Ryan Swanson: Hello and welcome to the Satisfied program here on the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Ryan Swanson, and I’m looking forward to another truth today that’s going to help us in the battle of our minds.

Last month, we talked about how your mind really defines who you are. As we talked about what a nine would be on the scale of one to 10 that we use for accountability, and we discussed the fact that even to consider the sin would be the first step in compromise down that road towards failure.

It’s crazy that that was only a month ago. It seems like so long ago. And to be honest, I had to go back and listen to my own podcast to see where we left off. And it feels like it’s been six months, but it’s only been one. I think it’s just because so much has happened in the last month. Of course, that last podcast was actually recorded before Stephanie and I were married. And now we’re a month into it. Loving married life, by the way. And thanks to all you who sent your congrats and have been thinking and praying for us. Appreciate that. But we are settled down in South Carolina now, so we’ve got married and moved and in a new ministry here at Fellowship Baptist Church. We’ve done a week of teen camp in that time, so lots happened and then a two-week honeymoon in there somewhere. But God’s been good and we’re rejoicing in this new step in our lives and ministry together.

So it’s only been a month, feels like a lot more, but I think I’ve freshened up on where we left off to continue on here. This is probably actually one of the podcasts I’ve looked forward to the most. There’s some really good truth in here, but I’m going to try to keep it very simple and short if I can and just keep focused so it doesn’t get too laborious here.

So one of our main texts last time was from Romans chapter eight, to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And we really discussed what that looks like and what that means, but not necessarily why that is. And again, the verse in Proverbs 23:7 that says, “…as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” So that’s a great truth and it’s good to know, but why is that? That we’re defined by what we think, and what’s in our mind, and what’s in our heart. Why is that? 

Well, today we’re going to dive a little bit deeper into your brain. And don’t worry, I’m not going to get too deep, but I’m gonna relay to you some things that I’ve read in my study that have been very helpful and that actually have applications. It’s one thing just to know how your brain works, but I think today you’re going to also find application from the facts that you learn about your brain. So this is going to be a podcast entitled The Unconscious Brain. I referenced it last time, and it’s really going to stem off of Romans chapter seven. Verse 19 and it’s a verse that we’re familiar with and honestly one that we live out maybe more than any other verse Here Paul is speaking and he says for the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not That I do.

 What is this dilemma going on here? That verse was actually used in the intro of A book called rewire that a lot of this discussion is coming from today. This is by Richard O’Connor. He has a doctorate in, I believe it’s physiotherapy, and he’s very well versed on the issue of breaking self-destructive habits. That’s kind of a secular term for sinful addictions. And he, as far as I can tell, is not a believer, but he provides a very good perspective on what’s actually happening inside our brains and why we do over and over the things that we do not want to do. Now you’ve probably heard to you if you are, let’s say, just continually acting out and viewing pornography, then it’s because you love your sin and because you want to. If you’re doing it, it’s because you want to and because you don’t want victory and deliverance enough. Now, there’s definitely truth to that. However, it’s a little bit misplaced and could be misunderstood.

Just an overwhelmingly intense desire for victory is not going to give you victory, but it will lead you to the source of victory and the solution for your victory. So in the moment of temptation then just like Paul described in that verse and you’re tempted to do the evil that you would not In other words that you do not want to do. Why is it that you fall to that? And that’s where Richard O’Connor comes in with what he calls the unconscious brain. I’ll begin by relaying a study that he describes in his book. This was done at Harvard years ago where a researcher there took a group of piano students and he gave them all the exact same one-handed exercise to do on the piano. And he told them, “I want you to practice this for two hours a day for five days.”

At the end of those five days, he compared images of their brain that were taken before and then after that exercise was done for five days. And he saw there that there was significant growth and development and enrichment in the brain in the area that controls the fingers. Now that was not a big surprise. That’s something that could be expected. That’s what our brain does. It develops in the area of use, just like any other muscle in our body does.

However, the study did not end there. So, he split the students into three groups: Group A, B, and C. Group A completely stopped practicing. They did not practice for the next five days. At the end of the five days, he observed their brain and discovered that the same area that had grown and enriched was now beginning to dwindle and weaken, having not had the attention and focused energy on that one-handed piano practice. So again, that’s not surprising. It’s going to grow with use, and it’s going to shrink or weaken without use. 

Group B continued practicing that one-handed exercise, the same exercise, two hours a day for the next five days. Just continued on what it was doing, and at the end of the five days, as can be expected, it continued to grow and enrich in that area that controls the fingers. 

However, this is where it gets interesting. Group C was not allowed to touch a piano. However, they were to sit down at the piano with their hands in their laps, looking at the same exercise on the music in front of them, and they were to mentally practice it. Go through it in their mind as if they were practicing it, but their fingers were not moving. And they were to do that for two hours a day for five days. So at the end of the five days then, comparing these brain scans of the different students.

He found that the students in Group C had almost the exact same brain development as Group B. In other words, even though they weren’t carrying out and doing the action, because their mind was going through the same process, it was still developing, growing, and enriching in that area as much as if they were actually practicing that exercise. Now, what does that tell us? Because that’s actually big news. I’ll quote the author and what he says on this. He says, “we have evidence that the brain begins to change almost immediately with practice, whether real or imagined, but those changes will disappear if we don’t keep practicing.

