When Jesus said, “Repent! The kingdom of God is at hand,” the word repent is translated to “change the way you think.”
We can change the way we think and be transformed by the renewing of our minds by learning more about God. We can learn more about His ways from His Word. And we can learn more about ourselves as we examine our hearts and discover ways we can grow, improve, and change for the better.
How about you? What are your thoughts about changing the way you think so you can become more aligned with God and His best for you? Share below and bless others.
Here is the transcript of the video:
Hey, friends. Susan Gregory here. And I hope you are already experiencing an amazing Daniel Fast or you’re considering it for your life. Maybe you’re starting to prepare, but one of the things that is so powerful about the Daniel Fast is that you can discover more about God, more about His word, and more about yourself.
As I said, I’m Susan Gregory. I’m the author of The Daniel Fast: Feed Your Soul, Strengthen Your Spirit, and Renew Your Body. That is a book that’s available at all online and local bookstores, so you can look at that, and it gives a great overview of the fast. It also includes a full Daniel Fast cookbook and a 21-day Daniel Fast devotional, so I hope that you have an opportunity to maybe pick up a copy of that.
But today, I want to talk with you about what is available to you. There is a huge realm available to everyone who has accepted Christ as their savior, who has given Christ their lives. This is an opportunity for you to open your mind, to say and give yourself to the Lord and say to Him, “Lord, I want to learn from you.” So make the decision that this is a time that you want to learn, and decide to step into kingdom thinking.
What is kingdom thinking? That is His way of thinking. Decide to investigate God’s kingdom reality. There is the way of the world, and then there is the way of the kingdom. If you start getting that perspective and really look at the scriptures through that lens, you will see that, from Genesis through Revelation, that God is showing us the difference, and how we have the choice. Do we want to stay living in a worldly way, or do we want to transfer and change the way we think, change the way we behave, change what we believe, so that we can live a kingdom of God existence?
Then you can decide that God is who He says He is, and decide to believe God’s word as the final authority. And then you get to decide to learn about yourself. So there is this door that is available to you. Now, what are the things that will keep that door shut from you? First, it’s focusing on the flesh, and that’s why I keep telling people, when they use the Daniel Fast, don’t make it about the food. When you make the Daniel Fast about the food, you’re continuing to focus on your flesh, trying to satisfy your flesh. I can’t tell you the number of people that I have heard from over the years … I’ve been teaching about the Daniel Fast since 2007, and the number of people who have told me, “Susan, I missed it. I focused on the food and I missed on all of the blessings and the insights that God had for me.” But now, they’re learning the different way.
So you can learn that now. Keep your meals simple. Don’t focus on the food because when you do, you’re focusing on the flesh. That’s called carnal thinking. The carnal mind cannot receive the deep things of God. Paul says to the carnal people … He was speaking to Christians, and he said, “I couldn’t teach you the deep things. I could only give you milk. I couldn’t give you the meat because you had a carnal mind. You were babes in Christ.” You don’t want to do that. You want to put aside the flesh, crucify the flesh so that you can learn about the deep things of God.
Now part of the flesh is pride and ego. The Word says that pride goes before the fall, so get out of the prideful thinking. Get out of fleshly thinking. Get out of carnal thinking. Get out of that mindset. I already know that. There will be things that you will read, and you say, “Oh, wait. I’ve already read that.” But go deep with those things. Go deep with that thought. Don’t say, “Oh, I already know that.” That will keep the door to great, amazing insights closed to you, so you don’t want a closed mind.
And the final thing that I want to talk about right now is what would keep the door shut, is when you get stuck on the traditions of men rather than the truth of God. We always want to go to God’s word to find out the truth. That’s why you want to learn how to meditate on His word. What is He saying? Not necessarily what the church has been preaching, what the traditions of men have said. Now, I’m not saying that that’s all bad. It really isn’t all bad. There’s a lot of great stuff, but you know what? There’s a lot of stuff that is not consistent with the truth of God, so that’s why you always want to use God’s word as the final authority. It is His word.
In John 1, we read that Jesus is the word, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So the word of God is that final authority, so depend on that word. There is an open door. Look at what this beautiful reference in Revelation 3:20 says. This is Jesus speaking. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me.”
That means that you can feed on Him, that He will teach you, He will show you. But what do we need to do? We need to knock on that door, that means when we make the decision to enter in. And then, we need to hear from Him. We need to put away fleshly ways, carnal ways, and lift up the spiritual part of us, be present in the spirit, and hear using our spiritual ears to hear from Him. That means quieting ourselves, slowing things down. So behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door … So that’s what we want to do, open the door to his truths. It says he will come into him and dine with him and he with me. Dining is a very personal thing, an intimate thing, a joyful thing. And He will do that.
So what’s on the other side of the door? God’s revelation. He will speak to you. He will show you His truths and ways that you may never have experienced before. This is when we hear with our spiritual ears, see with our spiritual eyes. You will have God’s direction for your life. You will be able to ask Him questions and have Him hear your prayers, and He will show you. He will guide you. He will direct you. You have God’s favor for you to experience, walk in His favor. You are His precious child. He cherishes you. You’re the apple of his eye, and you can walk in that favor when you live by the Spirit. When you walk in the Spirit. When you choose to stay on this side of the door. And then you have access to His blessings. You have access to God’s kingdom, and this is your new life in Christ.
All things have passed away. All things are new. There is that old way of thinking, that old, worldly, fleshly way of thinking, behaving, being, or there is the kingdom of God lifestyle, and it is available to you. It all comes with a choice.
So now you can learn more about God. You can learn about His character. How does He think? What does He think of you? The word teaches us that God is so far beyond us, there’s no way we can understand Him. And that is the truth. He is so huge, we can’t ever fully understand him. But you know what? He does not hide Himself from us. He wants us to understand Him. He will show himself to us, and that’s why we want to draw near to Him. His word says that he rewards those who diligently seek Him. And then, you get to discover more about His ways. What is the Christian life? What does it mean to walk in the spirit? What does it mean to be in Christ? Those are all things that you can discover, that you can learn about, as you draw nearer to God, as you spend time with Him, as you meditate on His word. And then you know what? You get to learn and discover more about yourself, the treasure that you have in you.
God created you. He fashioned you. He made you with purpose. He treasures you. He loves you. You can learn more about yourself, and you can start seeing things in yourself that you want to change, those little tweaks that you want to make, so that you can be more like Christ. All of this is available to you, this wide-open door, when you choose to open your heart to Him. To discover His ways, and to learn more about yourself.
Now, do you want to learn more about this? If you’d like to enter the Daniel Fast and learn how you can really enter His rest, you can go to Daniel-Fast.com/rest, or click on the link below. I’d love to stay connected with you. Go ahead, share this video with people that you know that could use this message. Subscribe to this channel, and leave your comments. We love to hear from you. Blessings to you. I hope the very best for you on your Daniel Fast, this time when you can stand at the door and knock and He will open that door for you. You can learn from Him. You can dine with Him and He with you. What a blessing.