Prayer Leader / Co-host (3:39)

This episode in prayer.

Ali Yost (3:41)

So let's just invite Jesus, let's invite.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (3:45)

The Holy Spirit into today's episode and.

Ali Yost (3:47)

Ask him to have his way and.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (3:50)

For him to move. So, Jesus, thank you for today before.

Ali Yost (3:53)

Anything else, God, we are so grateful for life. God, we thank you that you've given.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (4:00)

Us another chance today. And, Lord, I lift up my friend here on the other end of this podcast, and, Lord, I ask for you to have your way with their life today. I pray that everything that happens might be a surprise to them if there are some surprises that come up today.

Ali Yost (4:21)

But, Lord, I pray and I thank.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (4:22)

You that it's not a surprise to you. And so, Lord, I ask that whatever happens today, that it is your will.

Ali Yost (4:31)

And that they are in your will.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (4:33)

And that they can trust you with their life. Lord, I thank you that everything that you allow in our lives is for something greater and it's for something good. Sometimes it may not always feel that way when things feel bad or they look bad to us. But, God, I pray for faith for my friend. God, I pray faith over them, that no matter what happens, good or bad, that it actually has to be for your good and for your glory and for the good of them, Lord, that when you shut doors, we have to trust that that's actually good.

Ali Yost (5:11)

Even though it feels bad, even though it hurts, even though, like, getting that slam in our face can feel really cruel.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (5:19)

But, Lord, I Pray faith over them, knowing that that actually is good.

Ali Yost (5:24)

Your yeses and your nosy are good.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (5:33)

Lord, I pray for a fruitful episode today. God, I pray that whatever happens in this episode is exactly what the listener needed on the other end.

Ali Yost (5:42)

Jesus, you are the only one that.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (5:44)

Knows what their heart needs. God, you are the only thing that can fulfill their hearts. And so, God, I also pray that that is something that they come into agreement with even deeper in this episode today, is that you are all they. And when in doubt, Jesus is all we need.

Ali Yost (6:03)

We don't always need a plan. We don't typically need to know what's going on or what's going to happen. But all we actually need is you, Jesus.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (6:11)

And so I pray for more of that today.

Ali Yost (6:17)

God, I pray that we.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (6:18)

Get to taste and see your goodness in this episode today, Lord, in your holy and beautiful name. Amen.

Ali Yost (6:27)

All right, you guys, let's get into today's episode. We have our Christ. We do have our Jesus. Not only is he dwelling inside of us, but he is the word of God. Thank you, Lord, for the word of God. And then we do have our coffee on ice, Which is right here. Here she is. We actually have ice today. Okay. It's not mushroom. I think I need a little coffee. I'm feeling fatigued. I'm feeling tired. So today I feel really led to talk about how we speak to ourselves and how important it is to be aware of the thoughts that are going through your mind. And this is something that I have had to learn with Jesus. This was not a skill that I had before I met him. There was a version of me before knowing the Lord and knowing how to walk in the authority that comes from the Holy Spirit that would just take every thought in my mind. Like, I would just let it slap me around and I would take every hit. Like, every thought that went through my mind, I was just like, that's just my mind. Like, what do you mean? Like, it was so normalized for me at one point in my life that as thoughts came and ran through my mind, that's just what happened. Like, thoughts would just run through my mind and they would come and they would really hurt, and they would punch me in the face and it would sting. But then eventually they'd, like, have to go away, you know, and there's just something so crazy about the veil that can really be torn from our eyes. Meaning there is something about realizing and being made aware of the fact that not every thought that comes into our mind is actually from us. I Think that before I knew this through Jesus, like I just thought every thought that went through my mind was just me. And I was like, I'm so hard on myself, like I'm so awful to myself. And I was taking on the responsibility for every thought that went through my mind. And the truth is, is like, yeah, I'm sure there are some thoughts that go through our mind that we, that is us. But also I don't think we are actually meant to take full responsibility for every thought that goes through our mind. But what we are responsible for is learning how to take them captive. Learning how to discern what is actually from us, what's from the Lord and what's from the enemy. And we are responsible for rebuking it. Taking those thoughts captive and submitting them and making them answer to the feet of Jesus and saying, no, actually that thought, you will have to bow to Jesus because that is not something that my heavenly Father would say about me. And I actually don't have to be a victim to my thoughts anymore. Like this will not be normalized for me anymore. Like my anxious thoughts, my obsessive thoughts, my self condemning thoughts that tell me how I am not worthy or I'm stupid or I don't know what I'm talking about, or I'm not capable of something. All of those thoughts need to go in the name of Jesus. That is not a home that you are supposed to be living in. I've also realized in life that more times than not, anything I'm facing is actually really mental. Like most things I'm facing starts in my mind. And it makes sense that that is the first place that you would be attacked is your mind. Because I think ultimately like our mind is the thing that controls what we do or we don't do, or what we say and we don't say, or the things that we act on versus the things that we just don't act on. Like that is where everything starts, you know, that's where we make decisions. That's where we determine what we're going to do for that day or how we're going to apply ourselves or how we're going to show up in relationships, or how we're going to move about our days and our life. And that also comes down to us having free will. Just as I remembered this morning that I had free will. And so I decided to lay down on this couch. But it makes sense that that's where the enemy would attack us the most, is our minds. Because of the way that we have free Will and the way that we can make decisions and we can decide to believe the things that are going through our minds or not. And that goes both ways. That's both sides of the spectrum. That's. We can choose to believe the voice of God, or we can choose to believe the voice of the enemy, or we could choose to believe our own voice, our own beliefs, our own understanding. When you think about it, your mind is the control center of your entire body. So that is where every decision, every emotion, every belief, every fear, every hope, it all stems from your mind. And all of those things are constantly getting processed through your thoughts. Like, that is the thing that also processes as we go about our lives and we go through certain life events. It's like our brain is the thing that's processing that. It's the control center of our body and is also very deeply connected to our spirit. And the mind can really be our lens of which we see life through. And so if we don't have a healthy lens, we can't see life to its fullest. And if we don't see life through the lens of Jesus, if we don't have a mind of Christ or a mind like Christ, it's gonna be really hard to see life in a way that is vibrant. Now, something else that I'm not saying right now is that we are supposed to find the strength within ourselves to strengthen our minds on our. Or that, like, everything comes down to the strength of our mind. The truth is, is that in scripture, I think it's in Romans 12, 2, it says, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so what I'm trying to emphasize in this episode today is less about, like, make sure that you have a really strong mind. It's like, actually just make sure that you are renewing your mind and allowing yourself to be transformed first by the renewal of your mind, which is by the word of God. And it's by faith. It is actually our faith that renews our mind, and it is surrender that renews our mind. But I think the biggest thing that has given me my mental strength in times where I've needed it is faith in Jesus. It's faith, like faith is actually the mental strength that I need in all the circumstances that I face. A stupid example that came to my mind is one time I did an ice bath for the first time ever. And I will say that being physically uncomfortable for me, don't love it. And, like, granted, who does? But anything that has to do with, like, I don't know, the health of my body. Sometimes it makes me anxious and it's like, if I just get a random spurt of pain, all of a sudden I'm like, going down every rabbit hole. And hypothetically, what if I was having a stroke? Like, stupid, stupid stuff. But I can't be the only one, like, I think that actually has a name. I don't know. I just get a little paranoid sometimes about my health. So with that being said, me just simply going into this ice bath and feeling the way that my fingers and my toes were getting tingly and I couldn't feel them anymore, I was freaking out. Like, my mental was not okay in that moment, which is so silly because I only had to be in the ice bath for, like, a minute and a half or maybe two minutes, and I was freaking out. I didn't like the way it made me feel. Everything was running through my mind of like, you're gonna get hypothermia, Ally. You're gonna lose feeling in your fingers. This isn't okay. You're not okay. You're not okay. You're not okay. And my brain was freaking out, and in my mind, I was like, you are being so weak. Like, you. Your mind is so weak. And I think a lot of people in that scenario would probably say the same thing, you know, it's like, ally, you're fine. But I think what I was grasping onto for dear life in that moment, I know this is a silly example, but, like, I literally was looking at Jesus and he was like, you're fine, you're okay. And I had to trust and have faith in that moment that he was telling me the truth and that I really was okay. I had to have faith in Jesus that I was not going to die via ice bath. Allie, you have to have faith not only in Jesus, but also in the way that Jesus designed your body. Like, your body is capable of these things, and it's okay. And you're not gonna die because you got in an ice bath for a minute to two minutes, you know? And, like, yeah, you might be uncomfortable right now, and your fingers might be getting numb and it might be getting a little freaky and tingly, but that doesn't mean that you're not okay. And it doesn't mean that Jesus isn't in control anymore. We have to have faith that at the end of the day, Jesus is in control. And so that is how we strengthen our mind, is by a renewal of our mind through faith, which is actually what brings transformation to our mind. That is how we strengthen our mind, that is how our mind is literally transformed and rewired is through faith in Jesus and believing that he is who he says he is. And so when things come into our mind that combat that truth that literally go against what God says, it goes against scripture, it goes against anything Jesus would actually ever say about you. And we need to take those thoughts captive and rebuke them. And I mentioned briefly that there are three sources of where our thoughts can come from. It could either come from ourselves, from God, or the enemy.

