In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Grace, God's Riches At Christ's Expense.
"For wisdom & truth will enter the very center of your being, filling your life with joy." (Proverbs 2:10).
God wants a relationship with us, He patiently waits for us to allow Him fully into our lives.
But satan is the god of this world right now,
he wants to lead you away from the true God,
by controlling your thoughts and actions to take you down to the second eternal death.
"The god of this age has blinded the mind of unbelievers,
so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is in the image of God" (2 Cor.4:4).
First of all, the mind is darkened.
"This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk,
in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding"(Eph. 4:17-18).
The unbeliever lives with his mind fixed on futile things, transitory things,
things without eternal value. He lacks spiritual discernment.
He is in the dark about spiritual matters.
He may understand some very intricate things of this world,
like Einstein's theory of relativity or other complicated and sophisticated scientific and technical information,
but he is in a fog about God.
If satan can keep man's mind shielded from the truth of the Gospel,
he effectively keeps man from knowing God and from fulfilling God's purpose for creating him.
Satan keeps man in spiritual darkness.
Second, God says the natural mind is defiled.
"To the pure,all things are pure;
but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
They profess to know God,
but with their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed" (Titus 1:15-16)
Here are people who say they know God,
but their manner of living exposes a certain phoniness to their words.
Paul says their words are defiled. Defiled, meaning polluted, or contaminated.
We can see the evidence of such mental pollution all around us in a multiplying morass of immorality and licentiousness.
It is actually possible for satan to pump his defilement right into the unguarded believer's home via the tv (tell a vision).
There is much concern these days about air and water pollution, as well there should be.
But one of our primary concerns as Christians ought to be mind pollution--
the effects of unbelievers' defiled minds on our lives,
the impact of their obscenities, blasphemies, impurities,
and unbiblical concepts on our children throughout the media.
Third the natural mind is depraved.
Paul spoke of "men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth,
who suppose that godliness is a means of gain"(1 Tim.6:5).
Depraved means basically corrupted, destroyed, ruined, spoiled, or debased.
Those perverted men of Paul's days
were teaching that the primary purpose of religion was to raise one's social status and increase one's net worth.
They were obviously deficient in truth and could not accomplish anything spiritually profitible,
that was acceptable to an infinitely holy God anyway.
Finally the natural mind is dead.
"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
because the mind set on flesh is hostile toward God;
for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so."(Rom 8:6-7)
This mind set on the flesh is the natural mind,
the mind with which we were born, with all it's sinful inclinations.
It is dead, spiritually dead, separated from the life of God.
"Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior." (Col 1:21)
We don't hear many experts on the mind telling us what God says.
Most of them are trying to convince us that man's mind is inherently good,
that there are no limits to it's capabilities, that adequate training is all it needs.
Evidence is even being presented to prove that the mind can accomplish supernatural things apart from outside supernatural intervention,
such as moving objects without force, obtaining information apart from the senses,
and projecting itself onto other time frames and places.
I cannot pass judgement on what man's capable of producing or not producing,
but I do know that satan would like to convince us that man's mind is all-sufficient and supreme itself,
that it can solve all of our problems by it's own sheer genius,
and that it has no need for God.
Man's mind is great! There is no question about that.
There has never been a computer yet that can match its capabilities.
But the mind is also darkened, defiled, depraved,and spiritually dead.
And we need to recognize this if we want our minds to be delivered from their natural,
sinful condition and fulfill God's purpose for their creation.
Jesus said we would know the truth, and the truth would set us free(John 8:32).
He was telling us that there are some things we need to know
in order to be released from our sin-sickness and satan blindness.
And the only way we will ever be free
to turn to God, is to get that information into our minds.
Since the mind is the control center of the life,
and since it is so dreadfully sick,
God through His Spirit puts particular emphasis on it as He applies His divine medication.
God the Holy Spirit works on the unbelievers' minds to convince them of three things:
sin, righteousness, and judgement. Our sin, God's righteousness, and God's judgement.
Finally repentance is linked to the Person of Jesus Christ.
The Bible presents Him as Son of God,
who left the realm of eternity to visit our planet,
who lived a sinless life,
who died a sacrificial death in our place,
and then arose triumphant over sin and the grave to secure our eternal salvation.
And He said He is the only way to the Father.(John 14:6)
It may require some changes in our way of thinking to acknowledge that.
But when we trust Him as our personal savior from the guilt and condemnation of sin, God promises to save us,(Acts 16:31),
that is to deliver us from the penalty which our sins justly deserve.
Then He releases our minds from satan's grasp, from darkness, defilement, depravity, fear,(False Experiences Appearing Real) and death.
In place of darkness, He gives light. In place of defilement, He brings cleansing.
In place of depravity, He allows eternal usefulness. In place of fear, He brings faith.
In place of death, He imparts eternal life.
And He opens our minds to whole new realms of spiritual truth. (excerpt from "Win the Battle For Your Mind," by Richard L. Strauss)
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The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
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