Sunday 28 January 2018

A Sound Mind

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1 v 6 - 7: "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God,  which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

God has given us power, love and a sound, or healthy, mind.  This describes a mind that is free of fear, fantasy, delusion, uncleanness and torment.  God has given us a mind filled with good and pleasant memories and experiences, thoughts that bring blessings of joy.

If our minds are not healthy we need to change what is being fed into them.  If we only look at negative images on TV or laptop or mobile phone, we open a door into our soul that causes sexual perversion, idolatry, murderous thoughts, depression and other evils.  This is contrary to the spiritual abundance that Jesus has for us.

Romans 12 v 1 - 2: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
 2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Jesus wants us to renew our minds to conform to His Word, the Holy Bible.  We need to focus on God's will for ourselves, our family, our nation, other nations, and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to bring His will in place of the evil will of Satan and the carnal will of mankind.

All Christians are expected to present their bodies to God as a living sacrifice!  In line with the verse, Its no longer I that liveth but Christ who liveth in me.  This is a reality millions of Christians never seem to connect with.  To them Christianity is all about what God does for us, which is wonderful and blessed.  However, along with a sound mind comes the knowledge that we owe Him everything.

Recently there was a debate on Sky news about the decline of religion in Great Britain to where it is becoming irrelevant.  They were also bemoaning a moral decline.  When a people forsake their God, He leaves them to find a new people who will love Him with all their hearts.  The moral decline flourishes when sin has been justified to become the acceptable norm.  

Norms like legalising abortion, gay marriage, gay clergy brings all those countries into conflict with God's Holy Word.  The governments of those nations are no longer using a God-given sound mind, but are applying their corrupt fallen nature to the needs of man.  Those who bring cases against Christians who refuse to compromise with the national sin are much highlighted in the media.

Shortly after seeing this debate on TV I received a video of the late David Wilkerson called the Holy Remnant.  It was no accident that these two things coincided; Jesus was giving me His perspective.  He is coming soon and He wants His Body to conform to His high standards of righteousness and morality.  

The Holy Remnant as preached by David Wilkerson are those who will be raised up in the last days when the cold churches following the doctrines of men have their candlesticks removed.  The Remnant will be the ones who are birthed by the Intercessors and prayer warriors.  They will be filled with the Holy Ghost and fire and do amazing miracles that will bring millions of souls to Jesus.

It will need people of a sound mind, who are bold and fearless, to confront the ungodly predators who beguile the gullible as the Serpent did to Eve in Eden.  When God said, Don't eat of the fruit of that tree as it will be your downfall;  The Serpent said to her, He doesn't really mean that, He just doesn't want you to know what He knows.  So she ate the forbidden fruit and paid a terrible price.

He has no new tricks and cons many naive people into doing drugs, whispering into their ears, this can never hurt you!  That and other evils that change our lives into a downward spiral where we lose our sound mind and become slaves to a spirit of fear.  

We face fiery trials in these last days with the Antichrist rising bringing the nightmare of every conspiracy theory to full-blown reality.  Our undeniably corrupt ruling party has a new president making sweeping reforms and cleaning out the rot.  However he is a good Communist so there will be no Holy Remnant or Christian morality in the new cabinet, which means that before too long that decline will return to start a new season of problems.

Remember it is the narrow, moral, righteous way that leads to the life Jesus calls 'abundant'.  It's the broad, dangerous, risky, do your own thing way that leads to eternal separation from God.  He gives you a free will to choose the narrow or broad way, and God does not hide the consequences from us, unlike Satan who never shows you the fine print.  Never surrender your sound mind to His drugs, porn, and filth, rather reject all evil and stay spiritually pure.

When we think that drugs, alcohol, porn, lies, and compromise do not alter our minds in a way that favours Satan and cause us to behave in an unseemly way, then we lose our sound mind, we lose our confidence and our faith falters.  The way back to Jesus is through repentance and obedience and a determination to do it right.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, our souls consist of our mind, will and emotions which the enemy tries to control.  When we are born again You make a way for our sound mind to be restored.  Help us now O Lord to cleanse out the junk and give us pure and holy minds. Let us conform to Your will for us. In Jesus' name. Amen.