Our walk with God is not just a spiritual journey; it is also a mental one. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is clear that what God can do in and through us is often determined and limited by the capacity of our minds to perceive, believe, and steward His purposes.
Great things are often hindered, not because heaven is unwilling, but because our minds are too small to host the bigness of God. That is why walking by faith demands regular mindset upgrades and mental shifts.
The problem is not the spirit of the believer. The problem is the mindset of the believer. The people who speak into your life and the people you associate with determine what happens to you.
Jesus illustrated the need to upgrade our minds using the analogy of wineskins. He said, “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17). God will not pour heavenly resources into a container that cannot hold them. To do so would be wasteful, and God abhors waste (John 6:12). He insists that the vessel must be upgraded before the wine is poured.
The mind as a spiritual gate
The Bible teaches that the mind is central to our walk with God. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Romans 12:2 instructs, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Transformation begins when the mind shifts to align with God’s truth. Without this shift, even though God’s promises are true, we will be unable to prove or experience them.
Israel had this problem in the wilderness. God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, but their slave mentality prevented them from believing and entering into it. Psalm 78:41 tells us, “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.”
Imagine that: human beings limiting an unlimited God, not because He lacked power, but because their small minds couldn’t process what God was doing with them. They still thought like slaves, so freedom was difficult for them to manage. Faith begins where our minds align with God’s greatness. This is why Philippians chapter 2, verse 5 says, “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
Zechariah 3: Joshua’s upgraded mindset
Zechariah 3 gives us a profound picture of the importance of mental shifts in walking with God. Joshua the high priest stood before the angel of the Lord, clothed in filthy garments, while Satan stood at his right hand to resist him (Zechariah 3:1–3). This imagery shows us that Satan’s primary battleground is the mind. He resists us by accusing, condemning, and corrupting our sense of identity before God.
The solution was twofold: first, Joshua’s filthy garments were removed, symbolising forgiveness and cleansing. Second, a clean turban was placed on his head (Zechariah 3:5). In Hebrew culture, the turban was a mark of consecration for priests, but spiritually, it represents an upgraded mindset. The mind had to be renewed for Joshua to function effectively in his priestly role. Without this mental shift, his cleansing and calling could not be fully actualised.
The prophetic message is clear: breakthrough requires not just a change of status before God, but a change of thinking within us. Until the turban is placed on our heads—until our minds are renewed—we cannot step into the fullness of what God intends.
Why Mental shifts matter in walking by faith
It’s important to note that faith is not blind optimism. Faith is the alignment of our thoughts, beliefs, and confessions with the reality of God’s Word. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” To carry substance and evidence in our spirits, our minds must be trained to see the invisible, hear the inaudible, and believe the impossible.
When God called Abraham, He told him to look up at the stars and count them (Genesis 15:5). Why? Because Abraham needed a mental picture of what God was promising. Without that shift in imagination, his faith would remain abstract.
Also, God told Jeremiah, “What seest thou?” and when Jeremiah answered correctly, God affirmed, “Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:11–12). Vision and mental clarity precede divine performance.
Paul reinforces this in Ephesians 4:23 when he says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The Greek word for “renewed” here means “to renovate” or “to make new again.” Just as old buildings require regular renovation, so our minds need constant upgrading by the Word of God and the Spirit.
Stop thinking small
One of the greatest hindrances to walking by faith is small thinking. The Israelites saw themselves as grasshoppers in the face of giants (Numbers 13:33), and as a result, they disqualified themselves from possessing the land. Their thinking shrank God’s promise.
Likewise, when Jesus visited His hometown of Nazareth, “He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). Their perception of Him as “just the carpenter’s son” kept them from receiving Him as the Messiah.
God cannot entrust kingdom resources to those whose minds cannot capture or manage them. Luke 5:37–38 tells us that new wine requires new wineskins. New wineskins are flexible, expandable, and able to contain growth. Small or rigid thinking breaks under the weight of God’s purposes.
God’s dream needs our shift
The great things God desires to do in us and through us will remain unrealised if our minds remain small. Faith is not just a matter of the heart; it is a renewal of the mind. Just as Joshua needed a turban on his head before he could function in his priestly office, so must we embrace mental shifts to partner with God.
God will not waste heavenly resources on wineskins that cannot contain them. But when we upgrade our thinking, align with His Word, and enlarge our vision, we become fit vessels for His glory. Walking by faith, therefore, is the journey of continually shifting our minds upwards, away from smallness, toward the greatness of God.
We see and believe that we shall experience greater and greater possibilities in God as we journey on the path of righteousness. You may have seen great things in God years or months. God is saying, “I will do a new thing.” God is dynamic; don’t be stagnant and stuck in the past. There are endless possibilities in Him, don’t settle for less.
Upgrade your mind, upgrade your utterance. Don’t allow people to speak negativity into your life. Stop thinking small. Speak and think in line with God’s word and His greatness. May the Lord bless you.
Reverend Ukporhe is the Lead Pastor at Remnant Christian Network, Lagos. Raised in Sokoto, northern Nigeria, he was trained in peculiar firebrand evangelism and was ordained as a pastor in 2001. He has experienced countless and diverse workings of the faithfulness of God over two decades and has developed a passion to see God’s will for Nigeria become a reality. He can be reached at +2348060255604.
