Egypt Mindset vs Kingdom Mindset: Breaking Free from Slave Thinking
Introduction
They stayed 40 years in a place meant for 11 days.
You can be gifted but not grown. You can be promised but unprepared. You can be chosen but careless.
God will not let you skip mindset class.
The wilderness is not punishment—it's preparation. God is not delaying you—He is developing you.
The promise wasn't the problem. Their mindset was the problem.
The wilderness is where God asks: "Can I trust your thinking with the blessing I'm about to give you?"
Money doesn't change you, it just magnifies who you already are.
Why Did God Set Them Free? Because They Cried
They cried out to God while in slavery and bondage.
"Many years later the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Their cries for relief from their hard labor ascended to God: God listened to their groanings. God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob." (Exodus 2:23-25, MSG)
"God said, 'I've taken a good, long look at the affliction of my people in Egypt. I've heard their cries for deliverance from their slave masters; I know all about their pain. And now I have come down to help them, pry them loose from the grip of Egypt, get them out of that country and bring them to a good land with wide-open spaces, a land lush with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. The Israelite cry for help has come to me, and I've seen for myself how cruelly they're being treated by the Egyptians. It's time for you to go back: I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the People of Israel, out of Egypt.'" (Exodus 3:7-10, MSG)
The Wilderness Revealed Their Mindset
They were free bodies with slave minds. So God said, "Let's test those thoughts."
God opened the door, but their mind stayed locked.
In the wilderness, God exposes:
- The complaining spirit
- The ungrateful spirit
- The fearful spirit
- The rebellious spirit
- The impulsive spirit
- The inconsistent spirit
- Needing someone else to tell you who you are
- Depending on a system instead of depending on God
Fear Took Over
"As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, 'Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, "Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!"'" (Exodus 14:10-12, NLT)
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." (2 Timothy 1:7, NLT)
It's amazing how people's memory gets shifted. Moses was an answered prayer. What if your answered prayers don't look like what you thought? I don't know if you have tried to help people and they turn on you. Slave mentality will have you believing that being a slave was a blessing.
What's in the Heart Comes Out the Mouth
"A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart." (Luke 6:45, NLT)
Fear, victimhood, blame, lack of identity—all of this was flowing from their hearts.
They Complained and Blamed
"The whole company of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron there in the wilderness. The Israelites said, 'Why didn't God let us die in comfort in Egypt where we had lamb stew and all the bread we could eat? You've brought us out into this wilderness to starve us to death, the whole company of Israel!'" (Exodus 16:2-3, MSG)
All complained. They blamed Moses and God. This is a very dangerous statement: "Why didn't God let us die?"
They Craved What Was Behind Them
"The misfits among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining, 'Why can't we have meat? We ate fish in Egypt—and got it free!—to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and garlic. But nothing tastes good out here; all we get is manna, manna, manna.'" (Numbers 11:4-6, MSG)
God is trying to change their diet. Why does God want to change your diet? Because that's where the first temptation always comes from.
They Wanted to Go Back
"The whole community was in an uproar, wailing all night long. All the People of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The entire community was in on it: 'Why didn't we die in Egypt? Or in this wilderness? Why has God brought us to this country to kill us? Our wives and children are about to become plunder. Why don't we just head back to Egypt? And right now!'" (Numbers 14:2-4, MSG)
The Israelites' longing to return to Egypt, despite their previous suffering, highlights the difficulty of embracing change and the unknown. Egypt, though a place of bondage, represented familiarity and security. This reflects a broader biblical theme of the struggle between the comfort of the past and the uncertainty of following God's call to a new future. It also foreshadows the ongoing struggle between faith and fear that characterizes the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land.
They refused to move forward.
They Didn't Trust God
"Yet you were not willing to go up [to take possession of it], but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You murmured and were ill-tempered (discontented) in your tents, and said, 'Because the Lord hates us He has brought us from the land of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brothers (spies) have made our hearts melt [in fear] and demoralized us by saying, "The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large, and fortified [all the way up] to heaven. And besides, we saw the [giant-like] sons of the Anakim there."' Then I said to you, 'Do not be shocked, nor fear them. The Lord your God who goes before you will fight for you Himself, just as He did for you in Egypt before your [very] eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried and protected you, just as a man carries his son, all along the way which you traveled until you arrived at this place.' Yet in spite of this word, you did not trust [that is, confidently rely on and believe] the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 1:26-32, AMP)
The Danger of Dependency
"Toxic charity" is a concept popularized by Robert D. Lupton that identifies a progression toward dependency that often results from one-way giving for chronic needs:
- Give once: Elicits appreciation
- Give twice: Creates anticipation
- Give three times: Creates expectation
- Give four times: Becomes entitlement
- Give five times: Establishes dependency
"He humbled you and allowed you to be hungry and fed you with manna, [a substance] which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you understand [by personal experience] that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 8:3, AMP)
Canaan Represents a Kingdom Mindset
Canaan wasn't just real estate—it was responsibility.
The Canaan mindset says:
- I walk in dominion
- I walk in identity
- I walk in promise
- I walk in covenant confidence
- I walk in authority and access
Egypt survivors say, "I hope it works."
Kingdom thinkers say, "If God said it, it's already done."
Created in God's Image
"Then God said, 'Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.' So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:26-27, NLT)
Possession Mentality
"I have given you every place on which the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised to Moses." (Joshua 1:3, AMP)
Heirs, Not Slaves
"And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory." (Romans 8:17, AMP)
Royal Identity
"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." (1 Peter 2:9, AMP)
Canaan thinking doesn't ask, "Can I survive?"—it asks, "How much territory can I take?"
Forget the Former Things
"But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland." (Isaiah 43:18-19, NLT)
"That, regarding your previous way of life, you put off your old self [completely discard your former nature], which is being corrupted through deceitful desires, and be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude], and put on the new self [the regenerated and renewed nature], created in God's image, [godlike] in the righteousness and holiness of the truth [living in a way that expresses to God your gratitude for your salvation]." (Ephesians 4:22-24, AMP)
Complete Access to God's Kingdom
"And that's not all. You will have complete and free access to God's kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven." (Matthew 16:19, MSG)
Egypt Mindset vs Kingdom Mindset
Egypt Mindset
Kingdom Mindset
"I'm a victim."
"I have authority."
"I hope something changes."
"I speak and create change."
"I need Pharaoh to provide."
"God is my source."
"I can't."
"I can do all things."
"This is too big."
"God goes before me."
"I'm not enough."
"God in me is more than enough."
"I fear the future."
"The future is promised."
"I react."
"I respond with wisdom."
"I survive."
"I thrive."
"I settle."
"I possess."
The Chains Are Broken
You now have keys:
- Keys to open doors
- Keys to close doors
- Keys to restrict what heaven forbids
- Keys to release what heaven releases
- Keys to manage God's kingdom agenda
Discussion Questions
- Identifying Your Egypt Mindset: Looking at the Egypt vs Kingdom mindset comparison, which "Egypt mindset" statements do you catch yourself saying or thinking most often? What specific situations trigger these thoughts? How would your circumstances look different if you consistently operated from the corresponding Kingdom mindset instead?
- The Complaining Spirit: The Israelites repeatedly complained about their circumstances and even romanticized their time in slavery ("we had lamb stew and all the bread we could eat"). What areas of your life are you complaining about instead of trusting God's process? What past season or situation do you find yourself looking back on with rose-colored glasses, forgetting the bondage it represented?
- Breaking Dependency: The sermon discusses how repeated one-way giving creates dependency—from appreciation to anticipation to expectation to entitlement. In what areas of your life have you become dependent on people, systems, or circumstances instead of depending on God? What would it look like to shift from dependency to dominion in that area?
- God is Changing Your Diet: God wanted to change Israel's diet from the food of Egypt to manna, teaching them that "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD." What is God trying to change in your "diet"—your consumption of media, relationships, habits, or thought patterns? Why might He be removing certain things before giving you the promise?
- Using Your Keys: The message ends with the declaration that you have keys to open doors, close doors, restrict what heaven forbids, and release what heaven releases. What door is God calling you to open with your authority? What door do you need the courage to close? What specific action will you take this week to operate with Kingdom authority instead of victim mentality?