THE MIND OF CHRIST

- By Raja
__________________________

1 Corinthians 2:16: “for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we
have the mind of Christ.”

You have heard of people being physically out of shape. As christians, it is possible for us to be
mentally out of shape. Because we are constantly feeding through what others give us, hence
we have forgotten how to think for ourselves. As disciples, we need to learn to think, or teach
ourselves to learn. You need to ask yourselves, have you taught yourselves how to think? Or
are you running off of what others say?

Not rules, not methods, not process, but principles. Principles that you can build your lives on.
__________________________

Mark 12:30: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind and with all your strength.’”

What does it mean to love God with all your heart? It means to love with all of your emotions.
Your emotional nature should be intertwined in your walk with God. Are you angry? Excellent!
Time to go to God angry and then walk away in peace. Love God more than you love your wife
or husband or children or music or dancing or gaming.

Next, with all your soul. There’s things called choices, then there’s your will and then there’s
God’s will. Loving God with all your soul is to take on that willing nature. When you don't want to
do something but you know it's the right thing to do, you change your will and go by God’s will.
You are not doing things grudgingly, reluctantly or out of sadness. The realization that you have
your own will, but you wish to follow God’s will regardless is key.

Next, with all your mind. To love God in an intellectual manner. At times, you need to reason
things out- You can reason things out with God. You may read something in the bible and it
might encourage you to change your previous decision- Reason it out with God based on what
you know and based on what you understand.

Finally, with all your strength. At times when we are tired and worn out, the quality of our
prayers may not be that great. Or you may wake up at 5am yet have a drowsy prayer- Maybe
waking up at 6am and having a charged up prayer is a better idea. Now eventually you want to
improve on the wake up time, but the key is learning to love God with all your strength.
__________________________
Matthew 21:28: 28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the
first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ 29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he
changed his mind and went.

1. LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR MIND

The Bible does not simply say the son decided to go, it specifically says he changed his mind.
We can change our mind.

A few good questions to ask ourselves is-

● What does God desire?
● Why isn't my mind changing when I read my Bible?
● What will honor God?

If you’ve got a cheap notebook and pen which you’re using for your bible study, where the
notebook starts falling apart and the pen does not write, you need to stop disrespecting yourself
and your bible study. Your bible study is one of the most important parts of your relationship with
God. Make the change. Get a good, well-priced notebook that will last, along with an excellent
pen that will write. Make your bible study time awesome. At times we stagnate in our christian
life because we’re simply doing what everyone else is doing. There is no thought put in from
yourselves individually. Teach your mind to observe. Let’s take a look at Psalms 19 to see what
the Bible says:
__________________________

Psalm 19:1-5:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens
God has pitched a tent for the sun.
5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

2. TEACH YOUR MIND TO OBSERVE THE SPIRITUAL THINGS

We tend to observe only what our flesh desires and we do not observe spiritual things.
Everyone believes and exercises faith in some way or form, faith is found everywhere. Even an
atheist has faith that his car will get him to work. You have faith that you wont get a flat tire on
your car. You have faith that the chicken you’re cooking will turn out good, but it might turn out
bad- or it might turn out good. Knowingly or unknowingly, everyone exercises faith. Faith is all
around us. Stay focused on the spiritual and you will figure out the material. If you stay focused
on material things, you will be stuck there and will never be able to focus on the spiritual.
__________________________
Ecclesiastes 1:13: “13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done
under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!”

3. TRAINING YOUR MIND RELIES ON YOUR ATTITUDE

The mind needs to be trained to gather information. At times information from the bible, at times
insights, at times ideas- But why would you want this? There are only 2 proper reasons why:

1. You want this so that you can know God better and get closer to God.
2. You want this so that you can serve people.

Only as we grow, can we help others to grow. If we have not grown spiritually, then we cannot
help others grow spiritually. You need to always ask YOURSELF, “Have I grown?”. Work on
changing your mind first, only then can you help others grow. Listen to what is being said, listen
even more carefully to what is not being said. Learn to ask questions. Learn to let go of
questions. Listen to the children, become like a child and you can learn a lot from them. Listen
to elders as their experience can help you avoid mistakes. Listen to your discipler and ask
questions to your discipler. Many of us, all we do is listen to our discipler, we don't ask questions
to grow, we only ask questions out of arrogance. You learn when you question to gain clarity
and understand better. You need to have the attitude that you are done living like a coward and
you wish to live like a Lion. If you are going to allow something in your life, don't expect a
change- expect continuity.

We grow through reading. We need to be good readers. Fake spirituality has no value, however
authentic spirituality is one of the most valuable things. Nothing worth having comes easy, this
includes a mind that loves God. If you want a mind that loves God, you need to make that
decision and work towards obtaining it. At times you will feel like quitting- That’s when you
remind yourself why you started in the first place.
__________________________

Never forget that we do all of this to serve people -

So we may love the Lord our God with all our mind.