Jennie Allen Message Review | Is it All About Our Thoughts?

I see across the earth, across every different country, from all different backgrounds, all different ages, that we would, for two days, come together and ignore our feeds, ignore all the noise, ignore the chaos inside of us, and listen to the

Word of God taught. Here, open your Bibles to Romans 8. It won't surprise you. Guess what I'm gonna talk about. Set your mind.

If you're familiar with the passage in Romans 8, this is a huge theme. It is this idea that you come to this point where it's like, you know what?

At the end of the day, we have a choice. If 2020, we are going to focus completely, entirely, solely on the person of Jesus.

Every parenting. I want kids. I don't want kids anymore.

Give me another one. Every talk is going to be about Jesus. The theme of IfGathering 2020 is

Jesus. What would or does a free, sold -out Christian who is setting their mind on the

Spirit, what do they look like? Like, just say the words. Let's go. Because we're gonna preach the name of Jesus. We're gonna preach the name of Jesus.

It's the only name we care about. It's the only name that changes lives. The only hope we have to give. I wanna be setting my mind over here and hitting it every single time.

But for some reason, it feels like most of the church isn't. It is what we're going to put all of our hope, all of our stock in, because we know

He is the only hope. We know there is nothing that can solve the chaos of this world and the chaos inside of us, except for Him.

He is going to be the thing we focus all of our attention on in IfGathering 2020.

Let's start with your thoughts. Each of you have 9 ,000 to 60 ,000 thoughts in a day.

9 ,000 to 60 ,000 thoughts. My husband swears I have 150 ,000. Because we believe there's gonna be people that meet

Jesus for the very first time. We believe there's gonna be people that have been far away from God and the church, and they're gonna come back.

We believe there are people that love Jesus, but they don't know what it means to live for Him. And we're gonna talk about all of that.

Evil never wants you to notice it. So what a powerful plan.

Get us alone in the dark and tell us whatever the hell He wants. My dream, guys,

I don't dream small, I only dream big. And my dream is to disciple a whole generation. And that takes all of us working together.

We give you the tools, you all take them and use them in your places. We cannot wait to see what God's going to do. Do not miss, if 2020 will be the best one yet.

See, the reason I wanted to demonstrate this to you, I wanted to show you what we're up against is because I think, we think, our thoughts are no big deal.

And what you will leave with, I believe, is more of Jesus. We have lost our confidence in the authority, the sufficiency, and the power of the

Word of God. The battle today is over the sufficiency of Scripture. Whether or not Scripture is everything we need, or whether we need something more.

Today, that's where the battle is being waged. And unfortunately, the church is losing that battle because we have a widespread amongst evangelicalism, a desire to have more outside of Scripture.

And we have lost our confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture to do everything that we need it to do, and our confidence in the power of the

Bible to do everything that it is promised to do. So even amongst Bible -believing fundamentalist, Baptist, Bible -belt churches that have, in their statements, high statements regarding Scripture, like we believe in inerrancy and authority and the sufficiency of Scripture, and that it is

God's Word for us today. Even in those circles, you get a lack of belief in the sufficiency of Scripture. And I'll give you a couple examples of that.

The way in which the Word of God takes a backseat in the worship service, the preaching, the ministry, and the life of most churches in our land.

The Word of God is put on the back burner, the back shelf. Now, this happens not because there is a group of leaders within the church who all meet in a dark room, around a table in their dark robes, wringing their hands, offering blood sacrifices to Satan, and wondering how can we hide the

Word of God from our people. That's not what goes on. Instead, it becomes a practical denial of the centrality of Scripture in the preaching and in the teaching and in the life of the church in just the way things are done.

They don't read long passages of Scripture up in front of everybody, because that just doesn't set well with congregations that really want to be entertained.

And so it's not that they don't quote Scripture, it's they do. It's just that they don't spend as much time exegeting Scripture and explaining

Scripture as they do explain in the context of the movie clip they're about to play, or the music video they're about to play, or a song lyric, or a life lesson from the life of the pastor, or something, anything other than Scripture.

It's that the Word of God just doesn't take center stage in all that it has done. And so though they would say, they would affirm the orthodoxy of a belief in the inspiration of Scripture, and it's an errance in its centrality, and to say, it is the

Word of God. But then to live that out in the life of what is done inside the church on a

Sunday morning, Scripture is remarkably absent. It's just not there because they have a confidence in almost anything other than Scripture.

Welcome to the Thoroughly Equipped podcast, where we compare the teachings from popular women's ministry, books, conferences,

Bible studies, et cetera, to Scripture. Our focus is 2 Timothy 3, 16 to 17, that all

Scripture is God -breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I'm your host, Melba Toast. May this episode bless you and bring glory to God. Hey ladies, welcome to another episode of Thoroughly Equipped.

If you are new to this channel, well, welcome. So we have been diving into the

If Gathering, which is a very popular women's ministry, and we are going through a series here looking at the teachers, discerning what they teach, and diving into especially the way they handle

Scripture in these next coming episodes. In the first episode, we compared

Jenny Allen's goal in discipleship to Scripture's goal for discipleship to see if they desire the same thing for women.

The If Gathering states that their goal is to reclaim discipleship as God's means to change the world, while Scripture states the goal of discipleship is to baptize people of all nationalities in the name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that Christ commands. Different goals will use different tools and produce different outcomes.

Now in this part of the series, I am presenting to you the popular teachers that present at the conference, their ministries, and how they handle

Scripture at the conference. And the If 2020 conference was a great way to assess this as Jenny Allen had each presenter teach on a portion of Romans chapter eight, claiming the women watching would get more of Jesus.

Jada Edwards was the first presenter who was to teach on Romans 8, one through four.

Now, these verses are known as some of the most wonderful verses in the

Bible. They proclaim our freedom from the condemnation of God's wrath due to us because of our inability to obey

God's law. They also succinctly explain what God did to save us from his justified wrath.

And that was to send his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

But what we got from Ms. Edwards was very lacking in my opinion.

Sin was mentioned, but it was reduced to being a mess. The word gospel was mentioned, but presented as God pursued us, not a word about repentance and trust in what

Jesus did. We were told that there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus, equating being in Jesus to surrendering fully to Jesus by making him

Lord. All of this from a passage of scripture, if handled correctly, would have unburdened so many women captured by sins.

Instead, it presented Jesus as giving no condemnation by trusting that God just fixed our mess.

