Building a Spiritual Mindset
SESSION 4
I am going to talk to you about building a spiritual mindset.
Our relationship with God contains two aspects that are really importantto Him, and two aspects that we must relentlessly practice.
They are placement and portrayal.
- Placement is what God has done for me in Jesus.
- Portrayal is how the Holy Spirit is helping me work that out in my relationship with the Lord Jesus.
Placement
So, whatever God does for you, He puts you into a place before Him and there is no power on earth that can take you out of that placement unless you choose to be taken out. God put you in. He is not taking you out. However, you can come out by default.
The placement is really important. It is your position in Christ. It is your place before the throne. It is your identity. It is all of those things mixed up together. As we understand that placement, and as we practice it, and as we live from that place, we get to portray who Jesus is for us to the world around us.
The first element of placement is the fact that I am in Christ. The Father put me into Christ. Only the Father can take me out. The fact that you are in Christ solves the problem of your old nature and your flesh and your carnality - which is what we have been learning together.
Placement is about the fact that you have been crucified in Christ. It is no longer you who lives; it is Christ who lives in you. The life you now live, you live by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you.
Placement. It is about agreeing with God’s perspective.
Romans 6:11 Consider yourself to be dead to sin and alive to God.
It is about faith in the accomplishment of Jesus.
John 17:4 I glorified You on earth having accomplished the work which You gave Me to do.
Your old man being dead was a part of that work.
John 19:30 It is finished. And He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.
Part of that placement, too, is the fact that you are complete in Him.
Colossians 2:10 In Him you have been made complete and He is the head over all rule and authority.
2 Corinthians 5:17 And, finally, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All the old has passed away, new things have come and all of those things are of God.
Portrayal
Jesus carried out the purpose of God in full. He got rid of the old nature and caused us to be born again with a new nature, which is God Himself. We are portraying Christ in us. So when people meet you, they need to be meeting the Jesus that is in you. And no matter the circumstances, no matter the opposition, no matter what is going on around those people, you are consistent in who you are because you are learning to walk in newness of life and you are portraying Jesus because that is your identity.
- Christ in you releases the nature of God to the full.
- Christ in you releases the promise of Presence always.
I love that. I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5) - Presence always. I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20) - Presence always.
All of our circumstances now are about who we are becoming. We are made in His image. We are carrying His likeness, and that is what we are portraying to the world around us. So, my identity in Christ and my portrayal of that is at the heart of my relationship with the Father.
Ephesians 2:22 We are now a habitation of God literally a dwelling place of God by the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:6 Our location is seated with Christ in heavenly places.
We are learning the “above lifestyle” of a citizen of Heaven here on earth. We are practicing a Heaven-to-earth mindset in our thinking. As in Colossians 3:1-3, we are learning how to set our mind on things above not on things on the earth.
Relational Thinking
What we are practicing is relational thinking - that is thinkingfrom the heart of our relationship not from our circumstances.
Relational thinking means that our mindset in the Spirit must be built
- on the Presence of God in us
- and the purpose of God for us.
Do you want me to say that in English?
Relational thinking means that our mindset in the Spirit must be built on the Presence of God in us, and the purpose of God for us.
John 17:3 This is eternal life that they may know You and Jesus whom You have sent.
A partnership with the Holy Spirit is to make the Presence of God present.
The question becomes, “How do you seek the Lord when He never leaves you nor forsakes you?” It is about seeking His Presence. It is about understanding that the Lord is in our circumstances when we go looking for Him. You know that God never leaves you nor forsakes you, therefore, He is here. You do not need any more proof than the fact that He said that He would never leave you nor forsake you, and He is not a liar.
Therefore, whether you feel Him or not is utterly irrelevant. There are days when God wants you to experience His tangible Presence and you will feel His Presence. It is utterly unmistakable. You will feel His Presence in your emotions. You will feel it tangibly. You will feel it physically.
On the days that you do not feel it, you get to believe it. Either way, we are cool. We have feelings and we have faith and they complement each other. Faith is not designed to cancel out your feelings. Faith is designed to augment them. God loves us to feel. He is tangible. He is tactile.
But there are days when God manifests Himself to you and you feel it. And there are days when He hides from you because He wants you to believe Him. He is always working on your trust. He is always working on your faith levels. That is the way it is.
Jesus said, “All things are possible, only believe.” What He is saying is, “When things are impossible, you have the easy job. You just get to believe” Funnily enough, that is what believers do. We believe. We just have to make sure that we believe what Jesus believes.
