Sharnita Gates discusses renewing five areas of the heart: mind, will, emotions, imagination, and affection. She reorders her priorities to put affection first, then will, and explains how a renewed mind enables intentional control over your actions. The speakers use Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch to show why divine moments require immediate response, not prolonged planning.
Hey, I'm Sharnita Gates, and who are they to say? So what I'm going to go through is today is going to be a rambling session. So welcome to the Word Project Podcast. Today we're just going to ramble on about some things. Um, at the top of the list, we definitely want to start with what's on your mind. So we're gonna just ask ourselves for, you know, well, I'm gonna ask myself What's on my mind? What's on my mind currently is that I have to renew not only my mind but my heart. So what I was focusing on was my mind, but I did not know that I was still not working on my heart because my heart is not just my mind But it's my will, it's my emotions, it's my imagination, and it's also my affection. So when we think about the heart, there's 5 different areas that you have to focus on to transform your heart to become new. So My mind, I have a mind of Christ. That's my that's been my goal is to have a mind of Christ and my mind set on Christ. Now my will, what did since I have a mind on Christ, I follow Christ and he shows me the way to obedience and discipline. And on the way to obedience and discipline. I have the things that I will and I won't do. Um, so there's— that's now where I'm, I'm at. I'm at the place where I'm working on my will, because if your mind's not right, the things that you will and you won't do is— it, it's not under your control. It's I mean, it's under your control, and if you don't have any control over your mind, how can you control what you will and won't do? So now I'm able to put into action what is on my mind. So that's why I'm happy about this rambling session here on The Word Project, because who are they to say that this is what you will and you won't do? Or who you are or who you aren't. So that is the reason why the Word Project is very dear to my heart. So when it comes to me sharing what's on my mind, and I become— I've become more vulnerable to releasing the things that is on my mind as I grow in my, my walk with obedience and discipline and, and opening up with others and being in fellowship, being, you know, a model, a model of Christ, and taking that seriously. Now I want to not just work on my mind but also my will, my emotions, my imagination, and also my affection. Now, if I had to put those things in order, other than my mind, I would have to go as far as where it was in the past. I would say it was my imagination, my will, my emotion. Let me let me do that over because it was my imagination, my emotions. And then my will, and then my affection. So affection has always been last. So now I kind of want to switch those things. Um, my mind being set on the, you know, as God is my foundation, he's my source. I always want to tap into the source, and everything else is a, uh, um, a resource. Um, for a living. Oh, that was refreshing to even say. Thank God for that. So now that everything else is, you know, being put into play, I definitely want to switch around my order of things. So not my imagination first, not my emotions second, And third, not my emotion. No, it was no. He's emotions before my my will, and then my affection. So my affection will now go to. We're going to just try things backwards. My affection. My will, my emotions, and then my imagination, and then let it drop down into my mind. And and that's where I love the scripture to cast down all imagination, cast down imagination. And everything that exhausts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into obedience all thoughts to the obedience of Christ. So with that being said, I'm definitely if I'm if I'm starting with my affection, just be affectionate. Now that may be something that we can study a little bit more as far as what are your affections? How do you become an affectionate person? Um, so I don't think— I think we talk about love, but we don't talk about affection often. So I'm gonna actually—
he loves you. What exposed him in this moment was his exposure to the word. Look at verse 36. As they traveled along the road They came to some water, and the eunuch said, look, here is some water. What can stand in the way of me being baptized? This man is reading the Word. Philip comes up, explains to him the gospel, and he gets so filled with faith that he says, let's do it right now. Yeah, yeah. Let's go. Has anybody ever come up to you and they were excited about an idea and it wasn't on the radar and you didn't plan to do it, but it was such a good idea you was like, let's go? All the ones and the planners in the room, it's like that does not make any sense. I need a plan. I need four days to be able to do. How many spontaneous people I have in the room right now? All the people. Okay, online. Okay. How many planners and like just give me?
Okay.
We need each other.
Yeah.
I want you to see Philip was interrupted by God and told the plan. Go over to that chariot, wait there, listen to him, and then do— he was given a plan. This Ethiopian eunuch gets so filled up that he's like, oh, there's some water right there, let's make it happen right now. And Philip could have been like, no, you know what, it'd probably be better if we get a chorus of people around and do this tomorrow morning at sunrise when the sun is shining right down on everything that you have decided. And just wait, wait a night to make sure you really, really deserve it.
Okay, now that was really hilarious to me because And he was describing Philip. That used to be me. I used to be that type of person, be like, oh, you know, at the sunrise. And I think I was doing good. But, um, let's, let's continue to listen. Let's see.
Desire what you're asking for. And let's make sure— he could have interrupted the flow by trying to make a perfect moment Instead of moment, they they were in the present. And I'm telling somebody this right now because you're looking at everybody right now and be like, "I'm not getting baptized today." Ah da da da da da da da da. Hear what I'm saying to you right now. Today, God is inviting you into another level of overflow, and the only one who can stop the flow is you.
Amen.
You're going to look back, and you're going to say, hold on, God. You made a moment for me to go down in that water and identify with the death burial of what you did on the cross and come up resurrected as new and my life be made new, and the things I used to do no longer affect how I live today, and I can have a fresh start, and I can get up and say, it's different now. I'm not the same person I was back then. There is a line that was drawn in the sand. I can do that, or I can make it.
We're gonna pause right there because that or went in there. I feel like, yeah, I don't know how words— that could have fell.
Excuses. And today I'm just asking you very simply. Don't stop the flow. Can I make this easy point for you real quick? Where you're going is not as important as what God is doing. We don't know fully where this Ethiopian eunuch was going, but God interrupted him and said, I want to do something in your life. I know that there are people listening right now and watching and that are in this room That you were going a different way. Today wasn't even on your radar. You just— somebody invited you, and you just sitting off in here like, oh, that was cool. You think there's a coincidence in God? Somebody's been praying for this moment for you. This is a divine intersection of God's grace and his favor and your willingness to see something change. God didn't care where you were going. He cares what he's trying to do in your life.
