174: A God-Shaped Mind for a Purposeful Retirement

Jim Brangenberg: Your retirement years can be 30 years filled with meaning and purpose as long as you connect your faith and your retirement days.

Martha Brangenberg: Welcome to iRetire4Him.We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Check us out online at iRetireForHim.com.

Jim Brangenberg: Were our minds specifically designed to reach maximum efficiency and effectiveness when we're one with God? Is that God-shaped hole that only Jesus can fill, is that hole filling by Jesus only the beginning of bringing freedom to our whole body, mind, and soul?

Jim Brangenberg: I was recently reading an article on CBM News entitled Neuroscience Confirms Mental Healing, Mental Health Healing, Can Come Through Scripture: There's Tremendous Hope. So the world is taking notice. Humanism does not bring healing or hope, but reading the scriptures and pursuing God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength is the only way for us to be 100% the human that God intended for us to be.

Jim Brangenberg: Most of you listening are retiring soon or are already retired. Today's show is gonna provide you with the tools you need to get the most out of your retirement years by pursuing God in all you do. Chuck Coker, a friend, is here today to help make sense of all of this. We have all been told that the scriptures are inspired by God and useful for teaching and correcting and preparing us. What we weren't told is that our minds were wired to use scripture to bring healing to our minds and fulfillment to our days.

Jim Brangenberg: Chuck Coker, welcome to iRetire4Him.

Chuck Coker: I'm excited about being here, Jim, Martha. It's great to see you again.

Martha Brangenberg: You as well. So Chuck, I am curious, instead of slowing down as you could in your stage of life, you're actually picking up speed and digging in quite a bit. Why have you decided that retirement isn't what God has wired you for?

Chuck Coker: In my studies, what I have discovered is that God has given us the directives to live to 120 years based on Genesis 6:3. So what I wanted to do was explore how to do that, and in my studies what I found was things like Moses didn't start his ministry till he was 80 years old. Enoch and Noah, were hundreds of years old when they were still walking with God, so why should I even consider retirement other than the fact that I'm a little tired right now?

 (laughter)

Jim Brangenberg: It's later in the afternoon. You're on the East Coast. We get that.

Jim Brangenberg: You just released-- You've been doing studying, a lot of studying. You just released your new book, A God-Shaped Mind. Tell us about the premise behind this book.

Chuck Coker: I think the main thing that I want our audience to know is that our natural minds were designed to carry the full weight of human flourishing. Our brains were wired with the capacity for spiritual perception, which when we're born, we have something called a default mode network that is purely focused on survival, not so much for opening it and awakening it to spiritual principles, because we live in four dimensions: length, width, depth, and time.

Chuck Coker: But God lives in 10 to 11 dimensions, and he wanted us to have a glimpse of those other six or seven dimensions. That's why the scripture says the natural man cannot understand spiritual things because they're spiritually discerned. When God opens up that faith portal at the time of salvation, he literally expands the number of neurons, listen to this, 700 to 1,000 of them every minute during that experience.

Chuck Coker: So our mind literally expands so that we are now receptive to those other dimensions, especially cause and effect, that the natural mind can't grasp.

Martha Brangenberg: Okay, so Chuck, I wanna ask you a question. Have you always been a researcher? Have you always wanted to dig in like this?

Chuck Coker: To be honest with you, I never wanted to read a fiction novel in my whole life.

Martha Brangenberg: Okay.

Chuck Coker: What I wanted to do was grow and develop. And it has been a passion for me, and it's one of the things that moved me from running a New York Stock Exchange company to teaching in the United Kingdom at a seminary. So the growth that God can give us simply by seeking him, reading the scriptures, and opening up new neural pathways in our brain is so exciting that my wife literally made me promise that I would not go back to school after I finished my second doctorate.

Jim Brangenberg: Did you sign something? Did you sign something? "I, Chuck Coker..." It's probably Charles. "I, Charles blank Coker, do hereby solemnly swear never to go back to seminary again."

Chuck Coker: That's right. She did. She said at least until the kids get out of school. And when you have nine kids, they're almost always in school.

Jim Brangenberg: But I wanna just, I'm a fiction guy. Plus, you're talking about multiple dimensions, so I'm also a I'm also a science fiction guy. Okay? Because there's a lot of truth in fiction, and a lot of truth in science fiction. I learn a lot about God from Star Trek because you can, because it expands how you look at the universe.

Jim Brangenberg: And I will tell you that fiction, certainly Christian fiction, isn't full of just mind-numbing words. You can grow and develop from fiction too. It's just different because it enwraps your mind in a story as they're teaching you to experience God in a different way, just through a story. That's why guys write allegories.

Jim Brangenberg: That's why books like, One Minute Manager, he gets down because-

Martha Brangenberg: they do all the research like Chuck, and then somebody takes it and makes it into a story.

Jim Brangenberg: I just don't wanna feel bad next time I read a fiction book, that's all. Chuck. (laughter)

Martha Brangenberg: It's okay, honey.

Chuck Coker: It has to be a theory first, right? Before it can actually be researched.

Jim Brangenberg: Speaking of theories, what convinced you that a God-shaped mind was true?

Chuck Coker: Here's what started the whole process. When I was writing my previous book, Are You Coachable?, I did a study with DePauw University students, and what we discovered was that the only way to be teachable or coachable was to have expressed humility. It is the only thing that pulls in 69.96% correlation. So what I was thinking about when I was doing that research was the kenosis theory. You know-

Jim Brangenberg: okay. Be careful on these big words. Again, this is a simple audience.

Martha Brangenberg: Kenosis.

Chuck Coker: Okay. It's Philippians 2:5 through 11. And what Paul is actually quoting there is a song they used to sing in the early churches called the Carmen Christi, and it is about Christ emptying himself and taking the form of a servant and giving his life. And in that process, by him going down, God exalted him to the place of highest position, and that's what kenosis means. It means the self-emptying of Christ, and that is our pattern. When we become humble and devote ourselves to serving other people, we are beginning to emulate Christ.

Jim Brangenberg: And there's, I've recognized this decades ago that people who are stuck in depression, maybe not clinical depression, but just a depressed state, that the greatest way to get them out of that is getting them to serve other people, 'cause it gets their mind out of self-circling and puts their mind in the focus on others.

Jim Brangenberg: So what you're saying, even simple guys like me who don't have two doctorates or a master's degree, and I just barely got my bachelor's degree, understand that concept.

Martha Brangenberg: Oh, come on. You did fine on your bachelor's.

Jim Brangenberg: I got a B+ and I was pretty good at that. I was just so excited.

Chuck Coker: I love it. Just quickly, think about this. How long did it last when you were honored for something? A matter of minutes. But when you invest in another person, it creates a lifelong memory, and it expands new neural networks in our brain, and it does something... I'm sorry for this big word. I'll explain it. It causes epigenetic changes in the DNA. Our DNA literally expresses itself differently when we serve others.

Jim Brangenberg: What? So you're saying, for simple guys like me, that our DNA changes when we serve other people?

Chuck Coker: The DNA structure remains the same, but the DNA expresses itself differently.

Martha Brangenberg: In a positive way, right?

Chuck Coker: Yeah, In a positive way ... in a positive way. Yes.

Jim Brangenberg: That's way past my pay grade, by the way.

Martha Brangenberg: No, but it's exciting.

Jim Brangenberg: But I don't get it. I don't get it. How can it... If it doesn't change, how does it express itself? I've never heard DNA speak. So how does DNA express itself differently when someone's serving?

Chuck Coker: What happens during the time when we read scripture, when we worship, when we serve when we fulfill our purpose, people think that spiritual gifts are something we do. Spiritual gifts are there to open a channel to God because He's directing us to serve other people, and when He does that, the service literally embeds something in ourselves called crystallized intelligence. It changes us from survival to service mentality.

Jim Brangenberg: Wow. And I love this, 'cause what we're talking about is the practical application of science to our spiritual life which shows that science and spiritual life are all interconnected, which is what God designed, because God was a phenomenal scientist.

Martha Brangenberg: He was the designer.

Jim Brangenberg: He was the designer. Anybody ever doubts that science and following Jesus don't go hand in hand, you're just an idiot. Just study it. Seriously.

Martha Brangenberg: Bet it doesn't say that in here. No. Chuck's way too nice.

Jim Brangenberg: Chuck doesn't- He

Martha Brangenberg: didn't tell anybody they're an idiot.

Jim Brangenberg: But seriously, man, everybody, they argue... The only reason people argue that science and religion, which I agree, religion, just throw it out, science and following Jesus don't fit with each other is 'cause it's an inconvenient truth. Because the truth is that science points people to God all the time.

Jim Brangenberg: You talk about DNA. How about the pieces of DNA when they finally got that super-duper microscope thing, and turns out there was like that, that mini excavator in there. No, it was like gears and switches and things that all were turning in the DNA. It was like all those things, and that was at the smallest level of a cell possible, and they're like how did that get in there?

Jim Brangenberg: And how come our machinery looks like that on the outside?" Just incredible stuff. All right, Chuck, we gotta move on. You've just expanded too much, Chuck.

Martha Brangenberg: Jim's getting very excited, though.

Jim Brangenberg: No, I just- It's awesome ... I- I'm just blown away that God was so intentional that our minds, as you said, that we are capable of accepting the full weight of human flourishing in our minds, that they were designed, that they were designed for that, which makes sense, 'cause I tell people when Adam and Eve were in the garden, Chuck, they experienced complete mental flourishing, physical flourishing, and spiritual flourishing. Until they sinned, they were 100% human beings fully connected to God without any interruptions, no disruptions, and when they sinned, all that got broken. So tell us how it gets fixed.

Chuck Coker: It gets fixed by the process of salvation, because God literally has designed a perfect path for us, and that perfect path comes at the point of salvation. He opens up the faith portal, and we become what 1 John 2:12 and 14 gives us a pathway for. We become what's called a teknion. It means a dependent child that has to build trust, that has to be fed, that has to be communicated with.

Chuck Coker: And then as we grow, we become a paidion. This is let the little paidions come to me. Why? Because they ask questions. They wanna grow. They want to have input. And Jim, as that input comes in, it embeds in our cells, and it enriches them, and it opens new neural pathways so that we can become what's called a neanoskos.

Chuck Coker: And a neanoskos is the young adult who defeats Satan, and as he defeats Satan, it doesn't mean he saves 1,000 souls. It means that maybe they go sit in the hospital with someone that is sick or dying, and he defeats Satan by bringing hope to that person. And hope brings joy and healing to the body.

Chuck Coker: But the neanoskos is not the final stage. That peitai stage is where we learn that it's not just about doing things, it's about investing in the next generation, and that is the key for the church father because the spiritual gifts that are given lead us to the fruit of the spirit. And guess what? Dr. Michael Hartsfield and I researched, from research from Regent University. Guess what?

Chuck Coker: Fruit of the spirit has a direct correlation to emotional intelligence. Psychologists have just renamed fruit of the spirit to something that they could use as their own discovery. When God planned it, he wanted people to be attracted to us, and by this, these epigenetic changes in our body, we are attracting people because our fruit is showing and people want to be like us.

Jim Brangenberg: Wow. We're talking with Chuck Coker today about his book, A God Shaped Mind. As you can see, this is fascinating. We don't normally talk about science and brains and all that kind of stuff, but what Chuck just said is that when you're born with ... You're missing some God pieces there. When you become saved, the rewiring of your mind to look like it was supposed to look in the garden before Adam and Eve decided they knew better than God, God starts rewiring it to fix all the stuff that was screwed up. That's the unscientific explanation.

Martha Brangenberg: That's the Jim CliffsNotes version right there, Chuck. And I love that you just very naturally have scripture backing up those things. And I just wanna take a moment here and talk to all the listeners.

Martha Brangenberg: Christian retirees, even though you may have a Christian advisor, you may have never asked this important question, and that is, are my investments advancing God's kingdom, or are they unknowingly supporting companies that stand against biblical values?

Martha Brangenberg: Luke Andrews with Inspired Advisors helps retirees like you practice faithful stewardship through biblically responsible investing. His approach delivers biblically aligned portfolios designed for growth and impact without compromising performance. Visit investbri.com today and connect with Luke and start your biblically responsible investing journey.

Martha Brangenberg: I will have all of those links in the show notes for your convenience. I encourage you to do that today.

Jim Brangenberg: This is a game changer, folks. I wanna ... I'm just gonna jump back on this before we get back to Chuck. You do that, Jim. There's $29 trillion of Christian retirement money, 99% of it invested in companies that support the enemy's agenda with their profits. Why are we doing that? Biblically responsible investing takes our money and invest it in things that are either morally neutral, so they're not committed sin, but maybe they're not pro-biblical, but they're at least not anti-biblical. Or they are actually pro-kingdom.

Jim Brangenberg: Any way you look at it, if your portfolio isn't biblically responsible investing, you need to stop right now. Get... You know what? There are investments out there that are better than Amazon, as good as Google, as good as all these high-tech AI stocks that are performing and glorifying God. Get out of them because all they're trying to do is destroy the family the way God designed it. Investbri.com. Talk to Luke Andrews.

Jim Brangenberg: Chuck, sorry, I just get very passionate about that.

Martha Brangenberg: I wanna remind our listeners though, Jim, that they can go to that website and they can plug in some of the investments that they currently hold and find out for themselves how they score and that's really a truth-telling moment for what your next step should be.

Jim Brangenberg: And companies can change. There was a time when one of the home improvement companies had a negative score because of their support of Satan's agenda to destroy the family, and they changed things so they could at least be neutral, because a lot of Christians were walking the other direction.

Jim Brangenberg: So Chuck, your book takes people through stages of spiritual maturity and how that forward movement brings a more completely healthy mind because it was designed to draw closer to God. In your own life, how have you seen that to be true?

Chuck Coker: It's exciting because in my life, what God has done is he's ordered my steps, because knowing his ways are higher than mine.

Chuck Coker: And he has ordered me to the things that allow us to live longer, and those are things that have actually been researched in by Buettner and the National Geographic Society in what's called Blue Zones. Blue Zones are the five places in the world where people live to an average over 100 years of age.

Chuck Coker: And the exciting things is that all five of the premises align with scriptural principles. Faith, exercise and food, purpose, Sabbath, and intergenerational communication. In other words, disciple groups. So what God has done is he has given us a pathway as we walk through spiritual maturity to expand and extend our lives so that not only do we have insight into the new dimensions that God is giving us, but he's gonna give us longer to absorb more of that.

Chuck Coker: Because I believe we're here in a fourth dimensional world to be proven to God how much our love for him is, and how much of his direction we are willing to accept so that when we graduate, we are ready for service eternally.

Jim Brangenberg: I often say that -for years, I grew up white evangelical. We didn't learn much about the Holy Spirit. I had to learn about it other places, and what I learned was that it, everybody kept saying when you die, you don't get to take anything with you. And I realized in my 40s that was a patently false theological lie.

Jim Brangenberg: We do get to take something with us. Our relationship with our heavenly Father, as you're talking about the rewiring of our minds, that's our soul that gets connected to that. We take that relationship with us. What else would be the purpose? And those relationships we have with others, I believe, will be connected as well. And how fascinating this, what you're saying is that as we study, as you gotta get a copy of A God-Shaped Mind, everybody, by Chuck Coker, is that Our getting close to God helps rewire our minds to be as close as they could possibly be to the mind we're going to have in our new body.

Chuck Coker: Yes. That's why Paul says we receive a deposit of the Holy Spirit while we are here, and that insight gives us the capacity for cause and effect that simple survival skills do not have for a person without the faith portal open. So we literally, like you say, Jim, we are taking all of our experiences with us. We're taking them because they are the foundation for our eternal work.

Jim Brangenberg: He said portal, by the way.

Martha Brangenberg: I know. You got all excited for a Star Trek word. You're like I can get into this. I get this. The faith portal. You can relate there.

Jim Brangenberg: Hey, Philip used a transporter. We can -we understand that.

Martha Brangenberg: That's right. That's right. God is such an amazing and creative God, and as we're sitting here thinking about the retirees that are listening to this podcast, Chuck, how can all of this understanding bring meaning and purpose for the retirement years? What do you see the potential there?

Chuck Coker: I wanna give you some exciting news.

Martha Brangenberg: Okay.

Chuck Coker: Because the people at retirement age can literally extend their lives seven to 14 years.

Martha Brangenberg: How is that?

Chuck Coker: That is by following those five principles that are in my book about having purpose, having a deep set of faith, intergenerational communication, giving to that next generation. And all five of those things are what literally change aspects of our DNA. We talked about that just a minute because people have said, "Oh, it's our telomeres at the end of our DNA cycle that cause us to live longer." And what science has now proven is that's only 20% correct. The other 80% is made up by the five characteristics that I've given you in this book. You can live seven to 14 years longer simply by following the process.

Martha Brangenberg: You know what? I just have a comment. You were talking about eh, something that made me think about how people, we lived in Florida for 20 years. I know that's where you are. There's a lot of elderly people in Florida that don't have purpose and meaning in their life. And how many times have we heard stories of people that they retire, and then they don't live much longer.

Martha Brangenberg: And you, what you're saying can change that. It can make a lot of hope, and if you have purpose and meaning in those retirement years. And I just want our... I think our listeners probably already know this because they're already living that way. They're looking for those possibilities. But listeners, I just wanna encourage you that this book might help you with some of that perspective.

Martha Brangenberg: And Chuck, you're just kinda contagious. So I really think that people will, are leaning in and saying, "I wanna learn more." But if you're at a point in your life where you feel like you have no purpose and meaning, you don't necessarily wanna live another seven to 14 years because you're like, "This is pretty depressing." So getting this perspective early in our life can be hugely advantageous for how God can use us in the future. Is that a pretty fair wrap-up of it all, Chuck?

Chuck Coker: It is. And let me share something with you. A researcher in Germany identified the fact of what I'm talking about, and he literally left Germany and moved to Ikaria in Greece where they participate in these five functions, and he lived to 101 years old.

Martha Brangenberg: Wow.

Chuck Coker: Even after he was in his 80s. So by incorporating these things in your life, God's going to give you that extra time to develop the spiritual maturity and invest in that next generation the way that only He can when He speaks in us and through us.

Jim Brangenberg: Yeah, when you talk about investing in the next generation, that's really what our book, I Retire4Him, was all about, was look for ways - when you've figured out, "Okay I'm done with my, the job I did in order to save up what I did," most people know what they're retiring from. They just wanna be done with that job. Most people don't know what they're retiring to, and that's what our book is all about.

Jim Brangenberg: But finding a way, whether it's a new job that you find... but overall, it's just wherever you're planted, find a way to pour your life in others. And if you're going to- if, wherever you're living, don't leave there. Or move into a neighborhood full of young families, because most of those young families don't have exposure to, quote-unquote, chronologically superior people. Thank you, Grant Skelton.

Jim Brangenberg: But don't move away from your family and go to Florida or Arizona or Texas and leave them. Just stay by your family because your family needs you. Otherwise, how do we pass on what Chuck is talking about today?

Martha Brangenberg: Yeah.

Jim Brangenberg: Chuck, I think my biggest argument is I don't know if I want an extra 7 to 14 years, 'cause I'm ready for heaven now. But I know that's silly, but seriously, I wonder.

Martha Brangenberg: It's a struggle.

Jim Brangenberg: It is a struggle. But I'm down for the struggle. Chuck, last words. You get the last words, and we gotta close out.

Chuck Coker: Last word is this: purpose is the key, because you and I have the same purpose, and that is to glorify God. Nothing more, nothing less. Just be the person that He created you to be, and share that individual with others, because that will enrich their lives. It will help that next generation not make some of the same mistakes you did, and that is a pure expression of love.

Jim Brangenberg: Chuck Coker for President 2028. Go online to Chuck Coker for President 2028. Chuck, think about... just literally imagine if this message was preached from all 330,000 pulpits on Sunday morning.

Chuck Coker: Oh.

Jim Brangenberg: The transformative power. To recognize the fact that when somebody gets saved, their DNA changes, that their neural pathways change and expand to the possibilities of accepting living in a spiritual realm and seeing spiritual realm.

Jim Brangenberg: I know people who can see in the spiritual realm while they're walking in our dimensions. That all really sounds like Star Trek, doesn't it? But it's real. Gene Roddenberry must have been fascinated by God because he was always exploring some of the most outer reaches of where God was.

Jim Brangenberg: Sorry, that was an aside. Sorry, Chuck. I recommend that everybody get a copy of this book, A God-Shaped Mind by Chuck Coker. It's Dr. Chuck Coker, but I didn't want him to use five-syllable words, so I kept not saying that.

Martha Brangenberg: We'll put the link in the show notes.

Jim Brangenberg: We will put the link in the show notes. Chuck, thanks for taking time with us today. We're so grateful.

Chuck Coker: Oh, gosh, it was a blessing. And anytime. Anytime.

Martha Brangenberg: Listeners, if you want more stories like this one, to reach more retirees, then join the Coffee Club. You can donate 5 to $10 a month and skip a trip to the coffee shop just on our behalf. Visit iwork4him.com/iretire4him-donate, and I'll put that in the show notes as well.

Jim Brangenberg: And remember, if you got a pulse, you got a purpose. If you're not dead, you are definitely not done. We'll see you next time, so together we can say iRetire4Him.