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Ali Yost (16:59)

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Ali Yost (19:29)

Thoughts are coming from God. We'll start with that is that God speaks truth, conviction, and peace. And so if the thoughts that come into your mind are of those things, you can feel confident that that is from the Lord. Now, things that could come from ourselves or our own flesh could be fear, insecurities, and temptation. And then thoughts that come from the enemy are flat out lies, accusations, and distortion. Second Corinthians 10:5, which is one of my favorite verses, which says, we are to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. And an even simpler translation of what that scripture means is that every thought that goes through your mind, you are going to take that thought and you're going to say, I'm actually going to have you answer to Jesus really quick and let me know if that's the truth, if Jesus agrees with you. But I'm going to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. So if it is a lie, if it's from the enemy, if it's from your flesh, it has to bow to Christ, it has to bow to Jesus. And Jesus then speaks the truth and says, no, that's not true. Under my feet. Under my feet, Satan. This is the truth about my son or my daughter. And it's wild how many times, like I have spoken that scripture over myself and it has actually immediately silenced anything that wasn't of God. There are times I've had to do that, even getting on this podcast where I've started speaking on the pod. And there are lies that are immediately combating my mind that are saying, you don't know what you're talking about. None of this makes any sense. What are you doing? You should just shut the camera off. Stop talking right now. Literally, to this day, that still happens to me. And so that is actually a scripture that I actively speak over my mind and live by is like, okay, every thought right now that is literally bullying me, whether it is from my flesh or the enemy, I take you captive and I submit you to the feet of Jesus right now. You have to obey to Christ because all things, all things actually have to obey and bow to Jesus. Why? Because he has defeated death and sin and all things evil in the world. Like, he has defeated everything. And so you don't have to agree with every thought that enters your mind. Like, you don't have to take responsibility for every thought that crosses your mind, and you don't have to agree with every thought that crosses your mind. You're going to take every thought, that thought captive and make it obey to Christ and say, I actually would love.

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Ali Yost (22:15)

