Soul and spirit. Becoming one whole person.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 ESV
This verse indicates that the main lack in the human is that their mind needs alignment to the truth of what God has done. All of Romans is about the work God has accomplished in us by the Spirit. The Spirit of Jesus and our spirit have indeed become one. But the parts we can control, our mind and will, must come into alignment.
Books, speakers, encouragements, and time spent with the Lord are tools which soak and steer the mind and will into alignment with the Spirit. When the Spirit detects that what we are reading or hearing is His truth there is a great resonance and we experience becoming whole with Him inside of us. The goal then is to find and listen and receive ONLY that which is what the Spirit is pleased to hear. In this way we become whole, as our spirit and our soul become one in Christ.
Great deceptions occur simply by feeding the mind religious thoughts, thoughts that feed the soul, which have an earthy satisfaction to them. And then they are interpreted as spiritual thoughts and we accept them as Christ. But only Christ is food from the Spirit. Anyone unable to feed you Christ is feeding from their soul to your soul, being deceived themselves and leading the blind into a religious pit. Of this category we cannot warn strongly enough.
I will tell a story.
In 2007 I was fed on primarily soul/self foods which invigorated my actions and my life in God’s name, but had nothing to do with the life of Christ. In September I happened upon the old sermon “ten shekels and a shirt.” This message was Christ. However after listening to it daily for 10 days I still could not explain or repeat any portion of the sermon. My mind and soul had become so strait jacketed to only feed on soul/self. But the Spirit in me knew what was good food so I listened again and again. If I had known that in doing so I would be liberated from my flesh, I might have stopped listening. So sneaky was the Lord in this. But this is the nature of Christ. He is the great message. We would debate about how much money a believer should expect, or the nature of the gifts of the Spirit, or various debates. Meanwhile Jesus is the most subversive element of Christianity waiting for us to listen to those who know him speak of him and feed our Spirit.
Gradually I became mentally aware of the message as I repented of the things which cluttered my soul. Progressively God brought the people, books and speakers which would continue the rewiring of my mind around Christ. Finally it has become necessary to speak using my mind what has become whole in my soul/spirit. This is the path for all mind renewal and it is your and my honor and duty to walk this path.
If we would have something this new year, at the end of the age, we would have simply the taste of the good Lord in our mouths as it is renewing our minds and souls. Everything else is not going to help us end the way we began, with the simple good news of Christ.
