Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - How to Renew Your Mind: Biblical Keys to Christian Transformation | Dr. Gifford and Jonny Ardavanis

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Discover the biblical foundations of mind renewal and spiritual transformation with Dr. Gifford as he unpacks key passages from Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Thessalonians. Learn practical strategies for engaging with Scripture, the importance of community in spiritual growth, and how prayer shapes our thought life.In this powerful interview, Dr. Gifford explores:Why mind renewal is fundamental to Christian sanctificationPractical ways to saturate your daily life with God's WordThe role of church community in spiritual transformationHow to overcome common struggles through mind renewalThe connection between prayer and biblical meditationPerfect for Christians seeking deeper spiritual growth, biblical counselors, and anyone wanting to understand how to practically apply Scripture to daily life. Learn why the battle for the mind is essential to living out your faith and becoming more like Christ.Watch VideosVisit the Website Buy Consider the LiliesFollow on Instagram

Dr. Gifford, thanks so much for sitting down. I want to talk to you about how we renew our mind. We know that the Christian life is a battle for the mind. Peter says, prepare your minds for action. Ephesians 4.23 says that we are to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Romans 12 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I think it would be fair to say that someone is not ready to live the Christian life unless

they've taken a serious inventory of their mind and understands fundamentally that the Christian life, while we are positionally changed by Jesus Christ at the moment of faith, we are sanctified and progressively transformed. And that largely has to do with the way that we feed our mind, the truth of God's word through his Holy Spirit. So I just want to talk to you about the renewing of your mind and want you to react to it. Why is it so important that we understand that concept biblically? Explain what that is. I've been changed. My heart's been made clean, but there are still remnants of sin. So maybe just explain what it means to renew our mind and why it's so

important. Good. Well, some of it's the anthropology that you're bringing up where we're talking about your capacities have changed at the moment of salvation. So you had a darkened mind. I had a darkened mind before we were in Christ. The scripture says it was corrupt, defiled. But we had a mind. Nevertheless, it was calloused, but we had a mind. But regeneration actually brings with it a transformation so that your mind is renewed. So we could say the Christian has the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2, 16 or so.

So what does that mean? You actually have a capacity that's changed. Anthropologically, you have this new capacity. Your mind works. But it doesn't mean it's perfect. So you just kind of brought up remnants and the noetic effects of sin. So sanctification means that that mind that is now capacitated at the moment of salvation, it has to grow in being conformed to the image of Christ. Yeah.

So why is that so important? Well, I think one thing is important to note. You will live out what's happening in your inner person. Yeah. And your actions, your behaviors, the things we see in biblical counseling will often say those are the fruit issues. But the root issue is really what's happening in your inner person. When you say inner person, I think sometimes people get, you know, even when I was growing up, people would say it's in my head, but it's not in my heart. So maybe even before we proceed, like you're saying inner person.

Are you using that as a euphemism to consolidate the head and the heart into one kind of entity? Yes. Yes. The reason I would say inner person, if I say mind and heart, I understand how a person might say, Hey, I know that to be true, but I don't want that. Yeah. I get that tension. Yeah. But technically the faculties are all part of your inner person, your soul, your heart, your mind. I mean, your heart is said to think. So your mind is not the only center, even of cognition in that way. So you don't want to separate heart and mind.

You just say something like the whole inner person. So if you ever have those tensions, that tension is of an inner person tension. So what is it? Yeah, maybe you don't want what you know to be right. It's part of sanctification. The Lord is changing that we want the right things and we know the right things and then we love the right things and so forth. But that leads to some of the importance of renewing your mind. If you have a darkened mind, it changes everything. Let's say you have a regenerate mind, but it's not growing in transformation. The Ephesians 4.23 passage.

What do you think your actions will be? Darkened, callous. There'll be an overflow of what's happening in your mind. So renewing your mind is fundamental to the life of the Christian because sanctification is fundamental to the life of the Christian. And I would even say one more, what is Christ sanctifying? We know there will be a point when our bodies will be restored. There will be a resurrection in the future. But what's he currently sanctifying? Your inner person to grow in conformity to the image of Christ, to include your mind. So that is the work of sanctification.

Why does it matter so much? That's what sanctification looks like. Your mind is being transformed, not being conformed, Romans 12.2. Yeah, that's helpful. Yeah, even when you think about sanctification, that is the process by which we're becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 4.3 says, this is the will of God. It's explicit. This is the will of God, your sanctification. So therefore, if I'm using the same logic, which I agree with, the will of God for our lives is the transformation and renewal of our minds. Sure.

