Ephesians 4:20-22: You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
To be made new in the attitude of your minds.
When a person is born again, that person instantly becomes a new person in Christ. Paul states in II Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come! The spirit man passes from death to life.
The new birth experience is not a process, it is an experience that happens instantly. However, God's plan for dealing with the mind of a believer is a process.
Paul speaks about the renewing of the mind in Romans 12:2. Do not conform any longer 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.
What does Paul mean when he writes about being transformed by the renewing of the mind? In the process of the renewing of the mind, you choose to trade in the thoughts of the world's system for the thoughts found in the Word of God. You choose to believe God's thoughts, rather than the thoughts of the world's system.
Through the renewing of the mind, you trade in thoughts of condemnation for thoughts of forgiveness and acceptance. You trade in thoughts of confusion, anxiety and fear for thoughts of peace. You trade in thoughts of lack and poverty for thoughts of God's abundance. You trade in thoughts of sickness for thoughts of life and health in Jesus Christ.
To be made new in the attitude of your mind is simply the process of allowing your mind to come into agreement with the Word of God.
Often people refer to the mind as a computer. The analogy is often overused, however, it is a valid comparison. Any computer program is going to produce reports and analysis based on the commands that the programmer built into the program. Likewise, your mind thinks according to the way it has been programmed over the years.
Unfortunately, we live in a society that can be very negative. Therefore, most people think of themselves as very limited in life. Many see only failure.
Parents should make a diligent effort to program their children to think in a positive manner. However, many children have been programmed to believe that they are failures.
So, how do you go about renewing your mind to the Word of God? The first step is to make a decision that you will choose to believe what the Word of God says about you.
Recently, a young man I know, Sam Chen, needed a job. He wisely looked for a job that would be the best fit for his strengths. However, nothing worked out, and he needed to produce some income.
The only door for employment open was a commission sales position. Although Sam had never worked in sales, he chose to believe that God could bless him in this area. In essence he chose to believe the words of Paul, I can do everything through him who gives me strength, and the words of Jesus, Everything is possible for him who believes.
Sam found success and financial provision in this sales position, because he chose to accept what God's Word said about him. His focus on the possibilities available to him through God, opened the door for God to bless him in a new area.
A truly sad story about the children of Israel is found in Numbers 13-14. They lived in the wilderness, but God had chosen to give to them the land of Canaan, a land with abundant prosperity.
In Numbers 13:2 God says to Moses, Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.
Moses sent twelve men to survey the land. They returned with this report as recorded in Numbers 13:27-28: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large."
In verse 30 Caleb responds with a positive report and says, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
Numbers 13 ends with tragic words. The ten who brought the negative report say about the people of the land, "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
God's goal for the children of Israel in leaving Egypt was to bring them into the promised land. God intended to use the wilderness as a brief training period to prepare them to possess the land.
When God instructed Moses to send the men into the land, they were not going to determine God's will. God's had stated his will clearly. God was giving the land to the children of Israel.
God desired for this exploratory team to see the bounty of the land, and to prepare their strategy to conquer. God had no intention of calling a business meeting for them to vote on whether they should enter or not.
But ten of the spies had not renewed their minds. When they saw the people of the land, the men saw themselves as grasshoppers in their own eyes. They failed to see the greatness of the power of God. They obviously forgot the awesome power displayed by Almighty God in their deliverance from Egypt.
This evil report of unbelief given to the children of Israel incited rebellion among the nation against God and Moses. The people even talked of stoning Moses.
Then God chose to judge the nation. Remember, God was ready then to take the people into the land flowing with milk and honey. God's plan included a wilderness experience, but one brief in duration. God spoke to Moses and told him that everyone 20 years old or older with the exception of Caleb and Joshua would die in the wilderness and would not enter the promised land. God sentenced the nation of Israel to 40 more years in the wilderness, one year for each of the days the men were in the land of promise. The ten men, who brought the evil report and incited the rebellion, were judged immediately and died in a plague. The grasshopper mentality cost the nation of Israel dearly.
Jesus died to set us free from sin's dominion and to restore us to fellowship with the Almighty God. We have all suffered needlessly because we have not allowed the transforming power of God to work in us through the renewing of our minds to the Word of the living God.
Make a commitment to believe what God's Word says about you. Then, make a commitment to spend time in God's Word and study diligently what he says.
Let's move out of the wilderness into the land flowing with milk and honey.
Wayne L. Williams
wayne@fotwm.org