How cleansed is your mind? //S06E13

In our final episode of Season 6: Re-Wired, we reflect on the unexpected happenings of the last few weeks. From being a beat away from owning a farm in Arkansas to COVID, it’s been a challenging—and edifying—time. We truly realized how far our minds have come in how we handle struggle, loss, and fear. Maybe this is a whole new way of looking at the term, “Brainwashed.”

VERSES FROM BRAIN, WASHED:

QUESTIONS TOUCHED ON IN BRAIN, WASHED:

• How do you have faith when your spouse is sick?
• How do you trust God when plans change?
• How does Christianity change how you think?
• What does it mean that our sins are washed away?

QUOTES FROM BRAIN, WASHED:

“I could have sat there and just been miserable, uh, or terrified or afraid. And I wasn’t, it was like, I don’t know a light switch came on and I’m like, I don’t want to think in the flesh.“

The Pantry Podcast, Shea Watson, Brain, Washed

“And that’s what’s best Romans 8 28, right? Like if he goes, that’s what best. If he’s sick a long time and he’s suffering for longer than that’s what’s best, what’s best. He’s got something on the other side of that. That must happen. That must be done if we don’t get this house sold and we don’t get the other house, then that’s what’s best.”

The Pantry Podcast, Michelle Watson, Brain, Washed

Annotated Transcript:

Michelle: Harmful indoctrination or a life-saving detox? What does it mean to be brainwashed? Are you brainwashed by Christ? We’ve had a few wild weeks that amazingly aligned with the topic of today’s episode.

Shea: Hey, I’m Shea.

Michelle: And I’m Michelle.

Shea: There’s a battle being waged. It’s not flesh, it’s not blood, it’s spiritual, and we need to be prepared. The last thing a warrior wants on the battlefield is spiritual anemia. When the enemy attacks we need to be prepared

Michelle: We don’t always realize where the attacks are coming from or that we’re being attacked at all. This is the pantry podcast, and we’re here to remind you of who we answer to what we’re capable of, and how we are called to do it in every aspect of our lives.

Shea: This is season six, rewired when you’re saved, you’re saved for good, we all experienced sanctification differently. The more we grow in our relationship with the Lord, the more he transforms and renews our minds. The more we cut the cords of this world, the more we’re charged up in him this season, we’re arming you with the sermon of some of the culture’s most toxic snares

Michelle: Support our ministry, reaching the lost and found in over 50 countries with spiritual and literal nutrition. Every one-time and recurring donation makes a lasting impact, donate through Patreon or pantrypodcast.com.

Shea: And now let’s dig into the meal.

Shea: We haven’t beat boxed for a while. Man… What happened to me?

Michelle: So much.

Shea: What happened to me?

Michelle: So much happened! This feels weird

Speaker 1 00:01:48 A minute. It’s

Speaker 0 00:01:49 Been a minute. Cause one we’re ahead. Two. We were living a whole different life for like three weeks,

