God asked Adam in Genesis 3:11, “Who told you that you were naked?” The Lord has taken this phrase, “Who told you that?” to challenge whether what I am believing is a lie or truth.

He would ask me this when I would say things like: 

• I do not have the gift of healing.
• I don’t remember names well.
• I am inferior to other leaders.
• There is something uniquely wrong with me.
• This area is hard for the gospel.

Invariably, my answer would be, “My past and my feelings told me that.” He would ask me, “Why do you get your beliefs out of your feelings and experience  rather than what I have said?” I did not have a good answer. 

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). What I discovered was that I was being conformed to the world’s way of where I got my beliefs (my past and my feelings). Certainly, we don’t deny our past or feelings, but our lives will be limited if we base our beliefs on them. 

I like to do spiritual experiments. One of my experiments I have done concerns jet lag. I realized I had faith that jet lag would happen to me when I traveled (especially overseas). “Steve, who told you that?” Oops, I had done it again. I had passively come into agreement with my past experience and had created a negative belief system (stronghold) concerning this. This stronghold resulted not only from my own experience but also from hearing about the experiences of others and hearing what the experts said happens to the body when we take long flights through many time zones. I decided to experiment and not believe in jet lag but to believe in jet “bounce”. 

When a long trip was coming up, I would say to Wendy, “I am concerned I am going to have such a bad case of jet bounce on this trip that I will have too much energy. I am worried that when I arrive at my destination, I will run up to the host pastor, grab him by his lapels, and say, “I demand to do a meeting right now!”

I said this and declared truths like: 

• I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, including travel victoriously!
• I am supernaturally energized for trips!
• My body adapts well to different time zones!
• I am a person of radical jet bounce who sometimes has jet lag experiences!

It is the last declaration that holds a key for us. Just because we choose to believe something, it does not mean we will immediately start to experience it. Deciding what to believe is like setting a new temperature on a thermostat. We set the temperature by faith believing the room will eventually manifest the temperature we set. The “gap time” (the time where we still experience the old “temperatures”) is our opportunity to live by faith. 

Our experiences will eventually catch up to our beliefs. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Current mind renewal creates future experience. Whatever I renew my mind with today will transform my tomorrows. Transformation is getting into our experience, our biblical identity and the promises of God. Some of this transformation will happen after our lifetime here on earth. 

Since I started believing in jet bounce, my jet lag experiences have decreased greatly. It has not been eliminated completely, but my mindset shift has both good fruit. My experiment with jet bounce showed me how to apply it to more important areas of life like relationships, finances, protection, spiritual gifts, etc. 

What beliefs do you need to stop renewing your mind with?

Here are questions to help reveal this and get a plan to overcome the lies creating this self-limiting belief:

• What do you believe is hard?
• What do you believe you are not good at?
• Which of these are the most important to address now?
• What do you need to believe to have hope to break free in that area?
• What declarations can you consistently make from these new beliefs?
• Who can you partner with to help you?

Romans 12:2 takes all limits off of our lives because there is no limit to how much we can renew our minds, so there is no limit to how much we can be transformed. Somebody say, NO LIMITS!