“For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 (NIV).
My mind is known and led by my spirit; therefore, my spirit needs to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
For a disciple of Christ, having a disciplined mind is about having the mind of Christ. At salvation, we receive the Holy Spirit, the One who searches all things, even the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). He reveals God’s mind to us.
1 Corinthians 2:16 (ESV)goes on to say ‘For, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.’
What is the value of the mind of Christ? It cannot be fully articulated or quantified because we only understand in part, which contributes to not fully appreciating or activating this AMAZING gift from ALMIGHTY God. Activating this gift requires ongoing action on my part – obedience grounded in discipline.
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11 (NIV).
The harvest from discipline ALWAYS comes later.
A disciplined mind may well be one of the most important things we must attend to upon becoming saved.
The mind has been described as being characterized by thinking, feeling and choosing. We have the responsibility to choose what we think; our feelings will follow. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6). Philippians 4:8 (NLT) tells us how to think “..Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
When it came to decision making, I recall times past being told by caring friends, “you’re overthinking things,” “you’re too cerebral,” and “instead of analysing things, listen to your heart.” Ironically, my heart was actually listening to my mind because it did not have a mind of its own. A disciplined (renewed) mind (one that is centered on Christ) will inevitably guard our hearts and ultimately transform us (Romans 12:2). What I needed to do was examine the foundation of my mind. Was it based on truth or on lies?
Have you ever been in a trying situation for much longer than you would have liked? If so, did you lean into the miracle of being in the midst of an unchanged situation yet feeling like everything had changed? I have had the beautiful blessing of this experience, yet I often need to be reminded that this miracle still exists. Reflecting on the miracle, I realized my thinking had changed; this was powerful enough to change everything because my previous thoughts had flawed everything. What really happened was that I replaced a foundation of lies with one of truth.
Something about truth creates passion for more truth and lays the foundation to commit to truth. We need to remain tethered to the One who is truth.
“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you.” John 16:13-14 (NIV).
So, is my mind private space? I believe the answer is ‘No, it is privately contested space that produces publicly visible results which impact me and those around me.’ “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want.” Galatians 5:17.
Prayer
Precious Holy Spirit, You are truth. Help me to submit to and live in Your truth. Help me keep my mind disciplined so I can live a life of obedience, reflecting true love for Christ. As I do this, I believe that my mind will be constantly renewed and re-aligned to the mind of Christ. I will be able to test and approve what is God’s good, pleasing and perfect will as I journey through life. As I receive the inevitable harvest of righteousness and peace from this, I give all the glory to God, the One who gave me the mind of Christ – in whose Name I pray, Amen.
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Jane Berube
Toju, thank you for this beautiful blog post. I love the question – did you lean into the miracle of being in the midst of an unchanged situation yet feeling like everything had changed? That really spoke to me, because I went through a very long season where the situation did not change, but it felt like everything was changing. The situation was very tough and felt like it would never end, but at the same time, I was being changed. I can look back on those years and see God’s presence in my life and how He helped me get through it, which certainly is a miracle itself, but I never saw it as a miracle. That is such a wonderful revelation to me today.