Renew Your Mind Series 6

The Mind Of Christ #3

Text: Isaiah 11:1-5

Introduction

Any employer loves not only to hire those who have the head knowledge of the job, but also the life experiences of all the job can throw at them. While someone who has only learned from the classroom is very valuable to the work, those who have already taken the tools said to be trusted for the work and have spent time in real work environments, have learned the extent of their effectiveness in a variety of different situations. In so doing, they have gained I higher level of trust in those tools.

For the Christian who has the Spirit of God dwelling in them, experiencing inward renewal and therefore living the transformed life is not determined by how long you have lived as a Christian, but by the depth of your surrender to God’s Spirit. God’s greatest desire is for you to trust His Spirit’s work within you. The more surrendered you are, the more renewed and transformed you become. You then live each new day with a greater trust in His leadership on your life.

Some of you have yet to allow God’s Spirit in certain rooms of your heart. Until you unlock the door and let Him in, you will never experience the kind of intimacy one can truly have with God.

Today we will conclude our thoughts about the seven-fold work the Spirit had on Jesus’ life and how He can have the same impact on you……

1) THE SPIRIT OF KNOWLEDGE

Not intellectual knowledge…but experiential knowledge.

Something we learn through experience.

It is one things to have Biblical knowledge. It is another to learn through the Spirit of knowledge.

Greek word for “intimate knowledge is “Oida” = God’s life is flooding our souls.

To embrace the Spirit of Knowledge is to operate through His love, His thoughts and His power.

Galatians 2:20 “20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Illustration: Two people within a marriage can spend 10 years together, enjoying sexual intimacy with one another, while at the same time miss the wonderful intimacy God had planned for them. Real intimacy occurs when there are no lies or hidden things living between you and your spouse.

It is no different in your relationship with God:

You know Him as Savior yet you remain consumed with worldly things and therefore living as a hypocrite.

WHY??? You simply don’t trust God enough to surrender to Him all that you have bottled up.

You are afraid.

You are slowly quenching God’s life within you from coming out.

Question: How many of you enjoy the full operation of faith? NO YOU DON’T!

How often would you rather have the answer quickly instead of waiting?

How many times have you bowed your head in dicouragement and doubt because God seemed to delay His answer?

Faith in operation is the Christian looking forward to what God is going to do while you wait on Him to connect all the dots.

Faith is hopefulness, not doubtfullness, not worrying, not despairing.

Faith brings you into the intimate knowledge of God.

How much of God’s Word would be left if all the intimate knowledge of people’s lives were removed from it?

Job 13:15 “15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: But I will maintain mine own ways before him.”

Turn to: 2 Corinthians 4:8–11“8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”

What can help us enjoy the journey of gaining an intimate knowledge of Jesus?

Living with unshakable belief that God loves you.

Living with understanding your life is in all powerful hands.

Living with believing that God’s all knowing and never resting mind in set on you.

Living with assurance God is ever by your side.

This must go beyond believing it with our heads and into our every day living.

I believe knowing God intimately is seeing Him in everything

Hebrews 11:27 “27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”

Job 42:5 “5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: But now mine eye seeth thee.”

Turn to: Philippians 3:8–10“8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”

2) THE FEAR OF THE LORD

For us to claim we “fear God” what are we declaring?

You have a high level or respect for who God is.

You then live with a hate for sin.

Question: Can you really have the highest of reverence for God without intimate knowledge of God?

Proverbs 2:1–5“1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And hide my commandments with thee; 2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thine heart to understanding; 3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, And liftest up thy voice for understanding; 4 If thou seekest her as silver, And searchest for her as for hid treasures; 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God.”

Quote: (Chuck Missler) “Fear of God does not mean fearfulness of God or being afraid of Him, but it means walking, speaking and acting in such an intimate relationship with Him that you are in continual awe of what He is doing in your life……Fear of God is caring more about what God thinks than about what man thinks.”

One powerful benefit of “fearing God” is that God gives you the freedom to love those who currently give you every reason to resent them, be bitter toward, and unforgiving.

Illustration: Tell the story on page 149.

Fearing God empowers the effectiveness of your witness.

People will not only see truth or just love, but both walking hand in hand with each other.

Your words and deeds will match up.

It purifies the hypocrisy out of you and pulls the masks off.

You are living transformed.

Psalm 111:10 “10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: A good understanding have all they that do his commandments: His praise endureth for ever.”

Proverbs 1:7 “7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: But fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

The renewed life begins when you final decide to stop remaining ignorant!

Ignorance of how to renew one’s most inner self and live the transformed life has led many Christians into an epidemic of boredom.

To be mature in your Christianity is to put off the junk in your thinking and put on the mind of Christ.

Christ never faced life with a spirit of boredom. He faced life with the Spirit of God.

Choosing to walk in the “fear of the Lord” is be persuaded that you can’t tame your “self-life” and therefore take the necessary step of putting it to death!

3) THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE

The person who truly has the FREE CHOICE in the crossroads of their life is the genuine born-again believer in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.

The believer alone has God’s authority and power to make a righteous choice over the temptations that confront them.

The believer has authority to go against the natural thought and want.

It is the Spirit of God who has gifted you with such a power.

The beautiful thing about the Christian “choosing something different” is that it takes them to “living differently.”

The moment by moment choice of exchange will determine who’s life will be lived; yours of Jesus’.

1 Corinthians 7:37 “37 Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.”

You are welcomed to come to God and say, “I don’t like your will in this.” But then you are given the power that Jesus demonstrated in —Matthew 26:39 “39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Here is the reality…you don’t have to have the right feelings before you make the right choice. However, God will (by His own power) change your feelings in His timing so you will live authentically and not hypocritically.

This exchanged life through the Spirit of the Lord must begin with “death” so His life can rise and thrive through you.