The greatest hindrance to the one new man which God desires to obtain on the earth is the unrenewed mind. Actually, the greatest hindrance to the practical existence of the new man is my mind – when it is unrenewed, not saturated with the element of God.
Throughout our life we build up a certain kind of mind influenced by the culture, the family, and the country we live in. When the Lord regenerates us, He comes into our spirit as a living Person, and He mingles Himself with our spirit.
However, in so many ways our mind is still old and unrenewed, and our way of speaking, living, and doing things is still according to our racial and cultural background.
The only way the new man can be realized among us by our mind being renewed (see Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23-24; Col. 3:10-11). How can we be renewed in our mind?
We need to spend time in the Word and drink the Spirit, so that the Spirit with our spirit would spread into our mind and become the spirit of our mind, making us a new man – the one new man (see 1 Cor. 12:13).
When our mind is renewed and we live according to the spirit of our mind in our daily living, the one new man will come into existence in a practical way! We need to open to the Lord in prayer and be honest with Him,
Lord, I don’t know myself. I don’t know how much I live out my cultural and racial background. Lord, renew my mind. Spread from my spirit into my mind, and saturate my thinking with Your Spirit. I want to drink of You as the life-giving Spirit, the living water. Lord Jesus, whatever is in my mind and it is incompatible with You and the new man, do renew! Transform us through the renewing of our mind!
The Greatest Hindrance to the One New Man in Practicality
Since all the believers have Christ as their life and person, they all should be one. We are all God-men, having God’s life in us, and we should be one. But why are there so many divisions, opinions, denominations, and groups among the Christians today? Why isn’t there the “one new man” Paul was speaking of in Eph. 4:23-24?
There is no problem with our spirit – our spirit is life, and God dwells in our spirit (Rom. 8:10). The problem is in our soul, specifically in our mind. Throughout our life, our national and racial mentality has been build up, and we are a product of our background, education, bringing up, family, and society in our own country.
We all have a mind built up according to race and nationality – it is a human fact, and it makes us what we are. But if this mind remains in us, we will never see the existence of the one new man in our lifetime! We need to be renewed in our mind!
The greatest hindrance for the existence of the one new man is not necessarily the way we dress, the way we look, or anything outward – it is our unrenewed mind. More precisely, it is YOUR mind and MY mind, the unrenewed mind.
Hudson Taylor realized that, for him to speak the gospel to the Chinese people, he had to dress like them and be like them. However, in the church life today we don’t need to have an outward change – we need an inward change, a change in our mind – the renewing of our mind.
The new man doesn’t come in through outward conformity, correction, self-perfecting, or trying to be uniform so that “we may be one”. There needs to be an inward reality, a renewing of our mind by having the element of God infused into our mind.
When God’s element penetrates our mind and saturates our mind, our mentality will change – we will see things the way He does, we will consider the situation the way He does, and we will think the way He thinks. We will no longer see or consider race, nationality, color, culture, religion, social rank, or anything outward – we will see only Christ in others.
The only way that the one new man can come into existence practically among us in the church life is by our mind being renewed (see Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:10-11). All the believers in Christ need to be renewed in the spirit of the mind actually and daily in their daily living – otherwise, there’s no way for the Lord to have the one new man!
How Can We Be Renewed in Our Mind?
We all need to be renewed in our mind – but how can we do this? How can you “renew your mind”? How can we change our mind? In ourselves, we are so old and natural. All that the world can offer us is old and even death.
Only God is new, fresh, living, and life-giving. Only the addition of the element of God to our mind can renew our mind. We need to pray to the Lord and open to Him that He may renew our mind for the one new man (Rom. 12:2). We can tell Him,
Lord, I open my mind to You. I don’t know what’s in there and how much I have been renewed. Lord, I love You, I open to You, and I ask You – renew my mind! It is Your desire to gain the one new man, and I don’t want to be a hindrance to this. Lord, thoroughly renew my mind. Touch my memories, my reasonings, my concepts, my views, and whatever there is in my mind and is not compatible with You! Lord, touch and even remove anything that is divisive and sets me apart. Lord, do this in me and in all the saints as soon as You can, for the sake of the new man!
This is a serious matter. The Lord has been waiting for a people who are willing and open to Him to be the one new man – He’s been waiting for centuries! It is a DO IT or ELSE WE DIE matter – if the Lord doesn’t gain the reality of the one new man with us, He will have to pass on to another people!
Whether or not the Lord will gain the reality of the one new man with us depends on whether or not we are renewed in the spirit of our mind. It’s not a large Christian work that satisfies the Lord and neither many charitable actions – we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind actually and daily.
We have been baptized in the Spirit and we were given to drink the Spirit (2 Cor. 12:13). We need to drink the Spirit day by day! Don’t let anything frustrate or distract you from drinking the Spirit!
When you drink something physically you are renewed, refreshed, and invigorated. When we constantly are drinking the Spirit, we are renewed and refreshed, and there’s a metabolic change in our being and in our way of life.
When we exercise our spirit and drink the Spirit in the word of God by pray-reading and musing on God’s word, our mind is saturated with God’s element and our living will be more and more according to the spirit of our mind.
We need to give the Lord a way to flow into our mind and saturate our mind with His element. He must saturate our mind with Himself so that our mind may be renewed, and our living will be the living of the one new man, expressing God and dealing with His enemy.
And this is all a corporate matter – we are together the one new man, and not individually…
Lord Jesus, keep us drinking the Spirit. May nothing frustrate us from drinking the Spirit constantly. Lord, show us what is in us that hinders us from drinking You and being renewed. Lord, for the sake of the one new man, show us our real practical problem in us – in our daily living and in our fellowship with the saints. Lord, we desire to have the living of the new man. Do it with us. Lord, don’t pass us by. Keep us drinking the Spirit until our every thought and view is saturated with God! Lord, gain the one new man in practicality today among us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, The One New Man (chs. 6-7), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 8 / msg 8, Arriving at a Full-grown Man (2) Growing Up into Christ in All Things, Learning Christ as the Reality Is in Jesus, and Being Renewed in the Spirit of the Mind.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, our human spirit now contains You. / Still Your purpose in us You would do; / If our wandering mind would leave old thoughts behind, / Then Your life and peace in it we’ll find. / Lord, we would our every thought be captured / By the rich enjoyment in Your Word. / In it we’re supplied, our mind there will abide, / Till our thoughts are wholly sanctified.
# Spreading outward from our spirit / Doth the Lord transform our soul, / By the inward parts renewing, / Till within His full control. / He transforms, all sanctifying, / Till like Him we are matured; / He transforms, our soul possessing, / Till His stature is secured.
# As the center, as the kernel, / Of God’s plan our spirit is; / Calling on the name of Jesus / Makes our spirit one with His. / From the center to circumference / God would saturate each part; / Feeling, mind, and will renewing, / Making home in all our heart.
# Christ to me is so subjective, / All my being He transforms; / By the mind and will renewing / To His image He conforms.
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