Did you know that 100% of the things you feel think and do today will be PREPROGAMMED? What if the program is messed up?

I must first admit that my programming is not godly and then cooperate in the process of rewiring the brain. Most of my decoding of what is going on, how I feel about it, and what figuring out what I should do right now : arrives at the front of the brain fully formed and totally determined by what I have yielded my body members to in the past. “Know ye not that his slave you are to whom you have obeyed, whether to God of evil.”
Imagine a family with a husband and wife and 4 children. He labors under the delusion that he is in charge.(That’s like your frontal lobe) He wants a quiet Friday night to read his magazines but they are in the other room plotting on how to get him to take them out to a new movie. SUDDENLY they burst into the room declaring,” Hey dad there is this cool new movie blah, blah, blah. Next thing you know, he’s on his way to the movie with the gang.

A normal brain takes three months to reprogram, of not acting in the old responses and of practicing the new responses, to form new habits. The brain is very flexible even into old age and can grow new nerves from stem cell even in our 80’s. In addition, there are 10,000 incoming connections and 10,000 outgoing connections on each nerve! It will break down and reform connections to allow the new habits to dominate. (Pause to worship the creator.)

AA suggests 90 meetings in 90 days because that is 3 months and by then we should have healthy responses replacing the old. Putting of the old and putting on the new can happen by an instant change or by 3 months of supported discipline.

Change usually comes slowly and painfully. What are the benifits of the slow approach?

I learn to hate sin, Proverbs 8.13 The fear of the LORD [is] to hate evil,

I need the brethren,   Galatians 6.1  Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

I search the Word,   Psalms 119.11Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

I learn to pray much, I Thessalonians 5.17 pray without ceasing

I learn to think twice before forming new habits, 1 Corinthians 6.18,and 10.14, 1Timothy 6.11, 2 Timothy 2.22 FLEE! FLEE!

I define what the opposite looks like, Romans 6.13 yield your members equal and opposite to the old ways

I lose my right to judge others who struggle, develop a message of hope for other strugglers etc.   I Corinthians 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that
ye may be able to bear [it].

THE PROCESS OF REPROGRAMMING:

I begin with reactions that SEEM right but lead to death, (thoughts, actions and feelings):

I realize that God’s way is not my way:

I define what that way would look like:

I humbly ask for help from God and others and thank God that he loves me despite my struggles,I thank him for the struggle itself:

I get up in the morning and predict the temptations to come and “make straight paths for my feeble knees. I spot myself beginning to react in the old way and move my body members according to a growing picture of God’s way in action. I then give God thanks for helping me obey.

Then, after 3 months, I find the new habit and wonder how I could have ever thought the old way made sense.

It is good that change should come at such effort. Otherwise I would be as wishy-washy and variable as the weather. My brilliant creator has designed me so that who my personality is fairly stable but if I could not change that would be bad, so I may change but only with prayer,fasting, support, and his grace.

Yes there is free will and accountability but it does not lie in the ability to just be good. It lies in the ability to agree with God that I am a mess and to cry out for help and to get help from others. I believe that everyone is accountable because the grace to admit my sin and ask for help has come to all people.

How do I become to slave to God or the devil?– by yielding my members over and over till my neurons are wired to push in that direction every time. That’s why I have good intentions and poor follow through, why I have insight and no application. Here are the steps of rewiring and all require grace to overcome my nature and let his nature take over. Before salvation I can only do the unrighteousness because even trying to be good in our own turns out to be the worst sin. After salvation I have the right to reprogram but it is not forced on me (as often wish it would be) Instead I must cooperate with God.

MORE THOUGHTS ON REPROGRAMMING:
Ask God to open my eyes to the responses he wants me to change. Reading his word for reproof is a good place to start.
Ask God to show you what the opposite response would look like. The goal is to put off the old BY putting on the new.
Pay attention to life as it flows by. God teaches and renews by giving you opportunities to obey and to yield your neurons to a new way of firing. PREDICT, PREPARE AND NOTICE THE PATTERN POPPING UP IN YOU “Hey, there I go again, thanks for helping me catch myself.”
Do not yell at self for doing it again, this just strengthens the response like an alcoholic yelling at themselves for drinking again.
Realize that your brain learned the wrong response because (there are ways that SEEM right to a man but the end is death) so lower brain thinks it is trying to help. ie: worry will find a solution, bitterness will protect, comparison will motivate me etc, etc, GIVE YOUR BRAIN PERMISSION TO CHANGE by saying “my responses haven’t worked and won’t, might as well try God’s way.
Move your body members according to a growing picture of God’s principles in action.
Tell your brain: “see that is what God’s ways look like, isn’t that better?”
Don’t be impatient, it take roughly 3 months of obedient practice for the new wiring to be automatic.(Even then be careful)
NOW YOU HAVE BECOME THE SLAVE TO GOD. Remember there is no option 3 only SLAVE TO GOD OR SLAVE TO THE D