It's literally Genesis in the Garden of Eden, when the enemy came up as. Like as a snake, and he was tempting, and he went up to Eve and he said, yeah, but is that really what God said? Did he really say that you couldn't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? I don't know if he said that. And it's like, that would have been the perfect opportunity for eve to practice second Corinthians 10:5. He's like, okay, I'm actually gonna take that thought captive. Whether I agree with it or not, I don't know. I can't tell. Doesn't really feel good because I could have sworn that God said this. But I'm gonna take that captive and I'm gonna submit it to the Lord. And I'm gonna say, hey, does this make. Does this align? Is this right, God? I'm actually going to make that thought bow to Christ. And anything that actually is supposed to stay will stay. Anything that isn't will go in Jesus name. I rebuke it. And that. That would have been a time for Eve to do that, you know? And also something to clarify, too, I think this is worth mentioning is not every thought that crosses our mind is a sin. Like, if you have a thought that went through your mind that's like, not good. Whether it's about yourself, about someone else, about a situation, about God himself. Could be anything, but it could be a thought that crosses your mind that you're not proud of, or it doesn't make you feel good, or you're like, ooh, I don't like that. I don't know if I agree with that. That in itself is not a sin. But what isn't good and where a lot of damage can be made is when you agree with that thought. If it's a bad thought and it's not a thought from the Lord, you. If you're agreeing with it, like, if you come into agreement with that thought and you feed it, that is when things get bad. I will just speak for myself and say, and hopefully a lot of you guys will relate to this. But anytime that I know I'm supposed to be combating a lie or exposing a lie in my mind and replacing it with the truth, it feels as if I am trying to rep £1,000. Sometimes it is so hard to get myself to a place of even opening my mouth and saying, okay, this is a lie that's going through my head. I'm exposing it. I'm gonna say it out loud. This is what's happening in my mind, and say the lie out loud and then combat it with the truth of what God says, which is straight up scripture. So an example could be like, maybe there's a thought that's crossing your mind that says, I'm unlovable. Okay, first we need to acknowledge the lie and voice it. We need to like wizard of Oz it and freaking rip the curtain back and see the dinky little lie that looks so big right from behind the curtain with the shadow and the light put on it. It looks like it's this massive, scary, intimidating thing that you just don't want. I don't want to, like, I don't want to say it out loud. I don't want to acknowledge it. I feel like this is a thousand pounds to try to. I don't want to. But just. You gotta just rip the curtain back and you're gonna say it out loud. You're gonna say, the lie that's going through my freaking mind right now is that I am unlovable. And then combat it with what God says, which is I am loved with an everlasting love, which is Jeremiah 31:3. It says in the Bible that you are loved. That should be enough. You are loved, but not only loved, but with an everlasting love from Jesus. You were loved so much that God gave his one and only Son to die for you so that you could be forgiven of your sins. You were loved so much that Jesus died on the cross for you before you ever even said you loved him, before you were even created. You were just a plan in God's heart at that point, like you were a plan in his mind of something that he knew he was going to bring to this earth. And he still did that before you had any idea that lie has now been combated by the truth. And you're going to also speak that over yourself. You're going to speak the lie out and you're going to say, I combat that lie with the truth of Jeremiah 31:3 or John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. And by the way, the world includes you. You're in that crew. You're in the crew of the world. He loved you so much that he gave his one and only son, who was his beloved. He was so proud, so obsessed, his perfect, sinless son, Jesus. Like literally, as a sacrificial lamb, a sacrifice for you. That's how loved you are. Okay, lie is gone. It's immediately rebuked. It's been proven wrong. It's not. It's not true. Running a podcast.

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Ali Yost (29:02)

