For us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind is inward and intrinsic, for it revolutionizes the way we think and perceive things, causing us to have the mind of Christ.
What is this “the spirit of our mind” spoken of in Eph. 4:23? At the time of our regeneration, Christ as the life-giving Spirit came into our spirit and mingled Himself with our spirit; now this mingled spirit seeks to spread into our mind, emotion, and will, and as it spreads into our mind, it becomes the spirit of our mind.
When we realise that Christ as the life-giving Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and now this mingled spirit spreads into our mind to become the spirit of our mind, we will be inwardly revolutionised, for this is a wonderful and great thing.
This mingled spirit, especially the mingled spirit spreading into our mind to become the spirit of our mind, is the key to the practical existence of the one new man.
The more we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, the more we put off the old man and put on the new man.
The question is, however, whether we allow the mingled spirit to move in, to spread into our mind, to bring the renewing into effect, or do we keep the Spirit imprisoned in our spirit and we do not allow Him to renew us in our mind.
If our mind is not renewed, if we’re not being renewed in the spirit of our mind, we cannot be in reality the one new man.
This is why Paul prayed that we would be strengthened with power (the same power that rose Christ from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of God, the power that subjected all things to Him and gave Him to be Head over all things) into the inner man, so that Christ may spread into all the inward parts of our heart.
For us to cooperate with the Lord’s renewing work, we need the Lord to strengthen us into our inner man so that we may strong in spirit, and so this mingled spirit would seep into the mind, invade the mind, and saturate our mind.
Our mind is unrenewed, and so much of the way we think and the things we think are old, unrenewed, and part of the old and natural man.
How can we having such an unrenewed mind be part of the one new man?
We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind; we need to be inwardly strengthened to cooperate with the Lord’s operation of spreading into all our thoughts, all the avenues of our mind…until we have the mind of Christ and are intrinsically part of the one new man.
Being Renewed in the Spirit of our Mind to have the Mind of Christ through the Cross
When we speak of being renewed in the spirit of our mind, we speak of an intrinsic and inward matter (Rom. 12:2); it is not some sort of a re-education or learning new concepts and doctrines, but going through an inward renewing process.
The renewing in the spirit of our mind revolutionizes our logic, philosophy, thought, concept, and psychology.
Our mind is the leading part of our soul, and what the mind thinks about, our emotion follows to love or hate, and our will follows to make decisions.
When God comes into us as the Spirit, He wants to spread into this leading part of our soul; Satan also knows how strategic part f our being is.
In Eph. 4:17 Paul tells us to no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the vanity of their mid; this is what the people today do – they are darkened in their understanding and they walk in the vanity of their mind.
There’s darkness in their understanding, and they give themselves to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness in greediness; but we did not so learn Christ!
Rather, the life of Christ was a life of reality, truth; and we have been taught in Him as he reality is in Jesus, that we would put off – as regards to the old manner of life – the old man, and put on the new man!
When Satan approached Eve, he did so in the form of a question to corrupt her mind from the simplicity that she had toward God.
When we open our mind to Satan’s questions, we are no longer simple and pure but become complicated and corrupted; our mind is corrupted by Satan, instigated and seduced by him.
Our spiritual warfare, therefore, is to tear down the strongholds that are the reasonings and thoughts, any reasoning rising up against the knowledge of Christ.
In the minds of many young people today Satan has done a blinding and darkening work, and they walk in the vanity of their minds. Oh Lord Jesus!
They even have come to disapprove of holding God in their knowledge, so God gave them up to a disapproved mind; this is why homosexuality is becoming so popular, common, and well accepted, for someone is working behind the scene to bring morality to the lowest level and to darken people’s mind. This is serious.
Even in the church among the believers, there are some who always learn but have never come to the full knowledge of the truth; their mind is not enlightened.
May we humble ourselves before the Lord, empty ourselves, and have our whole being unveiled with our heart directed and turned to the Lord as we come to His word.
When we allow the Spirit mingled with our spirit to spread into our mind, the enemy in our mind is exposed, and all his thoughts, philosophies, ideologies, and concepts are shined on.
Renewing is to have our mind changed in our religion, logic, and philosophy concerning the universe, mankind, and God by the Spirit of truth with the revelations in the Scriptures.
Being renewed in the spirit of the mind is to have Christ’s mind replacing our mind through the consuming work of the cross (see Titus 3:5; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 8:6; Phil. 2:5; 2 Cor. 4:16).
