There has never been a great deal of teaching on the necessity of a renewed mind.
We have stressed the need of being converted, being born again, but we have left the convert hanging in the wind, as it were.
Great enthusiasm and joy come at the new birth, but unless that is cared for and fed by the mind being renewed through feeding on the Word and practicing it, that joy will die out.
When you are born again, your spirit is regenerated or enlightened so that it becomes conscious of God.
It receives the nature and life of the Father, but the mind that has held your spirit in captivity is the same old mind.
It receives a mighty motivation when the spirit receives eternal life, but that is all. Our spirit has a built in yes to God.
You understand that all the knowledge the mind has comes from the physical senses of the body.
But when our spirit is born again it also has senses, it senses God and the spirit realm and our soul interprets this.
Our physical senses can never be renewed, they can eventually see into the spiritual realm, but we start out seeing in that realm with our eyes closed in meditation as we slow down our brain waves.
Our brain can be reprogramed through doing things habitually, but our
physical senses are a part of the physical body that cannot be renewed because they are conscious of how our body feels and the natural world around us.
But our physical senses can be brought into subjection to our spirit; they can be controlled, but they can’t be renewed.
Our spirit has the seed of God in it, Christ in us and that Christ needs to be fed so that it is full grown, but our spirit is basically one with the spirit of Christ. So, it is biblical to call our spirit the spirit of Christ.
But the mind, and this brain of ours that receives its knowledge from the five senses, can be brought into subjection to the Word.
The brain can be programed because it is like a computer, it is our spirit or soul that programs it. The spirit and the soul are the parts of us that think.
Our mind can be purified by meditation in the Word.
I don’t mean purified like the blood of Christ has cleansed us, but I mean that it drops off much that is unnecessary and unwise.
In itself it may not be harmful, but it is unnecessary. It takes up time.
The mind slowly but surely, as it feeds on the Word, meditates in the Word, practices and lives the Word, comes into the fellowship of the recreated spirit.
In Romans 12:1, we have one of the most important Scriptures in regard to the physical body and its thinking processes:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Notice it very carefully now.
Paul is asking you to present your body which holds the five senses. They are the most important parts of that body—the seeing part, the hearing part, the feeling part, the tasting and smelling parts.
They are the five channels to the brain over which travel all the impulses that have taught the brain all that it knows.
Now Paul says, “I want you to give this home of your five senses to the Lord. I want you to lay that body of yours, as it were, upon the altar.”
As the Jew laid a dead offering upon the altar, you are to lay your living body upon the altar in the sense that you are dedicating it, giving it over to the lordship of the Word.
Then Paul says: And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed [or transfigured] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)
Your mind has been fashioned after the things of this world. The world’s ideals probably have been yours.
Now your mind must come under the dominion of your newborn spirit through the Word.
Your mind must recognize the threefold lordship through your newborn spirit, the lordship of the Word of God. The lordship of Jesus over your spirit, the spirit of Christ. And the lordship of the Holy Spirit or the love of God.
The love of God must control us, constrain us, everything we do must be motivated by the love of God shed abroad in our heart.
It may be difficult for your mind to assimilate this; to allow love to become a part of who you are: to allow the Word of God to utterly dominate your thinking; to recognize the love lordship of Jesus or the Father (YHVH).
I know how hard that is, but that must come or else the believer is going to live on the borderland between right and wrong, never knowing whether this is wrong, or that is wrong.
The believer will be asking their brothers and sisters, “Is it wrong to do this? Should I do that?”
The reason is, their mind has never been renewed, and they are living on the borderland in a sort of semi-spiritual darkness.
But as their mind is renewed, they will come to know the will of the Father.
They will walk in the light of the Word.
They will get to know that threefold will—the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of the Father.
They will be claiming the highest will of the Father.
They will not be satisfied with “the acceptable and the good,” but will want the perfect and the well-pleasing will of the Father.
In John 8:29, Jesus said, “I do always those things that please [my Father].”
This New Creation desires that kind of a life. The new-born spirit is crying out, their spirit is reaching out, sometimes really agonizing in them to become well-pleasing to the Father.
Paul in Colossians 3:5–10, is unveiling the inner workings of the physical senses and their control of the mind.
Read it carefully.
He says, “Because of these things the anger (desire with grief) of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience” (Colossians 3:6).
The sons of disobedience is referring to the not-yet believers.
The word anger in the Greek is orgē means to desire eagerly or earnestly after a person, resulting in anger as a state of mind.
It is the divine jealousy of God who desires to indwell a person.
This word contrasts with the word thumos which is indignation, an outburst of anger with the purpose of vengeance.
Hebrews 19:30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge (to divide, separate, make a distinction, come to a decision) His people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
I will teach this subject at a latter time with those who read all my posts, and study under my ministry.
Right now, I am teaching on who you are legally “in Christ”, and how to appropriate that so that it becomes a vital experience in your life here on earth.
Paul shows the uncleanness of the natural mind as it is dominated by the physical senses.
In verse 9, He is speaking to the real believer. He said, “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds.”
You see, you are a New Creation, and you put on the new man, that is being renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him.
This is a message to the new convert primarily.
More spiritually mature believers have already done this thing.
Paul wants that new man (newborn spirit) to be brought into perfect harmony with their thinking patterns, and that cannot happen until their mind is renewed, until it comes to recognize its legal position in Christ.
You notice it said, “Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (verse 10).
That will be revelation knowledge. Revelation knowledge is YHVH revealing His word to you so that it is imparted to your spirit. It is birthed in your spirit, so that you can draw upon it, tune into it by an act of your will.
Once we learn how to partake, to experience an attribute of God, then we can tune into it by an act of our will.
Once we experience the divine love of God, we can tune into it by an act of our will, so that if flows into our heart.
It takes some practice as we are learning to walk with God, our first reaction is usually on a human level (we are in our soul) then we pause, focus upon the Lord and then draw upon God’s love, and get out of human love which fails, and get into divine love that never fails.
And then we practice being filled with the divine love of God, until we learn how to respond to people with the divine nature, all the time, it becomes a way of life.
We are learning our responsibility and how to appropriate the divine nature to meet the need.
You see, those with little faith are believers whose mind has not yet been renewed.
If you find a believer who doesn’t walk in love, it is because their mind has not yet been renewed.
Their mind cannot be renewed by simply studying the Bible. They will have to live it.
It will have to become a part of their thinking patterns. It must become a part of their mind.
Many of our Bible teachers have never seen this and their physical senses govern their mind.
That means their physical senses govern their teaching; and their newborn spirit has a very small place in their lives.
If you can see in the spirit, it is like their spirit is hollow, it is this tiny little baby, barely being able to move their hands and feet, and the believe is not even able to sense the Christ in them.
It is very hard to reach them, because they are leaders in their denominations, and have built walls around their doctrines, and you are a threat to them, because they have religious spirits operating in their minds and they want to guard their human position in the Church and they also have a religious spirit of control. Pride governs their mind and their religious system builds walls around them, they are right and you are wrong. They are in prison, and you have to minister to their spirit, and try and build it up, if you talk about the doctrines they preach immediately a wall will go up and you lost your chance of ministering to them.
I try to minister to the baby Christ in them, avoid all doctrines that are contrary to the truth that they believe, because if I can get that baby Christ in them hungering and thirsting for more of God, they might open up to me.
2 Corinthians 4: 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The inward man is your spirit that is feeding on the Word, which is flowing into your soul which is being renewed continually.
Your mind should feed on the Word, too.
There should be meditation in the Word, where you are meditating on a verse of Scripture the Lord has revealed (quickened) unto you
You remember in Joshua 1:8, YHVH told him that he was to meditate in the Word “day and night.
Joshua 1: 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
The same rule that God laid down for Joshua should govern the New Creation, the newborn spirit who has access to the mind of Christ.
But we do this by meditating firstly on the epistles of Paul. We get the revelation that Paul had including Hebrews because it is possible that he wrote it, but most likely his companion Barnabas, because he would introduce himself and another person, like his son timothy
Philipians1:1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ.
Timothy was right by his side when he wrote this, and they were working together, so they would be talking to one another so I sure Timothy had some impute in what was written.
1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.
2 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.
Galatians 1:1 Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), 2 and all the brethren who are with me.
1 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1: 1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Titus 1: 1 Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, 3 but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior; 4 To Titus, a true son in our common faith.
Philemon 1: 1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer, 2 to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house.
The early church was an Apostolic and Prophetic community. They were of the same spirit and faith (beliefs), operating in oneness of spirit, making sure the word of “the gospel of the Kingdom”, was confirmed by two or three of them, co-laboring with the Holy Spirit advancing the Kingdom of God upon the earth.
They had all things in common, making sure every believer in the body had their needs met.
Not a bunch of individual churches building their own little kingdoms, each one believing something different concerning the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Jude 3Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Another Scripture that might help us a bit is Ephesians 2: 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
YHVH has prepared us to walk in His will. His ability has been given to you.
His strength is at your disposal.
The good deeds that He would have you perform are within the range of your ability, that is, the ability that He has given to you.
He expects you to pray for sick people.
You will teach the Word; witness to the unsaved; walk in love, and you will walk in the light of the Word and be a blessing to those around you, because your mind now is in perfect harmony with the your born again spirit.
The New commandment “that ye love one another” (John 13:34) has become the very heart life of your conduct