The Pattern-Disrupting Power of the Enneagram

This week’s post is adapted from my audio program, “Know Yourself to Know God.”

Romans 12: 2 says, “Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Notice he said “your mind,” not “your spirit.” Why does the mind, or soul, need to be made new? Because it’s an old way of thinking. It’s operating on a faulty system.

Now, listen to the rest of this verse: “THEN you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Because you’ll have the proper mindset; you won’t be stuck in the pattern of thinking you used to have. And that will transform you, Paul says. And I agree!

Our minds also need to be renewed because we use them too much! More on that in a minute. First, I want to look at another verse that talks about thought. 2 Cor. 10:5 says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” We take captive every thought – why would we need to do that? To make it obedient to Christ. The clear logic here demonstrates that our thoughts are NOT obedient to Christ. Think about that: our very THOUGHTS are disobedient! And that makes sense, right, because we don’t sin with our leg or our earlobe; sin originates in our thoughts. We think it up first and then do it.

Now, let’s look at the first half of this verse, because here’s where it gets very interesting to me. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” What do arguments and pretensions do? They set themselves up against the knowledge of God. What’s the name of this program? “Know Yourself to Know God.” Where do arguments and pretensions come from? Your mind! What do they do? Prevent you from knowing God and, therefore, from knowing yourself. That’s why it’s critical to get a handle on our thoughts and to understand the mind’s proper role in our lives.

And that is why I so heartily advocate the Enneagram. This tool helps us see the patterns of thought that are at work in our minds, patterns that are based on various lies that we believe (depending on our Type). It helps transform us by enabling our minds to think differently. Then we will be able to know God’s will. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty interested in knowing what God’s will is in general and for my life in particular. It just removes a lot of the guesswork and guilt, you know?

So, I’m going to keep learning and teaching the Enneagram. I hope you’ll join me. And I’d love to hear from you, too. Leave a comment below or on Twitter or Facebook.

Oh, and if you’re interested in “Know Yourself to Know God,” you can find it here. It’s got my best stuff in it, and I guarantee that if you do the work, it will change your life.

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