The Church's famine for the bread which constitutes The Spiritual Mind

Photo courtesy of Mark A. Haun

Index:

• The parallels of Judaism and The Church's relationships with God
• Judaism rejected Jesus and we are ignoring the Holy Spirit
• The multitudes did not understand Jesus and much of The Church does not know the Holy Ghost
• The disciples were divided and we are also divided concerning the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit
• It is the Spirit that makes the words and things of God alive
• The Cross - The only way to be transformed and renewed in the spirit of our minds

If we are ignoring and are thereby rejecting the Holy Spirit just as the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes rejected Jesus, then there is a great need to focus on the problem and to illuminate it. In order to do this we will need to consider some basic aspects of Jesus Christ's relationship with Judaism, with the multitudes and with the disciples. We will then need to identify the parallels with our own relationship with the Holy Spirit today. I suspect that we will be all be surprised at the rather ominous similarities and hopefully, most of us will want to do something about it.

If we are no different from the naturally minded Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes in their response to the Son of God before Jesus became our sacrifice upon the Cross, then Jesus, as far as we are concerned, would have died in vain!

Judaism rejected Jesus and we are ignoring the Holy Spirit

Judaism rejected Jesus because they could not "see" or understand Him for who He was - The Son of God. That is, Judaism could only see naturally and were closed out or blinded from seeing in the Spirit.

"And Jesus said, For judgement I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind" (Jn.9:39).

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jn.3:3 KJV).

"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" (Jn.3:12 KJV).

Unlike the Jews, demons being spiritual beings, were able to see that Jesus was indeed the Son of God from heaven.

"And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.

When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not" (Lk.8:27-28).

Only the few Jews who knew God, because they enjoyed Heavenly Communion in the Holy Ghost and in prophecy, dreams, visions and angelic visitation, were able to see and understand that Jesus was the Son of God. In the beginning , apart from the parents of Jesus and the parents of John, this band included the shepherds (Lk.2:8-18), the wise men from the east (Mt.2:1-12), the just and devout Simeon (Lk.2:25-35) and the devoted Anna the prophetess (Lk.2:36-38).

The multitudes didn't understand Jesus

The multitudes only followed Jesus for their physical needs, that were met supernaturally, and for the pleasure of hearing the utopian ideology and philosophy of the man, but they also did not understand His gospel. (Jn.6:26-30)

"Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed" (Jn.6:27 KJV).

For this reason the multitudes only followed Him for a time, only to turn against Him when it was time to choose between Him and the established religious power of Judaism (Lk.23:13-25).

Much of Christendom today is in exactly the same position with regards to the Holy Spirit. Our attention only goes to Him when there are some supernatural physical manifestations of His presence which may benefit us. These manifestations may be supernatural healing, being slain in the Spirit, laughter in the Spirit, the blessing of visions and even the raising up of the dead. As with the multitudes of the time of Jesus, we are only captivated by the natural manifestations of the works of the Holy Spirit for a time, only to return to the ignorance and rejection of the sovereignty of the Holy One.

Here, we are slaves to the natural mind and are thereby non-overcomers. The spiritual man, however, is the overcomer who, in the Holy Ghost, rightly discerns and understands all things and is never set off balance by anything.

The disciples were divided

The disciples were of the same Adamic mould as the Jews in the flesh and so they had their own struggle with Jesus Christ being manifested as the Son of God. Many of the disciples forsook Jesus when they couldn't understand or perceive of the spiritual language that He used with regards to His seemingly blatant declaration of cannibalism (Jn.6:53-66). They could not differentiate between the literal and the Spiritual applications of the words of Jesus, because they could not see nor understand the things of the Spirit which were the things of the plans and purposes of God. Peter provides us with an example in the following scripture:

"But he (Jesus) turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Mt.16:23).

Having admonished Peter, Jesus immediately went on to tell the disciples the way of putting on the Spiritual mind which will understand the things of God. Jesus came out in total support and justification for the Spiritual mind in Him over the natural mind in humanity.

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Mt.16:24-25)

This inability to break through the worldly confines of the natural mind was also a problem for the Corinthian church in time of the Apostle Paul. No doubt it is also a problem for the churches of this generation.

