No one can destroy iron, but its own rust can, likewise no one can destroy a person, but his own mindset can. Look at the following scripture from Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
In the scripture above, what do you think God meant by renewing our minds and how can renewing the mind transform us? You've heard the expression 'you are what you eat'? Well, YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK as well. There are two mindsets: the one you learned by observation, education, life experiences, and entertaining thoughts which then become actions and in my analogy today, I'll call rust. Then there is a spiritual mindset: one that will guide your feet in making better decisions, forming godly opinions, one that fills you with holy desires and purposes. Jesus challenged people to change their thinking (by renewing your mind-Romans 12:2) knowing if we change our thinking and clean out the rust, our behavior will follow.
If our mind doesn't change, we will simply follow what our body/flesh wants and that is not always good.. What you think, you do. What you believe in your mind becomes your fundamental knowledge, but not only that, it becomes your individual reality no matter how off, crazy, careless, foolish, ill-advised. or irresponsible it is. Even Buddha himself said, "What you think, you be come. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine you create." Buddha's words are logical. Look at the present time, it is not difficult to distinguish a crazy mind-set from a responsible, steady, more revered mind set. As Christians, we cannot follow what the flesh wants if those things are not in line with Gods Word. The 'woke group' is an excellent example of this. The "Woke" have a fundamental, misguided knowledge, while those Christians who are "AWAKE," have a spiritual mindset and are aware of the enemy's deception and ideologies used to avert Biblical truth.
We can either nurture a carnal, natural. woke, rusted, mindset or a transformed, spiritual, rust-free mindset. The world will always pressure us to live sinfully and selfishly, but to live the good life God wants from us requires changing how we think by cleaning out the rust! Again, your thoughts determine your behavior. Changing the way you think will create a life that God honors. That transforming mind-change begins with reading and soaking in The Word of God. God gave us His Word to specifically cleanse and sanctify us, as Ephesians 5:25 states, "that He might sanctify and cleanse it (His Church, His believers, His followers, His chosen, His Bride) with the washing of water BY THE WORD." (emphasis mine). His Word, the holy scriptures, repairs your thoughts and patterns that resulted in a broken life. Look how Jesus reminds us of the importance of this change:
*Ephesians 4:22-24, “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
*Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
*Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
*2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
A Natural mindset operates according to a human-centered mindset, but the Spiritual mindset operates according to a Christ-centered mindset. The Spiritual mindset has the ability to respond to the will and desires of God. But the natural mindset finds itself at odds with the will of God. This is the difference that faith in Christ and His written Word makes. It is a change on the inside! It is a change of heart as well as a change of desire and a change of mind. In short, the Natural mindset operates according to a human-centered mindset and heart, but the Spiritual mindset operates according to a Christ-centered mindset and heart. Changing from a natural mindset to a spiritual mindset is not as quick and that's okay. Think, what if all the fundamentals you were taught in grade school were all wrong? How long would it take to adapt and modify everything you were told as a child wasn't true? How long would it take for you to learn it? What if you were told your method of math calculations is wrong? What if you were told we have 3 moons and 2 earths? You would accept it right away without study or research? What if the language you speak was the wrong language and now you must learn, read, write, and understand Old Latin? It wouldn't happen overnight. Learning about God and His Word is endless, however, once you give your life and mind to knowing Him, He opens up the scriptures and understanding becomes easy, even to the point of asking yourself, "Why didn't I see that before?
Paul didn’t take long in his letter to the Corinthians before he began addressing the problems which arose from the conflict between the natural and the spiritual. Paul makes a sharp contrast with the Philosophy and wisdom of this culture. For all of its words of human wisdom and understanding, “the world did not know God through wisdom.” In fact, the wisdom of the world looked at the message of salvation through the death of Christ on the cross and his resurrection as utterly foolish. The Natural mindset rejects the “foolishness” of the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:18), “For the word of God is foolishness to those who are perishing.” Let that sink in. If you think the Bible is a book of gobbledygook, a fairy take, written by man, a joke, nothing but foolishness, then you are perishing without a new, biblical mindset. I was once perishing! I once thought the Bible was too hard to understand and I wanted nothing to do with it. Besides, I believed the natural mindset that told me if I read or followed the Bible I would become a prude and live a boring life where pleasure and fun would be stripped away and if I disobeyed God at any point along the way He would cast me into hell.
How wrong I was! God has since opened my eyes to how loving, patient, forgiving, and merciful He is. The natural mindset adopts the thought that God is not needed, or, even more subtly, just a little help from God is all that is needed. This is the mindset that believes God is secondary, that God is optional, that God is a crutch, that God’s ways and God’s will are not the best, that humans know better than God.
The gospel of God is received by revelation, not by human natural understanding, It is God's gift by His grace alone, that we are able to understand it and clean out the rust, transforming us into His family. Otherwise, we as humans could brag about what we have. We must turn our hearts to Him, submit our minds to Him, so that He will transform us into the spiritual people he has called us to be. His invitation is out there. Revelation 22:17, " And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." NO ONE CAN DESTROY YOU BUT YOUR OWN RUSTED MINDSET CAN.
Until He Comes,
-Pat-
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