What a Day! Through the joy, through the battles, through the disciplines. All I can say In the end, Is GOD IS FAITHFUL & HE IS GOOD!. I hope you guys enjoyed the last blog “The Mind of Christ: Intro”…well im just gonna continue through the notes and create something for you (the reader) to understand.
Lets Pray— “Heavenly Father I ask you to give the reader a clear understanding of this blog post. Lord I want to have a Mind of Christ. Teach us dear Lord to walk in your ways. Thank you My God, In Jesus Name, I pray, AMEN.”
Lets jump right in ---- The New testament gives us three specific commands—verbs that concern the mind. These scriptural instructions gives us the clues necessary to discern how to think in the same way that Christ thought. The three commands can be broken down as beginning, middle, and ending stages of a process towards spiritual maturity.
The Will Principle
The first principle of the process in found in Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” Paul is basically stating a principle—the WILL principle. We must set our minds towards Christ. Many difficult decisions that we make can be easily solved by starting with this command.
You know I was looking at [www.dictionary.com], I have found that the opposite of will is instinct (by instinct I mean unwilled reactions). Well thats easy for animals… but for humans, its different, the will is that part of our mind over which we have control. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ.”–The WILL enables us to obey in spite of feeling. We often cannot control our emotions, but we always have control over the will.
As I posted on Twitter earlier, “Jesus openly confessed that his emotions were in one place, but his WILL was another.” —Every Christian should be familiar with his plea in Gethsemane, “Yet not what I will, but what thou will” (Mark 14:36). When we set our will and come like Christ, God will purify our decision.
The River Principle
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2).. The real Christian actually lives in constant state of renewal..after we give our will to God, we must continue this process. Here we have the principle…”THE RIVER PRINCIPLE”. Our growth is like the flow of a river. Jesus said “He who believes in Me” as the scripture said. “From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living waters” (John 7:38). Our problem is that most of us do not work on the River principle, we always work on the POND PRINCIPLE –sad to say. Ponds are stagnate, but rivers flow. Ponds becomes puddles, but rivers become oceans. We are to grow & our growth is to be God-Sized. Even Jesus grew; Read that in Luke 2:52.
I have learned to expect spiritual newness. The form of the newness no longer surprises me. Sometimes the newness comes by just talking to Pastor Dan (a minister at Victory Outreach Oxnard) & recieving new insights, & sometimes it comes in a form of spiritual energy. Newness may occur as we move into a deeper relationship to the body of Christ or to another Christian. The river flows, Newness is the way of progress; we are moving from glory to another. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
The Readiness Principle
“Gird your minds for action” (1 Peter 1:13)–I was reading this, Did you know that in the 1 century people wore long flowing robes. To run or move quickly they had to turn the robe into a kind of pantaloon by “GIRDING UP” the robe. See this illustrates the Readiness principle. Our minds are to remain prepared for action. Jesus remained alert or ready when groups tried to trap HIM with trick questions (Luke 20:20-40. If our will is set and our mind has grown through constant renewal then we will be qualified for any test God allows to come our way.
So Again The Will, The River, The Readiness!! ….
I hope this encourages you to draw closer to God….to stay focused and become mature in Christ. Hay, Im learning myself, I aint no theologian but reading the bible, christian books & getting insight from others does help a lot.
Thank you for taking time to read this blog, May God continue to work in you.
God Bless,
Mike Lucero
