RENEWING YOUR MIND

RENEWING YOUR MIND                                                                                    

1.      The carnal and the spiritual mind

2.      Perceiving God in the spirit

3.      The Mind that is ‘set’

4.      Ability to discern good and evil

 

Every person in Christianity is in a constant war with the enemy and the battlefield is the mind. Mind is the place of storage for imagery. Whatever we have seen in the world is captured in the mind in the form of images. When a thought begins in the heart, the mind shows all the images related to that particular thought. We get influenced and will decide based on those images. So the mind plays a very important role in our lives and Satan controls it every day. There are two kinds of minds. One is the spiritual mind and the other is the carnal mind. The spiritual mind follows the dictates of the Spirit of God, while the carnal mind follows the dictates of the things of the world (Satan). A carnal mind is filled with all the desires, interests, and memories of every incident that is associated with the people and the things of this world. When any person comes to God and surrenders his life to God, he will be born again into the Kingdom of God.The person is born again in the spirit.The Bible describes 3 kindsof people based on their mindsets: 1. Psukikos  2. Sarkikos 3.Pneumaticos.Psukikos is an unrenewed man: He is not born again. The Bible speaks about Nicodemus (who is Psukikos)in the Book of John who was a preacher in a synagogue. He was religious man and didn’t know God’s things in his spirit. He has a carnal mind that connects him to the things of the world. Sarkikos is a renewed man: He is born again but is not renewed in his mind. He follows his carnal mind of this world. He is led by the flesh. His desires, interests are all connected to the things of this world. He expects God to grant all his desires. Though these people are renewed in the spirit they have a carnal mindset. Pneumaticos is a renewed man with a renewed mindset. He has a spiritual mind that always connects with the things of God and walks according to the direction of the Holy Spirit in His life. He has renewed his mind with the word of God. According to Romans 8, those who set their minds on the things of the Spirit are called spiritually minded and those who set their minds on the things of the flesh are called carnally minded people.

 

God is Spirit and He moves in the spirit zone. He doesn’t move in the carnal zone (not according to what the mind speaks) He communes with the spirit and gives instructions in the spirit. Therefore the person who is not renewed in the spirit (born again) and in the mind doesn’t understand the things of God. This is because he lacks ‘perception’ of what is happening in the spirit zone. Perception is recognizing through the five senses. We can perceive God through the experience He gives in these 5 senses. Since God’s language is spiritual, we are not supposed to follow the language of the mind ( the carnal mind ).The Spirit language begins by the obedience to the Word of God that is brought by the Holy Spirit into our hearing ( John 6:63). The Word that the Spirit of God gives has life because the word is Jesus(John 1). When we hold on to that word, our thinking is surrounded and is sealed: Our mind becomes inactive to the things of this world.. When the mind is inactive the heart also becomes inactive to the things of this world. The mind can be made inactive when we prepare not to connect to our self (honor, pride, interesting things, habits, desires etc...) Romans 8:5 says “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Our mindset defines whether we are carnal or spiritual. Most of the time (99.99%), we are carnal. Very seldom we act spiritual. But when we do the word, and have a definite accountability to it, we will begin to recognize the areas of flesh. When we change them, we will begin to grow spiritually. The word of God produces faith. The measure of faith in us decides the things that we are going to get in this world from God. As we do the word, we grow in faith. For Eg: David was 12 years old when he killed a lion and a bear. At that time he neither had the training nor the faith to rule a kingdom. David became the King of Israel only at the age 30. So, he was trained for a period of 18 years to sit on the throne and connect to God spiritually to rule Israel. But if our faith is not a product of the word, it doesn’t produce anything in our lives. We get things in our ability and spiritualize it that God has blessed us.

 

In any particular instance, what comes out of us is the self. Every reaction in us, is a result of the programmed self. This is called the mindset. Our mindset exposes our lifestyle. It is set according to what we have accumulated from the things of this world. This programmed mind     (mindset) forces us to act to any situation rather than finding solutions. This mindset has to be changed else we live life of confusion and defeat. If we have to find solutions we have to change our mind. David had to make war with millions of people ( a war where one man has to fight with 10000 men ) The situation is practically impossible, and is of sure death. But David won all his battles. He didn’t connect to the mind. He sensed the move of God in his spirit. The spiritual strength inside him made him to move ahead. The Battle was won spiritually where God fought on behalf of David. The first area of victory was his mind. David got himself trained how to stop his mind and listen to the spirit because God instructs in the spirit. He has a new mind that is formed with the world and its influence is more powerful on him rather than his old mindset. The spiritual mind has overpowered the carnal mind.When we walk with this new mindset, we walk in the light. As the Bible says in I John 1 : 7 says “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Therefore we have to change our mind to experience God.

 

When we stay in the renewed area we have a treasure of experiences that God gives. So the people who are not renewed either in the mind or in the spirit don’t understand the things of God. The Bible calls him as ‘natural’ man. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. “ Discernment is to perceive things in depth.  Discernment helps us to recognize depth of the good and bad inside and around us: the good that remains forever, the good that changes to deception, the good that stays for a few years and becomes demonic, the depth of the evil etc.. Once we reach the level of discernment we can easily recognize how God moves. Proverbs 15:21 “Folly is joy to him who is destitute of discernment, But a man of understanding walks uprightly.” The meaning of destitute is lacking or having nothing. People who fall short of discernment make foolishness (following the carnal mind) as their joy. Hebrews 5: 14 says “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” The food is the Word of God. When we obey the word of God, the word sharpens our senses to discern good and evil. The blessing that comes on a spiritual man is “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man, The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” And they are all revealed to man through the Holy Spirit.

 

God’s things are always spiritual and things of the world are carnal. Therefore do not conclude according to the things of this world, but renew your mind with the word and develop a spiritually mind so that you will be led by the Holy Spirit, will begin to discern the things of God, will be victorious spiritually in this world and will experience life, and peace in every situation in your life.