Having the Mind of the Spirit...
"Who shall interfere with the divine mind of the Spirit which has all revelation? Who understands the whole condition of life?" --S. Wigglesworth
Have you considered what it means to have the "mind of the Spirit"? For some it is an impossible thing. But what does having the mind of the Spirit really mean?
Let's look at it through Biblical lenses.
When Peter was revealing to the multitude before him in Acts 17 that the outpouring they were witnessing was in fact revealed in past times by the Prophet Joel, he said that what they "thought" they might be seeing was not as they "thought" it was. Let's look at that Scripture.
Act 17:15-17 (BSB)
"These men are not drunk as you suppose.
It is only the third hour of the day! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people..."
Most would look at this passage through prophetic interpretation and think nothing of what the men who were witnessing this event were thinking. But, Peter gave us a glimpse of how most then, and maybe even today, would think in a circumstance like this. While it looked like the 'devout men' gathered in Jerusalem were witnessing a drunken fiasco, Peter, interpreted as an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, even when he himself had never seen it. Why? Because it took the mind of the Spirit to interpret it.
How is it possible for common men to accept the ways of the Spirit without the mind of the Spirit?
Jesus pin pointed this in his conversation to Nicodemus in John 3. As he conversed with the religious leader that day he spoke about being 'born of the Spirit'. Nicodemus found it so strange that Jesus compared being born of the Spirit to being born of the flesh. Nicodemus did not have the mind of the Spirit and could not comprehend what this experience would look like. Let's look at this closely.
John 3: 3-7, NASB.
"Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus about why he was able to do the things they were witnessing that day through him. Nicodemus did not ask about the Spirit, he only acknowledged that they knew Jesus was sent from God and the things they were witnessing affirmed Him. But Jesus was inviting Nicodemus into a higher understanding. One that would provoke him to desire a new way of thinking.
He told him...
John 3:8, NASB.
“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
What did Jesus mean by this? If we read this in its context we would have to consider that Jesus was first, speaking to a religious leader who practiced a doctrine that Jesus rebuked constantly in the public eye. Secondly, we would have to consider that what Nicodemus would refer to as the 'wind' would not be so common as to our personal understanding of a gale, but it would be distinctly in line with what Nicodemus would have understood according to his beliefs.
So what could we understand from Jesus' statement then. We would have to understand the mind of Nicodemus as Jesus did.
Ancient Hebrew literature as well as acknowledged by the Prophets of the Bible, like Jeremiah, considered the wind to come from YHVH's treasured storehouses in Heaven.
"Keẓot haareẓ" they called the four winds of the earth.
They were unable to comprehend how the wind was such a powerful creation of God, and so they believed and taught their disciples that it was so potent it would need to be restrained by four angelic beings. These beings were designated to hold the four winds back unless released by God himself. The Ancient Hebrews never regarded the winds as nature's way, but by a phenomenon that was guided by God's sovereignty. Ecclesiastes describes the wind without a known path (Ecc.11:5). The Prophet Amos describes it as an instrument of judgment. The Psalms and the book of Job consider them power and weighty and coming from the God's very own treasury. Wind was regarded as God's strongest and most powerful weapon.
We even see that in the Book of Revelation God himself testifies to the wind to the Apostle John.
In Revelation 7 we read...
Revelation 7:1-3
"After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”"
In this portion of Bible Scripture, scribed centuries after the Torah and the Prophets of the Ancient Hebrews. John, a disciple of Jesus, was given a revelation of what the Israelites had only ever been taught. Four Angelic Beings, given the power to harm the earth and the sea with the power of the wind.
But is this Holy Spirit power?
Let's take a look at what Jesus said to Nicodemus again and then the events in Peter's time in the Book of Acts.
Jesus says to Nicodemus...
John 3:8, NASB.
“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Here, Jesus was comparing the Holy Spirit to the wind. The wind was not the Holy Spirit.
Now, let's look at the events in Acts...
Acts 2:1-3, BSB
"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.…"
Again, here in this text, the Bible describes the Holy Spirit's coming as a mighty rushing wind, but the wind was not the Holy Spirit.
We can now assume that those devout men were chasing after the sound of that wind, at the time of Pentecost, inorder to find out what God was up to, as their understanding was that only the Sovereign Lord of the Universe had the power to release it or contain it. And so, just like Nicodemus needed to change his ways of thinking, so did these devout men from every nation present that day.
As Peter was given the understanding of what this phenomenon meant, his address to these devout men was terribly important. And so he addressed them in such a manner that made sense to them and convicted their hearts. In Acts chapter 2 we see that those who were speaking under the power of the Holy Spirit were speaking of the deeds of God. And Peter then quotes the Prophets and helps the men understand that the event of the giving of the Holy Spirit was prophesied in times past as an outpouring onto those who live on the earth.
Then, Peter acknowledges three things as he concluded his statement to them that day. He says this...
"This Jesus, God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
“Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear."
First, Peter was reporting that Jesus was now at the right hand of the Father. The right hand to the Ancient Israelite is considered to be a place of honor and holds a special place in the sight of all. Then, also, the right hand is where the righteousness of God is at. Thus, Peter was signifying that God had exalted Jesus, the man, in the highest place of honor in his presence and the sight of all Heaven and Earth. Jesus' selfless work was now the standard of all righteousness. The righteousness that God sought was found in the man, Christ Jesus.
