The Way God Thinks

"This is what He wants of us—for us to have a heart for Him ..."

“Jesus, with his human mind filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River …” (Luke 4:1, Remedy)

WHAT YOU ARE filled with is what you will do. Devils and unclean spirits desire to inhabit humans in order to say what they want through them. It is not that the human’s own thoughts are absent but that the devilish takes control. See the Gadarene demoniac. He had over 2,000 devils, as counted by the size of the herd of pigs they drove over the cliff. Yet God came and set him free, hearing his plea for freedom. We can know this was the man’s desire in that he worshipped at Jesus’ feet and was seen afterward in his right mind (Mark 5:6,15). He didn’t lack his own mind but couldn’t free himself of the devils’ control. Remember there was no salvation yet. Jesus had yet to die and de-feet Satan. In an opposite truth, Jesus’ mind was entirely the Spirit. He had His own feelings and likes and dislikes. He had desires. But He gave them all to God. The Father spoke through Him and did works (healings and deliverances) through Him. Notice Jesus’ reply to His Learner, Philip’s, question in John 14:8-9. I like the Knox Version.

“At this, Philip said to him, Lord, let us see the Father; that is all we ask.” (Verse 8)

And Jesus’ reply: “What, Philip, Jesus said to him, here am I, who have been all this while in your company; hast thou not learned to recognize me yet?” (Verse 9) This was the Father speaking in first person. Here am I, who has been all this while in your company. There is much which men and women do not fathom of what God in us will do when we mature enough to believe in it. When He said, “Nothing is impossible,” He meant that (Matthew 17:20;Luke 1:37).

The renewing of the mind is a spiritual principle. It means to change one thought pattern, a destructive one, for the way God thinks. Jesus had the Spirit without measure (John 3:34). The demoniac didn’t have the Spirit at all. We, as God’s kids, are somewhere in between. We have salvation; Jesus lives in our heart, and so the Holy Spirit lives in us (Romans 8:9). But we still think independently of Him. We’ve accepted this is “just how it is,” at least, until Jesus returns and our bodies and minds are remade. But not so.

God has no end point. We can go from one glory to the next into infinity. This is what He wants of us—for us to have a heart for Him that refuses to ever sit down where it is at. Our satisfaction comes in that in Him there is always something more. He is truly “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).”

Only God knows the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). The devil and devils do not. They cannot read men’s minds, though some believe this. Believing it is a lie of the devil. It is that he knows how to manipulate our thinking which deceives us. He can plant thoughts, and when we receive them, we become snared by them. Oppression and possession by unclean spirits is truly horrible, yet God sees the mind of the individual and is so merciful to them. Regardless of how they “got that way.” God just wants them to be free and will go to any length to provide an escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). Looking at that person from the outside provides only an exterior view of an interior healing. We must not judge but do as the apostle Paul instructed to strengthen the weak.

“And please, set healthy boundaries with the unruly (warn them of the consequences of allowing their feelings to overrule good judgment), buttress the overly sensitive, spend extra time helping the weak-willed, and be patient: healing doesn’t happen overnight.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14, Remedy)

We must lean into the Spirit and do as He would have us to do, not seeking our own healing process. Though some carnal, worldly psychology uses godly principles, only God’s principles can bring complete deliverance. Deliverance is a state of mind and not a process. Some of what the church calls “deliverance” has become a stigma others avoid. God’s heart should never be avoided. Deliverance is not a ministry but a state of being. It is a place of freedom that doesn’t have any condemnation. There is no condemnation in Christ (John 3:17). And there should be no fear.

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Background Image by JL G from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com