Navigating Mental Health: Tell Yourself the Truth

Hi, Victorious Living family, all my brothers and sisters out there, welcome to Stepping Forward with Sheridan Korea. I am your host of this broadcast, and I am also your sister in Christ. And it's so good to be with you here today. Quick reminder, God has freed me from so many things. I've been walking this journey for eight years by the transforming power of Jesus Christ. And one of those things that he has freed me from is the battle, the battle, the endless battle of mental illness and the struggle to believe and know who I was, who I truly was and what my purpose was here on earth. So I want to share my life with you and just share some of the things that have worked for me. And these are all biblical things. They are rooted in truth and rooted with biblical foundations and biblical solutions. But I want to empower you and give you some tools to help you on this journey to freedom and this journey to wholeness and on your journey to faith, as I am still on. So in this series, what we've been talking about is navigating our mental health, specifically breaking the silence, just talking about it so it's not kept bundled up, you know, hiding in shame anymore, reducing the stigma, we're not crazy, we're human. We can talk about the things that we are thinking about. And we want to think about the things that we are thinking about. We're hopefully gaining some tools and some insights on how to navigate this. And fam, I just want to remind you that God sees, God cares, and God understands that down here, being a human is challenging. He also understands that Satan's MO and his purpose and why he exists is to steal, kill, and destroy us off. And so God knows that. He knows that we need help, and he has given us the resources and the tools in the Word of God, in truth, in the plan of salvation through our Savior, Jesus Christ, and through equipping us with the Word of God in how to continue to be not only sanctified in all of those things and become more like Christ, but also to battle out the flesh versus the

spirit and the war, the battlefield and the war of the mind between the lies and the truth. Listen, fam, Jesus said in Scripture that know the truth and the truth will set you free. He also said that he is the way, the truth, and the life. He also said that we are free indeed. Who the Son sets free is free indeed. Okay, that's a lot of freedom language there. That's a lot of truth language. And we have to know that truth is what frees us, amen? Truth is what heals us. Truth and not relative truth, but absolute truth found in the Word of God and God's words to us, that is a, truth is regulating. Truth empowers. Truth restores. Truth brings hope. Truth brings courage. Truth brings renewal. Truth brings recovery. And once I learned that, once I learned that what was happening in my mind, my mental health was being influenced by my thoughts and what was happening in my mind, the things that I was thinking about often, how I was often distracted, selfish, prideful, how I was worried about everything, how I was discouraged, I was in despair, I was depressed all the time, I was doubting God and the truth. I didn't even know the truth, to be honest. I didn't even know that until I came to Christ and started to study His Word. But truth has incredible, incredible, incredible power. So in this episode, we're going to talk about replacing those lies with truth. We have to know that there is a way to do it, that God has not left us alone to figure it out. He hasn't left us alone and go, Oh, this is so fun to watch them just be spinning out

of control and, you know, running around with their chicken, like a chicken with a head cut off. That's not our Lord. That's not our Heavenly Father who loves us so much. That is not our Lord and our King. They have given us a way out and some tools to help us in this battle. Listen, we have said this over and over, John 10, 10, Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. That is his job. That is his purpose, is to steal the truth from us, to try to kill us off, make us believe that God is not who he says he is, that he can't be trusted, and he's not good. And that means that we are not good, and we are alone, and we're being lied to, and it's just so scary. That's not true. Listen, Satan uses 3Ds, Satan uses 3Ds to help us just kind of stay spun out, and he doesn't have to work very hard, sadly. But the first one is he can keep us distracted. If we are anxious about all the things, and worried about all the things, and fearful about all the things, and believing all the lies, then his job is done. We're just all off to the races and off to the hills with all the things. But if he can keep us distracted from the truth, then we become discouraged. We have a proclivity to negativity and to discouragement when we are coming out of the light of truth, the fullness of truth, when we are not standing firm and rooted in the truth anymore, and we uproot ourselves and decide to go over here and believe all these things and blah, blah, blah, then we become discouraged. And that discouragement can lead to depression, another D. So we're actually going to do 4Ds. But that discouragement really greatly affects us. We are not empowered. And the language then becomes, oh my gosh, I'm not powerless. I can't do anything. I'm helpless, and I'm hopeless, and I'm a victim.