Next, Peter proclaims that Jesus had 'received from the Father the promise of the Spirit'. This statement to many today would bring confusion as many only see Jesus as the Son of God.
But Jesus' work on the earth was that of a man and not as the Son of God. How do we know this?
Let's look at Matthew 4. Here the devil meets Jesus face to face at the time of a 40 day fast in the wilderness. The devil attempts to provoke Jesus into demonstrating his divinity.
Matthew 4:6-7, NASB
“If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus replied, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the demons knew Jesus, but he was unwilling to be revealed as the Son of God.
Mark 1:24, NASB
“What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are— the Holy One of God!” But Jesus rebuked the spirit. “Be silent!” He said"
Why was Jesus not willing to expose his divinity?
Because of his mission in this world. The mission to reconcile what Adam had forfeited in the garden. The Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven (Matt. 6:10)!
In Acts 2 Peter is referring to the works of the Son of Man, Jesus, who stood before God in our place. Not the Son of God. He was referring to Jesus, the man, exalted and sitting at the right hand of the Father being given the gift that God so desired to give us, the Holy Spirit. He was the first fruit of the dead and now the first man to have the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in turn he would impart the Spirit to those who believed in his finished work.
It was in the heart of God to give us his Spirit. Not only that we may know of him but that we would have the same mind as is in him. But we forsook that gift through the disobedience we continued to walk in, the disobedience we learned from our fathers. We did not think that we needed the Holy Spirit as long as we thought we knew what it was to believe in God.
But Jesus, on that day, explained to Nicodemus that he was shocked that he didn't know that it took a 'Born Again' experience to be able to enter into the Kingdom of God.
What does it mean to be Born Again and to enter into the Kingdom of God? Exactly what Jesus described to Nicodemus that day. To be born of flesh is to be born in the natural, but to be of the Spirit is to be born of God! What happens then to our natural minds? They no longer exist in the natural realm, but they are transformed to think like God!
Paul said...
Romans 12:1-2, NASB
Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
So is Paul here simply referring to having a mere change of mind? No, he was inferring the mind that comes with the indwelling of the Spirit. A mind that allowed Peter that day to understand the move of the Spirit. A mind that is able to discern when God is at work. A mind that is able to distinguish between natural and the supernatural.
Jesus described that having the Holy Spirit is likened to God having the wind in his complete power. Now that is some power! Those in Acts that day also received the Holy Spirit in a mighty move that came in the likeness of rushing wind! When the Spirit comes into your life it will not be anything you would expect it to be... He will arrive like the greatest power in God's treasury... the wind!
Since that day at Pentecost the Spirit of God has been poured out and only comes to his dwelling place in man when he accepts the work of the Lord Jesus, and accepts that He comes with this acceptance.
How do we know this? The Scripture reveals it...
Acts 19:1-6
"It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples.
He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?”
And they said, “Into John’s baptism.”
Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying"
Our eyes are opened to the ways of the Kingdom of God through no one or nothing other than the Holy Spirit of God. Believing in the way of repentance alone leaves us void of the mind of Spirit. It is until we recognize that we have been given a great gift and a way of living while we are pressing through in a natural body.
Because of the plan of God, through the Holy Spirit's mind this world and the sufferings of this world will not have its hold on us, with the mind of the Spirit. We will never be able to recognize the ways of God except by the Spirit of God, who reveals God and the ways of God to the natural man through the mind of the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:9:-13, NASB
...but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?
Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words"
Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians that it is not words taught by human wisdom but by the Spirit that reveal the things that come from God. And when we combine spiritual thoughts, which comes from a mind of the Spirit, with spiritual words, meaning the words that the Spirit imparts to us through our new spiritual hearing, we will live in the depths of the thoughts of God expressed.
That realm is called the Kingdom of God. And every thing that we are subject to in this natural realm will become just a fading image, impotent of power, and impotent of glory.
In this new realm the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead rise to new life. The ways of heaven are poured out and we discern them through the Mind of the Spirit! This realm is where the righteousness in Christ Jesus is revealed and those who receive him will never be put to shame.
There are many believers out there who have never seen the actual works of the Spirit of God such as were recorded in the Bible. Why? It's quite simple... they have not the mind of the Spirit. This causes the the deeds of Heaven to remain absent. But that can change in a seconds time!
The Spirit was made available to anyone who believes in Jesus, and the transformation of the mind is up to the simple task of receiving the Holy Spirit. But there is a condition...it's time to trade the natural mind for the Spirits mind.
1 Corinthians 2:14-16, NASB
"a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM?
But we have the mind of Christ"
Believing in God is not for the after life. It is for a reconciliation of all things on Earth as they are in Heaven. If your desire is to see the truth of the Kingdom expressed in the earth, the task starts with you. It's time to be born again. No longer living in the same mind as you lived in before you knew Jesus, but in a mind given to you by the Spirit. The Mind of the Spirit. And it's simple...
Just one warning...