When omniscient God created mankind, He could have easily chosen not to give humans free will, knowing we all would sin. If He had made us without this freedom, we would be like mindless robots unable to think, reason, or choose. Love gives people the freedom to choose, even though free will is dangerous when people make unsound decisions, especially when hearts are selfish and hateful. Since Adam sinned, every human has a sinful nature that has ever since tyrannized mankind as “we reap what we sow.” Because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” and “the wages of sin is death,” the human race faces hell. Fortunately, God purposed Christ to pay the penalty of our sins, enabling believing sinners to become Christians and paving the way for the Spirit and mind of Christ to help control our sinful natures. Our Creator also gave each Christian a specific, unique purpose – to be a shining light that leads those in darkness closer to freedom in the Trinity.
We become a light as we consistently renew our minds, surrender to the Spirit, and rely upon the Spirit to do all things as we strive to achieve our God-given purposes. When many people are light together, it can make the darkness bright.
We All Face a War Against Our Sinful Nature
Humans face a spiritual battle to prevent sinful natures from causing their minds to become slaves to sin. Because we listen to Satan’s lies and the urges of the flesh, human freedom has been undermined by sin as people daily experience the consequences of unsound decisions. Rather than loving people and doing good, countless sinners have ignored believing in God’s Word, which always leads to freedom, and instead allowed the temptations of evil to consume their hearts constantly. “For as a person thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
To avoid going to hell, sinners need to be pardoned of their sins
God cannot tolerate sin, so man’s sins must be punished so God can remain perfectly just and holy. Fortunately, God is also a god of perfect mercy and love, evident when He had His Son die on the cross in our place to be the propitiation of our sins. Acts 16:31 says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved . . .”
If you haven’t accepted Christ as your Savior, please click on this website’s Plan of Salvation page to learn how to become a Christian: Plan Of Salvation
How Man Can Experience Freedom From Sin
The sinner-to-Christian conversion involves spiritual rebirth, where every believer gets a mind of Christ and the Spirit living in them. Christians can experience moral transformation and spiritual maturity growth by growing in the mind of Christ and consistently yielding to the Spirit despite the sinful nature’s presence. When our mind comes into agreement with the values of Christ and surrenders to the Spirit, our minds get renewed, and the Spirit controls our sinful nature until we break agreement with our mind in Christ and choose not to surrender to the Trinity.
The mind of Christ is the believer’s capacity to discern and understand Jesus’ thoughts, revealed to us through the Bible and the Holy Spirit. When we habitually read God’s Word and become doers of what Jesus values, the mind of Christ grows in our minds. Conversely, when we neglect to study the Bible, the flesh gains potency and momentum in luring us to ungodliness.
When we fall back to sinful nature’s former ways, we must repent and realize we are always forgiven, eternally loved, and accepted by God. We then must study God’s Word about the related spiritual issue that led us to sin and come back into agreement with Jesus’ thoughts as we recommit ourselves to be a light for Him.
Renewing our minds means replacing the old ways of the flesh with the ways of Christ in our thoughts. Through the Bible, we receive the knowledge of Jesus’ thoughts. When our mind’s value system shares the same views and desires as Christ’s, when His purposes and goals become the driving force of our thoughts, we surrender to the Trinity by basing our actions and decisions upon the thoughts of Jesus.
Values of Christ
A desire to bring glory to God. (John 17:5)
A longing to provide salvation for sinners. (Luke 19:10)
A perspective on humility and obedience. (Philippians 2:5-8)
A compassionate heart. (Matthew 9:36)
Prayerful dependence on God. (Luke 5:16)
Lives can be transformed, and purposes can be achieved if every Christian shares the same thoughts as Jesus. The thoughts of Jesus should be the driving force of every Christian’s actions.
Freedom requires sound decisions, and our most potent thoughts have the most significant influence on our choices. If the majority agreed daily with Jesus’ thoughts, progress could be made in the world’s epidemic sin problem.
Christianity can create a real significant change in society if most Christians consistently keep their minds renewed as they base their attitudes, decisions, and actions upon the mind of Jesus rather than their sinful natures. A lot more believers could possibly get saved and experience freedom from hell. There potentially could be a more significant percentage ratio of Christians in the world in comparison to unbelievers; if that were the case, then the Spirit could potentially have more control over sinful natures in a more significant percentage of people, increasing the probability that there would be less evil in this world, assuming the majority of those Christians consistently have renewed minds. If people would only daily choose with the help of the Spirit to sin less, if more people regularly surrendered their lives to God-given purpose, if purposes got people saved and shared God’s love, faith, and hope with more individuals, if more people exhibited fruit of the spirit traits, greater freedom from the world’s tyrant called sin is a definite possibility.
