Since my book was released, I’ve had several readers ask me how I did that with the Lord. I’m not one for steps; however, I’m going to number what I did to make it easier to list.
First off, you must be born again. You must acknowledge that you are a sinner, that Jesus died for you, took your sins onto Himself, and then gives you eternal life with Him. When you accept Him as your Savior, He will come into your heart and make you a new person. When you do that, He rebirths your spirit. That’s why we call it being born again. This is a free gift there is nothing you could ever do to earn this. You only have to believe and receive it.
When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them a free will and placed them in the Garden of Eden. They were made in the image of God. They were a body with a soul, and He breathed spiritual life into them. When Eve made the choice to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (which God had told them not to do), their spirit died that day. (Nothing good ever comes from disobeying God’s word.)
This is where most people stop and are just content to live with one foot in the church and one foot still in the world. They believe they’re going to heaven and feel secure in that. They don’t realize God has so much more for them. Some Christians live their whole Christian lives only partially surrendered to God after being born again. God does not want us to keep a foot in the world or continue to live in the flesh. He tells us that while we may still live in this world, we are not of this world. We are a new creation in Christ. Once you’re born again, God wants us to grow up in our Spirit.
Once you are born again, you need to take the next step, which is to completely surrender your whole heart (soul) to Him. This is not just speaking words; this is a real commitment in your heart to give Him your all. All means all.
While the Bible talks about completely surrendering your whole heart to Him, I didn’t do this until almost nine years after I was born again. So, if you didn’t do this or haven’t done this yet, don’t worry—God’s arms are always open whenever you decide to take this step.
When I decided to give Him all of me, where I had eyes only for Him, His grace flowed to me, and it will to you too. He is no respecter of persons. His grace is what makes it possible for you to take that other foot out of the world. His grace is what helps you start focusing on Him.
Once you’ve done #2, this is where the work starts. This is not works for salvation—you’re already born again. This is cleansing your mind of the world and replacing it with His words. His grace makes this seem easy.
This was where I struggled in the beginning, trying to figure out how to keep my mind stayed on Him. The Lord showed me in the Spirit how we already do this when we are driving. We constantly bring our mind back to the road to keep it there. This is where God showed me He is the road.
Here’s a free rhema: The verse in the Bible where Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The Hebrew word for “way” is none other than “road.” So Jesus really said, “I am the road…”
I didn’t know that when He showed me that, but it just goes to show how much we’ve lost from His word when it was translated into English. He doesn’t change, so He showed me what He had already said. It’s amazing that we have managed to come to understand what He really said/meant because of being led by His Spirit.
Another struggle I had was that when I started bringing my mind back to Him after everything I did, my mind would be on Him, but it would be blank. I was like, “Okay, God, my mind is on You, but there’s nothing here.”
Oh, I could bring up all kinds of verses that I had memorized over the years, but that was when it dawned on me that the Lord wants His word to be on our mind right now in the present, moment by moment.
So I started keeping a 3x5 card with a verse on it so I had something for right now. At first, I was like, “I can memorize a verse a week,” then I went to, “I can memorize a verse a day.” I eventually decided, “I can memorize a verse an hour.”
I always had multiple verses with me, so when I finished talking to someone or doing anything that required my mind, I would bring it right back to Him and His word. Just like when you’re driving down the road—you continually bring your mind back to the road. Make Him your road and always bring your mind back to the road/Him. When you're on a trip in your car your mind is stayed on the road for hours.
His grace will make this easy. You just have to purpose to do it. Keep this up day in and day out, and before you know it, your mind will be stayed on Him. At the same time, your mind is being cleansed with His word. This is the way I worked on renewing my mind. This was the way the Lord showed me how to cleanse my soul (mind, will, and emotions).
Do not put a time limit on this. This will take however long and whatever effort you put into it. He’s the buried treasure that you wake up with on your mind, go after all day long, and then go to bed with on your mind. You will eventually get to where you are just abiding in His presence, and your mind will be in perfect peace. During this mental training fiery darts will still come you will have to hold up your shield of faith and block every one of them. The Bible says to take EVERY thought captive.
You have to purpose that you are going to control your mind and what it thinks on—not let it run amuck all day long with the garbage of the world, which it will do.
You will become so focused that you can keep your mind fixed on one thing for hours and days. When I worked on my master’s degree, I was so focused, I had all A’s. Staying focused made it easy.
The whole purpose of this training is to keep your mind stayed on Him. Get ready, because He shows up in a big way. He says, “If you seek Me, I will let you find Me,” and you can count on that because He is faithful to His word. You will develop an intimate relationship with Him and will even start being able to hear Him speak to you in your heart. I hope this helps you on your journey of developing an intimate relationship with the Lord and learning to walk and be led 'by the Spirit.
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