Remember now Paul’s words in Romans chapter eight, when he says to be carnally minded is death. Why does he say that like it’s already happened when it’s only occurred in the brain? Well, because what happens in the mind, in your mind, defines who you are, because it will eventually be carried out in action. You are practicing for failure as if you’ve already acted out.

Now, this author goes on to say, I’ll turn the page and skip on just a little bit. He says, “the discovery that the brain changes physically in response to our life experience is the biggest news in psychology in decades.” If this guy had just read his Bible, he would have figured that out a long time ago. Neuroscientists now know that all habits have a physical existence in the structure of the brain. Their early traces were laid down in childhood and adolescence. As we practice bad habits more and more, they become like railroad tracks. The only way to get from here to there, from stress to relief. And we ignore the fact that there are much healthier and more direct ways of getting what we need. So under stress, we take a drink, we have a snack, pick a fight, or get depressed, all without awareness that we have made a decision. Our bad habits operate unconsciously. It’s so difficult to overcome bad habits because they are etched in the brain.” End quote. 

So the takeaway here and the incredible truth I want you to get from this podcast is that when you make a decision, good or bad, it makes it that much easier for you to carry out that exact same decision the next day or the next time you’re tempted or the next time you’re in that same scenario. Remember he makes the point that if you find a certain way to get from stress to relief one day, what’s going to happen the next time you’re stressed? Your brain says, oh, the last time we were stressed out, we got relieved by taking this path. And so it’s so much easier to go down that path. And eventually, if you make that decision several times in a row, which many who have been caught in sexual addictions have been in that bondage and making those same decisions to escape from the stress or whatever it is they’re running from. They’ve been making those decisions for years. And eventually, you know what happens? It’s almost unconscious. That’s the unconscious brain. Your brain sees, okay, yep, I’ve been here before, I’m stressed out, I’m discouraged, I’m ticked, I’m angry, I’m confused, I’m bored, I’m lonely. And it says, okay, the last time we were there in this situation, we took this path. Let’s do it again. And all that can happen so quickly and almost like you’re not even deciding to do it. Because you have so trained your brain to take that path. That’s the unconscious brain. But this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. As scary as it is, it does not have to be bad because in the same way that you train your mind and train your brain to follow those bad habits and those bad escape routes, you can actually, by making the correct decisions, train your brain to make the right ones.

So. We know what it looks like to practice, even mentally practice as those piano students did. We know what it looks like to practice physically or in our minds to act out in what could be a failure and a relapse in pornography. But what does it look like to mentally practice for victory? 

So for this, I’m going to refer real quickly to another book. It’s called Think and Grow Rich. Some of you may know that book. Again, a very secular book, and why in the world would we reference that in a time like this? Well, there the author gives insight, again, into what you think is actually, has direct impact on your actions, and in his case, in how successful someone could be in business. But I want to take, actually, what I learned from listening to the author describe why he wrote what he did in the book. He said he had a relational issue in his life. It was an issue with his wife. And over and over he would respond and react to her in a certain way whenever she did this certain thing. He just couldn’t stand it and he would always end up snapping at her and would end up regretting it later because he loved his wife and he didn’t want to treat her that way but he always would in this certain scenario. So what he did is he would get up in the morning and he would write down on a piece of paper, this is who I’m going to be today with my wife, I’m going to respond in this way.” And he would set that paper out, and in his words, he would meditate on that. So after carrying out that mental practice, that structured time in the morning, focusing on who he was going to be that day and what decisions he was going to make, guess what happened? Well, Proverbs 23:7 played out and turned out to be true. As he thought in his heart, so was he. And he relayed, as he decided in the morning how he was going to act and who he was going to be, then in the moment of temptation, when that scenario came with his wife, he was so much more easily and freely able to respond in the way he truly wanted to and love her through the situation instead of reacting to her because he had already decided how he was going to handle himself. 

Now, from the secular perspective, his answer was his own willpower in meditation, but look what we can do in the mornings. We can sit down with Jesus and say, “Lord, I need you today because I don’t want to be who I was yesterday. I don’t want to be defined by my sexual addiction and my own lust as I have been in the past. And so instead, I am deciding and covenanting with you that today when the temptations come up, when I pass an inappropriate billboard, when I pass someone who’s jogging in inappropriate attire, when I come across an inappropriate image or some other temptation, when an image comes across my mind as I’m sitting in class or church, when these temptations come, Lord, I’m going to turn to You every time instead of turning to them. I’m going to turn to You to be satisfied instead of turning to my lust and those temptations to be gratified. And I’m deciding now that I’m going to act like a son of God today and not someone serving my own flesh.” You can, every morning, practice, mentally practice, to fight the temptations that you’ll face that day.

And according to scripture and even lining up with neuroscience, you’re actually carving out new pathways that will make it that much more easily accessible the next day to follow that same decision path. The next time you’re stressed, the next time you’re tempted, the next time you’re discouraged. You’ve already decided when I’m in that situation, when I’m in that scenario, I’m going to take this route. I’m turning to Jesus, turning and cleaving to Jesus as we talked about last time.

I’m taking that route and you’ve already decided that. And as you do that day after day, you’re creating new paths that will be even easier to tread the next day. 

So stop laying down paths that run towards failure and instead practice for the victory that you can and will have today by the grace of God. That’s a wrap for today, guys. Thank you for joining us and I’ll talk to you next month as we take steps together to be less gratified and more satisfied with Jesus Christ.