Rom. 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.  Not forgetting II Cor. 5:21 it says for He became sin that we might be righteousness of God. And righteousness is a gift from God. We have been exploring how that righteousness works and what happens to us as we allow this gift of righteousness to be quickened in our life and transform us. I have taught on the transforming work of Christ, and talked about some of the intricate processes that take place in our personal transformation. Looking at the force of righteousness, we have been looking at the touch of Jesus on our minds.

In Rom. 7 Paul is speaking about the righteousness of God when he describes the struggle between what is good within him and what is sin nature in his life. In verse 20 onwards Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

We discovered that there are three laws that are operating. One is the law of sin, which is operating through the physical body. The second is the law of the mind. It tells us here in verse 23 that the law of sin was warring against the law of the mind. Then third there is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus comes into our life and the bible tells us in Rom. 8:10 if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin or the body’s passion and the law of sin that is in the body is cancelled and annulled. So that it says here that the Spirit is life because of righteousness. So the law of the Spirit of life imparts the revelation of Christ into our life and it causes the gift of righteousness of God to abound in our lives. And that cancels out the law of sin that is operating in our life but what about the law of the mind? What happened to the mind? The law of the mind is the law of transformation. The law of the Spirit keeps working upon our mind until our mind is transformed in Him and we are made perfectly like Christ. In other words, the law of the mind has no power against the law of sin until the law of the Spirit of life comes in and annuls and cancels out the law of sin in the body, then the law of the mind can operate in harmony with the law of the Spirit.

Cross reference to one more verse Rom. 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The phrase here says be transformed by the renewal of your mind. The word transformation is from the Greek word metamorphoomai, which we have studied in this series and others earlier. Metamorphoo is translated transformed. Here it says that the transformation that Christ is, in our life and that transformation is taking place by the renewal of the mind. The word renew is from the Greek word anakainoo which means to be made new again. Therefore, something must happen in our minds in order for that transformation to be sealed. Christ is inside the heart of every Christian who accepts Him young or old. But how we allow the Christ in us to touch our minds will be the key to that transformation.

For us to see it clearly I drew a story from the bible from the book of Luke 15:11 A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want.

No money, no friends and no one to turn to. Did he turn back to God yet, NO!   

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

Imagine sitting there, so hungry that he wished he could eat the pigs food. Did he change yet? NO. When the father gave him the money, did he change? NO. When he spent all his money, did he change? NO. When the famine came, did he change? NO. When he was sitting there looking at the pig’s food, did he change? NO.

But one day in verse 17 But when he came to himself, you see change comes from inside not outside. One day as he was looking at the pigs suddenly his mind is touched. The touch of the mind. It must have been the Spirit of God working. The bible says he came to himself.  

He said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, “Father I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.

He came to himself and then he started reasoning. You know if we don’t have clarity, if we don’t have light we will be like the three blind men. Remember the story? They came before an elephant and the first blind man felt its body and says, “An elephant is like a wall.” That’s not true. It’s not really a true picture. Another grabbed the elephant by the leg and said, “An elephant is like a tree.” Is that statement correct? No. The other blind man grabbed the elephant’s tail and said, “An elephant is like a rope.” But the blind were blind. If their eyes were opened, they would see what an elephant looks like. Something must happen first.

The mind must have some divine light touching it. It is not by our brilliance, by our ability, by our training, by our education, that we can completely move into the fullness of the wisdom that God has for His people. It takes the Spirit of God to touch a part of our soul on our inside and then, the scales will drop from our eyes. We will be able to see correctly.

Paul says in the book of II Cor. 10 how important what goes on in the mind of each one of us is. II Cor. 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 

Then and only then can we confront the powers of darkness. It’s important to understand that Paul is talking about the revelation of God that touches upon our mind. The Truth, that sets us free. When the prodigal son sees the truth all his reasoning became correct and it produced a correct response. It produced a correct attitude. You can tell whether people have found the truth. Because Jesus told us what the truth was. In John. 14:6 he says I am the way, the truth and the life.  And everything that is not in the nature of Jesus, not in line with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, kindness, and all the laws of God doesn’t belong to the truth. So, when someone says, “I have the truth,” and their attitude is anger, they haven’t got the truth yet. The truth always produces a certain form of attitude and response that is in line with the truth of the Spirit, the Word and Character of God.

