I’m going to ask for your patience and tolerance while I show you a video to introduce my lesson, We Master What We Practice, that doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the Bible.  I promise I have scripture to back up where I’m going.

If this video looks familiar, it’s because I also used it HERE. I wanted to show you this video because it is a physical representation of a spiritual concept much like a parable.

First, let me point out that he went from riding the same type of bicycle as the rest of the world to riding a peculiar vehicle that looks the same but doesn’t perform the same way.

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a [special] people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies [the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections] of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Once we become born again, we aren’t supposed to function the same way we used to function.  We look the same but operate very differently.

When Destin first tried to ride the backwards bicycle, he said, “My thinking was in a rut.” When you were the old man before Christ, any time you felt like you weren’t in a rut, it was because you discovered a new way to sin… but it is still sin.

Psalm 51:5

Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

There is no rut like a sin rut! 

Next Destin said, “Once you have a rigid way of thinking in your head, sometimes, you cannot change that even if you want to.”

Romans 7:15-20

 For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled and bewildered by them]. I do not practice what I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate [and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity]. Now if I habitually do what I do not want to do, [that means] I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good (morally excellent). So now [if that is the case, then] it is no longer I who do it [the disobedient thing which I despise], but the sin [nature] which lives in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity]. For the willingness [to do good] is present in me, but the doing of good is not.  For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want to do, I am no longer the one doing it [that is, it is not me that acts], but the sin [nature] which lives in me.

This scripture perfectly represents the rigid way of thinking that you cannot change even if you want to… at least not without help.  Amen?

Now, I want to talk about the part of the video where everything changes:  He says, “One day, I couldn’t ride the bike, and the next day, I could.  It was like I could feel some kind of pathway in my brain that was now unlocked.”  However, if he wasn’t paying close enough attention, he would easily lose that neural path and jump back into what was more familiar.

So, we become born again Christians, and we work hard to learn Christian habits like reading the Bible, praying, speaking in faith, etc.  One day, seemingly out of nowhere, it becomes natural.  You don’t struggle to find the words to pray.  You don’t fall asleep every two words when reading the Bible.  All those Godly Christian things that seemed like such a difficult struggle suddenly feels so very natural. 

But remember, he said ANY DISTRACTION would send him right back to the old way of thinking, and he would fall off.  Satan is a master of distraction.  He uses current events, politics, natural disasters, violence, wars, rumors of wars, threats…  All of it is designed to take your eyes off God and the things of God.

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception [pseudo-intellectual babble], according to the tradition [and musings] of mere men, following the ^[a]elementary principles of this world, rather than following [the truth—the teachings of] Christ.

Satan seduces us through constant news, updates, entertainment, and social media to take our eyes off God.  He doesn’t have to convince us that reading the Bible or praying is bad.  He just has to give us something else to do.  Cute kitten videos or talking dogs.  I need to watch 12 videos on making croissants to know that I will never make croissants. 

This is why that is so important. 

Distraction keeps us from reading, seeing, hearing, discussing, experiencing, and teaching.  Distraction is one of the most effective weapons of the enemy.

Now, I want to talk about spiritual warfare with the enemy. 

Ephesians 6:12

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places.

There is a battle between God and evil.  We are fighting in that battle all the time.  Sometimes we are on God’s side.  Sometimes, we are on the side of evil. 

When we are on God’s side, we speak the Word of God, quote scriptures, speak in faith, praise & worship, declare that which is not as though it were, and proclaim life. 

When we are on the side of evil, we speak death, doubt, and unbelief.  We say things like:  “I’d die!”  “I’m starving to death”  “I’m sick to death about that” “I doubt it”  “I can’t”

Matthew 12:36-37

But I tell you, on the day of judgment people will have to give an accounting for every careless or useless word they speak.  For by your words [reflecting your spiritual condition] you will be justified and acquitted of the guilt of sin; and by your words [rejecting Me] you will be condemned and sentenced.”

If you’re born again, you are enlisted in God’s army.  If you are enlisted in God’s army, but you’re fighting for evil… you are a traitor!

Matthew 15:11

 It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that defiles and dishonors him, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles and dishonors him.”

Since Proverbs 18:21 says that Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit, when you speak death, doubt, fear, etc you become an arms dealer for the enemy.

People try to walk both sides, but you can’t.  The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.  He will not stay where He isn’t welcomed.  The line that separates good and evil is a living, animated, line that is controlled by the Holy Spirit.  If you try to straddle both sides, the line will move, and you will find yourself on the wrong side. 

Matthew 12:34

You brood of vipers, how can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.  Our warfare, which side we choose to fight on as well as our effectiveness in battle, is determined by our words which is determined by the abundance of our heart. 

James 3:3-10

Now if we put bits into the horses’ mouths to make them obey us, we guide their whole body as well. And look at the ships. Even though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines.  In the same sense, the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.

See [by comparison] how great a forest is set on fire by a small spark! And the tongue is [in a sense] a fire, the very world of injustice and unrighteousness; the tongue is set among our members as that which contaminates the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life [the cycle of man’s existence], and is itself set on fire by hell (Gehenna). For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.  But no one can tame the human tongue; it is a restless evil [undisciplined, unstable], full of deadly poison.  With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God.  Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts].

If you want to give yourself a quick test, drop a piece of furniture on your foot.   If you respond with vulgarness or anger, you failed the test.  If you respond with nonsense like “Dabblastit”, you have a lot of work to do.  If you shout, “Praise the Lord!”, you’re almost there.  Jesus during his most painful and difficult trial only quoted scripture.  During our most difficult times, we should only trust ourselves to speak the Word of God. 

If the abundance of your heart isn’t the Word of God, you must aggressively change the abundance of your heart.  You can’t afford to be passive on this.  The enemy will eat you alive if he gets a chance. 

Now, I want to point out that after Destin mastered the backwards bicycle, it was extremely difficult for him to go back.  Once you unlearn to sin, it is extremely uncomfortable to go back to sin.  Once you habitually speak the Word of God from the overwhelming abundance of your heart, you can’t easily go back to speaking doubt, fear, unbelief, anger, pride… sin.  You can feel the Holy Spirit grieving inside you.

The last thing Destin said in the video was that knowledge does not equal understanding and truth is truth.  Knowledge does not equal understanding, but practice (action, doing the thing) equals understanding.  Truth is truth.