How does
one really renew the mind?
God Himself has prescribed the way. We renew our
minds by the Word of God BUT yielding to the Holy Spirit to guide us into ALL
Truth - not being self-willed about His Word and interpretation of it.
Growth,
fruit of the Holy Spirit in and through us is a sure clue. A growing
peace of God, a peace in the mind will be evident. "The mind of the Spirit IS life and peace."
We are to labor to KNOW God's Truths - not mentally assent
to them. God calls us to KNOW. I found personally that to know
truth has conflict involved. If God is going to renew my mind and I have
other "ideas" that were planted there previously, (and I did), then
to change those thoughts, cast them down, be renewed involves an
"uprooting" of strong thinking previously molded in me.
And to be conformed, molded into the image of Christ means
exactly this - to be molded, conformed, even in our minds. But molded to what? His mind.
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus." Philippians 2:5
"Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight
in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he
has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." Colossians 2:18
Sad to say, but there is such a thing as a carnal mind, fleshly
mind - mind and reason without the Spirit of God being the one who has taught,
revealed, instructed, led and guided us into all Truth.
"God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.
For the Spirit searches ALL thing, yes, the deep things of God. Now
we have received NOT the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God,
that we might KNOW the things that have been freely given to us by God. These
things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the
Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual with spiritual." I
Corinthians 2:13.
I John 2:27 tells us too
that the Spirit of God is the one who abides in us as God's anointing to teach
us concerning all things - that we may know whether something is true or not -
for He Himself cannot and would not ever lead us in a lie of any kind.
It cannot be any plainer. What will make it plain to
us is to rate ourselves - judge ourselves (not with condemnation) for the sake
of a reality check. Checking ourselves to see if we really are growing
spiritually - perhaps asking ourselves by God's leadership, if we truly have a
spiritual mind ans not a carnal one. He'll let us know. :)
If we are abiding daily, relying daily on God's Spirit to
guide our thoughts continually - we truly can grow in the reality of His Spirit's
power to keep us in our minds and thoughts. If we are recognizing that we
need to have Him change our minds about things we "believe" or
"think," we will surely ask God to change our thinking and teach us
spiritually.
According
to God's Word, God does call us to know Him and to understand spiritual things.
Else He would not have had Paul pen and pray these words:
"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it,
do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be FILLED with the
knowledge of His will in ALL wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may
walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work
and increasing in the knowledge of God."
We need
to be challenged to go on in the Lord and to come out of any stupor we may be
in regarding our spiritual walk with Jesus Christ. It kind of reminds me of when I was in school
when my mother came in gently shaking me saying, "It's time to get up and
go to school."
You
remember how that felt, huh? The groans
of getting out of a nice, cozy, warm bed and your feet hitting a cold floor,
dragging yourself to the kitchen table for your bowl of cereal - ALL to go to
school. And sometimes school was not fun
(maybe more than sometimes?)
We
though, wake up out of our stupor to go
on in the Lord, because we KNOW we will see our Lord face to face and live
throughout all eternity with Him. So we
do need to indeed, get out of our "warm, cozy" lives so to speak, and
let our Lord show us ALL that He desires.
Love to
you in Christ,
Sue Gaither
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