When the prodigal son found the truth, he became contrite, humbled and recognized where he was. He saw himself not with pity but with truth…He recognized what he had done in the sight of God was wrong. He found the truth even before he went back to his father. While the prodigal son was still sitting with the pigs the revelation came to him, he had the touch of the mind. When his mind was touched, he began to see the truth. From that very second he was already being set free. When he determined to go back to his father, it was only the river of truth that led him more and more into freedom. Did satan try to confound and confuse him further? YES…he tried to insinuate FEAR into his mind…Fear that his father would reject him,when he met him. Did his father scold and rebuke him? NO. Unfounded fear from the enemy. The  mental state that is produced by righteousness, is a state of heart and a state of mind. When this revelation touches our mind, it is not in the realm of reasoning. We don’t reason into it. Something touches us and then we see it clearly. I gave you  an example of the touch of the mind  in Lk. 24 The disciples had walked with Jesus for three years. They heard the teaching of Jesus at close hand. They even had private talks with Jesus where Jesus explained a lot of His teaching. They had shared a lifetime with Jesus. Now that Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, they still didn’t understand what was going on. Their understanding hadn’t come yet. Reasoning was still dark and unclear. That is when Jesus appeared to them in Lk. 24:44 These are the words which I spoke to you, Keep in mind what their state of being was in verse 37 they were terrified and frightened. That was the state they were in when Jesus was raised from the dead. They couldn’t accept it. Their minds couldn’t operate in that realm. They were just like anyone else…afraid.  But when God touches your mind, your mind begins to operate in the spirit realm. Our minds operate in the natural realm all the time… but when God touches your mind, it starts operating in the spiritual realm and not just in the natural realm. This is the renewal of the mind.

I gave you the cross-reference on things that were happening in the gospel of Mk. 16:11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. They didn’t even believe the personal testimony of Mary Magdalene. Remember unbelief is also reasoning. When people say, “I don’t believe in God,” ask them whether they have a reason. You see unbelief is not non-reasoning. When you first started coming to this Healing School and some of the things that were taught here were new and revelatory to you, did you just take my word for it? Or did you think about it and reason with God over it? As time went on and I continued to show you the results of what I had been teaching in actual manifestations, through practical application and you began to apply the principles of the teaching to your own lives, what happened? You were set free from the bondage of the wrong thinking that had you bound in darkness before, correct?  That is what happened to the disciples. They didn’t get it. And, Jesus’ time came before He could show them the practical application of His word in their own lives. They only got to see the demonstration, and they were feeble at best when they tried to apply the principles to their own lives.  It was later on that they began to operate in the Spirit realm, why? Because 1. They believed,and 2. They applied what they had been taught until it operated in their lives, and then it began to spill over into others lives and spread, like what? The Garden of Eden.  Were they set free from the bondage of darkness of the mind then?   Let’s come back to the verses of scripture where we left off and see…

Now in verse 12 He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. These were not strangers. These were the disciples of Jesus and who have been with Jesus for three years. Jesus had even told them before He died that He will be raised from the dead, and Jesus even told them, “Go, I will meet you in Galilee.” Isn’t it true sometimes you can experience some spiritual phenomena but you can’t understand it? However, God doesn’t want us to remain there He wants us to understand. Understanding and wisdom are a part of the river of God that He wants to give to us through His righteousness.

Now in Matt. 28:16-17 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, there worshiped Him, but some doubted. Right up to the very re-appearance some doubted. They just couldn’t accept. Their minds were boggled. All unbelief is basically a restriction of the mind. If we can be free from the mental restriction to see the way God sees, to believe the way God said it, we will move in a different dimension.

Now you know the atmosphere the disciples were in. They had doubt, they had unbelief, they had all this questioning. Their minds were working but not working properly. What they need is the touch of the mind. Now this is the rule:  He will touch the spirit first before He touches the mind. For only when the mind is touched and renewed, can there be a transformation.

