LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU

TUESDAY 05 DECEMBER 2023

To lead a victorious Christian life, we need to always function with the mind of Christ. To do God's will and keep fulfilling His purpose on earth, we need to practicalize the mind of Christ. It's not enough to have and demonstrate the presence of God in our daily lives through the infilling of the Holy Spirit, we also need to renew our minds in Christ because the Christian life cannot be lived successfully or worked out with ordinary human mind or worldly reasonings.

Reference: Philippians 2:5 New International Version (NIV) "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus."

The New King James Version reads, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

Paul presented the truth here as simple as he could so that the readers' mind would be based on Christ and not on human wisdom. He addressed the Christians in Philippi, saying, "Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, in your dealings with one another." The practical application of this verse is important because, although we have been born again, we are not entirely or totally free from the battles of the mind as long as we live on earth. The mind is the battlefield where all thoughts, ideas and strongholds from outside forces assemble themselves to compete for our attention and to build our mindset.

What does the Scripture tell us to do about our mind? Romans 12:2 (NIV) reads, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." The phrase, "the pattern of this world" is used in the New Testament to refer to the world system, or the way that a natural (human) being reasons, functions or behaves by default. To stop living like everyone else and establish the mind of Christ, we must feast daily on the Word. As we saturate our minds with God's truths, eventually His Word becomes stronger in our minds than any negative influence or thoughts the enemy sends.

God wants us to renew our minds with the Word until they synchronise with the mind of Christ. The Bible says in 1st Corinthians 2:16 (NIV), "for, 'Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ." Having the mind of Christ is establishing His Word as stronghold in our minds, such that no matter the battles we face in the mind, our stance is always one of victory. This mind of Christ is powered by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth; through the Word, He grants us access to the thoughts of Christ. Gracefully, in Christ, we have been given the ability to grasp spiritual realities and to think the way Christ thinks.

The mind of Christ can discern or gain insight into divine truths and revelations and also understand what the Spirit of God reveals, which is the opposite of the carnal mind. 1st Corinthians 2:14 (ESV) says, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." In other words, no carnal mind can discern the things of the Spirit because it is without the mind of Christ. Only the spiritually minded can comprehend what the Spirit means, because they have been born again, which means that they can receive God's truth and establish it as their innermost fixed awareness through the enabling influence of the Holy Spirit.

This is the reason unbelievers cannot easily believe the realities of the God's Spirit or take them seriously. According to 2nd Corinthians 4:3-4, the gospel truth is veiled to them and so they view spiritual truths without understanding. But to God be the glory that as Christians, we don't just have access to the mind of Christ through the Word, we function with His mind in us as we feed on the Word and constantly yield to the leading process of the precious Holy Spirit at work in us.

Scripture Reading - 1 Corinthians 2:11; Philippians 4:8; 2 Timothy 1:7; 1 Peter 1:13.

Guided Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, your Word points out the value of the knowledge of eternal truths. By meditating on the Word, my mind is constantly renewed and I'm transformed from the inside out. It changes how I think; it influences my actions and breaks me free from the pattern of the world, such that I understand and practicalize your will for my life. Thus, I apply the mind of Christ in any situation I face, and the Holy Spirit empowers me through it to function in victory and keep fulfilling your eternal purpose, in Jesus' Name, Amen!