Speaker 1 00:01:58 Like totally different life. Our guys would have crazy through each aisle, uh, from, from about to move into a house, right? We’re gonna buy a house in Arkansas, crazy,
Speaker 0 00:02:14 Uh, homestead, not just a house, a homestead where we were going to raise like ducks and chickens and get, you know, a cow.
Speaker 1 00:02:23 Well, you wanted a cow. It was fun. The cows were different in opinion.
Speaker 0 00:02:29 I was like, one cow is easier than 12 goats. That was my,
Speaker 1 00:02:33 But you went out with those long hair. What are those things? Because they’re cute.
Speaker 0 00:02:37 There’s so fuzzy and cute and wonderful. But my mind is blank.
Speaker 1 00:02:44 That’s been our three weeks. That’s been our month. I mean, it kind of started, I bet. Now we’re going into a month now. Um, so Hey, brainwashed, right? What is this mentality though? What is this mentality of being brainwashed? Now there’s two different kinds of mentalities. I remember the military, we used to talk about brainwashing and it had a whole different meaning. It’s like, but it’s conforming someone into your opinion. It’s conforming someone into basically what you want them to believe or what you want them to acknowledge or what you want them to understand. But the brainwashing we’re talking about is taking ourselves away from that, taking ourselves away from a worldly idea of brainwashing and putting it into this brainwashing by Christ. I think that that’s just an awesome way to be. And I think that in every season of life we get sifted and we definitely got sifted y’all um, couple of things happen. A couple of things happen. Number one, first of all, we started signing up on us on this house do, and we’re like, w we’re moving. We’re going, man. We’re getting our house ready. And then, you know, COVID comes into play
Speaker 0 00:03:47 Just days after signing the contingent contract that said that we would buy the house. If we sold our house, like if our house sells, we’ll buy that house. All of a sudden she said, I feel funny. And I was like, what do you mean? He’s like, my toothpaste tastes strange. And I’m like, oh no. Oh no, no, no. And then, and then like hours later, I’m like, I feel strange. My head is pounding. Oh no. It was like that Tik TOK, you know? Cause shout out we’re on Tik TOK. It’s currently on hiatus given everything going on. But it felt like in that moment I was living the meme. The oh no. Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no. And I was like, okay, one, that sounded just like the meme, but second,
Speaker 1 00:04:41 Second,
Speaker 0 00:04:41 It’s a Highland cow. And third, third, I was like, this is going to be a hot mess. Isn’t it Lord. And you know, it was
Speaker 1 00:04:54 So many blessings.
Speaker 1 00:04:55 Let me tell you, I actually write hot mess by visual, like a dude laying in bed 101 it’s 103.7 degree temperature and just bouncing from bed to bed, to bathroom, a hot mess. But there was some serious like conversation between God and yeah, there was some serious rewiring going on. Um, I think that sometimes I’m a little harder towards things of the world and things that, you know, exist COVID and all these other things, you know, and I don’t think always on that like level of, okay, so let’s just be real. Let’s just be real. The compassion. I need work in compassion. I need work in that, in that idea because I’m like, COVID I, you know, you don’t think, I think God had to completely strip a lot of things away so that he could get me right where he wanted me now. I’m not saying they guy came in and gave me COVID y’all that’s not what I’m saying.
Speaker 1 00:05:53 I’m just saying he uses it though. I could have sat there and just been miserable, uh, or terrified or afraid. And I wasn’t, it was like, I don’t know a light switch came on and I’m like, I don’t want to think in the flesh. And so when I’m thinking of this right now, of course, you know, I had, I had verse up, but man, I wrote a verse up on our little prayer when I was in our second bedroom. That’s where our prayer board is by Friday. I was done. I mean, like done 14. I was like 12 days of done and I just turned on the audio Bible. I didn’t know what else to do, but I was like, well, I want to be with God. Um, Michelle course is running around. I was getting a house prep. So COVID for her. I’ll let her just kind of just, what was your COVID experience?
Speaker 0 00:06:34 I mean, okay, so 18 and a half year difference as well as a lot of drugs different in the sense of I did not smoke a lot of things. I smoked practically nothing like, you know, my entire life. And so my lungs are these nice little newbie lungs that were like, well, this is annoying, but I had a throbbing headache for about four days. Um, eight X, eight, very irritating, dry cough that did absolutely nothing but annoyed me. Um, and uh, and some chest tightness right now, we were on a really solid vitamin regimen to just boost those immune systems and et cetera, et cetera, details. We are not medical advisors. We’re not going to get into that at this, at this time. But me and Kaleah, we kinda was like once a day. And then she just ate everything in sight. She was just always hungry. Um, I didn’t get to go to the playground for two weeks. Bless her heart. I did occasionally have those pangs of fear. Is this one of those pure Flix tear, jerker plot, twists of life. I always ask that I’m like, is this one of those? It sounds like a movie script times in life that he’s going to like redeem and make. And it’s like, I was never mad at God. Is