Because if you're equating those to be one and the same, or one is the root that produces the fruit. So I am a Christian. I sense maybe I struggle in my mind. I know that I need to have, I want to transform my thoughts so that I love Jesus Christ. I hate sin. What would you say, hey, if you want to renew your mind, here's what the scripture says, practical principles for mind renewal. What would you say? There has to be a level of scripture engagement. So hear me out on this. When I talk about this at my local church, I try to be candid that there are people who are just readers. Yeah. And God's gifted them. They just love to read. And so

they sit down with a book and just get lost in it. Yeah. And it's like, man, you know, like that's such a blessing to be able to be knit towards the intellectual side of things. But then you have a group of people that they don't get lost in reading. The last time they read a book from cover to cover was like high school, man. Like Huck Finn, yeah. But you know what? That person often is great at serving

and behind the scenes stuff. So they may not be the intellectual type, which is just fine, but they have more of the serving gifts and they just like to be a doer. I just want to do like, help me set up the midweek family dinner. All right, cool. Why do I bring that up? Because scripture engagement means that no matter your own personal tendencies, you're engaging in renewing your mind with the scripture,

but that can look differently. For some of us, we get lost reading chapters at a time, but others of us, we're going to listen to the scripture as we're driving to our work. Or each of those, if we're engaging in the scripture by watching a sermon or by reading the Bible that morning, that is part of what goes into the renewal of the mind. And in a media age like ours, I mean, partly what we're doing is creating content to help people renew their mind. How are they doing that specifically in scripture engagement in one of those ways? So if I just say only read your Bible, which I think you should do every morning in all fairness, I don't think that's big enough to contribute to what you should really be doing.

I don't want you to just read your Bible for 30 minutes and then get up and go on about your day. I want you to think like your Bible. I want your whole day to be saturated by your Bible. I want there to be post-it notes on your desk at work with Bible verses. That's the engagement. We want to saturate our life with the truth of Scripture. So if someone watching this is thinking, how do I do that practically? Sneak in Bible into every crack of your day. That's how you do it practically. Listen to it. It's being sung. It's a podcast.

It's whatever it is. You're just saturating yourself with the truth of scripture. Yeah, that's helpful. And even thinking through the renewal of our mind, you're saying every crack of our day. I think part of what maybe could potentially be neglected even in the subject is that some people view the renewing of their mind as individualistic, that they're a lone ranger in the endeavor. So maybe even talk about what is the role of the people of God? How is renewing our minds in a sense, a community project? Because we live our life with people. How do even relationships work in such a way where, hey, I know if my name is Johnny, your name is Greg, you're a Christian and I'm a Christian, therefore we both have the same will of God for our life. I know that God's will for your life and God's will for my life is that our

minds will be renewed. What do relationships then look like to go, I'm assuming you're reading the Bible, but how do I even begin to glean those truths from you so that you can encourage me and I can mutually encourage you in maybe a synergistic fashion? Yeah. Well, I mean, think hamartiology goes into this because if you- Explain what that means for someone that may not know. Yeah, yeah, sure. If you believe, so hamartiology is the doctrine of sin, but part of what sin does is deceives you. It's almost like sin wants to isolate me. Proverbs 18, one, whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. The lone ranger mentality doesn't have a good homardiology in that way because you're trusting yourself too

much to be able to come to the right conclusions from the scripture. I want you to see the Hebrews 13, 12 to 13, like encourage one another as long as it's called today so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. I need people to help ground me in an accurate interpretation of the scripture. Yeah. So I am not hardened by my own sin. In all fairness, those that get to the extreme of this, the world would say something like the scripture. So I am not hardened by my own sin in all fairness. Those that get to the extreme of this, the world would say something like the narcissist, they're just super selfish, controlling, like they're just hardened. You can't break in with counsel and wisdom. Why? Because they know everything. They know it all. You can't instruct them in that way. So when we're talking about

Lone Ranger and we're talking about renewing your mind, you can't Lone Ranger. You can't Lone Ranger and renew your mind effectively. I'm sure there are pockets here and there, but you need the body of Christ to one another you, which leads to what you believe about the church. You see, the church isn't like, you know, I'm just going to gather together and hear this sermon with these people. And that's great. The church is the organism. It's the body, 1 Corinthians 12 speaks of. And that body all has a necessary function for us to grow in maturity. So I couldn't amputate my leg and think it's going to grow on its own. And the same way, I can't be an individualistic lone ranger for Jesus and expect that I am going to grow on my own. Bonhoeff way, I can't be an individualistic lone ranger for Jesus and expect that I am going to grow on my own. Bonhoeffer, I know you've read Bonhoeffer. I think part of his

dissertation was that you need the body of Christ to be able to become the full image of Christ. You can't do that individually. That's really helpful. I think obviously the renewing of our mind is so important and you're saying it's really the underlying buttress of all sanctification, which would mean that if someone is struggling with worry or pornography or gossip, and you may not even think through it, but out of the heart, the mouth speaks, we're referring to the mind and the heart under the umbrella of the inner person. So if someone has the problem with gossip, I just want people to connect the dots here. If someone has a problem with gossip,

what they need fundamentally is not just to learn to tame their tongue, they need to learn to retrain and renew their mind so that that never even enters their heart in the first place. Yeah, I would say it like this. Some people think of the Bible like the quick reference guide, like you just flip open and you're like, okay, no gossip. Gossip is bad. Yeah. But instead of seeing the Bible as that, see the Bible as a pair of glasses through which you're viewing gossip. And then now that'd be like, thankfulness is part of the