Lk. 24:44 These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. The touch of the mind. Was the touch of the mind through education? NO. I am talking about supernatural things here. When Jesus touched their mind, their reasoning became clearer, correct and greater.

Eph. 1:17 that God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of His glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe. 

But how does this all take place? God gives the spirit of wisdom and revelation then the eyes of our understanding are touched. And then only we know. If I take this verse literally, it means that if the eyes are not opened then there is no knowing. There are two words that we want to focus on. First, he says that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened and then the other is you may know. The enlightenment comes first.

Now the enlightenment is what we are calling the touch of the mind. Have you ever struggled to convince people, of what is right and what is wrong? And you find it just doesn’t work. That is why the power of the Spirit and prayer is important. Why? Because It is not you and I that can change people. We can;t change people by scolding alone. We can’t change people by trying to convince them, by reasoning. It is something deeper than human words and human vocabulary. It is the Spirit of God that works in everyone of us. And that lights up a person that when you say those words somehow the Spirit has already touched them and then the understanding comes. So the Holy Spirit is involved in bringing everyone to God. No man comes to God except by the Spirit of God. And no man can know God except by the Spirit of God. No one can persuade another man to believe. The choice to believe belongs to that man. But the ability to see comes from the Holy Spirit. That is where our prayers play a role. My friends, it is our prayers that change people more than our words or our reasoning. So the next time you are praying for someone to change don’t tell them to change. Don’t try to force them to change. Sometimes it could be a mother struggling to change a rebellious child. The application process here is this… somehow in your rebellious child, something must happen on his inside. Children need a revelation of God on their inside, and a touch of their mind. The moment they are touched, they see clearly. You don’t have to tell them what is right and wrong. They know what is right and wrong. That’s how powerful the touch of the mind is. And that’s what we’re talking about. The Spirit of God on your inside will produce the touch of the mind that will cause a transformation.

Rom. 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. There words here refer to the mind. The touch of the mind occurs progressively. In other words, God doesn’t just touch your mind and instantly your mind is permanently and perfectly changed. No, it occurs by degrees. Just like the Ephesians already are born again, baptized in the Spirit have a greater understanding of God than before they were born again but yet Paul still prays for them… for the Spirit to touch their mind.

There are many touches that we receive. Not just one touch. And each touch is important. As we learn how to yield to God and allow God to touch our mind and to touch our spirit and touch our mind, we will be able to progress from glory to glory, from grace to grace and be transformed. You can believe God for that.

How will the mind be touched? What is this mind like? The mind is touched by an impartation of the mind of Christ. Christ did not just come to give us His Spirit. He came to give us His wisdom, His mind. How wonderful it is to have the mind of Christ. There is a quality to the mind of Christ that we must remember. There are two forces that need to be married together. One is the sense of total unworthiness. The other is the sense of conviction and authority in Him. What do I mean by unworthiness? You see the touch on the mind produces certain things and you know what the correct mind is. Like the prodigal son, you notice how he talked and how he reasoned. There must be these two senses. First is a sense of complete nothingness and unworthiness. Without God, we are nothing. The other is with God you can do everything God wants you to do. Now both must be strong for Him to work.

In Lk. 15 when the prodigal son was touched in verse 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. That is humility. Now the prodigal son has a humble mind. We have to humble ourselves in God. Remember I shared about the gift of righteousness, it’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. The only way that you can be successful is to realize that if you live life by yourself you can never make it and that in yourself without Jesus you are the most horrible wretch. As long as we think that we are very good, we will depend on ourselves. We are not good in ourselves. We are good only with Jesus inside us. Without Jesus, we will be the seed of the devil, accustomed to sin. We may not have sinned like many criminals have. But we are all sinners in His sight.

There must be a humble realization that we are the branches and He is the vine. The branch without the vine is good for nothing. It is useless, and destined only for the fire to consume them. So there is a sense of humility, a sense of knowing that no matter how the world admires your ability or your talent you must see yourself as nothing without Jesus.