Speaker 1 00:07:57 This a bad
Speaker 0 00:07:58 Time? Like, am I about to level up 50 levels? Because I have to lose my husband to COVID while trying to move a house to arc. It’s like, what is this? I was like, and then I would look at CLI and be like, there’s no way, like this girl without her daddy is acting just silly. God knows
Speaker 1 00:08:19 That she needs to be
Speaker 0 00:08:22 An epic, spiritual warrior. I’m learning. This girl needs Shea Watson, as I was like, okay, so he’s gonna stay y’all. But at the same time, I’m like, okay, does, am I supposed to be pausing everything? Cause pretty much work was on hold for a lot of it. Um, just caring for people running around with like vibe, like here’s your vitamins for this meal? Here’s a meal. Here’s a, this, you know, here’s a prayer. And then, and then run it granted, granted, um, because of everything I was doing in the house to get the house ready, Shay was taking care of himself a lot in the sense that he was taking his own temperature. He was deciding when he was going to go into pool. Um, I’d supply water, I’d supply supplements. I had got him connected, um, with the doctors and you know, things like that. Um, but outside of that, you know, I’m making sure, okay, Kollias fed. Okay. There’s more like I made more soup. She made the first batch of soup. I made the second batch. So you know what I said, like, it’s just crazy.
Speaker 1 00:09:16 But yeah,
Speaker 0 00:09:18 The first few days he was like, you know, um, yeah, but I think as far as a relationship with the Lord, the reading of the word did not really exist except the daily verse of the day in YouVersion. But the conversation I was, so in my head, like I’m helping my mom get rid of stuff. So I’m just sitting there like body moving, pulling out a box of stuff, being like, okay, go through this. You know? But in my head, I’m just talking to God the whole time, asking for direction, asking questions and sometimes very random questions about just the Bible, but just this, like I just knew to cling to him and to not let my own fear come in and who SERP the situation. Anytime I saw myself going down that rabbit hole, I felt like, no, that’s the old way my brain works. That’s the old me and God has given me wisdom. And so I’m just going to cling to him and maintain the things I’m still uncertain about and not letting all those, I will say whispers and hamster wheels happen.
Speaker 1 00:10:31 I think that really makes me think of Romans eight. Um, the first I’m thinking of right now, six, and of course we’ll talk around it a little bit because I think it’s important. Understand, uh, when we think of flesh, right? So for success for set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. I was finding my peace by staying in the spirit. Exactly what you’re saying to, you know, th the, the whispers would come in or easily that one in and was, but the whispers were there, you know, um, for you, mine was a little different. I was a little different. I just sat there, like in this weird piece, like it’s me and God. And I really felt that way. Um, occasionally I wouldn’t be able to breathe. Y’all I’m not trying to exaggerate.
Speaker 1 00:11:25 We’re not really trying to exaggerate here, but it was, if you were to look at it outwardly, it was a deathbed, you know, you’re fighting these temperatures. You’re you’re there’s moments where, you know, you can’t breathe, but it was amazing. Todd, I got how I get my breath back. It was amazing how I would just start trying to say Jesus, and it would just come out like Jesus, and I’d start getting some breath back. And I just sat in this though. And I’m like, well, you know, we’re supposed to move. We’re supposed to, but I mean, that’s running through your mind. There’s a lot of things running through your mind. There’s a lot of like, okay, Lord, maybe I might’ve been a little too much me and it needed to be a lot more you, you know, and that’s true. You know, you get into this stuff, you get into podcasts and you get into tech talk, you get into, and I don’t know that you have the time necessarily when you’re rolling daily and all of these things to, to evaluate these things.
Speaker 1 00:12:19 But I really sat on a bed and I’m like, is it me? Or is it you? And we had a lot of these conversations and we had a lot of this sifting and you know, I I’ve, I’ve used this analogy and it’s like, when you make gravy, you know, sifting it, it’s a beautiful thing. You know, when you make gravy, you put the butter in the pan, oh, here’s a food analogy for the pantry. But you put the butter in the pan, you get it cooking to the bacon grease, whatever it is that you have, you know, for your base. And if you just start lumping in, in flowers, like you probably don’t with lumpy gravy, you know? And it’s like, I don’t like my white gravy lumpy. I’m like, now I gotta be smooth. So it was like, you just so you sift. So you kind of sifted in and you stir it in and you mix it in and it smooths it all out.