That's what happens, fam. And so we have to know and understand that Satan's trying to distract us, that leads to discouragement, and then doubt. Then we start doubting God. If we even know truth, we're like, nope, God is alone. He has left me. Oh my gosh. And we start freaking out. And now we're spun out over here, and we are not living rooted and grounded and standing tall and firm in the truth and living those free lives that Christ died to give us. So we must understand that there is an actual tug and pull. There is conflict. There is tension always happening around us. And you can become aware of that. That's empowering. That is so empowering. You can take your power back and go, hold on. I'm an adult. I'm a beloved child of God who is not alone, who is loved, who has been given tools and truth to stand firm in and root myself in. I can go to the bread of life and the living water. I know the way because Jesus says that he is the way, the truth, and the life. I know that the truth sets me free, so I'm going to believe the truth. We have to choose that. We have to choose that. Even if it doesn't make sense, even if you don't understand it right now, even if you don't believe it down here, okay? We might believe it up here. Okay. Yeah.

The word of God says this. I'm supposed to trust the word of God because the word doesn't lie to me. God says that he doesn't lie, that he only tells the truth and nothing but the truth. I'm going to choose to believe that regardless of the way that I feel. If it only starts here and at some point it moves down those 12 inches to right here, then awesome. I promise you, promise you, promise you, promise you, promise you that if you do that, it will happen. It will happen to you. God has not left us alone to figure it out. God has not left us to just make up things. He has given us truth. He has given us absolute truth about who he is, about who we are, about why we're here and what to do, what to believe, and then how are we supposed to behave out of that? He has given us tools and help and direction in how to fight the battle of the mind and win that. So today we are going to talk about thinking the things that we think about, the things that we're thinking about, about telling ourselves the truth. Listen, I had become so good at lying to myself back in the day, so good. Lying to others about anything and everything. I figured out one day when I was at the mission, Phoenix Rescue Mission, in my rehabilitation and recovery and in my counseling sessions and stuff, I figured out one day, I was like, I had a revelation. I was like, oh my gosh. I have spent. my entire life thinking that I am trying to fool and, you know, pull one over, over other people. Oh, but no, it is me who I'm trying to fool and pull one over. I have no idea who I am. Here I am thinking that I'm lying to everybody else, but if before you are lying to everybody

else, you are first lying to yourself. That's the way it happens because it comes out from inside. It just doesn't poof happen, but the worst receiver of my lies was me and my self-talk was so damaging and disempowering and destructive. The story that I told myself over and over and over, how I was the victim of every situation, how nobody wanted me, how I was alone, I had this huge fear of being alone and then that fear lived out and played out. I ended up being alone, like truly, and you know, the progression of the rest of my story, which you know about the drugs, the crime, the incarceration, the losing my kids, I mean, trying to commit suicide, like all of it, but those come from beliefs. Early on in my transformation and healing journey, I became very aware of what was going in my mind and that only happened when I encountered Christ and then he gave me a new mind, a new heart and he gave me the word of God and I was like, Oh my God, I've been living a lie for 37 years. I've been chasing and distracted and discouraged and depressed and doubting and just lost. So, so, so lost and praise God that he got me back on that right path. He brought me in to relationship and I believed everything that he was saying to me there because there was no other choice. Not only that there was no other choice, but he is the way, the truth and the life. So he is to be believed and I have the opportunity and the choice to believe what he says about himself, about life, about myself and that does something that changes me, that transforms me, that changes the way that I view not only myself and other people, but my worldview. It changes the way that I live my life. Now I live with purpose on purpose because I'm not just down here just wasting away like, why am I here? I'm not sure. Am I just supposed to cook dinner and clean dishes all the day? That's my purpose. No, no. God is, the identity gives you a purpose and it gives you a direction.

