The keys to healing
As a professional counselor my job was to help my clients see the unhealthy or irrational errors in their thinking and then guide them into finding healthier ways of thinking. But trying to do so with the teachings of this world, did not offer absolute truth, therefore I would see how not just my clients, but my friends, family and Christians struggled to keep their minds set on healthy and Godly thinking. This frustration, along with the wisdom God had revealed to me through my own spiritual journey led me to this conclusion: I needed to first teach my clients how to deconstruct the false worldly teachings they had believed their whole lives. Then, I could begin to educate and equip my clients with God’s truth, from His Word, so they could rewire their minds to interact with the world around them through a biblical perspective.
After the Holy Spirit gave me this new name for the ministry, He also gave me a tag line, a vision of sorts to keep my efforts on track: “Think like God thinks, love like Jesus loved and move as the Spirit leads.” With these three Godly steps, my clients began to experience incredible miracles in every session. People with significant trauma and those with multiple diagnoses were finding healing and freedom; and not just mentally and emotionally but spiritually and physically too. All the years I had tried so hard to help my clients in my own strength, came down to teaching them to have a Godly mindset. And then, their healing was supernatural!
So, what does it mean to have a Kingdom Mindset? Kingdom refers to how God has organized the Kingdom of Heaven and everything having to do with how He would want us to live our lives here on this earth, just as it already is in Heaven. This is directly from Matthew 6 when Jesus teaches us the Lord’s Prayer and states, “Our Father who is in Heaven, blessed and sacred is Your name, Your Kingdom Come Your will be done, on EARTH as it is in Heaven.” God’s Kingdom, God’s will, is to be lived out here on this earth.
The definition of a mindset is this: a mental attitude, a person’s natural tendency or urge to act or feel a particular way, a fixed state of mind.
The definition of mindset became so intense, playing out before my very eyes as I counseled hundreds of clients, over two decades; how a person perceived their past hurts and wounds, their current circumstances in the world around them and most importantly how they viewed, accepted or rejected themselves, as a person…these components created their mindset, which absolutely determined the successes and failures in their lives. And trying to help people have healthy mindsets so that they could be successful became one of the most difficult challenges of my career.
Slowly but surely God revealed to me that trying to live successfully in this world was impossible if we only mildly applied our faith. And that’s what I felt like I was trying to do, give worldly counsel with faith based coping skills, and that wasn’t enough. I remember the day, I told God, I know there is more. More wisdom, more healing, more freedom, YOUR WORD SAYS SO! So what am I, us, as Christians not doing well? We are called to be salt and light to the world and often we seem to have so many mental, emotional and physical issues we can’t be helpful to anyone else, how are we supposed to be a testimony or help spread the gospel if our lives are a mess?
My husband Scott and I have been co-facilitating biblical marriage counseling for the past ten years and we have a requirement of those seeking counsel, that in order to have a successful marriage you need to be “two feet in.” Fully committed, making your marriage your number one priority, under God of course. So, the Holy Spirit used that phrase with me one day, “Are you really two feet into your faith, Jessica? Or are you one foot in the world and one foot in the Kingdom? Or both feet in the Kingdom on Sunday or during prayer time and then two feet in the world the rest of the time?”
James 1:7-8 says: “For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways.” (NASB) Isn’t that what it feels like sometimes, trying to be a Christian in such a dark and difficult world, trying to have thoughts and behaviors that would be pleasing to God, but then so easily getting sucked back into thinking, speaking and behaving like the unsaved world? It was from that moment on that I told God, show me what it is like to be two feet in the Kingdom.
God revealed to me it began with a renewed mind. Remember the definition of mindset says it’s your natural tendency or instinct, not something you have to constantly force yourself to think or behave like. So I began to read the Bible through this filter. How did God think, speak and act. What examples did Jesus set for us during His time here on this earth that were unlike worldly teaching. How did the prophets, disciples and the people that turned from Him, how did they think, speak and act? I spent time learning God’s heartbeat about how we, the believers, are to bring His Kingdom to earth for His glory. I dug in deep, making my home a virtual Bible school learning everything from the power of the spoken word, to supernatural healing in the body, to Godly wealth. And you know what? It ALL began with a mindset. A Kingdom Mindset.
Excerpt taken from “It’s Time for a Revolution”
Now available as an audiobook! https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/its-time-for-a-revolution/538887