Speaker 1 00:12:58 And that’s what God does with us. And like, when we’re looking at Romans eight, it’s like, you know, it says it above that. It’s like, if you live according to the flesh, my mind will be on things of the flesh. If I, if I’m in fear. If I, if I sit in fear, if I accept fear, if I, if I don’t sit there and say, no, no, no, no, no, God has not given me a spirit of fear, but he’s given me power and love and a sound mind, right? If I sit in that, then now I’m in the spirit now I’m, I’m where God wants me to be. Now I’m in that eternal. Now I’m with God, the eternal. And in God, the eternal I’ve been given promises. Now that’s not promises that I’m going to get off that bed. That’s just promised to saying that, you know what?
Speaker 1 00:13:33 I’m going to take care of you. I’m going to take care of those around you. This is not your battle. This is not your fight. And I just kept getting this. This is not your battle. This is not your fight. And then when you come out the other side of it, so you remember back to when he told you to just go downtown and hold a free prayer sign up. And you’re like, well, I guess I’m back to going downtown holding a free prayer sign up. Yeah, there was times. I mean, you can’t breathe. It’s like, it looks, it’s a little scary, but it’s like, well, God, this is you. And I don’t want to have that carnal mind if you, if you read below that, it’s like that carnal mind takes me away from God that carnal mind takes me away from the relationship. It takes me away from the protection. And when I say protection eternal, it’s I, it’s not removing it from me. It’s not taking away, but I’m saying the mentality, you know, you get away from that eternal mentality and boy, the world just dumps on you, man.
Speaker 0 00:14:26 Oh man. It’s it’s funny. Cause you know, the, the first two we, I think I was just, I was incredibly impressed with what God was doing. And I was also battling feelings that I was never good enough because my energy levels were high. Just spite everything. I was getting more done on those. And I get done on normal days and yet my patients would wear very thin with Kaliyah. And so I would be like asking her, asking of her amounts of understanding and reasonableness like that are unheard of for a two and a half year old. And so I would be sitting there being like, I am the worst mother ever, but then at the same time being like, but this is pretty impressive, but not taking any of the credit. Cause I knew. Um, so, you know, in second Corinthians four 16, it says, so we do not lose heart though.
Speaker 0 00:15:23 Our outer self is wasting away. Our inner self is being renewed day by day. And I felt, I felt a humbling process, a refining process, a renewing, a provision. I felt all that. And then I looked outward and I looked at my husband and I admittedly would lose heart every time the fever would creep back up. And there was a frustration of pining for finality. I don’t want this to just drag on and on all of this uncertainty looking at this one thing. So frustrated, cause it’s so trivial, but there’s all these papers tied up and timeline signup. And then looking at my husband on a bed and being like, all I want, I don’t care where we live. I just want this man better. You know, you’re sitting there like cleaning or mowing a lawn or cooking or doing whatever thinking. If he goes that’s what’s best because God allowed it.
Speaker 0 00:16:17 And that’s what’s best Romans 8 28, right? Like if he goes, that’s what best. If he’s sick a long time and he’s suffering for longer than that’s what’s best, what’s best. He’s got something on the other side of that. That must happen. That must be done if we don’t get this house sold and we don’t get the other house, then that’s what’s best. Even though we’d been sitting there thinking all, it seems so quick, it seemed like every, all the doors were opening. No doors were shutting. All the doors were aligning. There was, um, there was chatter of, of our, um, our bigger church having interest in Arkansas. You know, there’s so many things. And then despite all this, I don’t feel the anxiety or the, not the nauseousness, but instead I’m sitting here like, this is how it must be. Oh, but this is how it has to be.
Speaker 0 00:17:12 Isn’t it? This, this is how long it’s gonna take. I don’t know how long it’s going to be. But like, this is how long it’s got to take. And what’s funny is, well, Romans 12 two do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God? What is good and acceptable and perfect. It felt like forever and trust. About 13 days in, I kept crying at random times in the day. I just quit. Like after 13 days, I was just crying at random times a day. But looking at all of that and realizing that the whole thing happened in between two Bible studies, cause we do it three weeks apart. So our three weeks and then a break for the rest of
Speaker 1 00:17:58 The month, three