The other aspect is to see that everything good in our life, everything wonderful in our life, everything marvelous, everything capable, belongs to Him and not to us. And we give Him all the glory, the worship and love.

So, these two forces must marry in the mind. One is the sense of total humility until we realize that we are just horrible without Jesus. Some people think themselves OK without Jesus. They are deceived. They are only living partially by God’s help and partially by their ability. If you really want to live by the power of God, by the Holy Spirit, by Christ living in you, you must reach this stage of total unworthiness, until we can’t even acknowledge any self good in our life. We acknowledge that all good things came from Him. Then the other side is to acknowledge that in God, everything is wonderful, great and marvelous since all good things comes from His hands and not ours. And then once we have that proper reasoning going, we receive a sense of authority knowing it is Jesus that is doing it through us now.

Let me point to the fact that it’s the mind of Christ that touches the mind of humility. Phil. 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. (The mind of Christ that He is imparting.) Who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Let this mind be in you is the mind of humility. Today while you are sitting in this place and hearing these words, do you acknowledge that everything about your life from the time you were born…that nothing good dwells in you? If there was any goodness, it was because the grace of God and the gift of God were working in you. Without Him, you are     wretched. But in His amazing grace, you can be a saint. That is the humble mind of Christ.

Now with that we can explore Romans 12 in a deeper way. There is a play on Greek word in verse 2 where in the translation I used, it says for I say through the grace given to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought, but to think soberly as God has dealt with each one a measure of faith.

Even in the New English translation he says don’t think your own thought. Don’t think above what you are. Realize that we are nothing. You can only think in terms of what God has given. That is, it’s the grace of God. That is the gift of God. Everything about us that can be and is good, marvelous and wonderful is His gift, we take no credit for it. We need to be able to give it all to Him. And when you have this attitude Jesus can live in your life more powerfully. The power of the Spirit can flow through you mightily. It is not that Christ doesn’t want to live through us. It is that every time you live for yourself He withdraws. But when you allow Him to live through you He comes forth.

Now there is a play on Greek words here that I want to read to you.

Rom. 12:3 For I say, through the grace which is given to me, to everyone that is among you, not to think of himself more highly (hupselophroneo, that is the Greek word for high minded) than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Hupselophroneo, the phroneo part is the same word for mind as used in Romans 8. Now he says don’t be hupselophroneo which means  to be high-minded. Don’t let the mind think highly of itself.

Four times the word phroneo is used in different forms. The first time it occurs, it says don’t be high-minded, don’t be hupselophroneo. Hupselo means above or high. Phroneo means mind, so hupselophroneo high minded. Don’t be high-minded in your minding, in your phroneo he says.

Then he says but you must sophroneo, that is, you must be sober minded. This is a different Greek word here sophron, from sozo, “to save” with phren, “the mind”. And many people look at the word sober minded as serious minded. No, it doesn’t just mean serious mindedness. It means sound mind, healthy mind, a wholesome mind, sophroneo. Say this… “Be sophroneo and don’t be hupselophroneo.

So here is the play on Greek words. One on side is hupselophroneo, be high minded or think highly than you ought to think. That is the mind that functions without God. But let your mind function in God as sophroneo, a sound mind, a healthy mind, a mind that regards itself according to the grace of God. And everything that we are is the grace of God.

Now the word sophroneo is powerful word used all over in the writings of Paul. He tells us in the book of II Tim. 1:7 in his various usage. Now by various usages, it means that the ending can be slightly different. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (sophronismos, which is sophroneo). This is the type of mind that we must have. God has given us a sound mind. This is a mind that is humble before God, a mind that is submitted to God, yielded to God, and always drawing for understanding from God. And we acknowledge the fact that unless God reveals we cannot see or understand. And truth is revealed progressively. We cannot see everything at once. It is too huge for us. But God reveals truth progressively. And with each revelation, it changes us. It transforms us. Some of us ask, “Why doesn’t God just reveal everything and we are instantly transformed to His absolute perfection?” Our physical body will die if He does it. It’s too powerful. So to cater to the change of our soul He reveals one leaf at a time like peeling an onion. Every time there is one layer peeled, your tears come. Every time He peels, you cry because you are touched and you see more things in yourself than the prodigal son saw in himself. More things to change, more things to transform, more things that are not perfected yet, so that we will continually strive for that perfection in God, until we become like Him.

