Which Mind Are You?

THE MIND
The mind! Not your brain. Your mind which is part of your soul exercises itself through the brain and when you die, your brain will die. But your soul in your spirit will not. Actually you will be able to remember what you have seen (look at the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16). I have chosen to tackle this important part of our souls because it is so vital in the development and the growth of our faith.

History
Before you got saved, your mind and flesh were your masters and therefore you fulfilled the desires of the flesh and the mind (Eph 2:3). We need to understand that the sin nature we had before we got saved, exercised itself mainly through the mind and the flesh (or the senses). The mind is very important because it is basically the pathway to your heart (spirit).

Secondly it is the seat of your understanding. When you decide not to understand, you limit the growth of faith. This is why Jesus said that they had closed their eyes and ears and because they didn’t want to understand (Matt 13:15). This understanding is not just reasoning though it is part of it. This understanding goes from just being an understanding to a knowing (or persuadedness) that can’t be moved.

In Eph 1, Paul prays that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened and Jesus in Luke 11 talks about the eye. I believe that they are both talking about the mind. If your mind has light -is the Word of God, your heart will have light. His word is the light unto my path and in His light we see light. But it is important to note that the exercising of your faith is of the spirit. Your mind is important and that is why Paul encourages believers not to walk as Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. He says that their understanding is darkened (Eph 4:17-18). When you continue to read, He explains that this darkened understanding is a result of being separated from God due to ignorance. Let your heart obtain the light of the glorious gospel. This is the way how satan has kept people in darkness i.e. through ignorance (2Cor 4:4). Let me ask this question and I will tackle it in my next article, ‘When does satan steal the seed of the sown word?’(Feel free to email me the answer at ssonko@invadersonline.org)

The Kinds of Mind
The Natural Mind
Natural men( those who are not born again) have this kind of mind. It is similar to what I have talked about before. This mind can not receive the things of the spirit because they are spiritually discerned. It is not that it can’t say that there is God. No! But it can’t understand and appreciate the things of the spirit (Eph 4:17-18 and 1 Cor 2:14). I will not dwell so much on this one.

The Fleshly / Carnal Mind.
In Romans 8, Paul says to be carnally minded is death. In Col 2, he talks about one being puffed up because of his fleshly mind. Most people assume that Paul in Romans 8 was talking about unsaved folks. No! He was talking about saved folks who have not renewed their minds. In 1Cor 3, He calls them carnal but in chapter one he had called them saints who even had the gifts of God working in them. Listen, the carnal mind is enmity to God because it can’t receive the things of God but thank God it can be renewed. This explains why some people refuse to receive the things of God because that kind of mind separates you from God’s word and Him.

[i]The Renewed Mind.[/i]
The renewal of your mind is a continual process(Rom 12:2). If you say you have reached, I pity you. It is needless to say that we renew our minds with the WORD OF GOD not experiences. Like I said in my earlier article, as you feed your mind, the knowledge grows, faith develops and your new man is renewed by that knowledge. If you realize the new man involves your soul and flesh. As you continuously renew your mind, your spirit gains ascendancy over your intellect and flesh and spiritual things become natural to you as water is to a fish.

HOW TO RENEW.
Speak.
It is good to hear people preach the word of faith but it is even more important when you hear your voice speaking it. The biggest way I have built my faith is speaking the faith message and scriptures to me. I mean when I hear a nice sermon, I write down the basics that I can speak and I go ahead and speak. Hearing and understanding are connected (Matt 15:10).

Tune Out
Learn to tune out when you hear unbelief and doubt coming your way. I don’t care who is preaching. No one is perfect and I am no one. If it doesn’t align with the word of God, don’t take it. BUT, you must be careful to judge it according to what is written not what you were taught by some unbelieving… Some of the things people say are so foolish that I wonder why I believed them before. “God helps those who help themselves” “Every bath tub sits on its own bottom” “Lord build me a cabin in the corner of glory land” “You should be real and speak what you feel”- I will deal with the subject of words in my next article and be sure I will step on some of our toes. How can you judge when you don’t know what the bible says? Therefore,…

Read the Bible
I don’t care whether you read it like a novel, read it, and don’t just read the bible, read the bible. Secondly study it. Get a topic and decide to study about a topic and get the scriptures that concern that subject using a concordance or the internet. I have found that this method of study has helped me so much.

Meditate and Don’t Get Offended
After studying, meditate on what you have studied. Meditation also has the aspect of speaking. Learn to speak the word of God to yourself. Well, am not crazy-you may say- but how often do we sing trash when we are alone. Secondly if you conscious of your self when you are alone, I don’t know how you will do it with others around you. Many are times when I speak the word to myself and even record my voice to hear myself say it again and again. Lastly when someone preaches the truth that you don’t want to hear, don’t get offended. Receive it and check it out.