Keep God First
Seeking the Lord is about making God first in all things.
Colossians 1:18-19 He is also head of the body, the church, and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything for it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. That God would have first place in everything.
That is what we are learning as we are learning how to walk in our new man - to walk in newness of life. We are learning to give God the preeminence - God first in everything. No matter what the situation is that is occurring, our first thought is, I know You are with me. What is it that You want to be for me now that You could not be at any other time?
any other time?
I love that question. I do not know how many hundreds of times I have asked it over the last 20 years or so. What is it You want to be for me now that You could not be at any other time?
God has remarkable ways of answering that question. One of the most remarkable ways I ever heard was the story of a lady in a church I was at in England. I met her as I was running to a meeting. I was running late, and I met her in the corridor. As soon as I saw her, I knew she was going to stop me. I had that sense of impending doom.
She stopped me and she said, “You are a prophet, right?” And I said, “So it has been rumored, when I am not being a dirty bomb or radio-active, that is my day job.”
She said, “Well I have just been diagnosed as having cancer and have a few months to live. So my question is, ‘will I live or die?’”
I said, “Sweetie, I do not do births, marriages, or deaths. But I will say this; I have a great question that you should ask the Lord because He always answers it. Ask the Lord this question: What is it You want to be for me now that You could not be at any other time? Ask Him that question.”
I prayed with her and I said, “We are in the same church, so, you know my number. Give me a call. Keep in touch. I do not care if you call me every day (well I should not have said that because she did).”
“He is not saying anything.” Listen, if God does not speak initially, He always speaks eventually. That is what waiting on the Lord is all about. We wait in anticipation, not in frustration.
So, second day, third day, “He has not said anything.”
“He will.”
Fourth day, eight day, ninth day, eleventh day, “He has not said anything.”
“He will. He will, just quiet your heart and just listen.”
On the seventeenth day, she was in the grocery store; she was walking down an aisle. At the end of the aisle, a lady turns into the aisle with a shopping cart and two small kids. She recognized her as a girl that she used to sit next to in Junior High. They were getting reacquainted…how are you, how has it been…and all that kind of stuff when the older girl, she must have been around 7 or 8, was tugging at her mama’s dress saying, “Mommy, Mommy!”
“Not now Sweetheart.”
“Mommy, Mommy!”
“Not now Sweetheart, I am talking; mind your manners.”
A few minutes later, “Mommy, Mommy.”
“What is it?”
“That is the lady I saw in Heaven.”
Sixteen days before - this will be the second day of her asking the question, “What is it You want to be for me now?”- this 8 year old had a dream. She went to Heaven in this dream and she sat in Jesus’ office. They were chatting together about, you know, stuff, when she noticed a framed photograph of this woman on His desk. She asked, “Jesus, who is that woman?”
He said, “Oh, I want you to meet her when you go back, when you wake up. You are going to meet her in a couple of weeks and I want you to give her a message for Me.” Then He gave her a piece of paper. When she woke up in the morning, she had a piece of paper in her hand.
A couple of weeks later she was in the store, “Mommy, Mommy that is the lady!” So, she told her the story, and she said, “Jesus told me to give this to you.”
The question is, “What is it You want to be for me now that You could not be at any other time?”
She opened the paper and it said, I am the Lord that heals you.
Here is the thing: He could have given her that scripture. He chose not to. Why did He choose this roundabout way of doing things? I just think it is what passes for fun in the Kingdom. I do not know of any better reason than that. I think God just enjoys the process. He likes things to be a little, sometimes really simple. Sometimes He likes to make it just a little bit complicated. Who knows?
We give Him the preeminence. What does that mean? It means as new people in Christ, as new man walking in newness of life, whenever we get into a situation, the first thing that we do is we come to the Lord and we ask relational questions. What does this situation mean to You and I in our relationship?
The Best Questions
The two best questions you can ask were both asked on the day of Pentecost.
Acts 2:12-2:37 What does this mean? And what must I do?
Never ask the Why question because the Why question never gets answered on earth. Why me? Why now? Why this? God will never answer the Why question. It is the wrong question. It is actually an invalid question that makes you an invalid if you ask it. It is a victim question and you are not a victim. The questions you ask the Lord are,
- What does this mean?
- What does this mean for my relationship with You?
- What does this mean for my identity? What does this mean for our walk together?