He gave us His sophronismos, a sound mind. Now this sound mind is a requirement and it’s the same Greek word used in the book of Timothy and Titus when he said that elders and deacons must be sober minded. They must have this kind of mind. A mind that is humble, not thinking about themselves about the gifts…that applies to all ministers. And that applies to every professional. No matter how recognized you are, what a great reputation you have achieved, remember this: humble your mind. In God’s sight everything that you are is not achievable if its not God’s gift in your life. And we must always walk with that attitude of mind that its God’s gift operating through us; that we have nothing to boast about because without God we are all absolutely worthless.

Sophroneo occurs five six times in several verses of Titus chapter 2 and that makes it very important to look at that verse to show you how it ties up to righteousness. Unless sophroneo is there, the outward righteousness won’t be there. You know you can be inwardly righteous because the gift of righteousness is in you. But for it to come out you need that touch of the mind of Christ so that it changes your thinking. Believe me it is such a powerful revelation. If right now anywhere you are, in any area of your life, if you can have a touch of the mind you will come to yourself. You can see things the way God sees and that will change you. It will cause your habits to just fall off of you. It may be any habit. It may be a habit that clings to you and has caused you to be in a sense of unrighteous for thirty years. You wouldn’t have been in unrighteousness you would have been deceived into thinking and believing that you were in a state of unrighteousness… It can be an old habit that keeps on pulling you into that bondage of sin. You don’t understand how it is operating. But when your mind is touched like the prodigal son’s, suddenly you see yourself for who you are. Suddenly you see the right picture. Suddenly you see the truth of where this false energy is coming from. In one second, it can remove thirty years of bondage. Just by one touch in the mind.

In Titus chapter 2 it gives all the different forms of the word sophroneo in verse 2 That the older man be sober minded (sophroneo), reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. 

Here he is talking about the elderly folks. It can be that because they have a measure of sophroneo in them. For example… you see little children they are always in a hurry. Whenever they get in the car for long trips, at the beginning there is excitement. The children get into the car and settle down. Half an hour later, they begin to  cry, “When are we going to get there?” Then the next half an hour or so they say, “Are we there yet?” If the journey is too long and you don’t break the journey up, then, it goes from asking over and over from every half an hour to asking every fifteen minutes. However, we adults know they are children so we can handle them. We don’t lose our temper. We don’t beat them up and scold them, We don’t do things like that because we are adults. We know that this is natural. So we teach them to wait and be patient in getting to the destination.

Sophroneo…is the life-knowledge or experience, that places you into the position to know how to wait on God for the wisdom of God to come forth. In verse 4 it tells us about the older women… that they sophronizo the young women. They impart that kind of mind to the younger women, teach them, share with them, so that they know how to behave to love their husbands. In verse 4 the older women teach the younger women how to love their husbands.

As a pastor and counselor to many people, sometimes a newly married couple have their first quarrel. It is the first time the husband has raised his voice. Usually during the courtship the female will show temper but not the man. He is busy winning the prize. Being all things to her. Now, the courtship is over and the  reality of life and just who this man is, is settling in. The wife cries, “Woe is me, help someone, help.”  Here is where all that pre-nuptial counseling comes in. Now, they must learn to harmonize. The longer you are married the more you will harmonize. However, in the newly married, the more recent the marriage the more things you have to harmonize. When your marriage gets difficult hang in there and don’t give up. after a few years you will be so mellowed that you will quarrel in different way. You quarrel by looking at each other. You will be able to tell by the looks in each others eyes when there is disapproval. You become more experienced with each other.  