We need only to surrender fully to God, because we need to be made whole. And if God says there's no eternal condemnation, we can be sure that there is no earthly condemnation either.

This was the gospel we were encouraged not to alter by the end of her message.

Now today's message is given by Jenny Allen herself on Romans 8, 5 -8.

But before we dive into Ms. Allen's message, I'm going to go over what she claimed was her vision for this year's conference to bring it to our memory.

I want to give you a vision for these two days, because you have braved childcare, tornadoes, snow storms to get to your houses.

You're literally, some of you watching right now are watching from a complete stranger's house. You know no one.

You literally showed up at a stranger's house. This is a miracle. It is a miracle that across the earth right now, over 3 ,000 events are taking place.

It's a miracle. It's a miracle that over 600 college students are hosting in their dorm rooms, on their campuses, in homes and apartments.

It's a miracle. And so many people show up at If Gathering and they're like, what is happening?

Where are we? And I just, I don't want a single person to miss what it is we're doing here.

I don't want anything to distract you. I don't want to confuse you that this is a show or that we've prepared some entertainment for you.

That's not why we're here. I don't think that's why you're here. I don't think you came to be entertained. I think you came because you are weary.

I think you came because you are hungry and thirsty. I think you came because you were like, you know what? I don't know right now about God, but I'm gonna give him these two days and we're gonna see.

Some of you, you are walking in and your marriage is falling apart.

And I just want to say it at the very beginning that you are welcome here, that we are so glad you said yes and that you overcame barriers to show up.

I just want you to know, no matter how invisible you feel, no matter how scary this is, no matter how daggum awkward this might be, that you would know that this is a place you're gonna be safe.

We're gonna do our best to take care of you. We are fighting for you because we are at war, people.

It is wild. And we need Jesus more than we've ever needed him and this world needs Jesus. And as I prayed about 2020, let me tell you, this is what

I dreamt. This is what I saw. It wasn't about us. It wasn't about you watching.

It wasn't about you in your seat. It was about the world. And I believe what's gonna happen here in the next two days, it's going to shape eternity.

I believe it. And not because we're fancy or special, but because we're gonna preach the name of Jesus. We're gonna preach the name of Jesus.

It's the only name we care about. It's the only name that changes lives. The only hope we have to give. And those of you that that's news to you and your neighbor tricked you,

I'm sorry. But you know what I think? I think you're gonna love him. I think you're gonna love him.

I think you're gonna find out he's so different than what you thought. He is delightful. And he is delighted that we're together.

He is smiling so big right now that his girls across the earth are coming together for two days to talk about him, to talk to him, and to make him known on this earth.

It's my greatest hope. 3 ,000 locations across the globe. Wow, that's a lot of women.

A woman of all sorts of backgrounds, women who know Jesus and women who don't know Jesus. Women who are struggling in their lives with trial and tribulations of all shapes and sizes.

Her hope for the conference is that the audience come to know Jesus and go back and proclaim Jesus to the world.

I agree to a certain extent. A women's conference should help equip women with the knowledge of Jesus, who he is, what he's done, what he will do, and the tools he has given to equip women to live by faith in the gospel.

So as I present to you their messages, keep this in mind and observe how much they talk about him and proclaim him.

And especially because there are unbelieving women attending this conference, let's assess whether they give the full gospel.

Of course, the 2020 conference is a perfect opportunity to show just how well these women handle scripture.

Questions to consider in every episode as we're looking at each of the teachers at the 2020 conference.

Do they draw out from the scripture in context what the Holy Spirit through Paul wishes to teach us?

Or do they take certain verses, words, or concepts out of their context so they may interject what they want to teach?

Do they talk more about themselves, their stories, or do they talk about Christ and his work?

Do they talk rightly about sin so they can rightly give the gospel?

Do they make the gospel more about God's great love for you, his pursuit of you, his plan for you, without first explaining our sinful nature, our state as children of wrath, who have no hope without trusting in the finished work of Christ?

Do they exalt Christ and his work because by it we have no other hope? Or do they treat the gospel as something of the past and now we need motivational, engaging speeches to live as Christians?

Do they not only proclaim by words that the scriptures are authoritative without error and sufficient to train us onto righteousness, but act on that belief by teaching from the scriptures, handling it with honor in its context, urging their listeners to look to it to thoroughly equip them for all good works?

Or do they dishonor it and minimize its necessity to equip us by adding their own philosophies, examples, ideas, and opinions?

All right, so those are just some questions that I'm gonna continually look and try to answer as we go throughout this series.

So let's start with Jenny Allen, okay? Who is Jenny Allen? Well, Jenny Allen is founder and visionary leader of the

If Gathering. After receiving a voice from heaven, giving her the instruction to disciple a generation.

I wanna just for one second give you a little bit behind the scenes of where this all came from. About seven years ago, a voice from the sky doesn't often speak to me, but that day there was this whisper.

It was the middle of the night actually, and it was gather and equip your generation. Jenny Allen became founder and visionary leader of the

If Gathering. Over the years, the If Ministry added more resources and tools besides the conference to become a ministry for women to disciple other women.

She is also a New York Times bestselling author. Her titles include

Nothing to Prove, Get Out of Your Head, Find Your People, and her newest release,

Untangle Your Emotions. All are labeled as Bible studies. She has spoken at the

Porch Conference. She's spoken at Liberty University's Convocation. She's presented at Dallas Theological Seminary, even been interviewed on TVN's Praise, and is the host of the podcast show titled

Made for This. Allen's current project is what is coming in March 1st, 2025, known as Gather 25, a 25 -hour online gathering of the global church.

After having a dream, she began to ask this question, well, what if Jesus returns in 10 years?

And from that question, she got the vision for Gather 25. I have some questions and concerns regarding this, what she called the new move of God, and did an episode relaying my concerns, which if you are interested, the link to that episode is in the show notes.

Jenny Allen does not call herself a preacher, but has claimed to preaching at conferences.

I have not been able to find anything of her actually preaching to a local church during a

Sunday service, other than the convocations and other seminary presentations that she has given.

She does, however, call herself a Bible teacher, one who has gone to seminary.

Her latest conference messages have been centered on the idea that our current battle is a battle for the mind and how we can manage our emotions.

She relays how the enemy is set to destroying our thought spirals by bombarding us with lies and how our emotions can be used by God to connect deeper with him, to conquer a time in her life, which she describes as a dark time full of lies for the enemy.

