Your Mind. Romans 12:2 Christian living means we choose to do the will of God from the heart and are committed to the interests of the kingdom of God. It also means we break away from the ways of the world system, knowing that God’s will is always in the best interests of His people. The basis of that commitment is “the mercies of God.” The action of commitment is to “present (offer) your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable to God.” The means of commitment is to “be not conformed to this world but be transformed (transfigured) by the renewing of [our] minds.” The result of commitment will be that we know and prove the will of God by consistent practice.
The means and the result are that a believer rejects the practices and beliefs of this age and lives for the blessings of the age to come. We will experience by action and practice that God’s will is good, acceptable and perfect. God’s mercy moves a believer to give themselves and commit themselves to God’s will. Serving the Lord is a sacrifice; a daily decision each day to be about our Father’s business in the kingdom of God.
We will learn to think like God and want to do what He puts in our hand “as to the Lord.” Lordship begins with confessing Jesus as Lord when we are saved and is a progressive submission to His Lordship each day for our whole life. In order for this to be real, we need to know the word of God by having daily fellowship with Him in prayer and reading the Bible. When we do that, the Holy Spirit has a person He can use.
As I hear this urgent plaintive call for consecration in the lives of the saints of God, I am made conscious of that which hinders consecration - it is the world; literally, the age in which we live. The fashion of the age is arranged by the "god of this world," Satan, and he keeps changing the fashion of it to keep it appealing to the wandering minds of human beings. He has a pattern of life he wants everyone to conform to - to be molded into. There are areas of life in this age that are contrary to the intelligent, spiritual, priestly worship God desires from us.
The world's religion seeks to placate the disturbed consciences of those who are convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit. "The pleasures of sin for a season" are avidly followed by those who want to blot out the real issues of life that people need to face day after day. The education of the world seems to deliberately try to turn people away from the knowledge of God to the changing ideas and philosophies of those who do not want to think they are in any way accountable to God. The "brethren," Jews and Gentile believers, need to heed this call to consecration because the world system will never cease trying to pressure us into what is acceptable to it.
The human mind when God created man, was able to enjoy what God enjoyed and would focus on that that which brought pleasure to God. When sin came in, the mind was "darkened." The mind was that which made man a "living soul" after the body was formed out of the dust of the ground. The life of the soul includes the senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing and smell, by which we respond to all we see all around us. The mind also is able to produce thoughts, imaginations, and intelligent reasoning. It can retain things by memory that we have experienced in the past.
The control of the mind is a calculated attempt by the world-system to control and conform a person to it, and the activities in which it wants one to engage in. The Holy Spirit doesn't just inform us but challenges us to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. The transformation (transfiguration) of the mind is not just an outward change. That is just being conformed. "Transfiguration" is an inward change that comes from the renewing of the mind.
The question that is often asked is, "How can the mind be renewed?" This begins in a believer when we are born again. The mind of the unbeliever is dead to God. We became alive to God in our spirit when we were "born of the Spirit." So, the renewing of the mind does not refer to spiritual life. Our bodies remain the same as they were before we were saved, and will remain this way until we are instantaneously changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that the renewing of the mind means taking controlling power over the soul by capturing the imaginations that sometimes run wild, the attractions of pleasure that appeal to our base nature, the feelings that can be moved by music and entertainment. Even memory has a tendency to focus on the things that happened when Satan was in control. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God both have the power to aid us in bringing about this transfiguration within the soul.
One who walks in the Spirit learns to yield their whole self to God. This includes both the body and the mind since ideas and decisions are conceived in the mind and carried out by the body. Yielding to God leads to dedication to God, separation from the world and transformation of the mind. This involves a lifetime of renewing the mind. Our minds can be darkened by sin in an unguarded moment of not “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Through meditation on the word of God and with earnest thanksgiving, supplication and prayer, we let “in everything[our] requests be made known unto God.” Then we can live day-to-day as God intends.
The whole of conscious living has to be directed by faith in the One who made us a "new creation," and gave us a new direction for our intelligence to follow. Memory and feelings are able to be controlled by yielding to the Spirit, because "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." Because we are "in Christ" and He in us, we can experience God's will in our lives. It is good for us and acceptable to Him. God's will when practiced, brings us into maturity.
Replacing our old ways of thinking and getting God’s perspective, we will be able to recognize God’s will more and more. He doesn’t dictate details of everything in our lives but gives us spiritual principles so that we can make wise everyday decisions. Spiritual transformation leads to spiritual and moral growth in a believer’s life that pleases God. It may not please us, but we can’t improve on the will of God.
God wants us to do what is morally good and produces good effects on other people; that is acceptable to Him. How we use our gifts, opportunities and resources to produce the greatest effect for the kingdom of God, is God’s will for that situation or event.
Believers are in a state of spiritual growth when we present our bodies as our priestly worship, and when our minds are renewed. Our whole life-experience is transfigured from within. The good will of God will produce outwardly that which is good for us. In turn, that activity will be acceptable to God because it comes from His design and His plans to accomplish His purposes in and through us.