Renewing the Mind: When the Impossible Looks Logical

Jesus had just fed four thousand people with seven loaves of bread. Hours later, His disciples were in a boat with Him, anxious — because among roughly twenty men they had only one loaf. And Jesus turned to them with a question that should stop every one of us: “Do you not remember?”

That boat ride in Mark 8 opens up one of the most important subjects in the Christian life: the renewing of the mind. Because the men panicking over one loaf were the very men in whose hands bread had multiplied that same day.

Where miracles actually happen

There are at least three ways supernatural miracles occurred in Jesus’ ministry. Miracles came through faith — Jesus touching the leper, Jesus giving words of knowledge. Miracles came through anointing and presence — the woman with the issue of blood, the demoniac in the synagogue. And miracles came through a renewed mind — the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand, and the water turned to wine at Cana.

Look closely at that third category and you will see something stunning. It was not Jesus who fed the five thousand or the four thousand. The multiplication happened in the hands of His disciples — the same people who moments earlier had asked, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?” But when a shift occurred in the thinking of these same people, that which was previously impossible became logical.

A renewed mind is a mind in which the impossible has started to look logical. It is brilliant thinking. The Greek word Paul uses in Romans 12 for “be transformed” by the renewing of your mind — metamorphoō — is the same word used when Jesus “was transfigured” in Matthew 17:2, when His face shone with light. Just as Jesus became radiant, when your mind is renewed it literally becomes brilliant. Put differently: as far as God is concerned, our minds are not brilliant at all until they are renewed.

How do you know your mind is renewed?

So what does renewal actually look like? Here are the marks:

• You know your mind is renewed when the impossible looks logical.
• You know your mind is renewed when a problem that used to intimidate and scare you now excites you — because a problem is nothing but an opportunity to partner with God to invade the impossible with the power and possibilities of God.
• You know your mind is renewed when you begin to operate from the perspective that the only problem you have is the way you see the problem.
• You know your mind is renewed when you expect to see on earth what is happening in heaven — through you and beginning with you.
• You know your mind is renewed when you no longer reduce the will of God to whatever you see happening around you.

Think about that last one. “Perhaps it is the will of God that they are hungry. Hunger is normal.” A renewed mind refuses that arithmetic. When Jesus said, “Give them food to eat” — who would say such a thing unless he knew it could be done, and that it was what God wanted done? Jesus knew that He, and we, are the gateway of heaven, the portal through which heaven flows into earth.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Romans 12:2 (NKJV)

Notice the word “prove.” Proving here is not about convincing yourself that something is the will of God. It is being able to prove it to people — to demonstrate and make it happen before their eyes — that it is not the will of God that they die prematurely of cancer, or stay poor, or go hungry. You know your mind is renewed when presenting yourself to God to release His power on this earth seems reasonable to you, and using your body for anything else seems unreasonable.

Demonstrating to the world what the will of God is — this is the exhilarating privilege and honor God gives us as His children. We are ambassadors of heaven here on earth. So let me ask you plainly: is your mind renewed? Can you see how many of us could be born again, church-going people, and yet our minds are still carnal, still of this world? And the Bible says such a mind hinders God, because it is an enemy of God (Romans 8:7).

Three leavens in the boat

Back to the boat. Jesus charged His disciples, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod” — and they concluded He was upset about the bread shortage. His reply is piercing:

Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?

Mark 8:17–19 (NKJV)

Leaven is yeast — a substance that, once it enters the dough, influences the behavior of the whole dough. Jesus is saying there are ways of thinking that quietly work through everything in us. When you encounter an impossible situation — say, twenty hungry men in a boat with one loaf — there are three leavens your mind can operate by.

The leaven of Herod is the humanistic, people-driven worldview: “Please keep God to the side first; let’s come up with a logical solution to this problem. Have you seen a doctor? What have you done about it? Do you know somebody? I believe in God, but let’s apply common sense, please.” It is the mindset that says heaven is not interested or available — we are on our own.

The leaven of the Pharisees is what Paul calls “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). This is the religious worldview that always has explanations but no solution. It sees a blind man and, rather than heal him, asks whose sin made him blind — his own or his parents’. It goes “deep” with exposés on how generational curses are the reason there is no bread on this boat: this was how my father had no bread on his boat, and my grandfather had no bread on his boat — brethren, let us pray! Explanation upon explanation, and the man is still blind, and the boat still has one loaf.

Jesus says beware of this — it is not brilliant at all. These ways of thinking are hostile to God. They work against Him, they resist Him, they are at war with Him. Worse, they partner with and empower the devil, because the devil is empowered through agreement. When we believe a lie, we empower the liar. He can only steal, kill, and destroy where his lies are believed.

The leaven of the kingdom (Matthew 13:33) is the mindset that heaven has broken into this earth — and that it is happening through me and through you. “How many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?” Who fed the four thousand and the five thousand? Not Jesus. These same disciples now fretting over one loaf. Jesus simply broke the bread and gave it to them, and it multiplied in their hands.

And here is the sobering part: as heat reveals the leaven in bread, so the fire of difficulty exposes the leaven at work in our lives. You find out which leaven you carry when the crisis comes.

The discipline of remembering

So how do we partner with God for an ever-renewing mind? Jesus points to the key in His question: “Do you not remember?” The key to being influenced by the kingdom is to constantly remember and call to mind the previous miracles — the previous invasions by heaven of the earthly impossibilities we have faced.

Every miracle of God is an invitation to access more from the invisible realm. God is saying: there is more where that came from. This is why He commands us to keep His testimonies alongside His commandments (Deuteronomy 6:17–18). “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart” (Psalm 119:2).

Psalm 78 shows what happens when God’s people fail at this. Verse 5 says God told Israel to keep remembering what He had done. Verses 9 to 11 say the men of Ephraim, armed and equipped for battle, turned back and fled — because they did not remember. That is the leaven of Herod. Verses 18 to 20 say they conceded God had brought water out of the rock, but reasoned He could not also give food in the wilderness. That is the leaven of the Pharisees.

Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power: the day when He redeemed them from the enemy.

Psalm 78:41–42 (NKJV)

Did you catch that? Failing to remember actually limited the Holy One of Israel among them. This is why we must keep pressing for more miracles — because God uses each miracle to lift our faith and transform our minds to believe Him for more. When you face a problem, your spiritual eyes can see what God can do in it, and your ears can hear what God is saying in it, if you are able to remember the testimonies of what God has done.

It is time for the impossible to look logical

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit... Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

1 Corinthians 2:9–10, 12 (NKJV)

So what eyes have not seen, our eyes shall see — and having seen, we shall call it into our reality. What ears have not heard, our ears shall hear — and having heard, we shall speak it into existence. What has never entered human minds, our renewed, brilliant minds shall conceive — and we can team up with God to see it happen here on earth.

It is time for the impossible to look logical. It is time to see on earth as it is in heaven, and to prove to this world the good will of our Father.

Start with the discipline Jesus prescribed in the boat. Write down your testimonies — the times heaven has already invaded your impossibilities — and call them to mind, out loud if you must, the next time a problem stares you down. Then ask God simply: renew my mind, until Your possibilities look more real to me than my problems. That is a prayer He loves to answer.