mind Archives – Sonshine's Journal

September 6, 2023September 6, 2023

What is on God’s Mind?

Ezekiel 35-37 Ezekiel continues to prophesy what God has told him, but these chapters are particularly confusing for us, and I wonder if it was for him.

First, God reminds Mt. Seir or the Edomites, who are Esau’s descendants, that He is angry with them for their treatment of their brethren in Judah. Thus, He has planned judgment for them and will not turn back so that they will know that “I am the Lord.” Amid this, God says He will renew Israel, so they too will know “He is the Lord.” When God exhibits His power, do I know it was Him and not me?

Secondly, God will bring new life into dead bones, which is a picture of our deadness and the new life Christ gives to us. When this happens, we too will know that “He is the Lord.” Without His power, salvation is merely a set of words, but when the Holy Spirit enters us, we come to new life and see our life with a purpose.

Both excerpts have a principle: God is sovereign over life and death. His power vindicates the enemy’s lies and restores us to new life.

October 14, 2013

The Battle is in the Mind! 2Cor 10

David Mathis, Ex Editor for Desiring God wrote in his blog yesterday: “In communicating the gospel, one of the essential things we must at least imply, if not make explicit, is the most offensive truth possible: you are powerless precisely where it matters most. You are dead to what truly is life.” When we come to grips with that statement and yield to Christ then we know the truth: “So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” [Rom 6:11] The heart of the matter is this: the gospel is offensive and the gospel workers are as well. Paul of all people faced it head on when he became aware of the charge: “some” were saying Paul was living by the world’s standards. Paul may have lived in the first century but the same charges are leveled today. It seems that although our enemy is strong and he has been honing his skills, his tactics remain unchanged. We are called hypocrites, complainers, judgmental and the list goes on and on. But, in godly wisdom Paul gives us some idea of how to face our foes and his ideas come straight from the book of Joshua. God is unchanging and His ways are unchanging. What worked then works now.

God told Joshua that He was about to defeat the enemies of Jericho, but there was a condition that must be obeyed scrupulously. They were not to take any of the riches of the city lest they make the Israelite camp subject to annihilation and cause a disaster. The same is true for us. We are not to take any of the riches of the enemy we face: “all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world” [1John]

In 2Cor 10 Paul tells us more: the riches of this world are the enemy’s stronghold: the arguments or reasonings that are hostile to Christ and His Word. These are the philosophies, reasonings, schemes of the world. The battle is in the mind and therefore we must take captive these enemies to the obedience of Christ. God has given us the weapons. We are but jars of clay and He wants to fill our jar with His promises and power. Here are a few.

2Cor 10:6 take every thought captive. Bind them and destroy them just as Joshua was to do to Jericho.
Eph 6/Ps 119:11 we have the sword of the Word, thus hide it in our heart. Memorize it and use it when the enemy comes
Is 41:10/Matt 28/Heb 13:5 I am with you and will never leave you nor forsake you. This is God’s promise just as it was with Joshua and the Israelites.
Ps 50:15 Call upon me in the day of trouble. That is our weapon of prayer.
Ph 4:19 I will supply all your needs. Whatever the battle is before you, God has what you need.

Today wherever the enemy has you in his stronghold, apply these to your situation and see the walls that he has erected come tumbling down so you can walk freely from the enemy’s camp into the newness of life that God has for you. You are the Rahab that God has saved, now go forth and proclaim the victory.

Remember the Battle is in the Mind!

August 21, 2013

“The D Word” is NOT Divorce!

Today would have been the anniversary of my in-law’s marriage. They lived through their 73^rd wedding anniversary, she dying on that day and my father in law 18 days later. They were a beautiful picture of true wedded bliss, literally bound to one another “until death do us part”. On the other side was my own mother who buried two husbands and was widowed for several years after. What does all of this have to do with today? In Romans 7, Paul is using the analogy of marriage to show that just as my mother in law was bound to her first husband for 73 yrs; she was never was “unbound”. It was death that unbound my in-laws, if even for a short period of time. My own mother was married for 35 yrs upon which my father died. She then was, unlike my in- laws, free to marry another and several years later she did. It was death that ended my own parent’s marriage relationship. It was death that ended my in-law’s marriage. Death is the only “D” word allowed!

Paul reminds us that once someone is crucified with Christ, who was raised from the dead, so are we also “raised to newness of life” and no longer bound to the Law. Jesus’ death and our acceptance of that sacrifice for our sin rescinded our binding to the Law.

Therefore, once freed from the rules and regulations from the Law, what is the believer’s responsibility? It is to see the Law as God’s standard of righteousness, to see how it reveals man’s sin, and to see it as a guide for life. One’s position becomes one’s practice so to speak. We are now to live a life of holiness that we may honor and glorify Him who gave so much. In the past we were slaves to sin, now we are slaves to righteousness. But, as Paul says, it will be a struggle between the flesh and our new spirit in Christ until we take that last breath. We struggle between what we want to do and what we should do. It is at times like this that we can only come to Christ for cleansing. IJohn 1:9 “But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.” Thus Paul ends this chapter by saying: Romans 7:25 “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” And that should be our ending as well.

Hangest thou in there Beloved!