Sophroneo is the kind of maturity that comes into your thinking. There is a maturing and humbling process that comes. In verse 5 to teach them to be sophroneo, that is to have the sophroneo the new mind, the sound mind, good homemakers, obedient to their husbands, that the Word of God may not be blasphemed.

Now the young men also get it here in verse 6, Likewise exhort the young men. So you have the old men, young men, older women, young women, everyone is covered. Likewise exhort the young men to be sophroneo, to be sound minded.

This kind of mind depends on God. A mind that seeks understanding from God and doesn’t   struggle to understand. Remember understanding and reasoning will flow like a river. We just need the light from God. And the light comes progressively.

Finally, Paul uses the same word again in verse 12, Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly (sophronos), righteously and godly in the present age.

You notice that sophronos is followed by righteousness and godliness. It ties back to righteousness. When we have this mind of Christ that is imparted into our hearts and touches our minds, suddenly clarity comes. Now some things can be explained and it will be imparted like in the case of the older women teaching the younger women. But some things need direct impartation of the Spirit to reveal revelation and understanding. In some circumstances, no matter many explanations you give it won’t help. Only the Spirit of God can reveal them to our mind and then we understand clearly. It will just strike you. If you examine it, the thinking process functions that way. It’s like a light bulb going on inside. You see something clearly then your reasoning becomes very clear. And that process is the work of righteousness inside. The force of righteousness rises up from our inside and it comes forth until God touches us. And then by the renewal of the mind metamorphoomai the transformation of the mind takes place.

Finally Eph. 4:17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.

See their mind is working but its futile, going round and round but never coming to an answer. You read more about it in Romans chapter 1 and 2. how God gave them up to a debased mind, a reprobate mind, a mind that cannot glorify God, having their understanding being darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts. So they were cut off from the life of God. What happens? The mind stops flowing.

Now when you link back to the life of God, righteousness comes in your life. Look at verse 22-23 that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Now you understand what that verse means. The spirit of your mind means the spirit from your inside touches your mind and gives clarity that you never had before. And it comes in a powerful way. And it applies even to the secular profession. You can be struggling with a business problem. And all your thinking doesn’t produce a solution. When you pray and ask God for wisdom, and as you wait on God, God gives you the wisdom. When it comes, it will come in a  split second, you will then see everything fits together. It can be in the ministry as well... It can be in any area. That is the new way that we  must live. Some people ask me, “How can you do so many things? Where do you get the energy?   I tell them that I don’t depend on myself. I am depending on God for supernatural energy. Every time you pray and seek God, God keeps sending a flow of ideas. Every time you get stuck you pray, “God give me wisdom in this area and give me the mind of Christ in this area. What is the mind of Christ in this area?” And you wait on God. Some times the answer comes immediately. Sometimes it comes over a period of time. But it will surely come. And sometimes it requires us to fast, pray and humble ourselves to wait on God for that enlightenment.

You must begin to initiate this discipline into your lives. Do not try to reason until the light comes.  But when the light comes then there will be enough light to start reasoning correctly. I personally choose not to reason, not to dwell on  something until the light has come. It is a different approach. In life, people reason first.  That is not the right method…You gather all problems together and you pray. You wait on God. When the reason doesn’t come and people ask, “What is the answer?” Just tell them “No word from the Lord yet.” Then wait until God’s wisdom comes and touches you and your mind will start functioning  in that area. Then  you  will begin to see everything in its proper place and perspective.

So, I summarize in giving you some of the keys to this waiting process. Look at Rom. 1. If we look at the negative , then the positive will be the truth. This is How people were shut out from the flow of the river of God’s wisdom. Remember just now in Eph. 4 we read that the Gentiles were futile in their minds. Here in Rom. 1: 20-22 it explains how they became futile.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.