Speaker 0 00:18:00 Weeks rest of the month. And what’s funny is we wrapped up the third week of the August. LifeGroup plug. You can join on live stream in our Facebook group. And then
Speaker 1 00:18:13 He got sick
Speaker 0 00:18:14 And he was down and out. And by the time the first Tuesday of September rolls around, he’s in front of the screen teaching the first of three classes for the next life group. And so I’m sitting here mindless,
Speaker 1 00:18:34 Like
Speaker 0 00:18:34 I’m telling you like, this is, this is the stuff that happens. And you’re like, so it was in his perfect time that he allowed all these things. And yet when you’re in it, it feels like time’s just creeping by and the eye it’s like, you’re just being dragged through gravel. It’s just amazing. But it’s, it’s the brainwash that blows my mind
Speaker 1 00:19:04 Because
Speaker 0 00:19:04 Where would you have been like, think about it eight years ago when you first came back to Christ aware, what, how do you think you would have done it? Like what would have been different alone? I would not have been there at all, which honestly he did so much on his own,
Speaker 1 00:19:22 But, but at the same time it was a mutual, it was a mutual support is a mutual battle. It was a, it was, but it wasn’t our battle. And I think that’s where the, where the, the, the coming together came together is the recognition of whose battle this was. Right. And I think that that’s important, everything that we go through. I think that’s important in, in everything that we go through in life. Um, it’s kind of funny too. Like we’re just here talking all anyways. So Michelle would be like, Kaleah, we need to pray for Baba and in Cleveland, no, I already prayed like, just like did it at a, and Michelle’s like, it probably reminded, cause she’s telling us the other day, she’s like, I was like, really girl does your daddy. He prayed. But see what she didn’t know was his little CLIA would come in and she’d be like Papa. And she put her little hand on me and she would pray, Lord, help Papa. He sick, help him. Amen. And then she’d just leave it. So like that here we have this child running around. She’s, Michelle’s running around, I’ll flat out. I run, I run another thing. But with God, somewhere in some place
Speaker 0 00:20:29 Farther as you made it as like the bathroom, which, and he was in the guest room. So very,
Speaker 1 00:20:34 It was right there and that was our existence. But our existence wasn’t in like the carnal mind. Um, it never stayed there anyways. Um, if it caught us by, you know, I mean, this stuff happens, guys, you know, get hit with the thoughts you get hit with, with the emotion you get hit with, with life. Uh, you know, this life that’s here, this non, this flesh life, you know, before our beautiful exit to turn it in, you know, and we get caught in the flash and, but you know, what’s cool is when you can grab that capture, that thought, you know, realign, realign the truth, realigned to the Lord and allow him to do the work because honestly I had no power. I had no strength, everything. I was just like, well Lord, here I am. Okay, temperature’s up? Let’s go to the bathroom, Lord.
Speaker 1 00:21:25 I just took him everywhere. I went, but, but out of all of it, but it was like, so all of these moving parts and Michelle did beautifully and she’d come in and sometimes like she said, she’d cry. And I’m just like, you’re a champion. I mean, you’re a champion. Cause you were just doing so much. And you know, I think at the end of the day, when we, when we look back at this experience and we’re sitting here just talking and letting you guys in on our little conversation, um, we learned something, we learned that, you know, we don’t need to have thoughts of the world, you know, the, the fears or the, or the anxieties. And I’m not saying that they don’t come in. I’m not saying they don’t creep in, but I’m saying when they, when they come in, we need you to turn it over to God.
Speaker 1 00:22:10 I don’t know any other way to say that. I know that, you know, we hear it all the time. The Bible tells us this all time, everything that we need to know is in front of us. It’s, you know, the word of God is there, but I just think that, you know, we don’t need to be friends with the world. Uh, I think it’s dangerous. I think that when you go through things like this, if you’re friends with the world, it magnifies everything like 10 times. I think that, you know, when we have those thoughts, we end up in the other mind frames, you know, the coveting, the fighting, the quarrelling, um, envy, selfish, ambitions, those kinds of things, you know, we’re boasting and denying truth. But when we are in God, that is when we start seeing the peace, loving the considerate, the submissive full of mercy, good fruits, impartial and sincere, you know, all these things going on, there was still our relationship.