It guides us into something bigger and greater than ourselves and with the Holy Spirit into a journey with him. It is just so exciting. But truth is defined as reality. It is the way things really are. What seems to be and what really is are often not the same thing. To know the truth is to see accurately and to believe what is not true is to be blind. That's what it means in the word of God when it's talking about depraved minds and blind, not physically blind people, but people who are walking around in blindness and darkness. It is because they are believing what is not true. I don't want to live my life that way anymore. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be blind. I don't want to be blind. I want to see clearly. I want to see truthfully. I want to look through the lens of reality and know that what I am seeing, hearing, reading, believing from the word of God is true. And again, it's that truth that is restorative, that is healing, that is renewal, renewing our minds and our bodies down here. It's renewing and shaping the way that we live our lives, and we are becoming new creatures on that same journey. Our thoughts are so powerful. Belief has great, great, great power. Let me tell you this though, even the demons have a belief system, amen? So everybody has a belief system. You need to find out if your belief system is actually working for you and bringing you into a state of life and peace, or is it continuing you on one of destruction and ultimately leading to death, as it says in the word of God, what we believe we become. And the words we think and speak over ourselves hold great, great power in that process. One of the most powerful weapons of our journey down here is telling ourselves the truth,

especially the journey toward wholeness. health and freedom especially coming from the the really challenging and traumatic things that we have come from what we are believing and telling ourselves the truth versus the lies is the most powerful weapon it is like spiritual TNT and then that spiritual TNT comes and creates some mental TNT and just blows up those lives blows up the prison bars that are incarcerating us and keeping us held hostage and captive amen in Jesus name and now we are living as free people we are designed to heal with truth and telling the truth to others aka honesty or even to ourselves learning to give ourselves that gift of honesty and credibility and authenticity is crucial it is gold it is so so so healing and restorative the way out is truth family and truth empowers the soul and sets us free so learning to deal with and challenge our thoughts as one of the first steps to a healthy mind and healthy thinking once you replace negative thoughts with the truth it is absolutely possible to lead a satisfying and an abundant and fulfilling emotional life also so what are the lies and the half-truths that you repeat to yourself which misbeliefs and lies keep you unhappy and upset distracted and discouraged and doubting God and unable to step forward because we become so paralyzed and stagnant in those thoughts so I want to go over three things that that will help us in our toolbox okay three things that you can do to help identify your thoughts and be able to shift the perspective take them captive become aware of them shift the perspective and declare what is true truth is healing power truth is regulating it calms the mind it calms the anxious brain it calms and quiets and soothes that emotional part of our brain the amygdala that can hijack the whole system it quiets those anxious fearful places within ourselves that says that we are alone that says that it's our fault that we are too broken and beyond repair that that says that we are unlovable that says that it's all my fault fear disempowers and fear is created by lies and so that truth then the opposite of that is true the the truth empowers us it gives us a choice it gives us a voice and so that's what we're gonna do here today three things

here we go so what you tell yourself every day matters if you believe something about yourself about yourself about the world around you whatever and it's not true then you will struggle to believe what God says about you know we want to get on the same page as God because he is the most wise he is the most powerful he knows everything he created everything even ourselves he knows what happens at the beginning of time and he knows what happens at the end of time like I'm trying to hang out with the wisest people all right the Word of God says to get wisdom and so I gotta hang out with God and get in the Word of God to become more wise and discerning but when we root our identity in God and allow his spirit and his truth to shape our life we begin to see ourselves much differently we begin to see ourselves the way that he sees us which is a beloved child of God which is one who is never alone who has been empowered who has been given resources who has been given all the tools and all of the directions and ways that we are to live as a follower of Christ and a child of God this influences the way that we live our lives it influences the way that our thoughts turn into our emotions and our emotions turn into our actions the way that we engage with other people the way that we treat other people it affects our attitudes it affects the situations around us our opportunities right there's a ripple effect that happens so we're going to go over three ways to guard our our thoughts and declare God's truth over your life. The number one way is identify the lies that you are telling yourself. Now, before I get started there, do you know how the government authorities can tell whether a bill is fake or not? This is how they do it. And if you don't know, I sure do know because this is part of my story back in the day. The government authorities,

they study the authentic design of the bill, okay? They study the truth, the truth of a government issued dollar, all right? Or five, 10, all of them. They study that so well, so that anything that's counterfeit, anything that's false, anything that's fake that comes up against it, you can easily say that ain't real, that bill's not real, that's a fake. And they, woo, woo, woo, right? We all know that. Or we all know. But that's how the government authorities do it. And we should take a cue from them, bam, because that's how it's done. We are to get into the word of God. We are to know the truth. The truth is what sets us free. So that anything counterfeit and fake and not real and not credible can easily be discerned and spot and say, that ain't true, I ain't subscribing to that, I ain't believing that, I'm not gonna go that direction, I'm gonna stay over here and I'm gonna believe this and choose to trust God that he has my best interest, that he has a plan and a purpose for my life, not to destroy me or harm me, but to bring me into a hope and a future and a whole new thing, right?

