Renew Your Mind
Even when a man is born again, if he does not renew his mind with the word of God and submit his faculties to God as a living sacrifice, his fleshly desires will take over his mind, overpower his will, and rule him. While in this state, his desires and ambitions will be for self, by self, and after self. Self will become the center of everything in his life. Whether he’s at home, at work, at play, or in church, everything he does will be for self-promotion, self-glory, self-exaltation, self-love, self-importance or sometimes self-pity.
After a man is born-again, the spirit now has a great work to do: to take responsibility of the mind and begin the work of renewal with the word of God. The flesh has been in charge for many years, dominating and influencing the mind; now the spirit must repossess the mind and renew it that it may in turn renew the body. This way, the man will gradually return to his original state as a spiritual mind, and the whole tripartite being of man will return to the state in which God created it.
In the twelve Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, Paul admonishes saying: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
What the Holy Spirit is saying to us through Apostle Paul here is this, that now that we are new creatures in Christ, we, that is our reborn spirits, have a job to do. This job is that of ’renewing or renovation’ of the intellect, the affections, and the will which were not changed by the experience of regeneration. He says that we should not be conformed or put on the form or fashion of this world, but that we should put on the form of the New Creation ’inner-man’ who has been re-created in the image of Him that created him. The renewing of the mind is to be done by the newly born spirit-man with the word of God and by the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells within.
Renewing the mind is not a putting on of external appearance of godliness or mere external conformity, but a making new and changing existing views, feelings and passion that the now-dead old-man of sin left behind. It is washing the mind and sould of all the garbbage of the old man by the washing of the water by the word, and making the existing rebellious will inherited from the now-defunct old-man bow and submit to the New Creation man. All external changes, if the mind, affections, and will is not changed would be hypocrisy and useless with respect to the transformation God is looking for in us.
Renewing our minds is a process of replacing the covering or housing the old-man left behind and putting on the new one fitting the nature and status of the New Creation man. We renew our minds by meditating on the word of God over and over again, and submitting to and obeying it. We must study the word of God, but more important, we must prayerfully listen to the Holy Spirit to teach us as we submit in total obedience to Him. In this way, we’re replacing the old junk fed to our mind with the Truth and at the same time bringing our will under the direction and control of the inner-man who himself is under the control of the Holy Spirit. It helps to set time apart for personal worship, prayer and fasting when studying and meditating on the word. Anything to weaken the flesh and deny it of its lusts will help the spirit-man gain advantage in cleanning and renewing its house.
As we follow on to know the Lord more and more, our minds are renewed in accordance to that knowledge of Him and we become more submissive to the Holy Spirit. This in turn, as Paul says in Romans 12:2 enable us to ascertain what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.
Let’s never forget that however good and praiseworthy our labors may appear to be, if they are motivated by selfish ambitions and not the will of God, they will be judged by God to be hay, wood, and stubble. We must also be cognizant of this fact that anything done, or any sacrifices made for the benefit of self is not of God and is contrary to Him.
The mind of man, which is the seat of his will, is a citadel that the god of this world desires to capture and control. So he puts up all sorts of enticements to lure man through his fleshly desires.
These enticements, which are tremendously effective, include love of money, greed, power, sensual pleasure, deceit, false security, oc- cultism, ideologies, and even false religion, to mention a few; these are the tools the devil uses to gain advantage. His goal is to capture the minds of men and set them contrary to and in rebellion against God.
His proxy is the flesh. By his corrupt propaganda, he arrests the flesh through the five senses. Then he is able to influence, corrupt, and control the mind. And through the flesh, therefore, the devil is able to occupy and hold the mind captive and thus gain control over man’s will. But for you, O’ man or woman of God, take hold of your mind, vigorously perform the work of renovation by the word, and submit all your views and “take them captive to the obedience of Christ”.
This is Spiritual Warfare
When a man is born again, his spirit comes alive and seeks its rightful place. The spirit is the rightful ruler of the throne of the mind and the will of every man. When a man is born again, his spirit, which is now in communion with and has the life of God, desires to regain full control of the reins of the mind. The spirit, now alive, wants to do the will of God and begins to steer the mind towards the will of God. There is, therefore, a battle for the mind. This battle is between the born-again human spirit and the flesh which still has the nature of the now-dead old-man.
The Scripture, in comparing men’s minds to an enemy’s stronghold, seems to imply that Satan and his wicked spirits have already estab- lished a stronghold over the minds of unsaved men; and somehow are using them as their strongholds in which to imprison captives. Through man’s mind, Satan imposes his authority and spreads his corrupt influence to others to make them rise against God.
It is difficult to estimate how much of the world’s philosophies and ideologies originate from the prince of darkness. All such arguments, which are contrary to God and seem to be propagated by the minds of some thinking men, actually originate from the god of this world. Fallen man makes himself an enemy of God in his mind, therefore man must have a change of mind. A renewing of the mind must take place.
The Apostle Paul explains this: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2Co 10:3-5).
To put it in simple words, we are in a war. And though we live in this earthly world, we are not carrying out a worldly battle; our warfare is spiritual. And Our weapons for this warfare are not worldly, but they are heavenly and have divine powers for destroying strongholds.
What are the strongholds that we are aiming at destroying? They are, as the Apostle explains, arguments and proud imaginations that are contrary to the knowledge of God. We are determined to take every one of these contrary thoughts, raging in the mind, captive to the obedience of Christ.
This Scripture, therefore, makes it clear to us that the battle exclu- sively pertains to the minds of men. It takes place in the mind and it is for the control of the ‘mind territory’. Our objective in this battle is to overthrow “the mind of the flesh” and to enthrone “the mind of Christ”. The Apostle likens man’s ideologies and reasoning to an enemy’s stronghold; held by the enemy, it must be broken into by waging war, and the rebellious thoughts held in this stronghold must be defeated, taken captive, and made to obey Christ. This, indeed, is spiritual warfare.