Inside here is the key.  It spoke the negative side of how people can become futile in their minds but inside is the key. How did they become that way? God never created man that way. Man was created to be in the image of God. But it was twisted and God wants to restore it to the way He intended it. Look at Two things - they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful. The positive antidote then would be worship and thanksgiving. Every time your heart and your mind are not in an attitude of worship and thankfulness don’t try to think. You could be having the wrong thoughts. In that instance, It will never be the mind of Christ. It will be your own carnal mind. Only when your mind is in an attitude of thankfulness and worship can you be tapping into the creative river of God. I make it a point to always give thanks in everything. In that way, I will have a constant river of praise and worship. Think about it. Is there any struggle in the business world or any area that you cannot solve? If you approached the situation with an attitude of complaining and murmuring... May be you had anger in your heart… May be you were not in a worship mood. If that is so then, please… drop all your tools, worship God and give thanks. Until and unless you can give thanks to God and worship Him, your mind will be wasting energy.

I believe in good thinking. I love to think. But I know what the limits are. And as long as there is no river of thanksgiving, praise, and worship coming forth, I will shut my mind off. I pray in the spirit in between thinking…that way, I know that I am praising and worshipping God. I tell my mind to be quiet. I let the river of thanksgiving and praise come. When it comes then only is the mind of Christ operating in your life. Every one of us has the mind of Christ. And as the river of praise comes the mind of Christ starts operating. When you do not glorify God, do not acknowledge that He is your God, you are His creation and depend on Him, when you are not grateful for all that He has given you, you actually put away the mind of Christ. All of us can be grateful to God. No matter what place we are in, in  life there are always things we can thank God for. When you stop acknowledging God in those things, you have taken back your old carnal mind. We must guard thankfulness, praise, and worship in our hearts. Guard them and do not let anything steal them. Don’t let anything pull your mind into complaining, murmuring, or thinking any wrong thought, any negative thought about anyone… because all those kinds of thinking would be wrong thinking. But always be thankful for everything around you. Even the people you find hard to relate to you can find something to thank God for. And when you begin to move into thanksgiving and praise and worship the river flows and the mind of Christ starts operating. That’s No. 1.

No. 2 look on further down in Rom. 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting. Now the word debased is the word edokime. The word dokime is a word that means a document, or doctrine, something solid. So it is in a sense no doctrine, a debased mind. It says here when they did not retain the knowledge of God, God gave them up to their carnal mind.

So the opposite will be true. We need to saturate ourselves with the Word of Christ. And the words of Christ represent the bible. That’s the second important key to tap into the mind of Christ. You must take this bible and read it day and night. Read it in whatever time you have. Meditate on some of the wonderful promises and scriptures. But read this bible until it saturates you. Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you, Col. 3:16. And as it dwells richly in you then the knowledge of God will be retained and the mind of Christ can operate.

I have given you two keys in tapping into the mind of Christ, one is thanksgiving, praise, and worship.

I have described what the mind of Christ is like - the two senses united, one a sense of humility and nothingness without God and a sense of total completion in God joining together.

And the second key that we have is saturating ourselves with God’s Word. We will not think of anything that is outside God’s Word. We will not entertain any thoughts or philosophies that violate and contradict God’s Word. When you make that a rule in your heart the mind of Christ rises strong within you.

You may be handling everything in your life, even things that you are not trained to do, but when you tap into the mind of Christ, you can do all things as well as any trained person.

In everything in your life you can rely on the wisdom of God, the touch of the mind of Christ.

Now dwell in those two rivers, the river of the word, the river of praise and thanksgiving and worship in your waiting on God you will see the light coming and it will touch you from time to time. Every time it touches you, you will see clearly what to do in your business, you will see what to do in your ministry, then you move on it , you obey. You must keep that river of praise and worship going. I have observed people in the ministry and how they progress. Ministry can be blessed. God can promote you. But if at anytime you stop being thankful and worshipful and giving praise to God that’s when growth also stops. It is the same in the business world. God may be blessing you. With more blessings, there are more responsibilities. With more responsibilities, there are more anxieties and concerns that fall on your shoulders. And if you don’t learn how to give thanks and give praise to God you will block the very source of that blessing and you will not be able to continue. But if you want to grow from glory to glory, and grace to grace, until Jesus comes and grow stronger and stronger by the day, then you must flow with these two rivers and allow God to touch your mind and all the wisdom you need in life is then available to you.