Another thought that could go through your head is, I'm not safe. I'm not okay right now. Me in the ice bath. But in my mind I was like, I'm not safe. I'm not okay. When the truth is okay. Some scripture we can combat that with is, the Lord is my refuge and strength, which is Psalm 46:1. Another example is, I had to go to the gas station last night at 11 o' clock at night, because why? My fault. It was my fault. But I put it off, forgot that I needed to get gas. I left hanging out with my friends. It's 11 o' clock at night, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I need to get gas. It's 11 o'. Clock. Lord, am I gonna be okay? And I felt from the Lord that if I had gotten gas, he was going to protect me. It's either that or I get stuck on the side of the road, okay? Which is a lot more unsafe than trusting the Lord, knowing that he's protecting me. And if I felt from God that he was going to keep me safe, which I did, I felt him say, ally, I'm going to protect you. Let's go get gas. I'm with you. I am your refuge. I am your strength. I got you, girl. And so I said, okay, God, I trust you. And so I went to the gas station, and guess what? I was fine. No one was even there. And the gas station that I went to was, like, super safe, actually. So it was great. It was amazing. Everything's fine, Ali. You're safe. You're fine. Another good one is, has this thought run through any of our minds before is that God doesn't care. He doesn't care. I'm not on his freaking radar. It doesn't matter. This is irrelevant to him. He honestly hasn't shown up in this area of my life any way. He. He doesn't care. Nothing's changed. I don't understand. I know that he says that his timing is perfect, but, like, why not yet? I feel like I'm drowning. Am I, like, does he Even see me. I feel so ignored. I feel so neglected right now. Why is he not coming through? God does not care. And I would like to say. I beg to differ, actually. The Lord begs to differ because it says in his word in 1st Peter 5, 7, is to cast our cares onto him, for he cares for you. And what's cool about Scripture is it is, like, so straight to the point. It is so simple. It is like, yeah, so cast your cares onto him because he cares for you. And, like, I know that you feel otherwise. I know that your mind is telling you that that's not true. But we have to believe in the word of God. We have to believe that it is everlasting and it is the truth, and this is God's heart for us. And so even though it doesn't feel like God cares because you're not seeing the things that you want to see or you're not receiving the breakthrough that you so desperately want, I'm telling you that the desperation of that breakthrough that you have, God has that times a million more. It's. It's crazy how much we forget how invested God is in our lives. Because the truth is, is he didn't just put us here on Earth to plop us here and then say, good luck. He's invested. He's invested in the very masterpiece that he created, which is you. He's invested in your. In your life and in the very things that happen to you. And so for you to sit there and think, God doesn't care. He cared enough to create you. He cares enough to take care of you, the very desires of your heart, God cares so much more than you could ever imagine. And so that is a lie that I believe comes straight from the pits of Hell. God doesn't care. Yeah. Wouldn't the enemy love for you to believe that? He would love to put a wedge between you and your heavenly Father and convince you that God does not care about you anymore? Because homeboy's honestly just jealous and he's bitter that God said, yeah, you're not gonna be a part of anything anymore. Actually, you are being kicked out of heaven. I'm blasting you to hell. That is your future. And so, honestly, the enemy's just projecting, bro. He's just mad and he's jealous that God is obsessed with you, that he cares about you and he loves you and he is invested in your life. He's not invested in the enemy anymore. Lucifer made his mind up. He made his decision. And so he's bitter that God is so invested in your life. And so he's going to convince you in every way he can that God does not care anymore. And so you need to combat that lie. You need to take that lie captive, pluck it out of your freaking mind and say it out loud and say, okay, there is a lie or there is a thought in my mind that is telling me that God does not care. But that's interesting because it says in 1st Peter 5, 7 that I'm supposed to cast my cares onto God for He is the one who cares for me. He cares for me flat out. It immediately contradicts that lie in your head and it is straight to the point. It's simple. It says he cares for you. Oh, can't argue with that. If that's what it says in Scripture. Can't argue with that. The other thing that we need to recognize about the enemy is he is the author of lies. All he can do is tell lies. And sometimes he blankets it in a little bit of truth. We've talked about that on the podcast before. Okay, is even a half truth is still a full lie. So like the half truth in your mind in that scenario could be like, yeah, but God hasn't done anything up until this point. No, actually that's not even true. Because just cause we're not seeing it doesn't mean God's not doing anything. But let's say you haven't received the breakthrough yet. Maybe the truth is, well, I haven't seen anything yet. I haven't gotten breakthrough yet. Okay, that's true. You don't see anything yet. That's true. You haven't received full breakthrough yet. But what makes that a lie is just because you're not seeing it or just because you haven't received the breakthrough yet. The lie is that that actually isn't the determining factor on whether God cares or not. Because it says right in his word that he does. And then that is when we get to exercise our mental strength and our faith, which is actually what renews our mind and makes our mind strong. And we say, okay, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of what I see in the natural right now, regardless on whether we've received the breakthrough yet, that is not what I put my trust in. I cannot put my faith in what I'm seeing, what I'm feeling. That is not what I have my faith in. I'm not going to have my faith in. Well, I'm not seeing this. Well, I'm not seeing breakthrough. I don't see any change in this area of my life. We don't put our faith in the works of God. We put our faith in God, period. Our faith is in Christ, not in the works of Christ, not in the way things are shifting and moving. And when breakthrough comes and when things change like that is not what we put our faith in. We put our faith in the Lord first. And so if he's not letting things shift and move yet, we gotta just trust that. And that's just a surrender. We have to be able to say, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know why you're doing this, God, I don't know why this is happening to my life. But what is going to strengthen that muscle of your mind is saying, but I have faith in you regardless. Okay, but I trust you. Cause you're telling me this thing, but I'm seeing a different thing. And that's okay. I'm just going to trust what you say to me, which is that you care, which is that you're invested, which is that you are my shepherd, you are my strength, you are my refuge. When I don't feel strong, when I don't feel safe, when it looks like everything around me is crumbling, when my fingers are going numb and I'm sitting in my ice bath, okay, God, I'm gonna trust what you say and I'm gonna trust that you are telling me the truth.

