God’s desire and intention in creating man is to have a full-grown corporate man who is filled with His life and accomplishes His purpose to express Him with His image and represent Him with His dominion (see Gen. 1:26). The first man Adam fell, but God Himself became a man to bring in a new race, the God-man race, who can fulfill His purpose by His life.
In order for us as the many God-men, the believers in Christ regenerated by His life, to arrive at a full-grown man that fulfills God’s purpose, we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (see Eph. 4:23). The key to putting off the old man and putting on the new man is in being renewed in the spirit of our mind.
Our mind is a battlefield, and whoever gains our mind gains the victory. At the time of our regeneration Christ as the life-giving Spirit came into our spirit, and we received God’s life in our spirit. Now day by day the life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit wants to spread into our mind (the leading part of our soul) and become the spirit of our mind.
We need to cooperate with the renewing Spirit with our spirit and allow Him to spread in our mind, saturating our mind with the mingled spirit, and making our entire mind and being part of the new man (1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 4:22, 24).
The Way We Think Affects the Body and the New Man
There is a close relationship between arriving to maturity, being the corporate full-grown man, and our mind. In Phil. 3:15 Paul tells us, Let us therefore, as many as are full-grown, have this mind… – our maturity is a stage, and as we grow in life we are relatively mature.
Someone who is full-grown has “this mind” – the kind of mind that we have is an indicator of our maturity or the lack thereof. The footnote in the Recovery Version on, “this mind” is very enlightening,
In this book the dealing with the Philippian believers is focused on the mind, the leading part of the soul. This book charges them to strive together with one soul along with the personified gospel (1:27), to think the same thing, to be joined in soul, even to think the one thing (2:2; 4:2), to let the mind that was in Christ be in them (2:5), and to have this one mind, a mind focused on the pursuing and gaining of Christ to the uttermost. When our mind is thus occupied, we have the same mind, thinking the same thing, even thinking the one thing — the fullest gaining of Christ — being joined in soul, like-souled (2:20), and made one soul.
In Rom. 12:3 we see that we shouldn’t think more highly of ourselves – no matter how much the Lord transforms us through the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), we need to think as so to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each one of us a measure of faith.
The way we think affects the Body life, and the kind of mind we have affects the life of the one new man! We may think that we just have some concepts and views, and we won’t express them….but because our mind is unrenewed, we are causing trouble in the Body of Christ and in the one new man.
Your mind, when it comes out, affects the way you view things, and if it is not the mind of Christ, we cause problems. We need to have our mind renewed, and we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind for the Body of Christ and for the one new man!
We Need to be Renewed in the Spirit of our Mind
Not many believers today speak about the matter of the mingled spirit spreading into our mind or about our need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. But Eph. 4:23 is a vital verse, giving us the key to put off the old man (in v. 22) and to put on the new man (in v. 24).
It is in this spirit that we are one, and when we live according to this spirit we are the one new man in practicality. We need to ask the Lord to strengthen us into our inner man so that our spirit would become strong (Eph. 3:16-19), and then we need to let the mingled spirit spread into our mind and become the spirit of our mind.
Whenever we exercise our spirit and pray over the Word of God, read the life-giving ministry words, and enjoy the Lord in spirit, our mind is being renewed a little more. When our mind is being renewed, our whole being is being renewed, and we will have the proper living of the one new man.
By our birth and growing up in our family and society we have a certain way of living, makeup, education, and mind. Some people are rough, while others are quite polite and kind. Some people have a quick temper, while others are more “chilled out”.
Some nations are more loving and welcoming, while others are cold and distant. The British may have certain politeness, while the Americans are quicker and somehow more superficial. It’s all in the mindset, the mind frame, that we were born with and grew up with.
There are strongholds in our mind, no matter what race, culture, nationality, social background, etc. By regeneration, the one new man was born into our spirit, causing our spirit to become the inner man.
Now daily we need to be strengthened with power into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart, thereby becoming our person. This means that we need to be renewed in our mind.
Any high thing needs to be torn down, and only God needs to be exulted (Isa. 2:11-12). All the reasonings, the thoughts, the high things, the national and cultural characteristics, etc – they all need to be torn down.
We no longer need to walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of the mind – NO LONGER (Eph. 4:17). We may have walked like they did for many years, but now in the church life, our daily living and walk needs to be no longer natural, cultural, or national.
It is a disgrace and a shame to be a child of God, someone who loves the Lord, and yet live according to your natural, national, and cultural way! In your spirit, you’re a child of God, but in your concepts, way of thinking, and way of living you’re just like any other unsaved person!
We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind so that we may have the mind of Christ and our living would be Christ living again on the earth corporately. We can get our mind renewed by allowing it to be filled, possessed, and taken over by the Spirit of God.
We need to daily be in touch with the Lord, pray, fellowship with Him, call on His name, and make a thorough confession of our sins. Then we will be renewed in the spirit of our mind, we will be transformed, and this is for the practical expression of the one new man in our daily living.
Actively Responding to the Lord’s Word
What should our response and reaction be when the Lord shines on us and exposes us of how much we live in our natural man and according to our national culture and makeup?
Just as David received God’s word concerning his son being the one who will build God a house and he prayed it back to the Lord, so we need to take God’s word back to Him in prayer.
May we not be those who unknowingly have slowed ourselves down through a “passive positive acceptance” of the ministry and God’s word. That is, may we be those who don’t merely accept the Word of God and agree with it in a passive way.
We need to have an active positive response to God’s word by agreeing with Him in our prayers! We need to practice contacting the Lord so that under His dispensing daily we can be renewed in the spirit of our mind for the one new man! It is good to tell Him again and again,
Lord Jesus, save us from being a shame to You and to the name of a Christian by living in our natural disposition and our national makeup. Lord, we open to You, and we come to You to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Renew our mind, dear Lord, and saturate our mind with the mingled spirit. Keep us in fellowship with You by calling on Your name, praying, pray-reading the Word, and confessing anything that You shine on with Your light. Lord, train us to take You as our person. Renew us in the spirit of our mind. We open our thoughts, opinions, ideas, and views to You. May the mingled spirit enter into our mind and saturate our mind. We want the mind of Christ for the one new man!
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. 3, 5), 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:
# Now we’re learning to turn to our spirit, / Now we’re learning to take Christ as life; / Now we’re learning to feed upon Jesus / And be freed from all struggling and strife.
# We’re renewed and revived by the Lord day by day; / He is grace upon grace and refreshing as dew. / Shining brighter and brighter, our path’s a clear way, / As morning by morning His mercies are new.
# Little by little, / The Lord is cutting off all our natural life; / As we grow in Him, / He replaces us with more of His life divine. / It is our destiny, / To live a normal life in the divine dispensing, / It is a blessing, / To be satisfied with ordinary days / in the divine dispensing.
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