- What must I do in the light of what You want to do?
Made in His Image
Our thinking needs to be relentlessly realigned with God’s eternal purpose in Genesis 1:26, He is making us in His image.
Romans 8:29 We are now predestined to be conformed to His image.
That means we have been marked out beforehand to walk in fullness and carry His Presence. Long before you met Him, He marked you out as a carrier of Presence. He predestined you to know Him relationally and to walk in His company.
Ephesians 1:5-11 – We read this earlier this morning. Three times in that passage, it talks about the kind intention of His will. Verse 5, verse, 9, verse 11, the “kind intention of His will” that He does all things according to “the kind intention of His will”. So, when situations get difficult in our life, we are still governed by the kind intention of His will, and it is important for us to not come to God just in a functional sense (you know, like, I am a Christian, get me out of here), just to go for rescue or solve this problem, praying functional prayers (Get me out of this, Lord, help me. Give me something so that I can be this), because the Lord wants to be something to you relationally.
Sonship
Our mindset has to be rooted in our relationship with God from our heart. I know you, Lord. You are training me to be a son. You use everything in my life to put the stamp of Your image on me, in me. I know that is Your primary purpose - to make me like You. So, how do we do that in this situation? What is it that I am about to learn in terms of my sonship with You that will make this situation become entirely different to me?
We do not just go to God functionally (Lord, I have a problem, solve it), because we need to give Him the preeminence. Lord, this is about You and it is about me. It is not about this problem. This problem is about You and about me. Who You are going to be for me and what I am going to portray in You.
A mindset is relational. It is set in alignment with God’s primary purpose. His purpose is to bring many sons into glory. Sonship is one of the highest agendas of the Lord Jesus. So, relationally, we set our agenda to His. I know this situation is about sonship. It is about You and me. I know You want to be something for me. And, I know You want to change something in me so that I can reflect more of You.
Romans 8:28 fits into that relational mindset that God can work everything together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Two conditions: if you want everything to work together for good, then in the situation there is some love to be had between you and Him. And, there is an understanding that this situation that I am in fits with His primary purpose. God is going to use this situation to make me more like Him.
What does this mean for my relationship with You? What must I do? How do I cooperate with the Holy Spirit? I am learning how to grow up into Christ in all things, so everything, then, is about the stance we take in our circumstance. What is your stance before the Lord? What is your position? What is your posture? It comes out of your placement; it is rooted in your portrayal.
Often our disconnect with God occurs because we come to Him in our functionality not in our relationship. He wants to be something for you. We only want things from Him. For those who love God and want to be like Him, everything works together for good for those people.
| All of God’s dealings with us are to produce sons. |
Whatever God is, He is relentlessly. He is relentless about sonship. Why? Because He wants to be a Father. He wants to be a Father of many nations. He wants to be a Father of hundreds of millions if not billions. He wants sons. But, He wants particular sons – He wants glorious sons, not radioactive ones. He wants many sons brought into glory.
All of God’s dealings with us are to produce sons.Hebrews 2:9-11 We do see Him who is made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the Author of their salvation through suffering. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, for which reason He is never ashamed to call us Brethren.
He is never ashamed to call us Brothers.
We are learning about this sonship. He is not ashamed of us in any way, shape, or form, because everything that would have made us feel shame went on the cross in Jesus. Shame can never be a part of your life. You may do things wrong and you may feel embarrassed or even a little humiliated, but you are not allowed to feel shame because it is not in the heart of God for you to make you feel shame or guilt or condemnation.
Sonship is always relational. The image of God, sonship relationship. This is who I am to you; this is who you are becoming in Christ.
All your life situations exist and take place between those two points. Who God wants to be for you; what you are learning about being Christ-like. Every situation takes place between those two points. So, you always know where you are with God because He never changes.
I am the Lord, I change not.
We are always discovering the nature of God and we are always exploring the nature of a son. We are always experiencing life in a shame-free environment; it is called the household of God.
So, God is first in all things. We are learning to give Him the preeminence. What He is doing takes precedence even over who you are becoming. He initiates, we respond. Or, as Jesus put it, My Father works and I work, John 5:17.
As Paul put it, We are God’s workmanship. Ephesians 2:10.
God works in us to will and to do for His good pleasure. When God shows you what He wants to be for you, then you know what you can become. It is a beautiful thing that God has put everything in that space. It is only ever about relationship. So, our mindset has to be relational. We call it relational thinking.
