Skip to content "The Mind" an ORU Chapel message with Dr. Billy Wilson Aug 27 · 24 min ...more
"The Mind" an ORU Chapel message with Dr. Billy Wilson
August 27, 2026 · 24 min
Dr. Wilson speaks at ORU Chapel with a message entitled "The Mind," in a series on "Body, Mind, and Spirit." Oral Roberts founded ORU with a vision of educating the whole person in Body, in Mind, and in Spirit. We believe in educating the whole person. Main Texts: 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Chapters: 00:16 Introduction 01:09 Psyche, The Mind 03:33 A Renewed Mind 06:48 A Wholesome Mind 09:25 A Creative Mind 11:43 A Peaceful Mind 17:05 A Decisive Mind 20:27 Conclusion ----------------------------------- The ORU Experience It Podcast is a production of Golden Eagle Media, Tulsa OK For more information on Oral Roberts University visit www.ORU.edu
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August 27, 2026 · 24 min · ORU Experience It Podcast
Dr. Wilson speaks at ORU Chapel with a message entitled "The Mind," in a series on "Body, Mind, and Spirit." Oral Roberts founded ORU with a vision of educating the whole person in Body, in Mind, and in Spirit. We believe in educating the whole person. Main Texts: 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Chapters: 00:16 Introduction 01:09 Psyche, The Mind 03:33 A Renewed Mind 06:48 A Wholesome Mind 09:25 A Creative Mind 11:43 A Peaceful Mind 17:05 A Decisive Mind 20:27 Conclusion ----------------------------------- The ORU Experience It Podcast is a production of Golden Eagle Media, Tulsa OK For more information on Oral Roberts University visit www.ORU.edu ...more Show the full description Show less Dr. Wilson speaks at ORU Chapel with a message entitled "The Mind," in a series on "Body, Mind, and Spirit." Oral Roberts founded ORU with a vision of educating the whole person in Body, in Mind, and in Spirit. We believe in educating the whole person. Main Texts: 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Chapters: 00:16 Introduction 01:09 Psyche, The Mind 03:33 A Renewed Mind 06:48 A Wholesome Mind 09:25 A Creative Mind 11:43 A Peaceful Mind 17:05 A Decisive Mind 20:27 Conclusion ----------------------------------- The ORU Experience It Podcast is a production of Golden Eagle Media, Tulsa OK For more information on Oral Roberts University visit www.ORU.edu
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In this video 0:00 Unlocking the Power of Your Mind5:33 Renewed and Wholesome Thinking10:28 Creativity and Conquering Anxiety17:38 The Decisive Mind and Salvation Choice24:05 Declaration of a Victorious Mind
Unlocking the Power of Your Mind 0:02 Welcome to the Oral Roberts University Experience It podcast recorded at ORU in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Be sure to visit us at o r u dot e d u.0:13 Now here's today's episode. Well, this morning, I wanna continue my intermittent series. I'll have to preach fast, but we'll get it done, quickly. I've been talking about body,0:25 mind, and spirit and becoming whole leaders for the whole world. Our whole person educational philosophy at ORU. My ongoing educational philosophy at ORU. My ongoing text is 1st Thessalonians0:37 5 23. May God himself, the God of peace sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.0:49 In the 1st 2 part, sermon, I talked about the body. Today, I'm going to focus on the mind, the mind. Father, I ask you to use me in these next few moments,1:02 touch everyone in this room in Jesus name. And everybody said.1:07 Amen. Now1:09 in 1st Thessalonians 5, Paul uses the word psuche for soul. Now the soul includes our emotions, our will and our mind.1:21 So out of that, our founders here at ORU, adopted whole person education, including our body, our soul and our mind and our1:33 spirit. Mind comes from a Greek word, nous, which means rational, the rational part of us, our will, our decision making ability and including1:45 somewhat our affections. Someone has said that the mind is contained in the soul. And in many ways, the mind is the software of the soul.
1:57 The mind is centered of course, in, the human brain. On top of your head, this morning contained within your skull is a 3 pound organ, called
2:09 the brain. It's composed of roughly 86000000000 neurons forming 1 quadrillion connections. The storage capacity of the human brain is
2:21 virtually unlimited. Remember that okay, we're headed toward midterms. Turn around to your friend and say hey you got a lot of capacity up there. A lot of capacity.
2:35 Might also encourage you to know that the human brain is not fully developed until you're 25 years of age. So you're still in developmental stage. It is the
2:46 fattiest organ in the body. So if anybody ever calls you a fat head, thank them for the compliment. And it's composed of 75 percent water.