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Ali Yost (37:43)

And another thing that we can practice when it comes to speaking truth out loud, okay? And we're practicing our mental strength, we're practicing our faith, we're practicing renewal of mind is making a statement of like, well, it is written. Which is actually exactly what Jesus did. Why don't we just do what Jesus did? It is exactly what Jesus did when he was in the wilderness for 40 days and the enemy was trying to tempt him and say all these stupid things to him. Be like, well, bow to me and obey me, and if you do this, I'll give you everything. And Jesus is like, okay, well, this is what God says. This is what's written and Then the enemy even tried to, like, combat him with scripture as well. But it's so good to know scripture one like well enough. And then also to be like, no, but it is actually written that this is what God says. So speak the truth out loud. And even Jesus fought lies with scripture spoken when tempted. He said it is written. Guys, listen to me, please. If there's anything you take from this episode, it is this alone. Okay? So lock in. I know you're washing your dishes. I know you're painting your nails. I know you're walking your dog. I don't just hold on. Lock in. Do I have your attention? There is something so powerful about speaking truth out loud. Because the thing is, it's like I have spoken truth in my mind. I've combated thoughts in my mind. In my mind. But there is power when the word of God leaves your mouth and you're saying it out loud. There is power when you speak the word of God over others, over yourself. In the atmosphere of where you're at. If you're praying over your home, don't just pray in your mind. There is a power and authority that. I have full body chills right now. Somebody please hear me. There is authority and power that comes when you speak the word of God out of your mouth. It is like a sword that comes out of your mouth. It is a weapon. Like, it is a weapon when your tongue and your voice and the word of God go like this. It is like. Like you are sucker punching the enemy in every direction. Like, goodbye. Under my feet. You are squashing scorpions and snakes. You are trampling them. When you speak the word of God out loud. I need you guys to do that. I need you to do that more in your life. I'm gonna do that more in my life. We are all coming into agreement, like, right now, holding each other accountable. New Year. Like, this is. This is one of our New Year's resolutions. We're holding each other accountable. Starting today. We are speaking the truth of the word of God out of our mouths. More. We're speaking it over ourselves. We're speaking it over our families. We're speaking it over our homes. We're speaking it over our situations. We're speaking it over that cancer. We're speaking it over infertility. In Jesus name. We are speaking the word of God over ourselves and over our situation. Can I get an amen? I'm freaking out. I need you to pray over yourself, over your babies, over your family. Word of God, the sword of our lives is scripture. There is power when the word leaves your mouth. You're going to speak Psalm 23:1 over yourself. You're going to read the entire Psalm 23 over yourself, actually. And it says, the Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. Let's read Psalm 23 right now, bro. We might be combating the enemy right now as we speak. We're combating him with scripture right now. What a freaking twerp. Okay, Psalm 23, everybody read it with me. We're going to read it out loud. We're going to practice this, okay? We're going to practice the power of when the Word of God actually leaves our mouths. Okay? Psalm 23:1. Everyone open your Bibles. I'll give you a second. Taking a sip of my coffee. Yours might sound a little different because I'm reading nlt, but it says, the Lord is my shepherd. I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life. I will live in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Amen. Start reading scripture over yourself out loud. Praying in your mind is great. Reading scripture in your mind is great. But there is something different. There is something that happens in the spiritual realm. There is something that happens in the atmosphere when we speak scripture out loud. I've witnessed that in my own life. Like, yes, there is power in reading scripture in your mind, but there is power with saying it out loud. And you are. It's like you're also coming into agreement with the truth by saying it out loud. By simply speaking scripture, you are saying, yes, I believe this. You're shaking hands with the truth of the Bible. Another scripture that just absolutely rocks to speak over yourself is Romans 8, 38, 39. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today, nor our worries about tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God. That is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Okay, so this is the order of events, okay? Truth has to be declared first. That is the only way that faith gets strengthened. And then it is through our faith that our mind is strengthened. So it's like this rippling effect that has to start with, like, establishing the truth. That is step one. Acknowledging the lie, combating it with truth, and establishing, okay, what? Like, this is the truth. This is the lie. This is the truth. Declaring the truth is what strengthens our faith. Like, honestly, that whole moment right now just strengthened my faith. I'm like, let's freaking go. Speaking that scripture, declaring that truth just boosted my faith. Did it not boost yours? Tell me somebody else on the other end of this podcast. Faith was boosted after that, right? It's because we declared truth. That's the foundation. Then our faith is boosted, which actually renews and restores our mind, which then allows us to have more of a mental strength. That is where our mind will be renewed and strengthened is through our faith, which is boosted in the foundation of faith. Word of God. It's Jesus, guys. It's all Jesus. Everything is Jesus. You want to have a stronger mind. Jesus. You want to have deeper faith. Jesus, where do you. Where's the truth? Jesus? What are we talking about? It's the. It's Jesus. I can't lay down anymore.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (45:44)