She decided to attack lies with psychological research and God's word. If you have not listened to my critique on her

Bible study titled, Get Out of Your Head, you should go back and listen to those episodes from season one.

I go through the study highlighting what I thought was good and bad in her study. For this episode, I will mention that while I'm very eager for women to break open their

Bible and study it, I am extremely wary of how that study guide handles the text and what, if any, additional philosophy or sciences are brought into the guide to make the scripture more relevant.

In Jenny Allen's case, she included such sciences as positive psychology along with scripture to help you get out of your head, so to speak.

This undermines the sufficiency of scripture and Christ as the means to sanctify our thought patterns.

In that critique, I try to show you that the more we study scripture and especially study

Christ, the more our thought patterns will be conformed to him. A Bible study that draws out of the text, and in this case, the study of Philippians, should not only be handling the scripture correctly, but should also draw us closer to Christ.

Jenny Allen, instead of drawing out from the text, infers or puts in the text a more modern psychological idea merging a worldly science with scripture, and this is called syncretism.

It's a form of liberalism that has at its foundation the underlying belief that scripture is not authoritative on its own.

We need other authoritative tools, and it's not sufficient and efficacious on its own to sanctify

God's people. All right, so let's dive in to her message at the 2020 conference.

Jenny Allen had decided to give a message on Romans 8, verses 5 to 8.

So let's look at that passage before we dive into the message. Let's look at it in context, including verses one to four as well.

At the end of chapter seven, Paul is explaining how the spirit wrestles with the flesh, that the law is spiritual, but the flesh is sold under sin.

Therefore, he does not want to understand his own actions, that in his mind he is agreeing with the law that it is good, and yet he does not accomplish the law.

He has a desire to do what is right, to obey the law, but the evil he does not want to do, he keeps on doing.

He delights in the law of God in his inner being, but he sees in his members another law that wages war against his mind, making him captive to the law of sin that dwells in his members.

It is because he delights in God's law and wishes to obey it that he cries out in desperation that he is wretched because he is in need of a righteousness that is not his own so that he may be reconciled to God.

And it is from identifying this need that the gospel rescues us from condemnation.

This is where chapter eight is taken off. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

Now here are Jenny Allen's verses. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Okay, clearly in context,

Paul's talking about the war between the spirit and the flesh. The inability of the flesh to be able to obey or submit to God's law or it cannot.

Those who live according to the spirit set their minds on things of the spirit but what does it mean to set the mind on the flesh?

And what does Paul mean by setting the mind on the spirit? That's what I want you to keep in mind because this is what

Miss Allen's message is all about. The question is, does she teach what scripture teaches about what it means for one to set their mind on the flesh versus what it means to set the mind on the spirit?

So let's dive in. Right off the bat, she states that her message is about what it means to set the mind and that God gave her an analogy to be used.

The guys were like, tell us how you came up with this analogy. I was like, God, he was like, what do you mean?

I was like, I wouldn't have thought of this and I wouldn't have done it unless every time I thought to sit down and write about this talk, this is the image he gave me.

So we're gonna go here, open your Bibles to Romans 8. It won't surprise you. Guess what I'm gonna talk about? Set your mind.

If you're familiar with the passage in Romans 8, this is a huge theme. It is this idea that you come to this point where it's like, you know what?

At the end of the day, we have a choice. We have a choice how we're gonna live.

So let's read it together. Let's start with Romans 5. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

She rereads the text up to verse seven and explains that what we set our minds on is what we're going to think about.

Now, this is where her analogy comes in and I'll describe it for those listening through the podcast. On the stage, she has two basketball hoops, one on either side of the stage.

She describes that one side, the left side, is setting the mind on the flesh and the other hoop, the right side, is setting our mind on the spirit.

She proceeds to throw the basket at the flesh hoop, listing off certain fleshly things.

Listen to what she lists as setting our minds on the flesh. See, let's take job, for example.

Okay. Job, for example. I wanna be good at my job. I want a job.

I don't have a job. I don't get paid enough money. Oh, I am good at my job. I'm actually awesome.

In fact, I'm so good at my job that it brings me so much joy that I love my job.

I found a lot of significance in my job. I lose my job.

Okay, what's another one? Relationships, let's go with that. Okay, marriage. I wanna get married.

There's no cute boys that are in love with Jesus. I met a mediumly cute boy and he likes

Jesus. Thanks, you're doing so good. And he likes Jesus. I married that boy.

I don't wanna be married. It's way harder than I thought. I'm unhappy.

Give me another one. Parenting. I want kids.

I don't want kids anymore. Give me another one. Social media.

Twitter, they're mean. Instagram, they're pretty. I'm gonna watch

Netflix. I'm gonna watch The Bachelor. There's three seasons of it on Netflix right now.

I wanna get married again. And here's the thing, that all feels a little bit harmless.

Those are thoughts we think every day or they bump up close to thoughts that we do think regularly about. But what

Romans 8 says is that actually leads to sin and death. Now, this is very telling. She claimed that she received this analogy shooting a basketball into two different hoops from God, right?

Then in implementing her analogy, she goes to the audience to give examples of what it means to pursue the flesh.

Let's think about this. Does God's written word of scripture give us clear teaching on what it means to walk in the flesh?

Yes, it does. So why didn't she go to what God had already given to us instead of using some new analogy to receive from the audience what it means to set our minds on the flesh?

Don't you think if God was really involved in her planning, he would have told her to present what he taught from his word instead of to ask the audience?

Well, I think so. Why? Because the audience gave a completely different answer from what

God made clear in scripture. Wanting a job, wanting marriage, wanting children, being involved in social media are the audience's ideas of fleshly desires and things.

Now, social media, I can see, but these others? Now, at one point in my life, at a time when

I was steeped in the purpose -driven gospel, these two would have been on my fleshly list. I would have labeled them as worldly and selfish while any service

I dedicated to the church and others outside of my home would have been my spiritual service to God.

And in my mind, been of more importance. They were what I believed was helping

God bring in his kingdom. Until I learned about a lost doctrine called the doctrine of vocation, in which

I learned about the beauty of the law and the role the spirit plays in the disciple in helping one keep the law in our vocations.

For a woman, the role the spirit plays in her calling as a wife, mother, worker from home, sister, daughter, neighbor, and friend.

Now, in learning about this, I was brought to Galatians 5, 16 to 21. But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh for those are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherent the kingdom of God.