Speaker 1 00:23:08 I still knew you were there. I knew what you were doing and completely understood it. And I just fine. I got this, you know, I’ll handle this. I’ll take care of the portions except for the vitamins. Oh my gosh. Uh, vitamins. But look, every everything had, its had its place. Everything had a place in the, in the will of, of what God had in store for us. And I think that it was a beautiful season. I’m saying that it was a beautiful season. Um, yeah. Y’all were not moving FLI. Um, and it’s okay. And it’s okay because we’ve always said this God open or closed the doors, we’ll move, we’ll move. If it looks like something we’re going to go towards it. And, but we’re going to trust in you to guide us down those paths. Um, you know, medicine showed up 12 days in, I went from, non-cognitive kind of lay it out, but in the morning to conversational, at least
Speaker 0 00:24:05 Making jokes again, that was the next
Speaker 1 00:24:06 Day as the next day. But the first day I was at least conversation. Yeah. The next day I was, I was, um, making jokes back to Shay back to share everything by the way, y’all are not all of us, but, but uh, I think that what you’re, you know, what would you have gained out of all this? What did you gain? If you just take a point away from all of this, what would you tell people?
Speaker 0 00:24:33 I would, I think to how the world talks about Christianity and you know, oh, you’ve just been brainwashed. You’ve just been bought. You drank some Kool-Aid the Christian Kool-Aid that Bible thing, you know, whatever. And um, and now, now you’re, now you’re just judging everybody. And now you think there’s some guy up in the sky that calls the shots and let some people in and other people don’t and et cetera. And it comes down to the word indoctrination. And I used to fight against that word because I had never like, you know, the connotation just sounds so like against my wheel, I’ve been fed all this stuff brainwash. Um, and when we were coming up with this season, this title came because the brain can be washed and as hopeless as life might seem, when you get dealt certain things, um, whether you want to say God allowed it or what, um, there is hope in that you might think, how could I ever handle that any differently, any better?
Speaker 0 00:25:42 Like that’s like, of course, I’m going to handle that with paralysis, with fear, with depression, with this. But there is hope in that this type of brainwashing is different. This is a washing, a cleansing, a purging of the dirt, a purging of the harmful, a detox from the way the world wants you and needs you to respond in order to keep you held and chained and locked down in unfruitfulness. Um, so yes, I, I have chosen to indoctrinate myself with the word of this God, the God of Abraham and Isaac Jehovah, Gyra, Jehovah, Niecy, that God I’ve chosen to indoctrinate myself, Jehovah Rafa. And I have experienced a brainwashing that I think these last few weeks have demonstrated more than any other time in my life. I have been changed. And it is not because of a 12 step program. It’s not because of a formula. It’s not because I don’t Ms. Church because sometimes I do. It’s not because I read my Bible every day because obviously sometimes I don’t it’s because I have a relationship with the living, breathing Christ. Um, and that washes your mind.
Speaker 1 00:27:11 I liked the transformation of the washing of the soul, the spirit, that one time deal, you know, I believe it’s that cleansing it’s like cover covered washed, and now bring your thoughts. The ones that have been in the world, the ones that have been patterned, the ones that have been kind of indoctrinated as well, right.
Speaker 1 00:27:36 Something, but for that to start to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. Um, and I think on that, my thing, I’m just going to leave with that verse that I wrote on the board, because it’ll get you through that might not be your verse. I mean, I get it, but find that verse, find that verse in that season, find that verse that’s gonna, that’s gonna give you what God needs to give you. And that’s that encouragement to get through. And so mine was named him. I know it’s like NATO, that book never comes out. Yo. It was like Nam one seven. And it’s like, the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knows those who trust in him, trust in him, trust in him, trust in him, trust in him. He’s your strong, amen.
Speaker 0 00:28:31 A man. And y’all thank you for joining us for another season, season six and next week, because you know how we roll or maybe you don’t, but you’re about to learn. We don’t take breaks like that on your end. There’s always something new next week is the official beginning of our fall season, season seven. That lovely number seven God intentions because good intentions hate to break it to you. Actually, I don’t hate it. I love it. They’re not enough. God intentions get you through. So now that you’ve been rewired, now that you’re trusting in the Lord, it’s time to reorient and have God intention. So that will be next week. So let us know what you thought of this season. What’s resonated with you. Shout out to the people on Instagram who have already let us know. Um, and we’ll, we’ll shout those out in the, in the first episode of next season, but till next time.

Shea: Bye.

Michelle: Bye.

KEYWORDS: RELOCATION, FAITH IN GOD, RELYING ON JESUS, TRUST JESUS, CHRISTIAN FAITH, COVID, HEALING PRAYERS, ADVERSITY, STRUGGLE.