TRANSCRIPT

“Hey everybody, I’m Anne-Marie Michaelis, a Christian author and coach. Welcome to the Hidden Battles Podcast. My life was radically transformed during a supernatural encounter with Jesus.

God allowed my eyes to be spiritually opened long enough to see the truth of these hidden battles and to scare the rebellion against him right out of me. This workbook series is called The Truth to Overcoming Hidden Battles, taken from my Christian coaching workbook. I’ll be taking you through the workbook in podcast format.

This workbook series is designed to help you overcome negative thinking, limiting beliefs, irrational emotions, unhealthy behavior patterns, toxic relationship addictions and break spiritual strongholds. This book is a workbook and is available on amazon.com. You’re welcome to use the actual workbook or have a notebook and pen ready for taking notes.

You can always pause the video. Or if you like to have everything included, then pause and order the book first. If you’re jumping in and have missed any episodes, I suggest starting with the first one of this series so it makes more sense.

Hidden Battles, revealing what the enemy does not want you to know. Please take a moment to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and subscribe to my channel on YouTube at GodDesign LLC. Podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcast.

For a free download of my memoir, visit my website at GodDesign.me. GodDesign does not guarantee and is not responsible for your results from the information in this podcast. You need to know that your ultimate outcomes will result from your situation and the innumerable circumstances beyond our knowledge and control.

This podcast is meant as a source of valuable information for the listener. However, it is not meant as a substitute for direct assistance by a licensed medical professional. If such a level of assistance is required, the service of a licensed professional should be sought.

For additional details, visit GodDesign.me. Hello, everyone. This is the second episode of the workbook, The Truth to Overcoming Hidden Battles, episode 21 from the Hidden Battles Podcast.

Module 1, Chapter 2, called What the Bible Says About Our Design. Before we begin this episode, let’s start with prayer. Heavenly Father, we give thanks and gratitude for this time we have to take this walk with you today.

You are our Father and Creator of all that is seen and unseen. Jesus, you are our Savior who died for our sins to give us eternal salvation. Holy Spirit, you are our Helper and Teacher.

Scripture says, Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks finds. To the one who knocks, it will be opened. As we go into this section and this chapter, we ask that you open our eyes to see your truths through your word clearly.

Open our ears as we seek to hear your voice, guide us through areas of our lives that we may need healing, growth, strengthening, clarity, purpose, and victory. Prepare our hearts to fully receive and get to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior who brings eternal salvation as we walk in union with you. In Jesus’ name, we pray.

Amen.

So we’re still in module one. Is this just me or is something else going on? So module one is focused on awareness of mind, heart, and spirit.

The purpose of it is to bring awareness of our thoughts, bringing awareness of where our thoughts are coming from. And we know that the mind and heart are the battleground locations for our Hidden Battles. And so that’s kind of the focus of module one, which has numerous chapters in it.

And we’re in chapter two right now. And so let’s get started. Chapter two, what the Bible says about our design.

So this chapter talks about our mind, like our thoughts and our memories, our beliefs and mindsets. It talks about the heart, like our emotions, feelings, consciousness, you know, and it talks about free will, all of which can be grouped into the term soul. This chapter also discusses spirit, which is our connection to God and our current walk.

We’ll begin taking inventory of our struggles, issues and battles. We’ll look at them possibly from a new perspective, giving us a new awareness of who we are and what is happening in and around us. So during my 20s until I was in my early 40s, on top of secular therapy, I had piles of self-help books.

And a lot of you probably already heard this, you know, things like the laws of attraction or the secret concepts and other new age teachings. And they helped me often on very, very temporarily until I would be left worse off in my mind and heart. Peace and freedom were counterfeit.

And I longed for true peace and freedom. And so we’re going to learn about some of that kind of stuff too, like why those are so dangerous and what those really are in relation to God’s word, which is the truth, right? So we’ll learn a little bit about that in chapters to come.

So I want to read to you real quick Genesis 1 verse 21. Then God said, Let us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, make man in our image, according to our likeness, not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle and over the entire earth and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth. So your first reflection question, what do you think or feel when you read Genesis 1 verse 26?

So last week, what we talked about was what science says about the heart. Now this week, we’re gonna look at what the Bible says about the heart. So let’s look at the Bible and what it says about the heart and mind.

Did you know that the heart is mentioned 830 times in the Bible? The heart is equated to the mind and emotions. There are references to thoughts coming from the heart.

Hebrews 4 verse 12 through 13 says this, For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom he must give account. So the heart is linked to our conscience and moral character, the inner being of a man or woman, very similar to the scientific findings of today, yet shared with us thousands of years ago.

Proverbs 4 verse 23 captures how imperative the heart is to our ability to live a blessed life. Have you ever heard someone say, I’m my worst enemy? Or I think I’m self-sabotaging things?

Or even I can’t seem to get out of my way? Proverbs 4 verse 23 says this, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life. So take a moment to think about the impact of this, for out of it spring the issues of life.

So reflection question, what do you think or feel when you read that the heart can function with thoughts and intents? How do you think we are to keep our heart so we don’t spring issues into our life? All right, so are we renewing our minds continually?

I don’t know, right? That’s hard to do, but we have to try. The Bible often discusses the mind as something to be renewed regularly and that our minds should not conform to the world’s way but to godly ways.

Why? So that we can be progressively changed, which leads us to spiritual maturity. Romans 12 verse 2 says this, And do not be conformed to this world any longer with its superficial values and customs, but be transformed and progressively changed as you mature spiritually by the renewing of your mind, focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes, so that you may prove for yourselves what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect in his plan and purpose for you.

When I realized part of my issue could be spiritual warfare, I was renewing my mind throughout the entire day. I was renewing my mind with God’s word, prayer, and relationship with God. I was renewing my mind with a specific and targeted plan to rewire my erroneously pre-programmed mind that had been clearly on autopilot for far too long.

Alright, reflection question. Spend a little time meditating on Romans 12 verse 2. You can go back and watch it, or if you have your Bible, you can look it up if it’s a translation that you prefer.

So, spend a little time meditating on Romans 12 verse 2. And then ask God to speak to you about what areas need to be renewed in your mind and heart. Write them down.

How are these areas currently impacting you or others around you? And what is the cost of not renewing or changing mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically to yourself or others? So, take some time and reflect and write down the answers to these questions.

Now, where does free will fit into the Bible? What about free will? We have free will to choose, and our choices may or may not align with God’s purpose and plan for our lives, right?

I mean, mine didn’t for most of my life so far, and it’s just recently now, he’s got a hold of me, right? And so, you know, our choices may or may not align with God’s purpose and plan for our lives. How often have you chosen a path or made a decision and realized after a while that it was the wrong path or decision?

How many times has God nudged you in the right direction? And God gives us the ability to choose and he wants us to choose him. But sometimes it becomes challenging when we fight with what our minds and hearts are pre-programmed into thinking, saying, feeling and doing, especially if it’s been a while.

What about spirit? The Bible speaks of spirit repeatedly. We are spirit beings with souls, minds, hearts, and free will, and temporarily live in a fleshly body.

The Bible talks about giving us a new heart and spirit in union with the Holy Spirit. Once we give our hearts to God through Jesus, we’re cleansed of our sins. But above us getting a new spirit and heart, God will put his Holy Spirit into us to help us understand and live according to his design.

John 4 verse 24 says this, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Notice the diagram from last week next to the one from this week. Last week we went over what science says about our design.

The human spirit is missing. Note that where science falls short with unanswered questions or vagueness, God’s word is clear. We are spirit beings and we must worship God in spirit and truth.

Truth is God’s word and the spirit of truth is the Holy Spirit, God’s spirit, the helper and counselor that lives inside believers in Christ Jesus. Reflection question. So what is your current knowledge of your spirit and God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit?

And then the next question is how have you experienced the Holy Spirit in your own life?

What is spirit of your mind? Well, our spirit is like our cell phones. God is spirit, Holy Spirit, the cellular data that our cell phone, our spirit can receive and convert into information we can interpret.

Our spirit allows us to communicate with God who is spirit. Ephesians 4 verse 23 says this, regarding your previous way of life, you put off your old self, completely discard your former nature, which is being corrupted through deceitful desires and be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind, having a fresh untarnished mental and spiritual attitude. And remember in the first week, we talked about our attitude, right?

Go visit the previous episode for that one. Now the scripture shows us that worldly thinking, the mind as most of us know it is lower or lesser. It reminds us that we must put off our old self, our old way of being, our old way of thinking and being and beliefs and things that are erroneous.

Our old self or fleshly self ultimately leads us to the endless pursuit of sin through deceitful desires and corruption. Remember how we discuss having beliefs based on zero truth and how our mind tends to go on autopilot, thinking, feeling and behaving according to brainwashing? If we rely on our own understanding, we’ll most likely stay in the same patterns.

Let’s take the last teaching on renewing the mind from Romans 12 verse 2 a little further. We talked about renewing the mind, but this is more specific with the instruction, renew in the spirit of your mind. It requires having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude.

God’s word, our relationship with him, and being good stewards of our mind, heart and spirit help us be renewed. So I have some tough reflection questions here. All right, are you ready?

What reservations do you have about putting off your old ways? Be honest, this is a tough one for some of us. Possibly putting off old friends or relationships or behaviors.

Are you willing to pay the price of change? And what could hold you back from change? Take a moment and pause this and really think through these questions, because these are important and some of them we’re pulling forward into chapters to come.

What does our current walk look like? So this scripture that is showing here in Romans 8 verse 6, talks about the mind of the Spirit, Holy Spirit, as life and peace that comes from walking with God. So life and peace comes from walking with God.

I was not walking with God for most of my life, nearly 40 years of it. I was in high pursuit of sins of many kinds and not purposefully, I mean sometimes purposefully, but sometimes just on autopilot, right? But more automatically, I was walking with the devil and living on autopilot and doing whatever I decided to do next.

My personal life and inner life, mind and emotions that I hid, reflected the results of this rebellion. And this is rebellion, right? Rebellion, rebelliousness is a sin.

So I’m proof that there is hope, no matter how long you’ve fought your hidden battles. Romans 8 verse 6 says this, Now the mind of the flesh is death, both now and forever, because it pursues sin. But the mind of the spirit is life and peace.

And this spirit right here refers to the Holy Spirit. So the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and peace, the spiritual wellbeing that comes from walking with God, both now and forever. This scripture talks about the mind of the flesh, which is focused on pursuing sin, which leads to death.

But if we align with God’s spirit, Holy Spirit, we will learn to have a mind that leads to life and peace. All right, ding, ding, ding, reflection question, actually questions, is your spirit in union with God’s spirit, Holy Spirit? Are you walking with God?

If yes, what does that walk currently look like? What would you like it to look like? And same question, are you walking with God?

If not, what’s holding you back? So pause this and answer these questions. These are important to really reflect on.

All right, we’re going to wrap up this chapter with your takeaways. Chapter two, what the Bible says about our design. What was the takeaway from this chapter that spoke to you the most?

Why do you think this takeaway spoke to you more than any other? And what other takeaways spoke to you in this chapter? Hey friends, that’s a wrap of today’s Hidden Battles Podcast.

A transcript for this week’s podcast and my memoir are available for a free download on my website at goddesign.org or check out some of my other books that you may find helpful. If you like this episode, please share it with others. Hidden Battles, Revealing What the Enemy Does Not Want You to Know.

Never stop praying, never give up, and I’ll see you next week.”