God is clear on what it looks like to walk in the flesh. It is to gratify the desires of the simple heart, the will to place our desires above those of God's word and will.

And God's word is clear on the role and good works of women in their vocation. And scripture is clear that if you desire marriage and children and even desire to have a job to support yourself or your family, these are not fleshly but good.

Our flesh can rear its ugly head in these pursuits, but the word of God equips us to love

God and love our neighbor through them. Now keep this in mind as we will have to tackle the biblical teachings on the flesh more further on in this episode.

She continues with her message. Let's play this out a little bit deeper. How many of you feel lonely right now?

Some way. Well, you're in this room and everybody's cute. I can see you. Raise your hands. Yeah. How many of you feel anxious in some way?

Depressed? We have a problem. And so Romans 8 says, set your mind on the world and everything in it it's gonna lead to sin and death.

And while ultimately that's true, especially for the unbeliever, what's also true is that those of us that know

Jesus, we have a choice. The next verses are gonna go on and say in verse seven and eight, you are the, let me go back to seven and eight,

Romans seven and eight. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed it can't.

So I can't turn to life and peace if I don't know Jesus. I am stuck there with the world. Whatever it can give me, whatever it can offer me, that's it.

I don't have another hope. There's no other storyline. But then if I have Jesus, then there's another storyline.

So she is right that for the unbeliever, they cannot pursue the things of the spirit. But notice that she slid right past what's said there, that the unbeliever cannot submit to God's law.

The unbeliever covets what he does not have, bears false witness, takes what doesn't belong to them, murders, hates, and thinks others are fools compared to themselves.

Lusts for people who are not their spouse, dishonors their parents and others in authority, does not receive the rest of God in Christ Jesus, continually misrepresents

God and His word in thought, speech, and deed, creates and worships false gods and or worships themselves.

And in all of this, they cannot know God, so cannot love God with all their heart, strength, and mind.

This is how we do not submit to God's law. And this is why we are condemned. Because to commit one of these is to transgress the whole law,

James 2, 9 -13. Okay, so we know what Jani Ellen and the audience's idea of the flesh is.

She then proceeds to the opposite side and then asks people to tell her what a person looks like who has set their mind on the spirit.

Check out what they say. But let's play out this side, team. Life and peace, let's describe it.

What would or does a free, sold out Christian who is setting their mind on the spirit, what do they look like?

Just say the words, let's go. Hopeful, joyful, confident, free, peaceful, settled, kind, fearless.

Love y 'all's answers. Enough. Okay, so she has set it up to describe a person who has set their mind on the spirit as looking like one who has peace, hope, confidence, etc.

And this sounds legit, doesn't it? There is a slight problem and I will go into that in a bit.

But first, let's see where she goes with the analogy. She's throwing the basketball into the net to make the point that someone who sets their mind on the spirit will make the net.

And then for those of you listening by podcast, a group of women circle her and block her from making the net.

Here's that clip. But what I wanna propose is there's more happening here.

That it's not just as simple as a choice. Like I'm gonna go over here. There is an all out attack.

So I'm trying to shoot. I'm trying to shoot. But it is literally, good job.

It is literally, I can't. Like I want to hit that goal. I want, thanks guys. I wanna be setting my mind over here and hitting it every single time.

But for some reason, it feels like most of the church isn't. We have a problem.

Because the vision God gave me was disciple a whole generation. It's gonna take all of us. So why aren't we free?

Why aren't we free? So by her analogy, she's trying to draw out that there are things that keep us from making that net.

That if we set our minds to being peaceful, hopeful, confident, we as a church should be accomplishing that.

Now I've laid out what it means to set the mind on the flesh. Is this what

Paul means by setting our minds on the spirit? Is it a conflict between good and evil and choosing peace, hope, joy, et cetera, other than worldly things?

No, this is a very subtle twist. Let me explain. All throughout the letter to the

Romans, Paul has been describing how all men are under the wrath of God because they do not submit to God's law.

He is not saying our problem is that we pursue material things, success, careers, riches, and we only need to pursue peace, love, and joy.

Now these certainly are things we need to address. But in this passage, he's talking about something way more specific, obeying the law of God.

What she's ended up doing here is she has made things like peace, hope, love, kindness, et cetera, law, things one must strive for as a

Christian. They are not law. They are fruits. They are a result of our desire to submit to God's law as we walk in our freedom from condemnation of it in the gospel.

The righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled for us in Christ, but it also is being fulfilled by us through the power of the spirit who lives in us as we set our minds on him.

Look at Romans 8, 1 to 8 in context again. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Galatians 5, 13 to 24 expounds upon this even more.

So let's go back to this verse, but in greater context. For you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself, but if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for they are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are eminent, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we set our mind on the spirit, he produces fruits in us, which there is no law against.

As we trust in the gospel, seeking after loving God and loving neighbor, albeit imperfectly through God's law, the spirit gives us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

Now she stated that these will come naturally to us, but her analogy made these fruits things we should succeed in as a church by asking why don't we set our minds on them?

Why do we not set our mind on that every single day? Why are our incredible lives built mostly over here, even as a church?

When in actuality, the verses are saying to set our mind on the spirit, meaning set our mind on obeying the law, from which then the fruits of the spirit will be produced.

So in doing so, she made these fruits laws. She does not explain that these are the works of the third person of the

Trinity. They are not our works, his works. But it gets worse. She then goes on to some statistics dealing with negative thoughts.

Let me give you a few statistics real quickly. I've been studying this for about two years now, and I'll tell you this.

What I thought was a little bit of a science experiment has turned into, in my life, World War.

So let's start with your thoughts. Each of you have 9 ,000 to 60 ,000 thoughts in a day.

9 ,000 to 60 ,000 thoughts. My husband swears I have 150 ,000. The only expertise

I brought to this in the beginning. I have a lot of thoughts. Of those thoughts, science will tell us that over 80 % of them are negative.

Over 80 % are negative. Now are you ready for this? Over 90 % are repetitive from the day before.

That means we're thinking the same toxic thoughts day after day, month after month, year after year.

Okay, so over 80 % of our thoughts are negative, and 90 % are repetitive from the day before, meaning we are thinking the same toxic thoughts over and over again.

I find this quite interesting. Are any of these negative thoughts related to sins we have committed?

That in some form we talk down to ourselves because of guilt, but how is this determined?

What is considered a negative thought? A thought to myself that might say, I can't do such and such may seem negative, but may be true.

Then again, it may also be a chance for the power of God to be thought on and meditated on. But notice where she is going with this.

She connects negative thoughts with an enemy. And the reason I wanted to play this out, it had less to do with me getting to play basketball and more to do with that last little part because there is an enemy.

And he is winning right now. And I'm sick of it. She then relays her story of how she went through 18 months of doubting

God, which began from an experience with a lady who claimed, we are after you is what was said by this lady.

I get back up on stage. And at that point, she's just a crazy woman. I never would be telling this story. I would never think about it again. Portraying how in those months of doubt for her, she didn't realize that the thoughts she was dealing with were coming from an enemy.

Conveying how the enemy works to keep you from setting your mind on the spirit.

Evil never wants you to notice it. So what a powerful plan.

Get us alone in the dark and tell us whatever the hell he wants. And he did it to me for 18 months.

But again, this portion of scripture is not about doubt or battling negative thoughts from an enemy.

It's about putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Obeying God's law through the power of the spirit because Christ is in us.

The same power that raised Christ from the grave lives in us to actually help us obey God.

I'll be it again, not perfectly, but it is the goal of the mind and the heart to submit to God.

She grabs her Bible, opens it up and states that she's no longer afraid of death because she tasted what it feels like to not believe in God and has overcome her doubt.

And that the same freedom is possible for us as well. There is an enemy.

I wanna just use Jesus' words on this one because, you know, he's Jesus. In middle school, my youth pastor said, don't talk about the devil too much.

My view is if there's a dark cosmic force, as Ephesians says, coming against me, I think we should talk about it a little.

So John 8, verse 44. You are the father of the devil and your will is to do your father's desires.

And then he's gonna describe the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Now, let me be really clear. When I went on this season of doubt, my faith was not in jeopardy. My faith is secure, not by my knowledge of God.

My faith is secure because I am sealed in the Holy Spirit as Beth talked about last night. I could have not lost my faith. I really believe that.

There were times I felt like I was losing my faith, but I couldn't have lost it. So those of you that are wrestling in a season of doubt, let me just give you that lifeline, that you can't lose your faith if you have trusted in the blood of Jesus.

Now, make sure you have trusted in the blood of Jesus because there's not another way. But if you've trusted in the blood of Jesus, you cannot lose that.

But there is an enemy and what is, it's so cool, I mean, cool, it's insightful, what Jesus says about it, very clearly.

Takes a few verses to do it. He is a liar. He is a liar. See, the reason

I wanted to demonstrate this to you, I wanted to show you what we're up against is because I think, we think our thoughts are no big deal.

I didn't think they were a big deal. I sat in them without saying a word to anyone for 18 months.

When people have asked me why I didn't share it, they assume it's shame. It wasn't shame. I'm pretty vulnerable. Like, I'd tell the whole world.

I'd struggle with doubt. It was really bad. I was almost an atheist. I'll tell you, that's not it. It wasn't shame.

I believe Romans 8 .1. It was, I didn't think it was a big deal.

How cool, how cool of the devil to get us in the dark alone and then tell us what he wants.

I mean, what a great plan. So get us in isolation. Get us not noticing our thoughts, our own thoughts first, and then get us in a place where we're not worried about them, and then get us in a place where we're not telling anybody about them.

It's a problem. Okay, a couple things going on in this clip. Let's start with the good.

Amen. Salvation is God's work, and our faith is a gift from him. And as Christ says in John 6 .37,

all that the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

Reformed theology describes this doctrine as a perseverance of the saints, a very comforting doctrine derived from scripture.

Here's the thing, though. By introducing an enemy, something outside of ourselves, she rejects that according to Romans, our flesh is the problem.

This may allow a person who sets their minds on the flesh to continue to set their mind on the flesh, aka live in sin, yet believe they are setting their mind on the spirit by merely thinking positive thoughts.

The other issue with this is that she does not differentiate between negative thoughts and lies.

These are two different things. Negative thoughts can be subjective. What one person takes negatively, another may not.

But lies, lies are objective. They are lies regardless how one takes them or feels about them.

By connecting evil behind negative thoughts without making a distinction that negative thoughts do not necessarily mean lies, she has made a way for a person to reject truth in claiming the negative thought is from the evil one.

Here's an example. I feel called to preach a sermon to a mixed congregation at a

Sunday morning service and have been invited by my pastor to do so. In preparation for my sermon, a thought comes to my mind that I shouldn't be doing this, that it's not right, that I am a woman and I am unqualified.

I label these negative thoughts and identify them as coming from Satan to keep me from accomplishing

God's will. After all, he put this desire in my heart, right? See what I did there? I decided what is negative and positive.

And in my flesh, what I want to hear is always deemed positive. But the real question is, is it true?

She identifies negative thoughts as coming from an enemy and he is a liar. Therefore, the negative thoughts are lies.

This is a problem. Does Romans 8 5 -8 talk about an enemy that presents negative thoughts to us?

No, it does not talk about an enemy attacking us with negative thoughts, but it's talking about our own flesh, our very nature, as we are enemies against God, living in unrighteousness and ungodliness and under sin.

Romans 3 9 -10 5 10. All throughout

Romans, Paul is making clear that all of mankind are sinners and will one day stand guilty before God because we suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

And in that suppression, we'll follow our flesh and transgress against God's holy law. The case that Paul is making is that we are under sin, guided by our flesh, our desires, and the battle in the context of Romans 8 5 -8 is with our flesh, our sinful nature, not an enemy outside of ourselves who presents us with negative thoughts, but our own flesh that presents us with sin.

She then asks the question, what is the fight and how are we going to fight? Her answer is that we set the mind on the spirit.

Here's her encouragement on how to set our minds on the spirit. He says, set your mind on the spirit.

It is the person of God. It isn't just good things or religious things or, you know,

Christian things. It's God himself. You set your mind on him and life and kindness and goodness and general self -control.

Those things are going to start growing out of your life. You're not even gonna have to force them. You're not gonna have to will them. Life and peace is going to flow up in you and out of you,

John says. Yes, this is very true, but Romans 8 5 -8 is a bit more specific than merely focusing on God.

Setting the mind on the spirit is setting the mind on God, but the text explains what it means to set the mind on the spirit and how to accomplish this, to put to death the deeds of the flesh.

Going back to verse six, for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. In the context of Roman, to set our mind on the spirit is to set our mind on God, yes, but more specifically to set our mind on obeying his commands to submit to God's law.

Instead of encouraging women to trust in Christ's work for them and set the mind on relying on the gift of the

Holy Spirit to help them crucify their flesh, they are encouraged to set their minds on fighting negative thoughts so they can produce the fruits of the spirits, fruits that ultimately come from faith in Christ, not battling negative thoughts.

Now put this in this message's context. She has made such things as career, marriage, and family as works of the flesh.

Huge, huge problem there. And now she's made clear that to produce the fruits of the spirit, we should be setting our minds to battling negative thoughts.

God's law has been conspicuously missing from this sermon. She read this text mentioning

God's law, but teaching about it will remain missing throughout her message. After referencing 2

Corinthians 10, 4 to point to the spiritual battle as a battle of the mind and is not of the flesh, that the weapons used need to be bigger than weapons that fight fleshly things, weapons that tear down strongholds.

So Paul writes really clearly, hey, this isn't about a war of the flesh. He says you're gonna need weapons that are bigger than the weapons that fight fleshly things.

So when I read all the self -help books, it was interesting to me because their idea was basically you would have a good self -esteem.

And you think about it all the time. You are awesome. Remember that you are awesome. You are empowered.

You can do anything. And y 'all just saw me play basketball. I can't, like that is not true. She makes a good point that we tend to buy the lie of self -help books instead of looking at Jesus.

She talks quite a bit about our research into all the self -help books and neuroscience that she dived into and wants us to be clear that some of what may hinder us from changing our brains can be chemical, but the spiritual needs to be part of the plan as well.

She acknowledges that in her study, she saw how all the self -help books only boosted the ego and didn't really help.

All of it leading to buying the lie that we can think of something other than Jesus to fix our thoughts.

Rereading the second Corinthians verse, she asked how many of us would like to see strongholds defeated in our life.

I want a deeper spiritual life. I want to be running harder after God. I want to be more joyful, kind, peaceful, full of joy.

I want all those things and I don't know how to get there and I think we're buying the lie that we can think about something other than Jesus.

So Paul starts it by saying, and let me just tell you where this is gonna end. It's gonna end with a very famous verse that says take every thought captive to obey

Christ. But he's gonna wrap around that verse all this war language. And he says, for the weapons of warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

To destroy strongholds. How many of you would like a stronghold destroyed in your life?

She then confesses that our 18 month battle was a spiritual battle in which the enemy gave her lofty opinions, which she states are thoughts brought on by a lack of knowledge of God.

Lofty opinions being raised against the knowledge of God. And one of my pastors in my life is named

Tim Keller and Tim Keller said, he doesn't know it, but he's in my car every day. I just said that like we're friends.

Tim, someday. Like, he says that every sin is somehow rooted in something that we don't believe about God.

So then I believe that applies to every single thing that we're facing. That in some way, we really saw

God for who he was. If we really lived in the spirit over here, if we really drank that in every day, if we really could get our mind around the goodness and bigness and incredibleness of God, that perhaps we would have more peace.

Yes, this is very true, but it's very sad.

For while she talks about knowing God as good, big and incredible, if she was actually presenting to us what

Romans is teaching, what Christ had done and conveying how setting our minds on the spirit and desiring to obey

God's law is part of knowing God, we would not only come to know about our God, but also how to be like our savior.

The Romans passage is all about Christ and what he's done in creating disciples who once walked in the flesh, but now walk in the spirit.

Instead, we are getting a lot about what we should do so we don't find ourselves stuck in depression and doubt.

And now this is where she will lead us into the weapon she will give us to fight this spiritual battle so that we may set our minds on the spirit.

What are the weapons that God has given us? Because apparently they're powerful. Apparently they could change everything.

They could change everything. Three things, the word of God, the spirit of God and the people of God.

The word of God, what is true? What is true? How many of the things we worry about, get depressed about, struggle with, has nothing to do with reality.

What is true? The word of God. The spirit of God. So glad Beth got that one.

Y 'all, because the spirit of God is in her. She lets him show all the time. We have possibility and capacity beyond anything we can imagine.

And you know what I do now in the middle of the night when I wake up? I get up and I'm like, and if I ever start to feel any darkness come over me, in the name of Jesus Christ, you get away from me,

Satan, that's what I do. And I pray for missionaries in foreign countries. Because I'm like, if you're gonna wake me up, we're gonna do some damage for the kingdom.

Not kidding, I have a name, you can send me yours. You're gonna wake me up, we're gonna do work. Make you mad.

And the people of God. The day I said it out loud was the beginning of freedom. I won't say that at that exact moment

I was set free, but I'd say I was about 75%. Because something about saying it out loud took it from the dark alone to the light with some fighters.

I told a few people, a few of them are in this room. Julie Manning was one of the first ones. Ann Voskamp was one of the first ones. Esther Havens was one of the first ones.

Becca Self was one of the first ones. I said those things out loud. And I have feisty friends. So our first weapon is the word of God, what is true.

And she doesn't clarify that scripture is that word. A lot of people, when they think of the word of God now, they do think more subjectively about the special revelation and conversation between them and God.

Through para -life and times like that. So we need to make more of an effort to be clear on what we mean by the word of God.

The second weapon is the spirit of God who brings possibility or capacity beyond anything we can imagine.

Relays a story of what she does now when woken up in the middle of the night. She rebukes Satan and then prays for missions.

This is her example of the Holy Spirit bringing possibility. But where is the reliance on the word of God?

The Holy Spirit does not bring possibility to our lives, but faith. Understanding God's word, repentance, and fruit in keeping with repentance, obedience to his word.

In fact, this is what Romans 8 is all about. The role and power of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life.

Her third weapon is the people of God. That we should confess our thoughts to others so they will bring the word of God.

Again, not clarifying that the word of God should be scripture. My question is, does scripture give us weapons to fight spiritual battles?

Yes, it does. God in his grace gave us his very words in scripture to thoroughly equip us for every good work.

Do these good works include fighting and wrestling with spiritual issues? Yes. In Ephesians 6, 10 to 20, the

Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul is very clear what weapons and armor we are to equip ourselves with to stand against the schemes of the devil, verse 11.

These weapons are the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, clothed with Christ as he is our righteousness, 1

Corinthians 1 .30, shoes for our feet, the readiness to give an answer for the hope that is within us, 1

Peter 3 .15, the shield of faith to extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, the helmet of salvation, the gospel applied to us, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

And with God's mighty armor, we are praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, keeping alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, all who boldly proclaim the mystery of the gospel, verses 18 and 19.

We also have Christ's example in the wilderness, Luke 4, 1 to 13, where we see him fight temptation from Satan with faith and strength in the word of God.

While I wouldn't say Ms. Allen's weapons are unbiblical, I wonder why she doesn't give us what scripture actually says.

Besides this, there is the issue that Romans 8, verse five to eight, doesn't, again, talk about weapons we need to fight a spiritual battle with an enemy who presents us with negative thoughts, but is entirely about our battle against our sinful nature and the gift of the spirit to put it to death for us.

She goes into how her friends helped her fight her spiritual battle with prayer and fasting. Because you know what they did?

Oh, no, the devil is not coming for you. In fact, not only are we gonna pray, we're gonna pray and we're gonna fast.

Then goes into another story on her daughter dealing with learning disabilities. I wanna end with a story about my daughter.

The struggle she had with these in her studies and how she wished she wasn't so dumb. Alan corrects her daughter and tells her not to believe that lie.

She uses this story to tell us that just like she won't let her daughter believe lies of inadequacy, she will not let us believe lies as well.

What did I do? I give her the craziest sermon I've ever given. Why? Because I'm not going to let her believe lies.

I am not going to let her believe lies. And team, I am not going to let you believe lies.

And she tells us that there are three fundamental lies that we believe. There's three fundamental lies.

And the worship team's gonna come out. And I want, this will help you, because right now what you're gonna do, you got 60 ,000 thoughts every day? How do we even boil it down?

And in my research, one of my friends that's a counselor, she taught me this. She said, so Jenny, there's three lies that all of us believe.

And I was like, baby, I'm sorry to tell you, I work with women a lot too, and they have more than three. She was like, nope, three.

You ready? I am worthless. I am helpless. I am unlovable.

I am worthless. I am helpless. I am unlovable. Are these actually lies?

Now, she presents and addresses these lies in her book. I went through these,

I believe on episode either 14 or 15 of season one of Thoroughly Equipped.

I basically showed how these are not really lies. And that scripture explains our wretchedness and complete need for Christ in these things.

So to answer that question, you can check those episodes out. This is why she's giving this message though, and not actually addressing the text, because it will promote her book.

At the time she had just released Get Out of Your Head, Her Study in Philippians during that year, and that was the book promoted and mentioned in this message.

I know that sounds presumptive of me, but why else has she not really addressed the

Romans 8 text? Right after this, she gives an example of how a worry of hers is related to one of these lies.

And I said, there's no way it's those three. And they said, well, give us something that you're worried about. I was like, my son, he's about to go to college and he's really cute.

And I'm worried he's gonna date a girl I don't like. And I'm worried he's gonna make bad decisions. And I hope he's not here right now, but she said, so what are you really worried about?

I was like, I don't know that he's gonna go to prison. Perfectly good kid, by the way. She was like, okay.

So you feel helpless. I was like, oh, you're good. You're good.

I'm worthless, I'm helpless. I'm unlovable. Now let me tell you the good part. All the self -help books I read, there weren't any answers.

Not to those three. Not ones that felt right to my soul. But this book has answers to all three.

It has answers to all three. I am helpless. I have the spirit of God for me. He chose me.

He has equipped me with every good work that I will do in my short life here. He is building a home for me.

You are not that helpless. You have a lot going for you. And he's given us the word of God that is sharper than a two -edged sword that seems to produce joy in people that are suffering.

It's miraculous. Now I really appreciate that she points to scripture saying it has answers when wrestling with these thoughts that it is sharper than any two -edged sword.

All very true. So why did she not exegete it to use it to fight our lack of knowledge of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Also, I wonder about her application of these scriptures in regards to wrestling with these thoughts.

Is scripture a resource we can use to combat negative thoughts with encouragement such as you are not helpless, you have the

Holy Spirit, God equips you for every good work, et cetera, et cetera? Yes, but the scriptures also say we are helpless.

It is God that works both in and through us to do the good works. And that in our weakness or helplessness, it is

God who helps. He is our helper because we are helpless. She uses scripture like these to combat the three lies in the exact same way.

So I'm not helpless. And I know I'm not worthless. Ephesians 1 says that I have been adopted as a child of God.

So does Romans 8. I am a child of God. I am not worth nothing. And I am not unlovable because no matter what relationship fails me on this earth, if my son goes to prison, guess what?

We'll be doing prison ministry. Notice also who the emphasis is on when we tell ourselves

I am not helpless because I have the Holy Spirit. God equips me for every good work, et cetera, et cetera.

The emphasis is on ourselves and boosts ourselves. That's the problem with taking verses like these, take them out of context to recite them to ourselves when we feel unconfident or helpless.

Our confidence should rest on God, meditating on his character and the work he has done and is doing.

Even the verse that she is using to combat the lie that she's helpless is saying that God is doing the equipping that he prepared these works for us to do.

The emphasis is on him. It's okay to memorize verses.

I heartily, heartily agree with that. I would only urge women to understand why these verses are true and who they are really about,

God. So I might encourage women who wrestle with feeling of helplessness with this.

Yes, we are helpless, but God is our helper and he has given us the Holy Spirit to equip us for every good work that he prepared for us to walk in.

Let us go to his word and trust that he will guide us through the Holy Spirit onto wisdom in guiding our children.

Not only this, but let us appeal to God through prayer and supplication, asking that he grant our children wisdom and understanding because only he can change the heart and sanctify our children.

May he be their great helper as well. One way of using scripture puts trust and glory in ourselves and the other appeals to God and puts trust and gives all the glory to him.

As she closes, she reminds us that it is the story of God that changes things and now we are going to go into the world and fight better, leaving us with a special charge.

It's the story of God. Fixes everything, not immediate, but forever.

So we're gonna go be brave team. We're gonna fight better. We're not gonna let the enemy take us down in the dark anymore.

So when you go, I'm gonna pray for you before you do, but when you go, I want you to be honest and brave.

I want you to say the thing that you're scared to say for whatever reason you're scared to say it. I don't care if like me, you have to say, I don't even know if this is a big deal.

Say it before 18 months go by. Say it. Say the lust.