I'm, like, getting hyped.

Ali Yost (45:46)

What started as, like, a nappy episode, we're, like, freaking out. And also just looping back to the thing that I had mentioned a little bit earlier about how not every thought, like, thoughts don't necessarily. Especially thoughts that you don't agree with. You know, it's just like weird, random passing thoughts that could either be of your flesh or the enemy. But thoughts that go through your mind, like, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a stuff sin, but coming into agreement with it and shaking hands with it and being like, yeah, that's right, that's true. I'm gonna live by that. That's an identity I'm gonna take on. This is a lifestyle I'm going to do. Because it's true. Coming into agreement with it and. Or feeding the very thought can be a sin. And God actually tells us in scripture and warns us to not do that. Colossians 3, 2 actually tells us to set our minds on things above. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole World, you will share in all his glory. God tells us to focus on heavenly things. And so the things that we come into agreement with, the things that we focus on, the things that we feed, are the things that grow. So some questions that you could ask yourself is, what am I consuming right now? What environments trigger bad thoughts? That's a great place to start, too. It's like, if you're like, okay, I don't know why these thoughts keep coming into my mind. Like, okay, I recognize that they're lies and I don't like it, and they're always popping in. So what's. What the heck is going on? There could be something in your life that you're fueling those or triggering those thoughts in your mind. So, yes, it could be, what am I consuming? What environment, like, am I in when these bad thoughts come? Like, is there a common denominator of triggers? What kind of habits keep those thoughts alive? That could be good or bad, right? That could be the bad thoughts. But it could also be, like, we could also observe, you know, when are you thriving the most with having, like, heavenly thoughts, like, good thoughts? When are you thriving the most when heavenly thoughts are in your mind? What are the environments like? What are the healthy habits where you're like, ooh, I actually thrive the most, and I. I, like, have the most holy thoughts or like, scriptures run through my mind after I'm in environments like this or after I spend time in the secret place, whatever, you know, what habits are keeping those thoughts alive. And sometimes the most spiritual thing that you could do is stop adding fuel to whatever fire is happening in your mind. And I think the best fire extinguisher to that fire, if you've already been fueling one and it's been burning and it's kind of big, is the truth. It's declaring truth. And so I think that something powerful to know is not only resisting the thoughts, but actually redirecting them, which is the only way that we can do that is by combating it with truth. You are. You're redirecting your mind, rerouting and saying, okay, I'm not going to go down this path anymore. I'm going to combat it with a truth, and I'm going to go down this path.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (48:50)

Now.

