Relevant Magazine recently posted an excerpt from Greg Groeschel’s latest book, Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, that caught my attention.

In this chapter, Groeschel shared the story of Houdini, the great magician who performed across America in the early 1900s.

In order to gain a crowd for his upcoming show, ever the self-promoter, Houdini would go to the local jail, have the sheriff lock him in a cell, and then in a matter of minutes escape wowing the crowd.

However, there was one time he wasn’t able to free himself. In this instance, the jailer who knew Houdini was coming to town, prepared in advance for the magician’s arrival.

After locking Houdini in the cell, the jailer pretended to turn the lock the wrong way to secure it. This maneuver essentially left the jail cell unlocked. Thinking it was locked, Houdini repeatedly turned the lock the other way essentially locking himself in the cell.

After a couple of futile attempts, Houdini was forced to admit he couldn’t escape, simply because he had believed the Sheriff’s deception.

According to Groeschell, as believers, we can fall into the same trap of being trapped because we believe the lies.

He shared a story from his own life of how easily that can happen.

Today, Groeschel heads Life.Church, a multi-site megachurch headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma, and if you have ever heard him speak he is an effective communicator.

But, early on he writes about the number of times he was criticized by people because of his speaking ability.

He was even turned down by a denomination because he lacked the gifts needed for ministry. After this rejection, Groeschel was ready to quit, but then God spoke to him as he was driving home from the denominational interview:

“You are not who others say you are. You are who I say you are.”

Those words became one of the major turning points in Groeschel’s life as He chose to believe what God said about him.

As the Apostle Paul explains in Romans 12, we are transformed as we renew our minds, which involves literally changing the way we think (Romans 12:2).

Definitely recommend you read the full excerpt: READ: Craig Groeschel: Winning the War on Your Mind

For the record: As part of its ministry, Life.Church developed the very popular YouVersion Bible app that has been downloaded over 200 million times.