2:59 Now it's estimated that in any individual, we have between 12060 thousand thoughts per day. College students would be on the
3:10 high end of that of course as we challenge your mind here at ORU. The mind is a powerful force that can be used for good or for bad.
3:23 And the Bible says a lot about our mind. I wanna summarize some of what the Bible says in mentioning 5 things about our mind this morning. 1st of all, God calls
3:34 us in his word to have a renewed mind. Paul says, do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed, changed, metamorphosed
3:46 is the word there, by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good pleasing and perfect will. Be renewed
3:58 in your mind. Romans 8 5 through 7 says, those who live according to the flesh have their mind set on what the flesh desires but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their mind set on what the spirit
4:10 desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God.
4:22 It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so. So Paul says let your mind be renewed after the spirit and not after the
4:34 flesh. Neuroscience has discovered that your brain can be rewired. It's called neuroplasticity. Your
4:45 brain has the capacity to be reoriented and rewired. Jesus would teach us that our brains need to be rewired after our
4:57 heart is converted to Jesus Christ. In other words, our minds need to change their focus and understanding. We can renew our mind and rewire our
5:09 mind through the power of God's word, through worship, through prayer, through meditation, and through right thinking. God wants you and me to have a renewed mind, to
5:20 leave the kingdom of this world's kind of thinking and think kingdom kind of thinking, to have presence. Now some
5:32 of
Renewed and Wholesome Thinking
5:35 you
5:39 just need a basic renewal of what God looks at the world because our mind has been rewired and renewed by God's word and by his presence. Now some of you just need a basic
5:40 Now some of you just need a basic renewal of your mind because you are suffering from brain fatigue. Brain fatigue. There's a thing, it's actually being
5:52 studied by people and there's some articles out around called the Generation Z Stare. The Gen Z Stare. I see some of
6:04 you with it right now. It's basically a blank look on the face of a gen z student because their brain is
6:16 fatigued. Let me say to you, you need to get some sleep. Yeah. Get some sleep. How do you help with
6:28 brain fatigue? Sleep, hydration, exercise, find the stressors and de stress your self and renew your mind in God's presence and let it be refreshed. God wants
6:39 you sharp not dull. God wants you alive not dead and he wants your brain to be renewed. Renewed mind. Number 2, God's word teaches we should have a wholesome
6:51 mind. 2nd Peter 3 1 says, dear friends, this is now my 2nd letter to you. I've written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I like this 1,
7:03 wholesome thinking. Whole person, whole leader, whole mind. Philippians 4 8 says, finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, I love this
7:15 scripture, let it sink in this morning. Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,
7:27 think about such things. Now scientists say that out of those thousands of thoughts that we have each day, it is estimated that 80 percent of
7:39 them are negative. If you'll meditate on what is good, what is it the word says? What's noble, what's true, what's right,
7:51 what's pure, what's lovely, what's admirable. If you'll meditate, if you'll think on these things, you can change the narrative of your mind. You can have
8:02 gratitude flowing from your heart and you can live with a positive wholesome mindset in a filthy, contaminated world. Everybody say amen.
8:15 I read of 1 group that has adopted gratitude journaling. That every day they journal the things they are grateful for. They think on good things, on
8:26 noble things. Think also on the fact that you are not alone. You know, if we think the right thoughts, if we meditate on the right things, in many ways, we can change
8:38 the default setting of our mind. You know on your phone you have these default settings, most people never go into their default setting, they just let the phone do what it's gonna do. But really you can go in to
8:50 the back end of your phone and tell it and change the default settings so you get other information that you're not normally getting and you exclude information you are getting. If we're thinking 80
9:02 percent negative thoughts, we need to change the default mechanism of our mind so we're thinking on good things, positive things, upbeat things, praiseworthy things, and living on the positive side of
9:14 life. We need to move out of stinking thinking into wholesome right processes within our mind. Number 3, God wants us to have
9:26 a creative mind. Brilliant scientist Albert Einstein said creativity is intelligence having fun. I like that 1. He also said the true sign of intelligence
9:38 is not knowledge, but imagination. Stephen Covey, the great leadership expert says this, all things are created twice. 1st mentally
9:50 then physically. Creative thought, we of course in our world today are enamored by artificial intelligence, but the truth is behind artificial intelligence was someone with
10:02 a lot of creativity. It didn't just happen by itself, it didn't just pop up someday and 1 computer decided to start talking to another computer, there was someone underneath that with creativity thinking how
10:14 can we move things faster? How can we make knowledge at the speed of light? How can we touch the world? How can we help people find information faster? And someone was creative and
10:26 did that. Creativity, creativity. Someone has said the idle mind is the devil's playground. The Christian mind should be the Holy Spirit's playground in a
Creativity and Conquering Anxiety
10:38 certain way. Acts 2 17 says in the last days God says I'll pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream
10:49 dreams. In other words, when you're full of the Holy Spirit something happens in your mind. The God of all creativity, the God that created the heavens and the earth, the God that sent
11:01 his holy spirit to brood over creation and bring out of disorder the order that we now have in creation is alive in you and full in you and anointing your
11:13 mind to give you creativity and creative thoughts. The creator of the universe is inside of you and He gives you visions and dreams and ingenuity and innovation.
11:27 Wow. The holy spirit gives us access to the inexhaustible library and wisdom of heaven. Prayer is your library card
11:39 for the creative understanding of God. Number 4, God wants to give us a settled mind or a peaceful mind. 20 26 data, brand new data this year shows that
11:51 42 percent of students report moderate to severe anxiety. This is up 5 percent from last year. In 20 24, a book by Jonathan
12:03 Haidt, that I have read, most of it says, is called the anxious generation. How the great we wiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness.
12:14 Anxiety is 1 of the great problems of our generation and of your generation. The word anxiety comes from a Latin word, which means troubled
12:26 or uneasy, worried, filled with stress. And in the Bible, the word anxiety comes from a Greek word, which means to choke or to squeeze.
12:39 When you live with anxiety, it is choking your life and squeezing you mentally. It's choking out your joy, it's choking out your love, it's choking out
12:51 your thoughts for other people, It's invading your mind and literally squeezing out the good things of God and flooding you with negativity and negative thoughts. Recent survey by
13:03 Harmony Healthcare IT identified the top 5 causes of anxiety in generation z, the future, finances, work, social activities, and relationships. A recent Barna
13:15 survey, excuse me, said that 39 percent of, Gen Z are always anxious about the future. 39 percent always anxious about important decision. 38 percent
13:27 always afraid to fail and 35 percent always overwhelmed with responsibility. That Harmony study said 50 percent of gen Z struggle with anxiety every single day.
13:40 And 43 percent of your generation have panic attacks monthly or more. I was surprised by this statistic. 3 out of 4 get anxious when making a phone call or
13:51 talking on the telephone. Now some anxiousness in our life comes because we are in conflict with God. Deuteronomy 28 gives the,
14:04 benefits of obedience to God in the form of blessings. You'll be blessed in the city, you'll be blessed in the field and on and on and on. But at the end of the chapter in Deuteronomy 28, he God gives the curses for
14:15 being disobedient to him. Listen to this 1, I'd never really reflected on this 1 until studying for this message. Deuteronomy 28 65, among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for
14:27 the sole of your feet. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing and a despairing heart. Some people are anxious even in this room because your
14:38 actions are disobedient to God and you're in conflict with heaven and it's bringing an anxiousness, it's choking the life right out of you. God's word says this in the New Testament,
14:50 Philippians 4 verse 6 and 7, do not be anxious about anything. I wanna stop right there. That means if you're living filled with anxiety, you're being disobedient to the
15:02 word of God. Let that sink in. Do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving,
15:14 present your request to God. And if you'll do that, if you're in every situation, if you'll take your request to God with thanksgiving, with gratitude to him, then listen to what
15:26 happened. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, incomprehensible peace will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.
15:39 When you live your life in prayer and giving everything to God and committing every situation out of gratitude and thanksgiving to heaven, what happens? God sends a guard around
15:51 your mind that protects it against the anxiety of the world and gives you peace in the middle of it all and you're not choked off anymore, but you are thriving for
16:03 the glory of God. I'm telling you, praying about this message, I got mad at the devil thinking he's choking you. He's, he's squeezing you with anxiety every day.
16:15 When God says, don't be anxious about anything. Trust me. Don't worry about about what you eat, don't worry about what you wear, don't worry about where you're gonna live. God takes care of the birds of the air and the
16:26 flowers of the field and he'll take care of you. He's got you man, he knows you, he loves you and he'll hold you up no matter what's going on. Oh come on give God praise, don't be
16:37 ancient. Let me finish quickly. So God wants us to have a renewed mind, a wholesome mind, a creative mind,
16:49 a peace filled, steadfast mind. Isaiah had said that you'll keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they
17:01 trust in you. Number 5, God wants us to have a decisive mind. In our mind is where choices
17:14 for life are made. The truth is you are going to be the sum of the choices you make in life. It's Valentine's day weekend. I wanna say
17:26 to you, listen closely, much more than an emotion, much more than a chemical reaction, love is a choice. I made a good choice.
The Decisive Mind and Salvation Choice
17:41 I did, I made a good choice.
17:45 Oh, it had all of emotions with it, all of that. But the truth is at the bottom line, Lisa and I chose each other, and God gave us that liberty. God has formed man with the power of
17:56 choice. Your attitude is a choice. How you live is a choice. Colossians three:two says, Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.
18:08 In fact, even repentance comes from the Greek word metanoia, which means change of mind. Actually comes from meta, which means after or beyond, and another word,
18:20 noin, which means think. A reorientation of our thinking is what happens when we repent. Now just go with me for a
18:32 moment. How many of you are true believers in Jesus Christ? Raise your hand. Now emotions follow the choice.
18:45 But what really happened in us is in our mind we said this. I believe and I make a choice to believe that Jesus really lived.
18:57 I believe he really walked the earth. I believe, I choose to believe that he rose from the dead. I choose to believe that he died
19:09 for my sin and when I could not save myself he saved me. I choose to believe he is resurrected and alive in heaven today and I choose to believe that
19:21 if I confess my sin, he'll forgive me of my sin, come into my life and will change me forever. And because I chose to believe my life was changed
19:33 and my direction was changed. Your mind is powerful. And the choices you make will determine the direction of
19:45 your life. So make sure your mind is renewed, that it's filled with wholesome thoughts, that you use your creativity for the glory of God,
19:57 that you live in peace and get rid of anxiety. You can, you say, I don't think I can deal with this. Oh yeah, we've got good counselors on campus. We've got great help for
20:09 you and we do all that we can to help you. But I wanna tell you, listen, listen, I love you. I'm telling you the truth. In your mind, you can choose your attitude.
20:21 Be anxious for nothing, but give it all to Jesus Christ. I won't ever head to bow over this room. If you're here this morning and you say, Doctor. Wilson,
20:33 I need to make a choice in my relationship with God that is really important right now. Maybe you need to repent of something. Maybe you need to just choose a new attitude, or maybe you're
20:44 dealing with anxiety and it seems to be strangling you, and you're tired of these thoughts choking out the life of God in you, and you want God's peace, and you
20:56 need to make a choice today with your mind to go a different way. If you're here and you need to make a choice about your relationship with God, would you just raise your hand right now and say, that's me, Doctor.
21:08 Wilson. I need to make a new choice in this area of my life. Come on, lift it up, lift it up high. Hold it up for just a minute. We'll pray for you. Yeah, a lot of hands up. So if your hand's
21:20 raised, just stand up. Everybody just keep your head bowed, but you that raised your hand, just stand up. I wanna pray for you 1st. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Holy There's about 50 more that need to stand.
21:32 You're dealing with anxiety at a high level, and God wants to give you peace. But you gotta choose, you gotta choose to give it to God. In every situation with prayer
21:44 and thanksgiving, commit your request to God. You that are standing, lift your hands, I wanna pray for you right now. Father, I ask you in Jesus name, to help us exercise 1 of the great gifts
21:56 of humanity. The ability to choose. Lord it was a choice that plunged us into sin, and it's a choice to
22:08 repent of it and to come to you. So I pray today Lord that everyone whose hands are raised in this room, that you would help them be free to choose you and choose your way.
22:20 Renew their mind, Relieve their anxiety, and bring them peace that transcends human understanding. And set a guard,
22:31 a fortress, an angelic force around their brain to keep them free and to keep them at peace. Now Lord if someone is standing today and they are making a choice to serve
22:43 you and for the 1st time in their life they're saying, I believe Jesus rose from the dead and I'm going to confess him as my lord and savior. Help them right now come into their life
22:55 and change their direction in Jesus name. Amen and Amen. Would you give God praise and everybody stand, everybody stand.
23:06 Everybody raise your hands. Yeah. I want you to
23:09 say out loud. Jesus. Jesus. I thank you
23:14 for my mind.
23:14 Thank you for my mind.
23:19 To bring glory to you.
23:21 To bring glory to you. I commit my mind. I commit my mind. I commit to study. I commit to praise. I commit to
23:33 choosing the right way.
23:36 Everybody say it out loud, devil. Devil. You're a liar. You're a liar. I will not live with anxiety. I will not live with anxiety. I will not live with anxiety. I will not live with anxiety. I Jesus
23:48 Because Jesus gave me his peace. Gave me his peace. I receive it. I apply it. I apply it. I will live with it. In Jesus name, amen and amen.
24:00 God bless you, God.
Declaration of a Victorious Mind
24:05 You've been listening to the ORU Experience It podcast. To learn how you can start or complete your education, visit o r u dot e d u today. Join us next time for the Oral Roberts University
24:17 Experience It podcast.
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