Ali Yost (48:50)

I'm redirecting my mind, not just resisting, stuffing, shoving it aside. And I think another thing that's really important when it comes to strengthening your mind, taking thoughts captive, like renewing your mind through faith, is inviting the Holy Spirit into your thought life, which actually practically looks like A daily surrender, probably. And that could be a simple prayer of like, holy Spirit, renew my mind. Reveal to me when lies are coming into my mind. Show me where I'm believing lies, and please give me your peace. Because it also says in Romans 8, 6. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit, as in the Holy Spirit, as in Jesus Christ, control your mind leads to life and peace. Or in another translation, the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. You aren't meant to fight alone. Like, you aren't meant to actually combat these things by yourself. Find the strength within yourself to be stronger mentally. Like you are actually meant to call upon the Lord, to call upon the Holy Spirit. Because it is. It is a mind that is governed by the Spirit, not your own strength, not your own understanding, not your own ways of shoving or resisting. It is a mind that is governed by the Spirit, that is life and peace. God said, hey, I want to help you. I want to partner with you in this, and it's not a burden. I actually, I wrote it down for all of eternity for a reason, because I was prepared to help you with these things. Invite the Holy Spirit, let Him help you. Let him give you the strength. Because honestly, that's actually the only way you're going to receive mental strength. That's the only way that you're going to be able to combat the icky things that come through your mind is by inviting Jesus into your mind. So in conclusion, what are we going to do moving forward when it comes to strengthening our minds, combating lies, whether it's from ourselves or from the enemy? Step one is we're not only going to establish the truth, which is the word of God, but we're going to speak the truth out loud, because there is power in us coming into agreement with the truth and speaking it out loud. And then we're going to let the Holy Spirit come and renew our mind and strengthen our faith. It's actually that simple. The hardest part is probably the very beginning step, which is exposing the lie and saying it out loud and then declaring the truth out loud. But I believe that even in our weaknesses, the Lord is strong for us because that is also what he says in Scripture. And so ask him for the strength to do it. Like, if it is like nails on a chalkboard, so hard for you to do, you just have to push and you have to ask the Lord for strength and just be like, this is what. I will literally be stuck in this rut, in this mental obsession in this self condemnation, I will be stuck in this thought process forever if I don't expose the lie right now and combat it with truth. And what's awesome is the more that you practice that in your life, the more you're gonna see the fruit of it and the more you're gonna be familiar to that feeling of, like, feeling so boosted and having your faith boosted and having your confidence in Jesus boosted and like practicing that authority and you're gonn standing up straighter and your shoulders are gonna go back more and you're gonna realize the authority that you have through Christ, that it will start to become second nature for you and it will get easier. Like I do believe that is a muscle that you will be working out. I'm not saying it'll be easy all the time, but I do think that it is a skill to be strengthened. And there's beautiful fruit on the other end of it. There's freedom, there's peace, there's connection to Jesus. Anyway, guys, I love you so much. I love you guys. I'm so proud of you. Honestly. I'm excited for your week this week. I'm excited for your weekend rest.

Prayer Leader / Co-host (52:51)

Of course.

Ali Yost (52:52)

Like, I'm excited. I'm excited for you. I think that this is a really good reminder for all of us of what we truly are capable through the power of Jesus and what he says about us. I love you guys. I hope you have a beautiful weekend. I will see you next week. And hey, before we go, can we do something cool today? Can we actually show somebody how cool Jesus is? Can we walk more like him, talk more like him, submit our thoughts to him? Let's be a blessing to the people around us. I hope you guys have a beautiful week and I will see you next time. Bye.