Relational Thinking
Hey, Lord, thank You for this situation. What does it mean for You and I? What is it You want to be for me? What do I get to be in Jesus?
Ask the right questions; get brilliant answers.
Sometimes we pray without even thinking because we are so conditioned when something happens, you pray. Honestly, if something happens and you pray, probably seven times out of ten, you are going to pray the wrong thing. You are going to pray out of your circumstances not out of your relationship. And, the odds are, you are going to pray in fear or worry or panic, so you are going to pray the wrong thing.
There is only one prayer to pray and that is the prayer that the Son of God is praying before the Father. It is the prayer that the Holy Spirit is interceding for us because He knows our weaknesses.
Two of the most powerful people in the God Head are both praying about your circumstances. Do you not want to know about what They are praying? You are only going to find out if you give God the preeminence. If you come to God relationally, then you can hear.
Going back to that story of the woman and the note, you know what meant the biggest thing to her? It was not the note I am the Lord that heals you, that she got a note from Heaven, but, she was in a framed photograph on Jesus’ desk. That is what meant the most. That is why He did it. It was relational.
You mean, He has a photo of me in Heaven on His desk? Of all the billions of people, He has a photograph of me? That is a big deal. And that He would bring a child to Heaven to see it and then arrange for them to meet in a grocery store.
Romans 8:14 All who are being led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.
Galatians 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Blood Bought Sons
When God talks about adoption, He does not mean adoption as we understand it in the West - that you did not belong to someone and now legally you do belong to someone. God did not want legally binding children. He wanted blood bought children, He wanted real children. So, adoption does not mean what we think it means in the world.
The adoption as sons takes place in our circumstances.
Adoption is where we learn sonship. We learn to walk with the Father. We learn to have integrity; that our yes is yes, that what we say we will do, we will do.
Tests
The Lord gives us tests in relationship. The tests are designed to enable you to pass them and move on in your sonship. God gives us tests, but they are all open-booked tests. The Bible is the biggest cheat sheet in the world. They are all open-booked tests.
Here is the brilliant thing, you cannot fail any of the tests! You just get to take it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, until you pass. That is called favor. God does not fail you, He just says, It is okay, we can take it again.
A few months’ time, when you think He has forgotten, He creeps up on you, same test. You can change cities and that test will follow you. You can get on a plane, the test will be written on the back of your boarding pass. It will be waiting at the gate when you get there. You can change jobs or churches; the test goes with you because the test is in you.
The test is about your sonship. It is about who you are becoming. The test is do you believe about yourself what God believes about you? That is the test – always. God said something. Do you believe it? You get a prophetic word. Do you embrace it? God gives you a particular scripture. Do you own it? That is the test.
The test is, who are you becoming now? The test is who is God for you now, and who are you becoming in Jesus? The test is, are you living out of your placement and are you portraying what God is giving you? All the tests are simple, yet elegant. Tests.
The adoption of sons, therefore, is you learn how to grow up in the Lord. You learn how to grow up in the Father. You learn how to be about your Father’s business.
Ceremony of Adoption
There comes a point in your relationship with the Lord when He wants to make a statement about you to the world around you. And, so in Jewish custom, what they would do then is they would have a big party and erect a stage, a platform, in the square, and the father would bring the son up in front of the whole community that knows him. And he would say, This is my beloved son; when he signs a check it is as though I have signed the check. When he gives his word it is as though I have given that word. You treat him as you treat me. He speaks for me, he acts for me, and he is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
That is the ceremony of adoption where the whole community adopts you as an absolute representative of the Father. You are made in His image. And, dealing with you is like dealing with the Father, no different. The whole community adopts you and they have a big meal. It is the ceremony of adoption.
The adoption of sons takes place in our circumstances. As we pass our tests, as we learn how to walk with God in truth and integrity, we pass our tests, and then He trusts us.
There are two things God is doing with us; one is teaching us how to trust Him in everything; and secondly, He is learning if He can trust us with the things that He wants to give us. Then when the Father feels He can trust you, He will let everyone around you know it. It is relational.
Provisions of Sonship
As in non-stop; as in, He is relentlessly training us for sonship. Why? Because there are things that can only come to us through sonship. They can only come to us through relationship. We are learning to be beloved sons in whom He is well pleased.
There is an inheritance that comes to sons.
