And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
—1 John 5:4 (NKJV)
Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. Your measure of faith is from God, and it has the power to overcome anything that tries to come against it. Exercising the measure of faith that you have received from God is a deliberate choice you make. You appropriate the Truth of the Word by faith. When you continually do this, God’s Truth renews your mind. When your mind is renewed, your heart is able to believe God’s Word. Believing in the Truth of God’s Word makes the difference in whether you live a defeated or victorious life.
When what you are taught becomes established in your heart, you believe it. If it is the Truth of God's Word, it speaks of life and peace. If it is wrong teaching, it speaks death and curse. Wrong teaching is a roadblock to believing the Word of God. To believe, you must know God's Truth.
“For to be carnally minded is death,” (Romans 8:6a, NKJV).
Belief based on what you feel comes from your natural senses—what you sense and your emotions. Living by your feelings is detrimental to believing the Word of God. If you experience something that is a disappointment or a disillusionment, emotions try to overcome your heart. When you struggle to believe God’s Word and your emotions and senses tell you that what you believe isn’t working, you doubt. When you give in to what you feel, you give in to defeat. You judge God’s Truth with your feelings. If you don’t feel it or sense what the Word says, you doubt and have trouble believing it. Your feelings dominate your thoughts instead of faith in God’s Word. You are carnal—worldly—naturally minded.
“But to be spiritually-minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6b, NKJV)
Don’t allow your emotions to mold your mind and what you believe. Renewing your mind with the Word is essential to overcome your feelings and believe that the Word of God is true (Romans 12:2). When you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you into God’s truth, you renew your mind to believe and prepare your heart to receive. Being spiritually minded means you act and react out of the truth of God’s Word no matter how you feel. Thinking on things that God says are true and just and pure and lovely and are of a good report brings peace. (Philippians 4:8-9). When your mind is focused on God, you experience life and peace (Isaiah 26:3).
“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:13-14).
God’s Truth is spiritually discerned. The natural man lives by what he senses and cannot understand the things of God. A man who is ruled by his senses believes one way one day and another way the next. A double-minded man is unstable in all His ways (James 1:8). His opinion changes based on how he feels. When you are double-minded, you have not decided in your heart what you really believe. But when you allow the Word of God to take root and grow in your heart, you experience transformation. A heart change from unbelieving to believing is hard when you doubt the Truth of God’s Word.
Unbelief holds us back from receiving from God. To help us grow spiritually, the Holy Spirit meets us where we are in our measure of faith and encourages us to believe in God’s promises. And as we are transformed by the revealed Truth of God’s Word, feelings are easier to control. We can walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7) We can believe because we know Jesus has given us victory. His peace has overcome our world (John 16:33).
The Holy Spirit wants you to experience victory in every area of your life. When you know God’s Truth, it sets you free (John 8:32), and when you exercise faith by choosing to believe God’s Truth over what your emotions tell you is true, you overcome doubt.
We are flawed in our flesh, but through the Holy Spirit, we receive understanding. When we surrender our feelings and seek God, the Holy Spirit guides us into His Truth. Choose to set your mind on the things of the Spirit. Believe in God’s Word over how you feel. Be spiritually minded, and choose life and peace. You have the mind of Christ and the Holy Spirit within you so you can know God’s truth. (1 Corinthians 2:11-12,16).
© 2021 Lynn Lacher
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