"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (1Cor.3:1-3).

The twelve disciples, however, were faithful to Jesus because they were always with Him and were faithfully and emotionally bound to Him (Jn.6:67-69). Yet even this faithfulness could only go so far with regards to forsaking natural life, because they also forsook the Son of God when the pressure of the religious establishment was upon them (Mt.26:46-56). A Spiritually minded disciple would have gladly died because of his confidence of being able to see the glory that would follow. The people of this band, however, were not readily manifested until the advent of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Much of Christendom can be likened to the naturally minded disciples who forsook Jesus in that we have also forsaken the Holy Spirit. Others of us are also naturally minded in that we are followers of Jesus and The Holy Spirit, only in a carnal and worldly religious sense. Like the twelve disciples, many of us have a faithful and emotional identification with the Lord. However, when the pressures of worldly religious establishments come upon us, we will readily forsake the invisible Spiritual kingdom for the visible and natural religious establishments.

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2Tim.4:3-4).

"…contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believe not." (Jude 3-5)

"Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O Lord, according to thy loving kindness. Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." (Ps.119:159-160)

It is the Spirit that makes alive

If all of the above discussions are true then we are desperately in need of a substantial change, revolution or revival within Christendom. This revolution must apprehend and possess all that Jesus Christ has done and has provided for His Church, beginning with honouring the Holy Spirit as the sovereign God with us to teach and to guide us. We need to pray the same prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus, that they be taught and led directly of the Holy Ghost in whom is wisdom, revelation and knowledge.

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power" (Eph.1:17-19).

The attainment and the fulfillment of the words of God Himself must be the Promised Land on earth that we must possess, not the natural religious activities and religious responses of the people to those words. The words of God are Spirit and life, whereas the activities and responses of carnally minded people, devoid of real heavenly communion are of the flesh.

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (Jn.6:63).

We must be enlightened by the heavenly gift of the Spirit of God in order to be firmly established on the foundation of the worship of God (Jn.4:23).

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

If they shall fall away…" (Heb.6:4-6).

Because of its oneness of communion with the Holy Spirit, the Spiritual mind can see and understand the language of the Spirit in the words of God and it can divide between the literal and the Spiritual applications of the words of God. The Spiritual mind will always have fresh insight and revelation into the scriptures because it accesses the Spirit and life thereof. The natural mind stagnates in that which is rigid, repetitive, traditional and leads to bondage. The former has the heavenly light and illumination of the Spirit. The latter has the darkness which is of the flesh and of the teachings and philosophies of the world.

Therefore, we must be renewed in the spirit of our minds from that of religious carnality to that of the likeness of the mind of Christ. We must know the Holy Spirit intimately in the realm of the Spirit, as the 12 disciples knew and walked with Jesus intimately in the realm of flesh and blood humanity.

"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" (Rom.12:2).

The Cross - The only way to be transformed and renewed in the spirit of our minds

There is only one way in the New Testament Covenant for the Church Era in the earth. Jesus said that He was the way and His way is the only one that the Creator God has ordained. It is the way of the Cross for our inherited sinful flesh and the way of resurrection into the heavenly places of the kingdom of God for our spirit. Of such is the essence of Christianity that makes it unique and forthright in its sovereign authority and power.

After that Jesus has made the way for us to follow. The only obstacle is the flesh that will not die on the Cross when it rears its ugly head in our daily lives.

As we live a lifestyle of dying daily to the flesh nature of darkness, the cup of our lives will then be always available to be filled with the light of the Spirit of God. That is to say that our lives will then be continually sensitive and responsive to the direct teaching and leading of the Spirit of God. We have to remember that light and darkness cannot fellowship together. We must be people of the light, possessing and walking in the divine nature of God because in Christ we have crucified the flesh.

"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal.5:25).

"If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1Jn.1:6-7).

Now we know how the ability of every saint to be taught and led of the Holy Spirit will bring about "the unity of the Spirit" (Eph.4:3) and "the unity of the faith" (Eph.4:13), to cause all Christians to then genuinely fellowship with one another as true sons of God.

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom.8:14).

Please let it be, O God of our salvation!