Being Tempted To Think Right Thoughts
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· 16 viewsHaving our minds in sync with Christ is the key to walking successfully in the Kingdom.
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Jesus Think
Jesus Think
I want us to be a people that do the works of Jesus in a world that so desperately needs them. Is it OK for me to say that here? So very often I talk to people that seem to have convinced themselves that there is no way for them to ever achieve this level of maturity in the Lord.
I would like to suggest to you however that not only is it possible, but if you will hear it this morning; it is your new normal! By the time you leave here today, I want all of the demons that have been on assignment in your house and mine to be on the unemployment line!
What Is In Your Head?
What Is In Your Head?
What are the thoughts that parade around your head? I don’t ask that to make anyone uncomfortable, but for you to really ask the Holy Spirit to show you. Some of us are very focused individuals, with every thought processed and trimmed of anything unnecessary. Others among us are a little more scatter brained with our minds jumping through tasks and random thoughts with no real discernable pattern to anything.
I can tell you from personal experience I know when I’m working with my fleshly mind and when I’m working with the mind of Christ. When I am not working with my fleshly mind, I struggle, doubt, worry, and get anxious.
But peace comes in having the mind of Christ in such a way that you make it your own.
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2:6-
Through our relationship with God and our meditation in His Word (Logos and Rhema), we can rest in this mind of Christ and have peace.
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans
Our mindset is a reflection of the philosophy we hold dear.
We Are Meant To Think Like Jesus
We Are Meant To Think Like Jesus
It is not possible for someone who is unsaved to have the mind of Christ, to truly think like Jesus. Because of the effect of the fall, each of us are born with a mind that tends to be focus on three things - Me, myself and I.
When we are born-again, when we come into a real relationship with God by repenting and accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, then our focus in life changes. The Holy Spirit works within us and our focus is no longer on Me, Myself and I - God is our focus, God is our purpose, God at the center of all we say and do.
When we think the way Jesus does, it reveals to the world around us the very essence of God’s nature. Jesus has always wanted His followers to think the way He does, so that we can disclose the very mind of God to others.
What an incredible connection we have been offered! What glory can and will flow through us to bring about the desperately needed resources of God’s kingdom to the world around us!
We show His righteousness.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1 Corinthians 1
We show His mercy.
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
How to know the Mind of Jesus
How to know the Mind of Jesus
Ok, I know you might be thinking, I have heard all of this before. So, I just read the words in red and I should be good, right? Not exactly...
Many well meaning individuals have tried to interpret the thoughts and motivations of Christ with their natural mind and that never ends well.
The mind of Christ is only accessed through the working of the Holy Spirit.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
John 16
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The tension that I want you to get here this morning is this; every situation that you are presented with every single day requires you to answer this question: Are you thinking with the mind of Christ or the mind of flesh?
Getting used to using the mind of Christ takes practice, like building a spiritual muscle. But as we develop our thinking in the spiritual, a whole new world of possibility opens to us that is unbelievable and unreachable otherwise.
to think like Christ;
But as
to love like Christ;
to have compassion like Christ;
to act like Christ;
to have the attitude of Christ;
to have the humility of Christ;
to have the servant heart of Christ.
Can’t you feel the Holy Spirit rising up in you this morning? Let nothing restrain you any longer, let yourself fully walk in the Spirit of truth and begin to see the mountains move in your life.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians
I want you to imagine with me for a minute we are all living in a time when we had no fire. We have no way to produce a great deal of warmth at night; we have no way to cook what we kill in the forest. Someone has told that all we need to do is pray for it and it will come. So imagine we want to being praying for special power to come that will meet this need to accomplish something that we cannot.
There are some who say we don't need it, we'll just keep doing what we've been doing. They RESIST. There are others who make fun of those wanting to pray and mock the whole idea. They GRIEVE.
Regardless of all of this we begin to pray for this power and the great power in the sky responds and lighting strikes a log and there is fire. Everyone begins to marvel at the blaze and wonder at its power and then suddenly someone throws water on it, extinguishing the flame. They QUENCH.
There are mindsets and attitudes that can disrupt what the Holy Spirit wants to do. He wants to regenerate, indwell and empower, but some people resist Him altogether, some grieve Him, and others quench Him when He comes.
Just imagine the possibilities of fully accessing the mind of Christ. The enemy fears that you will do just that this morning. Let’s gather before Him with open hands to receive all He has for us this morning.