Those are the gorgeous words of our God to us. So our words and our actions reveal the stories that we're telling ourselves. If you stop and look around in your life and you become aware of and notice and pay attention to the words that are coming out of your mouth, if they are negative and kind of critical and cynical and judgmental, no, no, no, no, then we are believing some nasty stuff, all right? That should be a pause for us to go, okay, hold on, there's something else going on. If our actions reveal that we are, let's say we are, what is the word? Short-tempered, our window of tolerance is small, that we are irritable, we're snapping at people, we're saying ugly things back to people, we're running around at like 100 miles an hour speed limit, trying to anxiously do stuff, we're trying to perform our way into approval and acceptance. We are angry, we're exhausted. Those things should all be warning signs and blinking lights on our dashboard that tell us like, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's check it before we wreck it. Let's think about and pay attention to what's going on up here. Our outer life is a direct manifestation of our inner life. So let that be a reflection, one that is helpful to us,

not one that is condemning, but one that is helpful that we can stop and pause and say, okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm way off course, what's going on here? Figure out, the way to figure out if a narrative or of a belief or misbelief is false, you wanna ask ourselves, you wanna ask yourself, is this thought marked by fear, insecurity, pride, bitterness, or a lack of confidence? Is this thought leading me to cynical or self-serving behavior? And if the answer is yes to either of those questions, then the story that you're telling yourself, the misbelief that is happening in your head probably needs to be addressed and adjusted, just like a chiropractic adjustment. I call it my spiritual chiropractic adjustment. When I sit down with the Lord and go, okay, I know I'm not right, so let's process through this. Let me write this all out. Let me do my steps that I always do and get back on track. Let me think about the things that I'm thinking about. And I need your truth to declare, to restore, and renew, and recover me from this lie. So when you can identify where and when you first began believing that lie, it's easier to change the way you think. Now, gosh, that's just a whole Pandora's box right there because a lot of our misbeliefs, our lies, they have started in childhood

based on the events that we have experienced, their experiences, the things that we have walked through and survived, the things that we have seen and heard. They create lies within us and our belief systems within us. You know, as a child, I always thought. that I was alone, that I was not loved, and that nobody cared about me. I was a number and not a person, and I didn't have a voice, and I definitely didn't have a choice. And, you know, I thought all these things. And so I lived my life. That kind of grew up. That was unresolved. And that kind of grew up into a myriad of lies and misbeliefs that I believed about myself and carried into adulthood and manifested in horrible and harmful ways, as you see in the progression of my story. So I had to really challenge those. Once I came to Christ and encountered him and started to know the truth, and the truth was setting me free, I had to really acknowledge and face those lies and go, that's not true. Because the word of God says that, and I had to come up against it. The second thing is we want to shift our perspective. For every lie, there is truth that can replace it. There is truth that can blow it up. There's truth that can regulate your mind and your nervous system. There's actual part in your brain, the amygdala that I've talked about. Truth helps to pacify. Pacify is a wrong word. That's not a good word. It helps to regulate and calm the emotional part in our brain that tells us that we're

not safe. We're not loved. We're all alone. All the fear factor language. But the truth is regulating. The truth is grounding. The truth is helping us to stand firm and rooted and becoming that mature Christian and that matured daughter or son of God, believing our father that when he says that we are who we are and he says that he is who he is and he can be trusted, like that should do something to us, fam. But those truths can be found in the Bible. So if you don't know, you have to get in the word of God and find the truth to come against and replace that lie. We're just going to say replace because we want all the lies gone. We want all the lies gone. We want to be done with them. So we're going to replace them. We want to be people of truth, children of truth and walking in the light and the fullness of the light and the spirit. That is our destination. That is where we want to go because it is good for us. So look over the list of lies and you can ask God to show you in his word what his truth is. Ask other people. If you don't know, get in the word of God and study. If you don't. This is my favorite. This is my favorite thing to do. I get a dictionary. I got the Bible and I just go to town.

