Renewing the Mind
It is always good to start at the beginning.
Romans 10:9-10
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
When you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you have new spiritual life, you have a new spiritual birth. With your first birth you came pretty much as a blank slate. Sounds you did not understand, sights you could not interpret, a language you were hearing without a reference or context to comprehend. To add to all of this, you had a body that could move but lacked the stamina, agility, and balance to go anywhere.
You had to learn and learn you did. You turned to your parent’s day, after day, after day. The hour of the day made no difference to you…day or night you turned to your parents to soak up their knowledge and understanding like a sponge placed in an ocean of knowledge.
Do you remember manthano from an earlier teaching in this series? A brief review just in case. Manthano is the process of learning. You learn from a teacher with the goal of not just acquiring knowledge but also the application of that knowledge. Manthano is to receive the knowledge internally but to have an external effect.
The issue with this new birth is you are not coming with a clean slate like your first birth. You have fortresses built within your mind that are designed to negate, to fight against, even to deny the existence of this new birth. Pieces of the old man, the worldly mindset he was "gracious" enough to leave behind.
What is better about this new birth is that you are designed not only to receive the new spiritual knowledge but also to understand it. Also, with your first birth your parents, your main source of knowledge, were prone to mistakes and misinformation. God bless them for all that they accomplished. But with this new birth your parent is perfect, having all knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. There are no mistakes or misinformation with this new parent.
Like our first birth we have a parent that is ready, willing, and very able to teach us night or day.
Isaiah 54:13
And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
John 6:45
It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned [manthano] of the Father, cometh unto me.
We renew the mind with the words of God, beginning with His written Word. Our goal in the renewed mind is to have the mind of Christ; a mind that always did the will of his Father.
Philippians 2:5
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Romans 13:14a
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ…
John 5:18-19
Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
In the first century Rabbi’s use to say, “Whoever does not teach his son a trade is as if he brought him up to be a robber.” God taught His son, Jesus, how to be a man for God. How to walk with compassion and love, how to have answers to questions that perplexed the average life.
Your heavenly Father now stands ready and able to teach you as well. He invites you to stand by His side and allow Him to impart His knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Standing right by His side you will be able to see all that your Father is doing.
Romans 12:1
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.
“Beseech” is parakaleo which means to call to one’s side with a desire to produce an effect. The effect God is looking for is to reveal His heart to you, so that you may walk forth manifesting His heart to a world in desperate need.
While “present,” paristemi in Greek, is for the individual to make the decision to answer that called by standing alongside of God. You can stand in His presence now, for He has made it so.
Ephesians 4:24
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
How you “put on” the new man, how you stand by His side, is to renew your mind.
So, ask yourself, do you want to stand alongside of God? Is it a desire in your life to manifest the heart of God in your daily walk? Do you have a desire to manifest the power of God in your own life and for those your life touches? Do you want to know the authentic will of God in your life in every situation you encounter?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, then renewed mind is the path to travel.
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.
Blue Letter Bible defines “conformed” as, “to conform one’s self to another’s pattern.” The pattern we are told not to conform to is the pattern of this world. This is one of the hard parts of renewed mind because every pattern of this world is designed to distract and stop you from renewing your mind.
The reason for that is simple. The possibility of you walking around with a renewed mind, the mind of Christ, scares the hell out of the Adversary!
1 Corinthians 2:7-8
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world [aion – plural = ages] unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The Adversary would rather have dealt with Jesus Christ, who kicked his butt every single day and often many times within each day, then to deal with what God has done for and in those who believe in the Administration of Grace.
Consider that for a moment…the Adversary would rather deal with Jesus Christ than deal with you when you are walking in a renewed mind. You are potentially that powerful, you are that dangerous to his system of unbelief.
Why? Because the riches of this administration is Christ in you!
The Adversary will marshal all his energies, all his distractions to keep you away from God’s Word and renewing your mind. He is that afraid of you!
Renewed mind is hard work. First, it is hard work because unlike that first birth you are not coming to this spiritual birth with a blank slate. You are coming on the scene with a lot of information already in your mind. The sad truth is most of that information, and for some, all that information is contrary to God’s Will. It is also hard work because the entire world is lined up against you doing that exact thing. The world is designed to distract you, and even prevent, if possible, a child of God from renewing his mind.
The god of this world cannot afford another person working at renewing his or her mind. The Mosaic Covenant did not scare the Adversary. The New Covenant did not scare the Adversary. They were both written in the Old Testament. But what we have received in this Administration of Grace was a mystery, a secret that God had never revealed until He told the Apostle Paul. First Corinthians just told us that if the Adversary had known this secret, he would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The Adversary is afraid of you! God’s secret has him running scared. So, scared he would rather have continued to get his butt kicked by Jesus Christ.
“Be not conformed to this world” because it is designed to distract you from God and your spiritual life and growth.
The other thing that makes renewed mind hard is the patterns of the world we have already stored within our own mind.
2 Corinthians 10:3
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
Remember Ephesians 6:12, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood.”
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
The Greek word translated “strong holds” here could literally be translated castle or fortress. This fortress is made up of thoughts, feelings, ideas, concepts that are of the world. A world run by the Adversary who is afraid of you renewing your mind.
This fortress holds sumballo’s, thought patterns, that left alone will act like terrorists coming out of their fortress to disrupt your spiritual supply lines, to bring chaos and confusion to your stayed mind, to upset your peace with fear and worry, to interrupt your walk in love and thereby damage your believing.
This fortress must be overcome, you cannot leave an enemy’s strong hold in your heart for it will continue to exalt itself against the knowledge of God. To ignore it would be equivalent to knowing you have a terrorist cell in your city and allowing them to freely operate.
There are only so many ways to eliminate this fortress and elimination is exactly what must take place. To “pull down” literally means to demolish and the verb form of this same Greek word starts verse 5, “casting down.”
You could try to infiltrate the fortress and undermine their numbers, but again, the mind works by association. Only a like thought would be able to infiltrate and a like thought will betray you as it is just as evil as the thoughts that comprise the sumballo! Infiltration only adds strengthen to the wrong side.
You could engage in an all-out frontal assault but that is costly and while you are focused on the assault your front door is open and this sumballo thought pattern can get reinforcements and fresh supplies into the fortress as the world is able to enter once again.
The best way to handle this sumballo fortress is with a siege. You encircle the evil fortress with God’s Word that specifically deals with the thought pattern in the fortress. For example, the fortress challenges your spiritual righteousness. You besiege the fortress with verses that proclaim your righteousness in Christ.
Not what others have said about God or His Word but surround this fortress with the words of God. Remember what verse 4 declared, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God.” “Mighty through God” literally can be translated immensely powerful in God.
Hebrews 4:12a
For the word of God is quick, and powerful…
As your siege grows you will be adding more verses that strengthen your position while cutting off any opportunity for the fortress to be re-supplied. The fortress will be demolished, cut off from the Adversary's world while being confronted by the Light of God's Word.
Congratulations, you are one step closer to the goal of putting on the mind of Christ as you confidently stand at your Father's side.
As you continue in God’s Word more of the old man’s fortresses will come to light, for he has left more than one fortress to sabotage your growth and your walk in love with your heavenly Father.
Ephesians 5:13
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
As the Light of God’s Word makes known an enemy fortress you besiege it with the Word of God pertinent to that fortress. You demolish every fortress the old man has left behind to hinder your growth in Christ and ambush your goal of having the mind of Christ.
Then, victoriously, you stand along side of your heavenly Father knowing His authentic Will situation by situation.
© Auxano Ministry 2020
All verses quoted are from the King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.