Contributed the following article to the Sep '16 issue of VANAMUTHAM,
that attempts to connect the world (with its events and practical issues) to God's word.
How do we do this? Where do we begin? In Paul’s words, this
is offering ourselves as a “living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1) and this starts with
the Mind. ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind’ (Rom 12: 2). Real transformation and True Worship start
with a renewal of the Mind.
WITH ALL OUR MIND
Today, we see a new generation of Christians who have turned
‘Christianity’ into a ‘mindless’ religion. They switch their minds off when
they worship. To them, worship is just
an ‘emotional’ thing . But the Lord
created the ‘Mind’ for a purpose, and that is to lead the ‘Heart’. Our
mind is to be informed of God’s truth and our heart is to follow.
What we set our minds on, become our treasure. Today,
wealth, comfort, fame and success (having the aforesaid in good measure) are
all treasured. Advertisements and
Self–Help books are all the time drawing our attention, and making us fix our eyes
on them. To offer our minds to God is to be led by faith and truth (revealed in
His Word), not by mere sight. If we walk
by sight, we desire all that our eyes look at.
If we walk by faith and truth (because faith is right thinking as well),
we will instead walk desiring what the Lord has in store for us
Rather than fixing our gaze with our eyes on the glories of
this world, we need to seek with our minds the heavenly, higher, other–worldly glories. Jesus said “Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Mat 6. 19,20).
Jesus wanted us to set our eyes on eternal treasures. Just like we see things that are temporal
with the eye, we see things that are eternal and therefore of lasting value
with Faith. Faith and truth are the mind’s eyes.
Walking by faith is
not a vague, tentative and ambiguous walk. It is very much unlike a blind
man navigating a busy street with his stick.
It is walking as surely as a person
with good eyes on a busy road. It is said of Moses, that by Faith he saw
him who was invisible and therefore persevered (Heb 11:27). Moses only heard God speak from the Mercy
Seat (Num 7:39, Ex 25:22) and yet for Moses it was like having spoken with God
face to face (Ex 33:11; Num 12:8). That’s how sure you can be in your Christian
walk if you are informed by God’s Word.
The alternative is a cheap conformation that comes from
masquerading as God’s children. Of such
people, Paul wrote to Timothy, as a people “having a form of godliness but
denying its power” (2 Tim 3:5). If you want to be truly transformed, offer your
mind to God. Transformation is what God
does in response to an offered mind by renewing it. You cannot transform yourself. If you attempt that, you will end up
masquerading. The result is absence of
power for radical living and a dead conformation to the world’s values and
ways.
WITH ALL OUR HEART
Why is this renewing so important for being transformed into
God’s likeness. That is because it has a
connection with our Heart, our Soul and even with our Body. Our
Heart has a capacity to lose itself to what we treasure. Jesus said, “where
your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mat 6:22). It is always captivated or apprehended by
one or the other – the World or God himself. Being apprehended by the Holy Spirit is what ‘being
filled with the Spirit’ is about. When He
fills our heart, our ambitions, our aspirations and our desires are all about
Him. He replaces our lowly desires with lofty ones.
Often we profess a
desire to follow Christ, but our lives do not seem to be driven by the desire
we claim to possess. The world accumulates, with scant regard for others. The
world wants to build, crushing everyone else under foot. The world is after
money, comfort and everything material, sparing no thought for the soul,
eternity and God. Do we carry the same
values while professing to believe the truth? If our values are not any
different from the crowd, our priorities haven’t changed. Our heart is consumed by what we treasure. It
is therefore important that our mind is set on GOD Himself so that He becomes our
treasure.
WITH ALL OUR SOUL
The mind (with its knowledge and reason) and the heart (with
its affection and devotion) are parts of the human soul. The other element is
the Spirit which is that part that can communicate with God. When Adam sinned, this Spirit in man died and
with it, his ability and desire to commune with God as well. While man’s soul was intended to be led by
his spirit, it is his body that leads his soul with a dead spirit. In a
regenerate man, a born-again Christian, his spirit is alive and can fellowship
with God. If his heart is consumed by a desire for God, his spirit desires to
hear God’s heart-beat and follow suit.
The ‘will’ is a
faculty of the soul and makes choices and decisions based on what the Heart
desires. “The mind governed by the flesh
is hostile to god. It does not submit to God’s law. In fact, it cannot subject
itself to God’s law. Therefore, a man after the flesh cannot please God (Rom
8:5-8). Herein lies the third implication.
If our Mind is not set on what God wants for us, our heart does not
desire it, our spirit does not find it, and therefore we do not will to obey
God’s edict. Our day-to-day decisions and choices are indicators of where our mind
is set, what our heart’s deepest desire is and what our spirit’s state is. Are we able to turn the other cheek, return
good for evil, forgive and forget, esteem others? We can, if our mind, our heart
and our spirit are all set in tune with God.
WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH
Finally, if our Soul becomes the dwelling place of the Holy
Spirit, he who raised Christ from the dead, will quicken our mortal bodies too.
We shall then be able to mortify the deeds of the flesh through the spirit, and
live (Rom 8:13). Far from being sensual, from being ruled by the natural
instincts, we will be continually transformed into Christ’s likeness and bear
the Fruit of the Spirit (Jude 1:19). Loving the Lord will all our strength also
means using all that we are endowed with - our intellectual capacity, our
creative talents, our physical abilities - for His glory.
Are we able to not let sin control our lives? Are we able to
not give in to sinful desires? Are we submitting parts of our bodies as instruments
of righteousness? Are we able to put to
death the sinful things lurking in us - sexual immorality, lust, greed, evil
desires? Or are we living only to satisfy our own sinful nature? (Rom 6: 12, 13;
Col 3:5-10; Gal 6:8) The answer lies in whether Christ’s Spirit living inside
us is in control. That in turn depends
on whether we have offered our mind to be renewed for our Total Transformation.
Here is what we need to do
§
Set our minds on high, on things above (Col 3:2).
Fix our thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and
lovely, and admirable (Phil 4:8). Transformation starts with a mind submitted
to God.
§
Reflect on our values and choices. Do we find in
our lives, the Christian distinctive preached by Jesus in his Sermon on the
Mount? If not, let us offer our mind to Christ to be renewed by Him.
§
We need to remember that the strength to live a
victorious Christian life comes from the Holy Spirit. He gives grace to the
obedient, to the one who surrenders his will to God’s will. To get there, let
us surrender ourselves, starting with the mind.
Only when our mind, our heart, our will and our
body are all ruled by the Holy Spirit, will we be truly led by the Spirit. We
shall then be able to offer our lives as true spiritual sacrifice to God,
bringing him perpetual honor and glory.