equation. Seeing the sovereignty of God and his providence as part of the equation, those start to squash gossip more than the quick reference guide of thou shalt not gossip would actually squash it. So you're renewing your mind by actually being engaged in the totality of scripture as the lens, not just the one specific verse that pertains to that issue. Yeah. That's even what you're saying regarding the sovereignty of God. If someone's struggling with worry and they see the chaos and uncertainty of things in the future, and they renew their mind with a deeper understanding of the sovereignty of God, maybe just finally in the process, you're talking about the word of God and that we are to

not just read our Bibles in the morning, but it is to fill every crack and crevice of our life and schedule. What does prayer have to do in maybe driving the nails home of what we're meditating upon in the scripture? You said post-it notes at our computer, on our steering wheel. What does prayer have to do with the renewing of our mind? What should we be praying? Give me an example. God, help me as I come to the truth. Shape my heart. What would you pray? Yeah, and this is not something I'm saying everyone should do as they start, but the way I start a morning devotion is, Lord, open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things from your law. Yeah, Psalm 119. So give me eyes to see what I see.

And in that way, I want to not just sit here and read, but I actually want to understand the world as you see it. Those types of prayers. I was taught in my biblical counseling training to actually take the scripture and then pray it back to the Lord. Lord, would you help me too? And then pray the scripture. May this be true of me. May I love my wife like you love your church. And by praying scripture back over time, you're both communicating with the Lord, but then you're also, you're renewing your mind with the truth of scripture. Yeah. And so that's an easy discipline to get into in all honesty. Like what scripture are you working through in your devotions? Pray that back to the Lord. And there's some narratival

or historical stuff that might be a little bit harder, But by and large, Lord, help this to be true of me. And then we pray back the scripture to the Lord. So how does it drive the nail? I mean, your communication to God comes through prayer, which will be an overflow of the way you've renewed your mind in the truth of scripture. So how do you pray often as a reflection of where's your mind at in the renewal process? Yeah. And if you're not diving deep, then your prayers will always be somewhat shallow. Yeah, it's obvious. And I think even what you're saying about praying,

praying back the promises of God, the truth of God, even practically, Jesus says, it's a command imperative, abide in my love. You could read that and then just go, Lord, help me to abide in your love. I think sometimes we overcomplicate what prayer is, but it's what you're saying. It's, we're repeating the prayers. We're saying, God, help me to abide in your love. I think sometimes we overcomplicate what prayer is, but it's what you're saying. It's we're repeating the prayers.

We're saying, God, you're praying the prayers that are in scripture, like you're talking about in the Psalter, Psalm 119, 18. Lord, open my eyes, you know, because our hearts are callous and we need God's help in this endeavor. And I think that's just a really practical thing to pray is God, would you shape my affections

and renew my mind as they come to your word? And would you surround me with people that do the same? And even what you're talking about, the Lone Ranger element, I think part of the ways that maybe men and women come alongside each other in the church is I have a guy, an older guy in my life that just sometimes say, he'll sometimes ask me, is there anything that's giving you joy that shouldn't? And because he wants me to just, because that can even become a default position of the human heart is to start having our mind, you're talking about the cracks and crevices of our time, our mind finds things that'll give it joy. And even his mindfulness of the specificity of the question asked me things like that. That's how the body of Christ comes along each other. So, um, is there, do you

talk about this reality in your book, heart and habits a little bit in regards to the renewal of your mind? Yeah. What I would put it in as I talk about, there's a spiritual sphere where you relate to the Lord. And that means that in the spiritual sphere, prayer, renewing of the mind, I would include repentance, scripture, engagement, church, giving, all of those are kindewing of the mind. I would include repentance. Yeah. Scripture engagement, church, giving. All of those are kind of part of the spiritual disciplines. But the renewing of your mind, that is a personal command that you have. Like, I can't renew Johnny's mind for you. You have to renew your own mind.

You can't renew Greg's mind for him. Like, I have to renew my own mind. So when we think of the personal commands that relate to your relationship with the Lord. That is where I would couch this idea of the renewal of the mind. I have to do that. You can't do that for me. Yeah. And I think even what you're saying about Philippians 2 is like such a good thing to ground our thinking in because it's a passive imperative. It's something we pursue, but God does to us. And I think sometimes we're either hand bootstraps, got to go, or let go, let God. And the scripture is clear that no, as we dive deeply, it's, you know, it's God who

works. I think that's true of the Ephesians 4.23 as well. Who's doing the renewing passive? God's doing the renewing technically, but you're doing your part to submit. Yes. Right. That's where spirit-filled obedience comes. Well, that's so helpful. Well, Dr. Gifford, thanks so much for your time and your perspective on really a needed and often neglected subject in the Christian life. Glad to do it.