Dear BPCWA worshipper, God commands us for our minds to be transformed in Rom 12:2 “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”, and to do so by the renewing of the mind. For each of us, the renewing of the mind is an important business in life. I have recently been focusing on the Christian’s mind in the Senior’s fellowship meetings and I feel it is important for the whole church to learn about it, and for the Seniors to remember what was taught. We want to look at the importance of the mind from the Scriptures, and we shall see how powerful the mind is in making a critical difference in our walk on earth.

What does the mind refer to? It is not the organ of the brain but the conscious and thinking aspects of the living soul. God said in Gen 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. It is this living and thinking soul, not the mass of cells in the brain, that defines the mind of a person in the Bible. 

The importance of the mind from creation. 1) Enables us to be Christ-like. God said in Gen 1:26 “ Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”.  Being in the image of God is to have the communicable characteristics of God. If you use it wrongly, you can be world-like. God intended for us to transform ourselves by the renewing of the mind. This is what enables us to be holy, like God is holy. 2) Enables us to receive revelation from God. The mind is not just for the body to have consciousness, but this consciousness is meant for us to know God. God spoke to Adam and Eve after He formed them. Hence, the abilities of the mind are not meant simply for us to just learn about gardening, doing our office jobs, doing housework, studying, or playing games. The main purpose of our minds is for us to know God through the study of His Word. 3) Enables us to obey God and fulfill His will. God told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful” (Gen 1:28), to “dress it and keep it” (Gen 2:15). The intelligence of the mind is not just to help us live our daily lives, but to enable us to do so in order to fulfil God’s purposes. 4) Enables us to make judgements. God told Adam what is right and wrong when He spoke to Adam about good and evil, and judgement of God in Gen 2:16-17. The believer cannot be lazy and say that he does not know how to differentiate. Instead, he must pay attention to God’s Word. Neither can he refuse to make judgement because it is “critical and unkind”. We are expected to use our minds to make righteous judgements according to His Word. 5) Enables you to have emotions. Adam made an emotional statement about Eve being his help, and being bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh (Gen 2:23). Our minds enable us to love God and man. This must remind us that what we feed and occupy the mind with will influence what we love – God or the world. Also, it is not good for us to avoid Christian fellowship and miss out on spiritual encouragement through the stirrings of the mind. It is not good for the mind to exist on its own. Hence, God reminds us in Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” 6) Enables us to desire and accept God’s will. Adam understood God’s plan and purpose for marriage and he embraced it in Gen 2:24, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh”. Marriage was God’s will for Adam and Eve. Singlehood may be God’s plan and purpose for you. How you renew your mind about God’s will affects how you will embrace His will for you. 7) Enables you to be influenced in choices. The mind, as we have seen thus far briefly, already informs us that it is very powerful. You must be aware that your mind creates desires and hence watch it very carefully. Your mind can be influenced positively or negatively. Subtle Satan understood that and sought to influence this component of the living soul of Eve. Despite the right revelation that Eve had, she allowed her mind to be influenced by Satan’s words. Satan knew that if he could give Eve false information, cause her to make a wrong judgement, and obey him rather than God, then he will successfully mar the image of God in man!

God willing, we shall look at how we should respond, knowing how powerful and therefore important the mind is.

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor