The Mind of Christ — Michael Koulianos

Rejecting Tolerance of Spiritual Dysfunction

I want to say in God's economy, He forgets nothing, and the Lord's here to do wonderful things this morning if you'll let Him, if you just get out of the way. But in Revelation 2 .18, the Bible says to the angel of the church in Thyatira, write, These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and His feet like fine brass.

I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience, and as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow or tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants, to commit sexual immorality, and eat things sacrificed to idols.

This isn't a teaching on Jezebel. People are more into Jezebel than Jesus, and that's weird. That's really weird. And she gets blamed for everything, and there's only one. Anyways, she's not omnipresent.

A lady tells you off, she's Jezebel. She cuts you off, that's her too. Dressed as skanky, that's Jezebel. Takes your seat, Jezebel too. More Jezebels than angels. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about tolerating the enemy.

The Lord speaks a word to the church here and says, you allow that. One of the translations reads, you tolerate that. It took John Bevere to pull me aside and say, you better deal with this thing. There was some people causing some issues in our school, and he said, you better deal with it.

He said, don't worry about how the Lord will deal with them, but if He's watching to see you, and if you tolerate it, the Lord will take note of it, and He won't trust you with any more. I need somebody here to rise up on behalf of their family and say, it's over.

I'm done. I'm not going to tolerate this anymore. You're not in your own world. I'm not asking you to be Superwoman. I'm just asking you to go, or Superman. I'm asking you to go, this is over. I'm done with this.

Contentment Rather Than Material Prosperity

I don't care if my mom had it. I don't care if my dad had it. That's an affront on the gospel. You know, it's only in America where there's billions of dollars circulating that we say with a coffee in our hand and an iPhone in our pocket that poverty is a blessing.

Go to Haiti and ask them if poverty is a blessing. Come with us on a few trips. Go to India where I've seen multiple dead bodies on the street on the way to a service where the people would die and just throw a sheet over them.

They didn't even give the respect of putting the person in an ambulance or burying them. You go ask those people if their poverty is a blessing. And it's interesting. It's the people who've actually learned to monetize and get really rich.

They've learned to get rich by telling you you should be poor. Because those books you buy actually make them rich. So it's hypocrisy at the finest. Listen to me. The abundance of money doesn't mean you love Jesus and the lack thereof.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about embracing over your family and you what the scriptures do not teach. The scriptures don't promise you a billion dollars. But David did say, I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed beg break.

Paul the apostle said, I've learned to be content with a lot and a little. Prosperity has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with contentment. Having enough in your life to accomplish the will of God.

That is true prosperity. I don't know what you've embraced. Maybe your mom is just not well. You can actually have the internal spiritual fortitude to step in and go, enough. It's over. Stopping with me.

I'm redeemed. I'm the redeemed of the Lord. I'm actually going to say so. I'm going to open my mouth now and live differently. It's over. It stops here. It stops this morning. Chronic pain, all of that.

Don't even tolerate it. Don't tolerate a sniffle. One thing the enemy does do is if you give him an inch, he takes more than a mile. He's mastered that one. Open the door, he moves in. It's got to stop this morning.

Spiritual Authority in the Home

Come on, somebody. Husbands, listen to me. If your wife is not doing well, hit the brakes on your so-called calling and get her well. She's your calling. Parents, you're parents first. You're not your kid's friends.

That comes after parenting them. But be a priest in the house. What are you doing? Are they paying your mortgage? Why are they running the house? What are you afraid of? I'm telling you, I'm speaking to you.

I feel it. I feel the prophetic anointing on me. It's time for you guys to go. Enough. Enough. It stops here. No weapon formed against me will prosper. I'm condemning every word that's come from the pit of hell to judge me and bring death.

It's stopping. It's stopping this morning. Last night, I flew in yesterday morning. I'll preach twice today, or if you call this preaching. I'm not going to tell you what's going to happen tonight, but it's going to be absolutely, phenomenally glorious.

Get in the room. But I'll be in both meetings, and it takes a lot out of me. And tomorrow, I'll be at the school all day long. It would have been super easy last night to not lay hands on my kids. I was totally exhausted.

I laid in bed for like seven hours yesterday just to try to get ready for today. But that's my job. Before my job is this, my job is to make sure my kids love Jesus. I want you to think of this, that when you lay hands on your children, you're laying hands on your great-grandchildren and their children.

Start praying with that type of mindset. Really, last night when I was praying for my children, we go through scriptures about, I don't know, 8 to 10 at night, and I prophesy over them. And I've prophesied this same word over them since the day they were born.

Every single day. I think maybe I've missed a couple by being in Africa, but maybe one or two. I don't know. Less than five. And if I missed it, it was because I was on a plane, not because I was on foreign soil.

I stopped everything, and I would call my kids. They can tell you that. And sometimes they don't want to hear it, and that's fine. It's getting in their spirit. I understand it. They're tired too, but it's getting in their spirit.

And yesterday, what I realized was, man, I'm actually doing something for my family line, many of whom I'll never see in the natural right now. When I'm praying, they're going to pray into their kids, and they're going to pray into their kids, and they're going to pray into their kids.

And when the world comes to my family, all of those scriptures are going to be planted in their spirit. Because I'm here to tell you, parents, look, listen to me. You don't plant seed, I promise you, the world's planting 100 a day.

You want universities to disciple your kids? You better make sure they know Jesus. It stops today. Don't tolerate that devil anymore. Fight. Get the word of God in your mouth. Turn on worship in your house.

If you can't steward your house, how are you going to steward a church, or a ministry, or a missions movement? Or if you can't steward your living room, how are you going to lead a people? I was telling the students the other day, all this is, whatever this all is, all Jesus' image is, is a replication of my prayer closet.

It hit one person, and then it hit another, and another, and another. And then people would say, speak. Could you come speak? And I'd go speak. And then before you know it, here we are. What am I saying is, if you can broker His presence and be a true priest of the Lord as His vessels in your own home, God can touch a lot of people.

Making Scripture the Standard

But I feel this strongly, that many of you in the room have stopped making the Scriptures your standard, and your friends and others around you have become your standard, or even your family members. And so their issues seem normal to you, but you don't see those issues in the life of Jesus.

And because Jesus is not the standard, and they are, you're numbed to the dysfunction. Go to 2 Corinthians 10 .5 quickly, please. 2 Corinthians 10 .5. Let me read this to you. Candice, go over there, would you?

I'm going to read this to you guys. Actually, let's, we'll start with verse 1. Now I, Paul, myself, am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence I am lowly among you, but being absent I am bold toward you.

Paul was not convinced of his own strength. But I beg you that when I am present, I may not be bold with you, with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

For though we walk in the flesh, listen carefully now, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. How is that done?

Verse 5. Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Bringing every thought, every thought, every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

How Lies Become Spiritual Strongholds

Paul is saying here, there is a spiritual war. Your enemy is not people. I understand full well how it can be normal to feel like they're the issue. There are many people I've had in my life and still to this day where I fall into the trap of going, they're a problem.

Their body is not the problem. It's the mindset they've been given over to, the enemy himself. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, so not natural, not fleshly, not human strength. But mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.

A stronghold is like a castle. And let me tell you how a stronghold is formed. A stronghold is formed by meditating on a lie and accepting it. When a lie comes, and what is a lie? It's clearly spelled out here.

It's any imagination that or high thought or lofty thought, supposedly smart and lofty. Oh my gosh, how many lofty perspectives are circulating the world today. Every high thought that exalts itself, so it's not humble, against the knowledge of Christ.

So it's not found in Jesus. It's something else. It doesn't come from him. It's not his word. The thought comes, listen carefully, and the moment you decide to not proactively cast it down, you just gave it mortar and it became a brick and a wall.

That's how it becomes a stronghold. A stronghold is a castle. And you can give the devil, listen carefully, a stronghold by simply refusing to cast down a lie. And you being jacked up all your life is a lie.

It's a lie. And I'm talking, I don't know why I'm hitting this family thing. I'm talking about stuff just because you love them. You've even lost the audacity to say that's jacked up because you love them.

You've lost the spiritual strength to go, I'm not receiving that. Yeah, I love my whoever, my uncle, my mom, or whoever that might be. I'm not receiving that. Some of you have been abused pastorally. You've never even been in a healthy church environment.

So you think ministry dysfunction is just normal. And because of that, do you know what happens? You start thinking that because his shepherds have issues that Jesus himself has an issue. Without even knowing that, you stop trusting him.

Those are strongholds. The lie comes and Paul says here, you have to cast it down. That word cast is a violent verb. You refuse it. The moment it knocks on the door, you grab it and cast it down. If it exalts itself against the knowledge of Jesus, like, you know what, your dad had cancer and so will you.

Where did Jesus ever say that? Your mom had imbalances, so do you. Where did the Lord ever make such a promise to his own? You'll never fulfill the destiny of your life. You're going to be just like your dad.

When did Jesus ever speak in such a way? He gave his disciples new names. Because when you come to Jesus, you actually get a new identity and it's his perspective. How do you call two fishermen sons of thunder?

How do you call Peter, who is about as consistent emotionally as those little bouncy balls? He's cutting people's ears off. Saying, Jesus, don't wash my feet. Oh no, no, no. Wash my feet. He couldn't even.

It's just all over the place. And the Lord says, you are a rock. If there was any disciple amongst the twelve that did not act like a rock, it was Peter. He was more like a tennis ball on fire. The Lord said, you're a rock.

How about Nathanael? I don't want to lose the flow of the Spirit, so we're not going to turn. But I'm going to give you full word here. Just trust me, this is in the Bible. I give you full permission to go back and look at it.

And if it's not there, I'm wrong. But the disciples come to Jesus after finding him, after they've been following John. And they tell Nathanael, we have found the one that the Scripture spoke of. The prophet, the Messiah, we found him.

Nathanael says, what's his name? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathanael says, Nazareth? Listen to the wording. What good thing? He called the Messiah a thing. He didn't even give Jesus the respect of being called a person.

He said, what good thing could ever come from Nazareth? That wasn't exactly a humble, loving statement. He called God a thing. Jesus finds Nathanael and says, ah, I remember you when you were under the fig tree.

And what does he say of him? A man in whom there is no deceit, a man in whom there's no guile. He saw Nathanael for what Nathanael never was in the natural in that moment. And he still accepted him. He calls Gideon a mighty man of valor while Gideon's hiding.

And some in the room have been believing lies without knowing it over and over and over and over just because it is what it is. And you've gotten used to it. You know, there's a way to honor people and not receive their mess.

Let me tell you something right now. The person to your right and left cannot fight for your mind. That job is for you. So when you receive a lie, or let me just say it like this. When you engage a lie passively, you're giving it permission.

And as I said earlier, that becomes a brick. Your agreement is the mortar. You do that 20, 30 times a day, because lies come 20, 30 times a minute. You do that over a decade. Now you've got this wall, this stronghold of lies.

And guess who lives in that construct? The devil. The lies become the building and the enemy occupies the stronghold. A stronghold is a building and he wants it. So he comes to live there. Now God has strongholds.

You want your soul to be a stronghold for the Holy Spirit. The name of the Lord is a strong, the righteous run into it and they are saved. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my, my fortress. In him will I trust.

You have two different strongholds here. One is built by the bricks and mortar of a life of faith and receiving truth from God's word. The other is built by passively refusing without knowing. It's all 99 of the time ignorance.

Nobody knows. Nobody thinks about I want to give the devil a place. So I'm just going to receive that. Now what do you do? You need to cast them down. That's a violent act. So when that thought comes, I love how Bill, Bill describes it.

He said, I can't keep a bird from landing on my head, but I sure can keep it from building a nest. So when those thoughts come, you need to realize that's not me. That's not from me. That's from my enemy.

You take that thought, violently by faith, refuse it. That's the casting down of it. You target it. You, you, you put the laser on it. You, you put it in your crosshairs. You target that thing and you go, no, I'm not receiving that.

That is part of the journey. That's like step one. But you eventually have to do what Paul says here. Cast down the imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of Jesus. You, you target that thing and then replace it with truth.

Building the Mind of Christ Through Scripture

I, I just feel the holy indignation of a pastor right now who is standing in the gap for you and saying this garbage is stopping now. It's all, it's going to stop. Jesus is king. The, the, the chronic pain, the, even I feel like there's people in the room who even struggle to stand, to stand because you're physically in pain standing and that's gone through your family line.

All of these things you're going to today, it's if you want it to, if you want it to, the stronghold is going to get blown up. So Jesus is tempted in the garden. I'm sorry, in the wilderness. He's tempted there in the wilderness.

And by the way, he represented you there. That was that statement I just gave you. It was a lot better and more important than you're showing me right now, but he represented you there. He did only defeat the devil on your behalf.

He defeated the devil as you by taking on humanity. He gave, actually gave you the blueprint of defeating the enemy's lies. And every time the devil came to tempt him, we know this, all those of you who grew up in church, you know this, he used the word of God.

And you know what I told our team recently, this goes for our worship team and everyone, you don't have a chance of surviving the mandate on this house if you're not deep in the Word. You won't survive it.

You just won't. Forget about persecution. Forget about, I'm just talking about the level of spiritual maturity it will take and does take to lead something like this requires an amazing depth in God's Word.

And the teachings have to go beyond this is how you accomplish your dreams. So here's Jesus anointed by the Holy Spirit facing the devil and the devil actually uses the Word of God and twists it to fool Jesus.

Here's my question. If you tried that on God, don't you think he'll try it on you? I mean, is Jesus really the only way to heaven? I mean, he loves everyone. You say, well, of course he's the only way to heaven.

You'd be surprised how many preachers don't even believe that. 68 of people between the age of 18 and 30 in the church don't believe Jesus is the only way to heaven. 68%, seven out of ten don't believe.

Jesus Christ as the Only Way of Redemption

Well, who is then? What do you do with a soul? What is the remedy for redemption? How do you get sin off of someone? How many pilgrimages do you actually need to go on? How many stars do you need to gaze at?

How many poor people can you feed to wash your sin away? How many marches can you go on? What can man do even if that stuff is good and a lot of it is good? You should fight for the broken. You should fight for the hopeless.

You should look nothing wrong with going to Jerusalem and checking it out. But you think you're going to go to Jerusalem and wash your sin away? We should feed the poor. We should help the downtrodden.

If you feel like you need to get out and make something of it to fight for the broken, do it. But don't for a second confuse that with removing sin. That's a problem. Jesus School students, listen to me.

You have a mandate to settle in and say, Jesus is the only way. And I'm not saying that with hatred or judgment or pride. But here's my question. Who else can wash your sin away with the perfect blood of the Lamb?

Who else talks about the innocent for the guilty, the perfect for the imperfect? Who else got up from the grave? The gospel makes sense. So the devil comes and he tells Jesus, it's amazing. Don't turn there.

Don't turn there. He tells the Lord, throw yourself down for the word says, the scripture says, he will not even allow you to dash your foot on a stone. The angels will minister to you and catch you. The devil took Psalm 91 and twisted it.

Verse 11, for he shall give his angels charge over you. Listen, I want you to see how he twisted it. Don't miss this. Don't miss this. Do not miss this. For he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.

In their hands, they shall bear you up. He quoted that. But he left this part out. Lest you dash your foot against a stone. This is the part he left out. You shall tread upon lion and cobra. That was convenient.

The young lion and serpent, you will trample underfoot. The devil forgot to tell Jesus, oh, the next verse says, you'll crush my head. And that's what he does. That's what he does. He brings these lies.

And what did Jesus do? He answered with scripture. He cast down vain, lofty imaginations. Now, how many months in are we on Sunday morning? I don't know. Who cares? Whatever. We've been here a while. You're at the place now where you have to step up and realize that your thoughts cannot be pastored by your pastor.

Neither can your perspectives. When they come, if you're driving down I -4, and somebody lies to you and says, the construction will be over in a year. And you're stuck in traffic. Somebody says in August, it'll never cool down.

We're not getting a fall this year. You're just going to roast in these traffic jams for eternity. No, no, typically he doesn't talk about that. But when a lie comes, this is what you do. You target it and say, no.

Replacing Lies With Biblical Truth

I will not have that in my body. No. I love doctors. I know the doctor said that. But Jesus has the final word. No. And then once you say no, listen to me, hell recognizes it. Because Jesus said no enough to send a message to the devil.

And the Bible says, and the devil returned at a more opportune time. The problem with most of the church is that every day, 24 -7, is an opportune time for the devil. Because we don't send the message often enough.

No. I'm not taking that thought. Once you remove it and target it, you take a verse. You say, I only got one. Then use that thing until the cows come home. And when life's really hard, remember this. You probably won't remember 20.

But if you can have one, my challenge is five. Because that's what David had. Five smooth stones to kill the giant. My challenge is that you all get five. You memorize them. The thought comes, target that thing, replace it with truth.

Five minutes later, it'll come again. The devil and the Lord are going to go, I wonder if these new modern 2021 type Christians have discovered the beauty of toughness and persistence. Or are they so soaky oriented?

Have they soaked so much that they forgot how to have a leathery heart that the devil can't penetrate? You need thick skin in the spirit. Tender heart, thick skin, a thick shield. You do it again. You say, man, I just used John 3 .16.

Your child's going to burn in hell. The gospel will never touch your child. You might as well stop praying. For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son. And whosoever believeth in Him shall not die but have everlasting life.

My child is a whosoever. Yes, he's on drugs. Yes, he's hooking up with chicks. Yes, he's running wild. But he's a whosoever. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I'm standing. Five minutes later, it comes again.

Five minutes later, and you don't have another scripture because you're so stressed out. Use it again. Jesus only used three. Use it over and over. Put it on autopilot. Flip the switch to automatic and shoot him in the face over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Listen to me, over and over and over again. The time will come when you will weary him. God will weary him. Haven't you ever cast a demon out and seen them get tired? I have. The ones that hold on real tight, they get tired because the Word is a sword.

Dab him over and over and over in the liver, over and over. Hit him right between the eyes. Listen to this. With what the world calls foolish, not your ability to trick him, stick with the Word. Hit him back.

And this is what happens. Every time you do that, a brick blows up in the stronghold. Brick blows up every time you do that. And that's all going on in your mind. And before you know it, see, you don't realize there's a twofold victory there.

The removal of the evil stronghold and the building up of the Spirit's stronghold, the Holy Spirit. And then you start to build a house. We call this, this is all a fancy teaching, for the renewed mind.

The Renewed Mind Reveals the Deeper Need

You have the mind of Jesus. Before I close, you have to understand that what you think you need, there's a good chance you don't need that. Hear me out. You think you need a breakthrough for an issue.

That issue is most likely a symptom. It's most likely a symptom. I've given this example to our students before. Philip comes to Jesus. John chapter 12. This verse actually changed Pastor Tommy Reed's life.

He heard it preached as a little boy at a T .L. Osborne meeting. Philip comes to Jesus, and he says, Lord, the Greeks want to talk to you. And very wisely, the Lord's like, those Greeks, they're trouble.

I don't know. I don't know that I want to talk to them right away. Let's make them wait. Let's check them out. Scan them. Scan them. And so Philip says, Jesus, the Greeks want to talk to you. And there's a massive crowd around him.

And Friday night, I felt the same thing happen in Ohio. I was so tired. People wanted to talk, and I wanted to value them, but I only have so much to give. So I tried to give it. I tried to go just beyond my limit.

Bill taught me that if you feel like you're at your limit, go a step beyond the limit, because then you know you've actually given your all. You can guarantee that you've given your all. So I try to just go a step beyond what my voice, my mind, my body will allow me to do, and I can leave with peace of heart.

So they're crowding around Jesus, and he goes, hey, you got just like somebody going in the green room. Hey, somebody wants to talk to you. The Greeks want to talk to you. And listen to Jesus's response.

Okay, Philip, unless a kernel of grain go into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it go into the ground and die, it beareth much fruit. Could you imagine Philip going, what? Is that a yes or a no?

So you have time or you don't, because I have no clue what you just said, what in the world just came out of your mouth. You see, and so people, we come to Jesus, and we think our question is going to determine his answer.

But his answer actually reveals the true need. What he was basically saying is, no, the gospel's to the Jews first, and until I die, it'll never spread and bear much fruit. But when I die and go in the ground, when this body dies, I'm going to give birth to many grains, to many kernels, and at that point, it'll flood Greece.

Now's not the time. Philip was probably like, I wish he could have said that. But my point is this, my point is this, speak on our level. So you think your issue is allergies, but your issue is that you've tolerated what God didn't promise for 20 years.

It's a stronghold now. You think your issue is your parents or your grandparents, their poverty, their depression, their anxiety, their issues. No, no, the issue is, is that you said, okay, come on in, have my mind.

And Jesus is saying, the issue's not dollars and cents. My answer is higher and deeper. Cast down every vain imagination that exalts itself against who I am. And if it doesn't look like Jesus, it cannot be Christian.

Hallelujah.