Become Your Own Brain Surgeon

 

Blog Series:

Renew Your Mind ~ Transform Your Life

We are now ready to transition to our third and final major section of this blog series: becoming our own brain surgeon. Review As we do, let’s review. We ended our last blog by saying that we can change. But we saw that change is not automatic. There are things we have to do to change. We had also seen that our beliefs control everything about us. The problem with that is that we don’t always believe what is true. We get our beliefs the same way we get the measles, by being around others who have them. In the process, we often believe what we hear first, or what we hear most often, which may be utterly false, even damaging and dangerous. Satan uses this to our disadvantage, trying to get us to believe false things to discourage us, and even to defeat us. Therefore, we must commit to learning truth, embracing truth, and reinforcing truth until it changes us. Linking that with what we learned about the brain in an earlier blog, what we think we believe on a conscious level, we may not truly believe on a subconscious level, where our true attitudes, values and beliefs reside. So, we must repeat truth until that truth sinks into our subconscious, bringing about true, deep, life-changing transformation. “Change” is one of the most gratifying things of life. God has created us so that changing… becoming more than we were... is one of the most gratifying things in life.

• • When a student masters a body of information and scores high on the test, it’s gratifying!
  • When an athlete masters a new level of ability, running faster or jumping higher, it’s gratifying!
  • When a musician masters a new piano concerto and plays a concert flawlessly, it’s gratifying!

  The same is true spiritually. Whenever we see that we have grown spiritually, overcoming a spiritual weakness or gaining a spiritual strength, walking closer with the Lord, or making a greater impact in others’ lives, it is deeply gratifying. God has created us so that “becoming” is one of the most gratifying things in life. So, we can change, change is deeply gratifying, God wants us to change, and He will help us to change. Our “change” is not just mental, but actually physical, also. So, now we begin to look more deeply into the process. Modern neuroscience tells us that the brain can change, the brain does change, and it always changes in the direction of what’s put into it. And, this change is actual physical change, not just mental change. This physical-brain-change process includes the making of little protein memory banks that are created to store new memories. If these memories are not sufficiently reinforced, those memory banks will shrink and we will lose the memory. In addition, when we think a thought, it takes a specific pathway in the brain. If that thought is reinforced, the pathway gets deeper, making it easier to think and choose that thought in the future. If it is not sufficiently reinforced, the pathway deteriorates, making it harder to think and choose that thought in the future. These are actual physical changes in the brain that affect our ability to remember and think and choose. So, knowing all this, our great challenge – and our great opportunity – is for us to become our own brain surgeon. This means that we can pick and choose what we put into our brain and how we use our brain, physically changing our brain so that it functions optimally. In that way, we become our own brain surgeon – crafting and sculpting our brain so that it remembers and chooses those things that help us achieve our greatest God-given potential, our greatest impact in life, and our highest meaning in life.

Our destiny lies in our own hands as we choose to become our own brain surgeon. As we are good stewards of our brain, we can reach our highest potential spiritually, our highest refinement of gifts and talents, our highest level of wisdom, our highest calling in life!

If there is something you don’t like, starve your brain of things that reinforce it. If there is something you want, feed your brain with things that reinforce it. You’re free to pick and choose what you put into your brain and how you use your brain, so that you achieve your highest God-given potential in life. God is sovereign, yes! But, He has told us in, Romans12: 2, that we are to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" and, as we've been studying, He has shown us through Scripture and now through new discoveries in science how that happens. When we hear this, we might be tempted to ask, “So, do we even need the Holy Spirit?” The answer for a Christian is a resounding yes! We need the Holy Spirit for this process to work. We need the Holy Spirit for five reasons:

1. It is the Holy Spirit who

• • • convicts us of sin,
    • calls us to righteousness,
    • warns us of judgment (John 16:8)

 

He lets us know areas of our life that need correction. A non-Christian has a conscience, but not the Holy Spirit. The conscience only functions based on what concepts of right and wrong have been put into it. Today’s popular culture, for one example, is not convicted that sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong, so those who are trained by modern culture would not embrace that value. But a Christian has the Holy Spirit who uses the Scripture to convict us of the need for moral purity. Without the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit, we would be adrift on a sea of moral relativity.

2. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the deeper truths of Scripture (1 Corinthians 2:12-16), and without that ministry to us, we would remain mired in ignorance and shallowness. So, since we all need to change in the direction of greater spiritual depth, we need the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us to illuminate our minds to deeper truth.
3. It is the Holy Spirit who strengthens us as we endeavor to change. In Ephesians 3:16, Paul prays that we would be “strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,” that we would comprehend truth and experience spiritual growth. So, it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to change in the direction of the spiritual truth that we increasingly grasp.
4. It is the Holy Spirit who leads us. Romans 8:14 says, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” This is a very general statement, but nevertheless sheds additional light on the spiritual transformation and growth process. The Holy Spirit leads us in that process.
5. The Holy Spirit works in us to will and work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13 says, “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

It is God who works in our hearts and minds to cause us to want His good pleasure and to work for it. Without the Holy Spirit, this vital symbiotic relationship would not exist. We can’t grow spiritually without the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit will not “grow” us unless we work for it. Conclusion There is “mental renewal,” and there is “Christian mental renewal.” So, Christians do need the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us if we are to have our minds renewed in such a way that it leads us to Christlikeness. We cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, spiritually. The Holy Spirit guides and empowers the process. As we do our job of going through the disciplines of mental renewal, the Holy Spirit does His job of energizing and empowering our disciplines, and by His grace we are changed into the character image of Christ. We'll look more deeply into this subject next week. I hope to see you then! In case you're new here This blog post is part of a series titled "Renew Your Mind, Transform Your Life", introduced on January 5, 2021. As the series continues, each succeeding post will be added to and available in the blog archives at www.maxanders.com. If you know anyone who you think might enjoy joining us in this study, please forward this blog to them and encourage them to sign up for my mailing list here. In addition to receiving my weekly blogs on this subject, they'll also receive my free video Master The Bible so Well That The Bible Masters You. I look forward to going through this life-changing journey with you. UPDATE: We are moving from this blog to a YouTube channel in early 2024. I’ll keep you posted regarding the transition. If you’re not already on my email list, subscribe here so you don’t miss any updates – you’ll also receive my free video, Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You. In the meantime, while I’m getting the YouTube channel ready, all of the past blog posts are still available – and you know that “repetition is the key to mental ownership!” We recently finished a series titled “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ 5 Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective,” in which I “connected all the dots” from posts over the years and combined them into a “spiritual game plan.” That series is a great place to start. I look forward to seeing all of you on my new YouTube channel in 2024 to further discuss how to walk closer with God and live better in life. Two resources I’ve created to help build your biblical base for a closer walk with God: