Renewing the Mind

Rom 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will"

There simply isn't enough time or room in this blog to do this verse justice.

There are many levels to the Christian walk but the level that we all aspire to is being a Christ follower, someone who lives their salvation on a daily basis.  To us being a Christian is not just a belief system or something we do; it is who we are.  We want to be more like Jesus. We want to be led by the Holy Spirit. We want to serve God and make His name famous. We want to be one and make one. We want to be disciplers, Christians who reproduce ourselves.

What stands in the way of all of this is a lifetime of wrong thinking. We have bought into the lies of the prince of this age.  We have bought into the "rightness" of popular thought. This has become prevalent among many who call themselves Christians but have a hard time reconciling what they hear from the pulpit with what they are bombarded with every day on TV. They believe the Oprah's of this world before they believe what the Word of God says.

The "Old Man" stands in the way of us fulfilling God's plan for our lives. We buy into it because we have carnal minds.

Rom 8:7 "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (KJV)

While our spirit has been born again, our soul (mind, will & emotions) is in process. There is a transformation process that needs to take place so that Christ and the Word can rule in our lives. It is an ongoing process that will only be complete when we are raised up with Christ at His second coming.

There is an old joke that says, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice." When a pianist spends hours going over scales, arpeggios and fingering exercises it seems like endless drudgery. They play the same thing over and over again. It is hard, agonizing work. After a while their fingers are tired and sore but they push on.  What they are doing is building up muscle memory that after a while makes it all seem effortless and graceful.

The same can be said of the Christian walk. Even Jesus took time preparing for His ministry.  There is a reason He didn't start until the age of 30.  He went to the temple every Sabbath and He learned the Scriptures. He spent hours alone with His heavenly Father seeking guidance.  Don't think that He sprouted on the scene fully prepared. Remember that Jesus himself was exposed to every temptation, every lie that the enemy has saturated us with.

Heb 4:15 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin."

For us there is a demarcation point in which we surrender our will to Christ. That point marks the beginning of our transformation, our spiritual journey.

Of course, the Old Man fights back. Whenever you are trying to break a bad habit it takes constant repetition of the new habit that will take its place.  Even then when we are tested we tend to fall back on what we are used to.

There is an old Chinese proverb that says that "the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step". Our destiny is not set in stone. In order to affect our destiny it all begins with our thought process. Another proverb tells us that, "whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right". It all starts with ideation. Successful visionaries entertain thoughts in their minds that grow in power until it becomes an obsession to the point to where they can see things in their mind before they ever happen. The can visualize the future. These thoughts are then translated into actions and those actions bring about the desired outcome.

After EPCOT was built someone remarked to Roy Disney, Walt's brother, that it was a shame that Walt never got to see EPCOT. Roy answered back that he was wrong, Walt had seen it; he saw it in his mind. Many sports figures likewise will tell you that they visualize a play before it happens. They practice, practice and then when it comes time they visualize the success of the play.

Sadly, the same is true of sin. Sin never just happens. Sin starts with a stray thought that is entertained and repeatedly thought about until the person begins to fantasize about it coming true.  Before long they act on the thought. At first, it seems to yield the desired result but invariably the consequences of their actions soon follow. The enemy is so good at lying to us that as any addict will tell you, what you remember are the highs, you never remember the pain.  This leads to a constant quest for the high, but what you reap is the pain.

When we renew our minds by using the spiritual disciplines we've talked about previously our thought patterns begin to change. As our ideations change what we believe is possible also changes. As a result of a mind in tune with God our actions follow our thought patterns and our actions lead to a changed destiny not only for us, but for those around us who are influenced by us.

When our mind is renewed, then the things that the Bible say don't seem foreign to us anymore.

Transformation - renewal - God's Will - eternal destiny.