Say the scary thing. The last 2%, I call it. Y 'all probably heard me say this before. My church says this. The last 2%, the thing that you don't wanna put down because the power is in the thing you don't wanna say out loud.

He has you with that. So you put it down. You say, I'm not gonna let you have power over me and this anymore because guess what?

What Jada preached is true. Romans 8 what? There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So we're gonna say it out loud.

I gotta squabble on this too. She charges us to say it, to say our sins out loud.

Acknowledge the lust. Say the last 2%, the thing that you don't want to say out loud.

But do you see what's missing here? Repentance of our sin. She instead instructs us to just acknowledge it and set it down.

Scripture calls us to not only acknowledge it but repent and ask forgiveness for it.

Christ instructs us in his teaching about how to pray to ask that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This includes our daily life, to be taken care of physically and spiritually, our daily bread and to be forgiven of our trespasses.

This is how we pray and it's done very often. In asking for forgiveness, we are repenting of our sins.

John the Baptist warned the scribes and the Pharisees of not only coming in confession of sins but that they needed more than just confession.

They needed repentance and to produce fruits in keeping with that repentance.

Matthew 3, 5 -10. Now there is something known as decreeing and declaring in the charismatic movement.

This is a lighter version but its foundation is the same. The idea that we battle evil through proclamations about our identity in Christ and that we fight sin by naming it, acknowledging it by speaking it out loud.

This is a subtle way decreeing and declaring is entering non -charismatic churches and that's pretty much the end of her message.

Extremely subtle twist taking place here she describes setting our mind on the flesh as pursuing things such as a job, marriage, children, and social media.

Describing setting our minds on things of the spirit as fighting the enemy who attacks us with negative thoughts but again, that's not what

Romans 8, 5 -8 is saying. Scripture is clear that setting mind on the flesh is to pursue our own gratification.

Such things as sexual immorality, sensuality, enmity, dissensions, et cetera, and et cetera.

Things that are a result of our sinful passions. The Romans passage is making it clear that to set the mind on the spirit is to pursue the things of God, Christ, the gospel, and his law.

She claims that it is the enemy that brings negative thoughts or doubts but that's not found in the

Romans text. This can draw people to believe that the problem is outside of themselves and not actually rooted in their sin or lack of faith which is what

Paul is actually addressing. She gives weapons to fight the spiritual battle with the enemy which are very general weapons.

She does not give the weapons laid out for us very clearly in scripture. And while she encourages us to look to scripture for truth, she didn't exegete the actual text to give that truth and her encouragement is more self -centered than God -centered.

Miss Allen made clear that for the church to go out and make disciples, they must be setting their mind on the spirit by which she means avoiding setting our minds on fleshly things such as careers, marriage, and family and setting our mind on the spirit by battling against negative thoughts.

If we did that, we would be more successful at being lights in this world because if we didn't let the enemy talk us out of accomplishing great things for God or tear down our confidence or make us fearful, we would change the world, right?

First, ladies, if you wish to pursue marriage and a family, you desire a very, very good thing.

These are not fleshly desires. The spirit will call you to love God in them, to obey his law while building them.

This is your good work. Proverbs 31 is a perfect example of this. Second, set your mind on the spirit by setting your mind, yes, on God, but more specifically on what

God has said, done, and instructs. Abide in his word.

And ladies, if you are in Christ, you have the helper to cause you to walk in him and accomplish what

Christ commands. That is what the rest of Romans 8 is all about, the spirit's role in our sanctification, and it's wonderful.

But will the popular teachers of the youth gathering teach this? Last thing before I go,

I thought about all the women who heard this message who are dealing with their sins, dealing with broken marriages or wayward children or a loss of friends, women who deal with tragic situations such as deaths in the family, struggling to make ends meet, or maybe divorced or even married to unbelievers, or maybe they're attendant and felt that life was going very well.

Jenny promised they would be taken care of, but it's not looking good. So if you are one of these, perhaps

I can encourage you a bit. In whatever of life's circumstances, we need to know what this passage is really about, what walking in the spirit is and how it is against walking in the flesh.

In times of trials and tribulations, we need to know that we are prone to walk in the flesh.

God has not left his children though without a helper to clothe us with Christ's righteousness and bring us to walk by faith in it.

That means the helper equips us with the efficacious power of God's written word to reject sin in our members, to work on repairing marriages by loving and submitting to husbands when needed, to love and give the gospel to wayward children, to forgive and ask for forgiveness from friends when needed, to walk in strength and trust in God's providence and discipline in tragic life situations, whether dealing with death, struggling to make ends meet, or are on your own, et cetera, and et cetera.

Because the spirit dwells within all those who trust in Christ, we can walk like Christ in these situations, even just living out the day -by -day events.

This scripture was given to us by Paul to know this. It was not written to get us to pay attention to our thoughts and fight the negative ones, but to know one complete and powerful thought, that we who are in Christ have been given the spirit to empower us to live by faith and walk according to God's law, which is now our greatest desire.

If you, dear sister, have that desire to love God and love neighbor as God calls us to in whatever circumstance, be reassured that Christ has satisfied your thirst for righteousness by giving you his own, and now you can walk by the spirit empowered to live that way, putting to death the deeds of your flesh and granting you the freedom to love your neighbor as he calls us to.

Trials and tribulations are hard, but know that his word equips you for the good works that will be done by you and in you through it.

When you are weak, trust in him. When you are strong, remember why you are, and to God be the glory.

And that is what I pray for you, ladies, that you set your mind on the spirit who through his word equips you to fight your flesh and accomplish many, many good works for your neighbor.

I pray that by the power of the spirit, you're putting away sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

And as you are doing so, you will produce his fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

I pray, ladies, that you are in his word. Ladies, thanks for listening and watching this episode of Thoroughly Equipped.

If this episode blessed you, would you give it a rating or a thumbs up? And if you think Thoroughly Equipped is a much -needed ministry, consider subscribing.

It helps spread the word. If you are interested to know more about Thoroughly Equipped, check out the blog, or just find some other great

Christian resources, you can go to my website at ttew .org.

You can connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, links in the description below, or email me at melbatoste at ttew .org.

Thoroughly Equipped is part of Striving for Eternity's Christian Podcast Community, a one -stop resource for solid podcasts that can assist you in your

Christian walk. Check that out at christianpodcastcommunity .org. I pray the God of all grace grants you more and more knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ as the

Holy Spirit thoroughly equips you through His written word for every good work. I pray you are in His word.