Merely reading the Bible in black-and-white letters doesn’t mean that we are renewed in the spirit of our mind; we may get more knowledge, more doctrines, and even more question (especially as we get into our mind), but not more renewing.
When we come to the word of God and to the ministry, we need to read it by the Spirit of truth, who can give us revelation.
And our mind must be replaced by the mind of Christ through the consuming work of the cross.
This means that the only possibility of God’s purpose being fulfilled in this age is that we would all be willing to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. We need to be willing to be renewed, and allow the Lord to penetrate and invade our mind.
Lord Jesus, we open to You; renew us in the spirit of our mind for the practical existence of the one new man. May there be a renewing going on in our mind so that we may no longer have our own natural mind but the mind of Christ. May the Spirit of truth guide us into all the reality of the revelations in the Scriptures, and may the mind of Christ replace our mind through the consuming work of the cross. Amen, Lord, we humble ourselves and empty ourselves so that we may have an unveiled heart, a heart that turns to You to receive more of the divine element added to it for the renewing of the new man!
The Renewing Spirit Spreads into our Mind to Renew our entire being by Putting Off the Old man and Putting on the new Man
Hallelujah, it is a fact that the renewing Spirit is mingled with our regenerated spirit as one mingled spirit; this one mingled spirit spreads into our mind in order to renew our entire being as a member of the new man by putting off the old man and putting on the new man (Eph. 4:22-24).
To put off the old man is to deny our old self and renounce it (Matt. 16:24).
To put off the old man is like putting off an older garment; we have to put off, with regards to our old manner of life, the old man – not only put away the sin and the worldly contact, but the entire old society, old community.
We used to hang out and be with a particular crowd, a particular set of buddies or mates, and now we put off the entire old social life and put on the new man.
Paul didn’t say that we should ask God to deliver us from the old man; rather, he said that we should put it off!
We may think we’re too old to make a change, we can’t really adjust to new things…and we may want to do a compromise, asking God to help us a little…but God just tells us to put off the old man!
To put on the new man is to apply what God has accomplished in creating the new man (Eph. 2:15; 4:24). We put off the old man by the cross, and we put on the new man by the Spirit.
The cross – the center of God’s administration in the whole universe – is here to take care of our old man. The cross doesn’t terminate just the sin, the flesh, and the world, but the entire old man, the entire old association and the old community life.
The Spirit – the reality of Christ, the center of God’s economy – is the means by which we put on the new man.
The renewing Spirit mingled with our spirit spreads into our mind to renew our entire being by our putting off the old man and putting on the new man.
In order to put off the old man, we must apply the cross to ourselves (Matt. 16:24); to put on the new man is for us to live and magnify Christ through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21).
As we call on the name of the Lord, pray-read His word, and contact the Lord, the Spirit bountifully supplies us; every day we need to receive and enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
We must be filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit will spread into our mind to renew us. We need to renounce ourselves, deny ourselves, and apply the cross to ourselves; this is to put off the old man.
Then, we need to live and magnify Christ through the bountiful suppl of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; this is to put on the new man.
The Lord uses all kinds of environmental sufferings to consume and kill our outer man so that our inner man may be renewed day by day. He wants us to be renewed until we become the New Jerusalem, new as God is new!
Lord Jesus, we praise You for the renewing Spirit mingled with our regenerated spirit as one spirit, spreading into our mind to renew our entire being! Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with Your inner renewing work by putting off the old man and putting on the new man! We renounce our self and put it aside, and we exercise our spirit over Your word to receive the bountiful suppl of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for us to live Christ and magnify Christ. Amen, Lord, we want to give You our cooperation to be renewed in the spirit of our mind!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 7, Being Renewed in the Spirit of Our Mind for the Practical Existence of the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Put on the one new man, / The old man strip away. / Pass through the cross to take Christ as / Our Person now today. / The Spirit with the cross / Is our unique supply / That causes us to be renewed / As one new man thereby. (Song on, One Person and One Way)
– By the cross discern the spirit, / With the mind by light renewed, / All emotion consecrated, / And the will in love subdued. (Hymns #748)
– Lord, remove my veil; / Let my mind be renewed. / Cast away evil thoughts in my head, Lord. / Fill me with Spirit full. (Song on, Lord, Remove My Veil)
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