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character, reap a destiny” (Stephen Covey).
Just Build A Better You
“Your task is to build a better world,’ God said. I answered, ‘How?… this world is such a large, vast place, and there’s nothing I can do.’ But God said, in all His wisdom, ‘just build a better you.’” (Author Unknown}
You become a better you when you consistently allow the Spirit to renew your mind. As the Spirit empowers you to achieve your purpose, you become a bright light shining in this dark world.
When many Christians live successful Christian lives, a significant spiritual transformation of this broken world can happen, as many lights shine brightly together, making the darkness brighter.
Seeking to lure us away from the mind of Christ, Satan will constantly attempt to “steal, kill, and destroy” our success in achieving our purposes. He knows that when purposes get incrementally fulfilled, we become a light that shines on those struggling with darkness. We must take captive our thoughts when Satan tries to lead us to break our agreement with the mind of Christ. We must not let the Enemy’s lies deter us from achieving our purpose and being a bright light.
“Success is the continuing achievement of becoming the person God wants you to be and accomplishing the goals God has helped you set” (Charles Stanley).
“Purpose” can be defined as “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists”.
When designing the creation, the creator defines the characteristics, the tasks the creation does, the needs that the created object is supposed to meet, and who would benefit from the existence of the creation.
Our Heavenly Creator designed each of us to fulfill a unique, specific purpose for Him. I believe God desires our lives to lead people to Christ, bring them closer to Him, and promote hope, faith, and love to those struggling with the consequences of sin. He wants every sinner to become a child of God and for their minds to be consistently renewed with the mind of Christ. We are to live out the values of Christ and inspire others to do the same. To do that, we must always accept the mind of Christ in our minds and put those thoughts of Christ into action, led and empowered by the Spirit.
Before we were created, God determined what we would do, who we would do it for, and also how, where, when, and why we would do it. He chose what spiritual gifts, heart passions, abilities, personality, and life experiences you will have as He planned every detail of your life and purpose. God perfectly planned everything about you, including every day of your life. He knew every circumstance, every situation, every person your life would intersect with on each day of your life. Everything was perfectly planned.
Your responsibility: consistently allow the Spirit to renew your mind, surrender your life to God, pray for the Spirit’s direction and empowerment to do everything, and be devoted and faithful to your purpose to the very end.
Does your Creator view your life as a success?
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
God created you for a specific purpose; when you see Him in heaven, will He say, “Well done, good and faithful servant?”
The creation’s effectiveness influences the evaluation of the success of a created object by its creator in achieving the purpose of why it exists or was created.
If a created object fails to accomplish the reason why it exists, defined by its creator, then the created object would be considered by its creator as not a success; conversely, if the creation satisfactorily fulfills its purpose, then the creator would view it as a success.
Regardless of your performance, God the Father will always love, completely forgive and accept you. ‘There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we can do to make God love us less.’ God is perfect love and grace.
However, we should do our best to please Him by being good stewards of our lives. God considered us so valuable that He sacrificed His Son on the cross so we could subsequently be freed from hell and adopted into His family. If He deemed us so special, wouldn’t we want to do our best to serve Him and achieve our purpose?
We do things for God; we serve Him, not because we hope that He will love us and will be good to us, but from our knowledge of the fact that we know that He will always love and be good to us unconditionally regardless of our performance and from our appreciation of that fact, and also because of our love for Him and others, we should always strive to serve and love Him wholeheartedly.
Let your purpose be a driving force in your daily thoughts. Don’t let the devil “steal, kill, and destroy” your purpose. Stay in agreement with the thoughts of Jesus. Surrender consistently to the Holy Spirit as you rely upon Him to do everything. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
Sources:
https://christianityfaq.com/mind-of-christ/
https://www.allaboutfollowingjesus.org/mind-of-christ.htm
https://www.gotquestions.org/renewing-the-mind.html
Online Dictionary
https://stevekeating.me/2015/10/04/how-to-build-a-better-world/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN7v-AdvEIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzBGNNgvKFY
Take Every Thought Captive, Kelly Balarie