that line of communication between you got and all the spirit just isn't there. Exactly. Because you're allowing the situation to cause a full taking of your baby, full taking

[00:17:45] of your mind and all you can think about is how are you going to overcome that? When God said, you've already won. Absolutely. Yes. I've already allowed you to conquer that, which goes back to when we talked about

[00:18:01] when he formed us before we even became a concept in his mind. That is the thing. Before we became a concept in God's mind, God said, let me put everything here that you're going to need and getting people understand, you were not after thought with God. That's right.

[00:18:20] God had you in mind when he created the earth because he knew the things you wouldn't need. And so here we are trying to figure out things that God has already laid the path. Yes.

[00:18:33] It's that we have to get our minds in a place and that scripture that says, bring in our minds into captivity of the spirit of God. Yes. Because why? He knows all things.

[00:18:45] He will lead and guide us into those right things if we allow him to bring our mind into that place that says, I cannot look at what it looks like. I cannot try to figure it out based on my schooling and I've gone to seminary school

[00:19:02] who I have this degree or that degree because God supersedes every type of in education or anything that you can get because he says, my ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts.

[00:19:16] So the logic that you're trying to apply does it work in the concept of God. That's right. And this is so amazing as you get deeper into studying that you understand the immenseness of who God is. Absolutely.

[00:19:37] And so your sound mind comes from recognizing that no matter how big your problem is, your God is bigger. He's bigger. And and and and scripturely you'll say, you know, we all like to say no weapon formed against us. We'll prosper.

[00:19:53] But if you read in that same that same chapter he said, I made the blacksmith. I'm not defy her. I mean everything that that's. Absolutely. So how can it? How can it? Absolutely. Absolutely. And so we have to remember that. So.

[00:20:09] Brothers and sisters, for God has not given us the spirit of fear is a powerful assertion that the anxiety and fear that incapacitase does not align with God's provision for his people instead God inquisitive believers with strength, love and wisdom.

[00:20:29] Toose that enables us to live out our faith boldly and effectively whatever the circumstances. This verse is a cornerstone for understanding how Christians are the face to world, not in fear but empowered by the Holy Spirit. I did by love and governed by wisdom.

[00:20:49] I thank you once again for joining us today. I thank Nishaw for joining us today and I look forward to our conversation on tomorrow until then God bless. I've worked with this program is cared for by listeners who care, your prayers and financial

[00:21:16] investment in this ministry helps to keep the good news on the air. We look forward to hearing from you and invite you to write us at harvest international post office box 66090 O'Cala Florida 3448. Again, that's harvest international post office box 66090 O'Cala Florida 3448.