God is always training us for sonship – always as in always.There is an inheritance that can only come to our identity. The provision of God does not come to your circumstances; it comes to your identity. The inheritance of God comes to your identity. God is not resourcing my circumstances, He is resourcing my identity. Things come to us relationally through our sonship. That is why it is important that we pass our tests and that we ask those two great questions: What does this mean for us relationally, and what must I do?
When you get into the joyful habit of understanding that when you focus on sonship as He is, then there is going to be a partnership between you that will be greater than any circumstance you inherit. God is always training us for sonship.
Hebrews 12:5-10 You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons; My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected him. Shall we not much more rather be subject to the Father of Spirits and live, for they disciplined us for a short time as seen best to them, but He disciplines for our good so that we may share His holiness.
Sons. It is important for us to know that in our inner man we have both the child and the fully mature son because God sent the Spirit of Adoption into our heart crying Abba, Father! That means Daddy and Father.
So, you have these two relationships going on with God, the much loved child and the fully mature son. It is not that we leave the much loved child and progress into maturity. You take that child with you because your relationship with God is between those two places. The simple love of a much loved child – the simple trust of a much loved child who believes that Dad can do anything and the adult faith of a fully mature son.
On the days when you cannot believe like a fully mature son, you can always trust like a much loved child. So, when God looks at you, He sees the child and He sees the fully mature son.
We are going to watch a movie clip right now from the move Hook. I like this scene because inside each of us is the identity that God has given us in Christ and it is waiting to come out. Sometimes that identity can be obscured by time or age or circumstances or effects of life in a hostile world. When God looks at us, He sees only the identity that He has bestowed on us. And, He loves to look at you and call that identity up. So let us watch the clip.
I Know You!
Life in Jesus is always about recognizing identity. There was a time when Jesus asked a question, Who do people say that I am? He did not ask the question because He was having an identity crisis. Nor was He fishing for compliments. He wanted to see if they knew who He was.
when God is going to look
you right in the eye and say,
“This is who you are. I see you.”
Peter stands up and suddenly he has this epiphany. You are the Christ! The Son of the Living God. And Jesus grins at him, and says, Back at you Simon. But now I am going to call you Peter; and on this rock I will build My church. On the revelation that you had of Me, I will build the church. In fact, Jesus looks at him and He does not see Simon any more, but He sees Peter, the Rock, and He calls it up in him.
Listen, you have to understand that there are going to be times when God is going to look you right in the eye and say, This is who you are. I see you.
When I first went to Africa, I was walking and running through the bush from village to village preaching the Gospel. I had a guide, a white guide from Namibia called Yanny. He said, “Graham, the greatest gift a white man can give to a black man is to say these words: I see you. I see you. I recognize you. I know who you are. It is not just I know your name, but I see you. I recognize you. I know who you are.
There are times when God wants to look at us and say, I see you. I know who you are. And sometimes the greatest gift we can give to one another is to say, this is what I know about you. The greatest gift we can give to one another is to speak the truth in love, and to tell each other this is how you are known in Heaven.
The times when we need to be prophesying, it is just a prophetic conversation, this is how the Lord sees you, this is who you are. To give people scriptures and say, The Lord gave me that for you. I see you. I know who you are.
Discipline is for Our Profit
There are times when the Lord wants to look inside you and call something up because He deals with us as with sons. Even when He is disciplining us, it is always about sonship. Even when the Lord rebukes us, it is still about sonship. He deals with us as with sons.
You know, discipline is vital in all forms of life because it enables us to meet targets, deadlines, keep our word, and keep our promises. Discipline is the fuel for our learning and our becoming. You are becoming something every day and every week. It is relentless. You are always becoming something. That something is either going to be positive or negative. Discipline primarily is concerned with nurturing, educating, instructing, and training. We are learning how to train ourselves and how to train one another in Christ.
It is also concerned with correcting any imbalances so that we can create a better union with God. When necessary, it becomes reproving and admonishing. It is a training that is gracious and firm. It is not just about tough love. It is where we say to each other, you cannot be doing that because this is who you are. You should quit doing that because it does not match up with your real identity in Jesus.
We used to have a saying in England in this apostolic team I was a part of, and it was God may wink at things, but the Brethren do not let you get away with nothing. Discipline is always a sign of great love. And if it is not, do not do it. It is primarily relational. It is for our profit. It is for our good. It is so that we can become holy. That is the motivation that God has for us. It is in that context of disciplined development in training and lifestyle that we understand that everything is for our profit. He works all things together for good.
