The Day of New Beginnings
Transformed by the Renewing of Our Minds
An old joke going like this: A man pulls up and asks a farmer for directions to a certain street. The old farmer hems and haws a bit and says, “Go down here and turn left… No, no, that won’t work, go straight and then turn right at the stop sign…No, that won’t work either.” Finally, after several minutes of aborted directions, he finally says, “You just can’t get there from here.”
This is the way it is in our walk with God. There are yearnings and aches within us, put there by God Himself, to move deeper into Him. We receive promises and words from the Lord about how He wants to bless us. We desire earnestly to be changed into His likeness. But sometimes we just can’t get there from the level we are on.
Rom. 12:
1 ¶ Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
How do we change? How do we position ourselves to receive all that God has promised and provided for us? The answer is found in the above two verses. Rom. 8 says that the carnal or Adamic mind is hostile toward God. It cannot receive from the Lord. By nature our carnal minds think in patterns that cut us off from an awareness of the Lord. When we incur satanic assault it usually comes in the form of spirits penetrating our natural minds and emotions creating thoughts and feelings contrary to what God has spoken. Our very thought patterns wall God off from us. On the positive side, as our minds are renewed in Christ, we find thought patterns developing that open us up to the Lord’s blessing and naturally bring us into an awareness of the Lord’s presence. When the mind of Christ begins to operate in our lives, we find all our thought patterns drawing us closer to God rather than cutting us off from Him.
The last part of verse two says, “so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Without a renewed mind, we are incapable of understanding and receiving spiritual truths. We may desire to move into spiritual things, but our carnal minds will lock us out every time. This is why many Christians lead frustrated lives.
Ok, so how do we get this renewed mind? Verse one says, “present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” This implies a work of the cross. Notice the verse says it’s by the mercies of God that we present ourselves as a living sacrifice. So, the mind of Christ created in us is a work of grace. We present ourselves to God and He begins a work in us that changes our very thought patterns into His own.
Eph. 4:
17 ¶ So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
These passages show us that it is the futility of the mind that darkens our understanding and excludes us from the life of God. It’s the futility of the carnal mind that creates the hardness of heart and perpetuates the ignorance of the ways of the Lord. Verses 18-19 reveal how the futility of the natural mind leads to every kind of corruption and impurity. And then verse 20 states, “You did not learn Christ in this way.” The revelation of Christ does not come through our Adamic minds. It comes through a renewed mind, the mind of the Holy Spirit within us. It’s the renewed mind that leads to putting on the “new self,” which is Christ’s nature. The old self, which is the corrupt Adamic nature, draws its life and strength through the futility of the carnal mind.
The greatest key to transformation is found in 1st Pet. 1:
23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
24 ¶ For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF,
25 BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you.
1 ¶ Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,
2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation…
It’s the word, made alive to our hearts, that re-programs our minds enabling God’s thoughts to have free course. When the word lives in us, we become the living sacrifices presented to God. Peter urged those to whom he was writing to long for the pure milk of the word. We must long and yearn for Him to be revealed to us by the word. Christ is the Word, and as it lives for us we are cleansed, we are changed, and our minds are renewed. Embracing the word sets in motion the cross and all the dealings that are necessary to enable us to walk in His ways.