I look up words and I try to get a sense of understanding. I go in the back in the concordance and I look up certain words. Let's say it's identity. Let's say it's child. And you can see all the scriptures that have to do with that and get a sense of, okay, this is what God says. This is how you define that word now. Not my experiences, not what I walked through, not my past, not what whoever told me. This is what God says and this is what it means. And so I'm going to choose to believe this and I'm going to root myself in this truth. And I'm going to speak that must speak this over myself even every single day. Create mental space and physical space for the Holy Spirit to show you how God truly and clearly sees you because that will bring you into a state of soundness and clarity and mental health and healing, fam. The third thing is you want to declare what's true. Now we, if you don't know this, there's a parable that Jesus talks about. There is a guy who has, you know, a demon in him. He is affected. He has an attachment, a demonic attachment. Now they cast it off and he thinks that he's good, right? But then the demon goes out and gets seven other of his homies and comes in to this person. And now there's a big, a bigger party and a bigger problem within his, within his soul. And so the purpose of that parable is to say that if you are kicking something out, if you are 86ing a lie, if you are getting rid of something that doesn't, isn't supposed to belong there, we ain't just supposed to be like, woo, yep, job's done. I'm good. No, we are to replace it with truth. That is biblical and help me out. If you know where that parable is, you can put it in the comments there We are to 86 the lie and Satan's hooligans and all that Lame belief system and we are to replace it with truth

And we want to declare that once we are replacing it there is such great power when you can stand up in your cell and you're the common room wherever you are and Start declaring who you are and let Satan know that bring it actually. No, don't bring it. You're gone You're gone, but you know who you are and you are a warrior You are a warrior princess a warrior prince You are standing firm in the truth You have the entire armor of God on and you are prepared not scared no more Amen in Jesus name so turn the truth from Scripture into specific and intentional Statements that you can declare over your life every day now our brain the way that our brain works and I've said this before and then Finding this online It takes 40 to 50 times to declare something out loud for a new Neuropath way in our brains to be formed. All right Our brain is Plastic it can heal it can be relier. You do not have to stay the same the way that you have been Amen, that is how God designed it That's why the Word of God says that we are to renew our mind to be transformed That means that stuff can happen the different things can happen and things can change And that is so awesome the way that God designed our brains to work So here are some declarations to get you started I am enough because I am a child of God period Period I am loved. I am be loved child of God period You declare that you declare that every single day. That is an affirmation of truth that Empowers you and grounds you and shapes your life if you do that every single day I rejoice in suffering because Christ suffered for me if you're going through something that's really challenging and you're finding Discouragement, I will rejoice in suffering because Christ Suffered for me. I am NOT ashamed of Jesus because his sacrifice Changes lives and is definitely change of my life. Amen. So I ain't ashamed I am greatly loved and so I love others like I have been loved and

Nothing can separate me from God's love. Amen one that I speak all the time over myself is Joshua 1-9 because I have a proclivity to feel discouraged Sometimes things can still be kind of scary sometimes and I need that courage to partner with my fear and that regulating truth that says to not be discouraged and do not be Dismayed or fearful God is with me and he will be with me wherever I go. So I don't need to Fear amen Listen as you practice these steps keep in mind that if God whose Word is truth Says something about you, then it must be true It can't be any other way So allow his Holy Spirit to transform the way that you think let his thoughts become your thoughts Let let your spirit man found and and fed and Nourished and exercised in the Word of God Renew your thinking renew your thoughts renew your emotions Renew the way that you act and behave even Amen, I love you. I hope this was helpful. Thank you so much for all of your comments. Keep them coming I think we have one more episode in this series. Then we're off to a different one I'm so excited, but I love y'all so much always praying for y'all always thinking about y'all and Continue to fight the good fight of faith stand firm and rooted Continue to remain in the truth abide Stay Stay stay don't be running out Don't be running out. Don't let fear get the last word you allow your faith to Direct you you allow your faith to guide you you allow your faith and the truth to Regulate you when times get tough think about the things that you are thinking about Replace those lies with truth. And if you don't know comment, please and And we are always praying for you. We love you so much. And we will see you next time.

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