What if there is no situation that you cannot profit from? And, what if the reason that we do not profit is because we are not seeing what God is seeing? But, if we stood before God relationally, and approached these circumstances relationally with God, we would start to see things that have been hidden from us before.
When we start to walk in newness of life and our old way of thinking stays in the grave with Jesus, we get to think differently, and we get to see differently. We get to relate to God differently. Our thinking in Christ is always relational.
Count it All Joy
Negative emotions impact dramatically on our thinking because we believe the worst. We get into panic, fear, and worry. We have an anxious lifestyle and we are tired and we make other people tired.
Building the right mindset is the key to healthy emotions.
Have you ever been around those people who are always anxious? They make you tired. They are hard to be around. Those people always believe the worst. They are tiring to be around. There are no “Eeyores” in Heaven. They all get changed on the way up.
Romans 2:4 Do you think so lightly of the riches of His grace not knowing that it is the goodness and the kindness of God that leads us to repentance?
If all of your thinking has brought you to a place you do not like, have another thought.
Sometimes it is not the situation that is difficult, it is the way we are seeing it. Your circumstances are not the problem. Your perception of your circumstances is the problem. Change your perception and you will see the purpose of God. Alignment is that much simpler. Count it all joy is a perception and a mindset.
Like all the disciples are saying, Well, you know, we have famines over here, we have pestilence over here, and we have persecution there. How do we kind of reconcile all of these things? How are we thinking, we have people who are under the weight of oppression with things here and things there and how do we reconcile all of these things? How do we bring it all together? They are maybe having a conference for four or five days and getting nowhere, and then James stands up and says, Guys, why do we not just count it all joy? That is a word of wisdom if ever I have heard one.
If you count it as joy, you can smile. You can laugh. You can stand in the Presence of God. You can feel light. Jesus stood up at a feast and He said, Come to Me all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you for I am meek and lowly in heart and I will give you rest unto your soul. My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30
Hey, He is only looking after nearly 7 billion people.
My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Paul talks about difficulties and so on as being a light and momentary affliction.
My peace I give you, not as the world gives.
In other words, conditionally and in a temporary manner, I will give you rest. The rest is a gift. Peace is a gift.
Build the Right Mindset
Building the right mindset is the key to healthy emotions. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Our mind is a key part of developing our relationship with God. As a man thinks in his heart so is he.
The right mindset allows us to experience God’s Presence consistently so that we can think and act and speak from Presence not towards it. Okay, I am going to say that again in English.
The right mindset allows us to experience God’s Presence consistently so that we can think and act and speak from Presence that we are engaged with, not towards Presence because we become disengaged.
We fight from victory not towards it. We pray with God not towards Him. We think from Presence not towards Presence. You are in the Presence of God; think from that Presence. We are not thinking to try and get somewhere with God, we are thinking because we are somewhere with God. We are thinking from that place.
Our mindset in Christ is key to our image in God.
A poor mindset will cause our minds to be hardened so that our perception and vision is obscured.
2 Corinthians 3:14-18 For their minds were hardened for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their heart. But whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord the Spirit.
If you are being changed from glory into glory, it follows that all change is glorious. So, where is the glory in your current circumstances? Because if God is saying that glory is available, why do we not have it? Why do we not look for it? Why do we not expect it?
The right mindset is like a mirror that empowersus to see His image in us and ours in Him.
The right mindset is like a mirror. It empowers us to see His image in us and our image in Him. What we think empowers what we see and enables transformation. When our mind is renewed we partner powerfully with the Spirit of Liberty. Our veil is lifted. Our vision is unimpaired.
Like a mirror, our renewed mind reflects back to us all that God is to us and all that we are to Him and all that we are in Jesus. Like a mirror, our renewed mind reflects back to us all that God is to us and that we are to Him in Jesus.
When our mind is dull, we see in the mirror darkly. We receive partial understanding that restricts our current relationship with the Lord.
What do you see when you look at yourself in Christ? What is the mirror-image of His favor and His kindness and His love? What grace is yours, right now, today, to be made in His image?
When God speaks to you, His words are Spirit and Life. When you embrace them it is like holding up a mirror in front of your face. When you embrace the Word of the Lord, you see it reflected because the Word of God is a mirror that enables you to see who you are really becoming.
In that mirror, do you believe what God believes about you?
