22 Minutes
Let this mind be in you is a mind that is not just limited to your experiences. It moves into an awareness that recognizes and understands how a transcendent mind consciously makes choices, decisions, judgments and the like, that determine what experiences are for your good. This mind, like the mind of Christ, no longer will localize our awareness in the form of a human being and perceive our mind to be only what we have experienced as that human being. This mind will shift the focus of our attention and awareness where we can move our understanding to point to God’s purposes in the vastness of creation. Even our past will be considered different because we will reason why God brought us through such trials and times. There may be times when we will repeat experiences that brought glory to God. Our minds will accommodate a creative living process where sometimes overwhelming experiences will be bestowed upon us by God for witnessing.
We will share these experiences in a most powerful and authentic way. We will have a healthier relationship with the Holy Spirit. Thoughts and ideas that are not of godly origin, but from a source somewhere in our lives will be brought into captivity.
It is with the mind of Christ that we learn wisdom from God by way of the Holy Spirit. It is because when we ask, we ask by faith. I pray that we understand what is entailed and why it is so very important that we do this word – let this mind be in you. Our thoughts must be different than the thoughts of man. For if we don’t complete this journey successfully, oureternity is not in heaven but never being with God. Swinging back and forth between godly teachings of the bible and worldly temptations, renders us unstable beings. Which way will we go? How can God depend on people like this to preach, to teach His truth? God’s people are not confused in their thoughts. We are not in conflict with the word of God, nor are we in conflict with ourselves. We are sure of what we hope for, and we are certain of that which we do not yet see.
Having the mind of Christ means that we share the creator God’s plan, the purpose and the perspective of Christ, and as believers, our role is to possess this wisdom. Having the mind of Christ means that we agree with God. With the mind of Christ, we stand strong for the Lord against external conflicts. And we know how to act against internal conflicts. Brothers and sisters, it is all too easy for us to read the words “let this mind be in you” and admire the sound. God wants us to be awed by it. Not just by the word, but also to see it as something that we must enter into and imitate. Let this mind means that it is something that we have choice about. Remember also that this mind is something granted to us by God. If Jesus is our Lord, consider the great significance of this word. Especially as we are situated in this last generation. Do we realize where God places us in the line of those who were gifted access to heavenly wisdom?
Philippians 2:12, 13
Work out your own salvation...and this done in cooperation with God. Do we not see the cross where One who is God died for our salvation doing that which was the will of God the Father? This is not to work our salvation in the sense of accomplishing it, but to work out our salvation is to see it evident in every area of our lives, it is to activate this salvation God freely gives us. These words, as they stand in the bible, contain no exhortation to all men, but are directed to us, the people of God. They are not intended as an exhortation to the unconverted; they are, as we find them in the epistle, beyond all question addressed to us, who are already saved through a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the wisdom of the word of God in our minds being carried to conclusion, to its fullest consequence that is already given by God in principle. With the mind of Christ, we must work out what God in His grace has worked in. With the mind of Christ, we will have no fear of failing in this encounter. Because we have the mind of Jesus, God’s works in us extends to the transformation of our will, as well as changing our actions to do. This is not a passive transaction. And with the mind of Christ we will not only be content with our own relationship with God, but will also long to see others walking with the Lord.
This is our illustration of humility. It is our showing that Jesus is God. The whole world is yet to recover from the impact of the life of Jesus on this earth. With Christ’s mind in us, the work that we are to do for God will be greater.
John 14:12
Our works of love and our message of life in union with Christ, will point people to the glory of the risen Son of God, and we will be the instrument of
their forgiveness on the basis of the finished work of Christ. This will be new. This will be greater than Jesus’s earthly miracles because this is what he came to accomplish. But here is the greater matter; we will have an absolute faith that is demonstrably the ultimate expression of God’s trust.
John 14:13, 14
Did we “hear” this truth spoken by he who is the truth...there is one condition...in my name! Read John 15:7 and I John 5:14, 15 and Mark 11:24.
Does Jesus mean we can ignore all those other conditions: abide in him, ask according to his will, believe his word having confidence, when we pray? Or are all these included in the meaning ‘ask in my name’? For what we are to do in these last days for the glory of his Father...we ask.
Here is the thinking of the mind of Christ and this thinking must be ours. “In my name!” That is, for his recognition and not ours. Because of his divine worth and his infinite payment on the cross. And according to his sovereign wisdom. Put every request through that filter; his recognition, his worth, his purchase, his wisdom. And every prayer request and content will be answered. We will have everything we need to do the works that he would do, and even the greater works. We cannot afford to work with any other mind! We must do everything to carry that mind that was in Christ Jesus. It is greater than prophetic accuracy. Can we see the mind of Christ? He emptied himself of being God to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. But he never ceased to be God. He did nothing to diminish his deity. It is his condescension to be made like us that he may be our Savior. He set aside the independent use of his attributes, of his power, so that he could identify with us. He voluntarily submitted himself to the will of the Father, so that he never did anything on this earth that was not first of all laid before the Father in heaven. Jesus relinquished his place. Jesus refused his prerogative. Jesus renounced his privileges. And notice also, Jesus restricted his presence. Think on this...the creator of the universe being thirsty and asking for water. Why? Because he emptied himself. I wonder if there is a way that we might live our life that the purpose of God can be fulfilled. If we have not come to the place where “we die daily” then this mind that was in Christ is not yet in us. This mind must be our person. Who we are for Christ must be manifested in the mind. Jesus Christ is the perfect expression of how to fulfill our spiritual purpose in the course of this human experience.
I Corinthians 2:16
The humanity of Christ is one of the greatest testimonies of his love for us. The God who is the creator of all things possible, and all things impossible, and all things impossibly possible, and all things possibly impossible, humbled himself by lying in the virgin's womb and by hanging on the cross. This is the wonder of the mind of God...this is the mind of Christ. This was in God's mind before the world began.
Proverbs 15:33
Isn’t it so like the mind of God to allow us to study the word, to discover that the mind of Christ will always produce unity among God's people. This is why we must have discernment in spiritual matters.
Philippians 2:1, 2
Christ is God who not only was a human body but one who also had a real human mind. Jesus grew not only in physical stature but in wisdom. God doesn’t grow in wisdom. He is eternally all-knowing, but the child Jesus was not. But by choice, that he might know us...his physical development was accompanied by a normal human intellectual development. He learned from the scriptures, as he was taught to read for himself and which he cherished as a font of wisdom all his life. He learned by attending the synagogue, and by asking questions at the temple. He learned from his father, Joseph, to whom he was apprenticed. And he learned by observing the world around him and the ways of his own people. Yet this human mind, acute and probing as it was, was also aware that it didn’t know everything, and couldn’t answer every question that might be put to him - the day and hour of the end. But Jesus knew all that he ought to have known.
We might ought ask of the profound regards of the mind of Christ. He was a deeply affectionate human being. Above all, of course, this affection is directed toward his heavenly Father, whom he loves according to his two natures, human and divine. But alongside this affection, the scripture highlights Jesus’s love for his fellow beings. Jesus readily accepted invitations to enjoy the hospitality of others. But he also had his own circle of intimate friends – his disciples. And within this band there was another even more intimate circle – Peter, James, and John. And even within the inner three there was one who was special - John, “the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved”.
John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20-24
This bears the mark of humanity. Some were close to him, others were even closer, and one was closest of all. But they were all his friends. He loved them as the Father loved him, and his love for them was to be the paradigm for the way they were to love one another. There was another group, too, to which Jesus was especially close.
John 15:14, 8, 9; 13:14, 34; 11:1-5
Let this mind be in us!
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