Right Mind part 4
With your right mind (the mind of Christ) you can think the right thoughts. And I'm not saying try really hard to figure out God's thoughts and then try to think them and then try to do them. That's way too much thinking. Way too much trying. That's the way that SEEMS right to a man, but leads to death. I think we have this idea of "God's thoughts" as being mysterious and just out of reach. And I think this idea comes from Isaiah chapter 55. Verses 8-9 read like this, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." But here's the deal: That's an OLD TESTAMENT passage of Scripture. Something that was rectified by the cross. God GAVE us His Spirit--the love receptor--and now, when we LET the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us... His thoughts ARE our thoughts. There's no longer this separation of heaven and earth. Now it's the days of heaven ON earth. Now it's not us trying to figure out what His thoughts are, and trying to think them. Now it's Him thinking His own thoughts in us and through us and as us. Before the cross it was like this, "And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" (Matthew 9:4). That's all we had. That's the best we could do. Because our hearts hadn't yet been circumcised. There was still the flesh of human effort covering the love of God buried deep inside. But now that Jesus has finished the work we have moved into a realm and a dimension where the tree of good and evil has been cursed and done away with. Now we can read Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end," and we can KNOW and BELIEVE what God's thoughts are! Right mind. Mind of Christ. Thinking thoughts of peace. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9). When you think thoughts of peace, you become a peacemaker. You become a healer. The evil that once dominated your thinking--and I'm telling you, religious people are the some of the worst when it comes to picking fights about any and everything--has been replaced with the truth that all is well. It's ok. Daddy loves you. He's got your back. You are who you're supposed to be, and you are where you're supposed to be. So stop trying to be someone else--you're not "bad" and you don't need to change to "good."--and just be who you are. You WERE dead in your trespasses and sins, and that's why death and trespasses and sins dominated your thinking. You were trying to escape from that bondage with your own strength. Trying to fight sin instead of simply laying it aside. Fighting the lie instead of merely laying hold of the truth. Doing the best you could with what you had... but the problem was you didn't know what you had so you didn't think you had ANYTHING. Lookin for love in all the wrong places because you didn't realize it dwelt in you. Remember we started this Rant series with the man posessed by the multitude of demons? Listening to all of those voices screaming at him? But all it took was an experience with Jesus for him to find rest and be clothed in his right mind. Jesus, in His still, small voice, drove out all of the distractions and told us--SHOWED us--the truth. God isn't distant and far away and angry. He is right in our midst. Right in our very being. He lives in us! And as we live in Him He lives THROUGH us. It's not necessary for us to try to be like Him, or think His thoughts, or get something we don't have. All we need to do is begin to understand His thoughts--He already told us what they are--and begin to experience what we already have. Who we already are!