Five Things That Are True (S13E61)

0:00Good morning. It's your friend Dr. Lee Warren here for a special little bonus episode. We're right at the end of April 2026 and this morning I was doing my prayer quiet time Bible study time and I always write in a journal every morning because it's really good for your brain and it's also a great way to keep track of your progress as a human over time especially if you're practicing self-brain surgery and I opened my journal and it just fell open to the first page of this year. The very first things I wrote this year are five things that are true and I just I felt really

0:31compelled. Normally our podcasts are recorded several weeks in advance that gives Jonas and the team time to edit them and put them up and all that stuff but I just I'm recording this in real time at five o'clock in the morning on April 30th. I'm going to push this out in just a few minutes because I want you to know today I'm proud of you for showing up to do this hard and holy work is somebody's got you and you need to know that there are some things that are true no matter how we feel no matter what the circumstances are there are some things that are true and I'm going to share them with you right now. Let's get after it.

1:08Okay friend here are five things that are true for you. I want you to write them down. I want you to think about them. I want you to meditate on them. Find ways to incorporate them into your daily life because they will change the arc of what your experience is regardless of what your circumstances are. This is true from neuroscience. We're going to smash some scripture together. Five things that are true for the end of April. Little bonus for you. Here we go. Number five. Nothing changes until I change something. Nothing changes until I change something. Change doesn't require perfection. It requires

1:43interruption. Your brain doesn't change because you become perfect and get it all right. Your brain changes when you change what you're doing. You interrupt your pattern. Neuroplasticity will kick in and start making structural changes in your brain. That's why we call it self-brain surgery. It's not a metaphor. It's real. You want to change your life? You got to change something in your life and it starts with you. Acts 17, 26 and 27 in the English Standard Version says that it's this whole passage about how God chose the exact times and places where you were lived. It was not an accident where you showed up

2:18in life and when you showed up in life. And then it says this interesting thing. God did this so that people would feel their way toward him. Another translation says that God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps find him though he is not far from any of us. God is not far from you, friend. And when life feels too big, too hard, too stressful, God says, hey, feel your way toward me. I'm here. That's a change you can make. Start seeking him in the midst of the hardship. Don't say, God, why are you allowing this hardship? Say, God, where are you in this hardship? And he'll help you through it.

2:53Colossians 1, 16 through 20 says, by him and through him and for him, everything was made. We just did an episode called Holding Everything Together. Go listen to that. Go look on YouTube and watch it. You can see my face when I tell you, you don't have to hold yourself together. He's already doing that. He's holding everything together. In him, all things are held together. So the first of the five things that are true, nothing changes until I change something. Write that down. Number four, no one else can change me or keep me from changing. This is the idea that we have to

3:27have an internal locus of control. If you believe that you are unable to change, grow, heal, develop a higher performance, whatever it is, because of somebody else, something else, if you're waiting to be happy, to have purpose, to move forward because you need somebody else to change, the problem is nobody else can change enough to change you. And no circumstance can be good enough to truly make you happy or have peace unless you find those things in yourself and in God's plan and purpose for your life. Circumstances have to be separated from your internal locus of control. No one else can

4:02change me unless I change something. It's between me and God. Isaiah 26 verse 3 says, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are fixed on you. You want to feel better? Fix your mind on him. Don't be so attached to circumstances. Don't keep waiting for other people to do something, change something, start something, finish something, quit something, be something. You have to make the change inside of you. Okay? Romans 8 verse 6 says, the mind set on the flesh is death. You want to know why the mental health problem is getting worse in our country? Because everybody's being directed to focus on what

4:36they feel, to go back in time and figure out all the different ways they were hurt and who let them down and what happened to them. And there's some value in understanding where you've been. That's true. I'm not discounting that. But if you want to feel better, the Bible says you have to set your mind on the spirit. That's where life is. He's where the joy is. Okay? So the way to get better in your mental health is not to focus on what you feel, but on what you want to feel, on what you want to become. No one can change you or keep you from changing. Okay? You have to do the work. That's the

5:11number four. Number three, I am not stuck because of someone or something outside of me. I am not stuck because of someone or something outside of me. I'm not stuck because of my circumstances. I'm not stuck because of adverse childhood experiences. I'm not stuck because somebody's mean to me. I'm not stuck because they won't promote me. I'm not stuck because X, Y, or Z. I'm stuck because I need to change on the inside. Now, don't mishear me, okay? If you're in an abusive situation, if there's

5:41something unjust happening in your life, I'm not saying that's not important, and I'm not saying it doesn't need to be dealt with. But ultimately, the change that needs to happen has to happen within you. It has to happen within you. 2 Timothy 1.7 counters the cultural message that we're getting, that we're too broken, too hurt, too ADHD, too anxious, too stuck, too traumatized, all that stuff. 2 Timothy 1.7 says, God didn't give you, friend, a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. You have a sound mind. If you learn how to operate it, separate

6:16mind from brain, put mind in charge where it's supposed to be, stop letting your brain boss you around, and you're not stuck because of someone or something outside of you. Number two, what happened in the past does not have power over my future. Isaiah 43, 18 and 19 says, forget the former things. See, I'm doing a new thing. Do you not perceive it? God is doing something new in your life. He wants you to be able to move forward. There's something that happened in the past that hurt you. I lost my son. I went through war. I went through a divorce. Those

6:48things hurt, and they change the arc of our future life, but they don't have the power to determine your future because you can change the response that you have to those things if it's not helping you. And finally, I already have what I need to heal, grow, and change. God said in 2 Peter 1.3, His divine power has given you everything you need for life. I just want you to hear that, friend. I don't want you to put an asterisk next to it. I don't want you to email me and say, but you don't know what I've been through. You don't know my personality type. You don't know my

7:21Enneagram score. You don't know what my dad did to me. You don't know what my life is like. I don't want you to say that. I want you to hear your creator, the great physician who is in your head with the power, the mind of Christ, and the same power that he used to raise Jesus from the dead gives you the ability to change what your brain does and what your life looks like. So I don't want you to hear that verse as His divine power has given some of us some of what we need. It says His divine power has given you everything you need. All you have to do is learn how to operate in it, to live in it, to walk in it, to practice self-brain surgery with it. And 2 Timothy 1.7 again

7:56says, no matter how anxious you feel, friend, He didn't give you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. That's what He gave you. And we don't have to operate as if those things are not true for us. So I want you to have these five things. Nothing changes until I change something. No one else can change me or keep me from changing. I am not stuck because of someone or something outside of me. What happened in the past does not have power over my future. And I already have what I need to heal, grow, and change. Friend, write those five things down. They're from my

8:30journal. This is a bonus little morning quiet time for you. If you haven't read my book, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery, it will help you. It will help you incorporate these five things into your life. Hit that follow button. Share this episode with a friend. We got a new episode coming May the 1st. We're going to do the four foundational episodes of where we start with self-brain surgery. They're going to give you a place to start, a place to share, a place to build community around these ideas with people who haven't heard them before. And if you're new around here, the next four episodes of the

9:00podcast are going to give you a foundation in how you truly can transform your life by smashing neuroscience and faith together. I'm your friend, Dr. Lee Warren. Hopefully your favorite internet brain surgeon, maybe real life. I'm praying for you. I'm proud of you. I'm grateful for you. Lisa and I have so much great content coming for you on the YouTube channel and on the audio players and in the newsletter. And my new book is there for you. We've got courses at school.wleewarrenmd.com if you're interested in that. And if you want some of our free resources, the Thought Biopsy Worksheet,

9:32the Ten Commandments of Self-Brain Surgery, and a four-part, totally free course that I made for you called You Can Change Your Life. Go to school.wleewarrenmd.com. School.wleewarrenmd.com. You can get all that stuff there for free. It's there for you all the time. You can download it whenever you want. We're doing this hard and holy work with you. We're proud of you. I'm giving you a fist bump or a little bro hug right now, a high five, and saying, God bless you, friend. We're proud of you, and we're grateful for you. And don't forget, you can't change your life until you change your

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