Getting Down To It

[HKHaugan]

Now we begin a three part expansion on the image of God that each of us is, mind, heart and spirit.  Part 1 will deal with the mind, Part 2 with the heart and Part 3 with the spirit. 

 

But first It must be stated that the image of God in us is tarnished.  Sin has gripped the human race and its mental, physical and spiritual processes so that we are born separated from God.  Everything has to be learned brand new by each person born into this world.  No one inherits maturity, belief, faith, love, knowledge, culture, wisdom, reason and intellect.  While everyone has capacities for all these everyone needs to be taught, given spiritual and social direction, learn history,  be trained to make choices and decisions in the context of right and wrong.  And all this needs to be person centered, demonstrated and experienced.  Simply stated, everyone needs a Savior and a Lord, someone to save them from sin and a personal Lord to lead them.

 

Part 1  The Mind

“I hadn’t really thought about it that way.”  “It just slipped my mind.”  “The reason I said that was…”  “What I had in mind was…”  “It’s either logical or not logical.”  “Unless I can get my mind around that idea I can’t accept it.”  “What did you have in mind?”  “Two minds are better than one.”  “We’re minds apart on this issue.”  “What could you have been thinking?”  “Are you out of your mind?”  The conscious mind, the alert mind, the ready mind, the constant mind, the open mind, the blocked mind, the intellect, the philosophical mind, the mindset, “You can see his mind working.”  “He’s processing his thoughts.”  “He had a mind change.” 

 

All of these are expressions resulting from observations of what we believe to be taking place.  The mind is the filter for our experience.  The mind is the processor of our perceptions and reactions.  But note this right away.  It is what we believe about what we perceive that causes the mind to make conclusions.  Conclusions are based on belief.  If I hear a remark my mind makes a conclusion about what is being said.  But we have imperfect perception, so we know it’s not a perfect conclusion.  Wives really understand this when they say their husbands have ‘selective hearing.’  They hear what they want to hear. 

 

Something else casts a shadow over what we hear.  That something is attitude which is a heart issue.  Attitude we’ll deal with in Part 2 when we look at the heart.  Right now we want to concentrate on what the mind is doing when it takes in what’s happening around it.

 

The human mind is not perfect for three reasons.  First, the mind is subject to the other senses which are imperfect.  And it is subject to the emotional atmosphere surrounding a perception.   It is quite amazing actually, that we can even approach communication given the faulty physical mechanism of an imperfect body.  Second, the mind builds filters called conclusions, strongholds, mindsets, that block it from pure understanding.  Those strongholds have strong emotional ties as well.  Third, the mind has limited knowledge.  The very fact the mind has to learn through study and experience shows it is incomplete and has to operate the best it can.  Many times emotion again can shape how learning is ingested. 

 

Needless to say, people are just plain different. Skills, native talent, personalities are unique in each of us.  People have varying degrees of intelligence, reasoning ability and memory.  Notice I don’t use the comparative words ‘superior’ or ‘inferior.’  That’s how the secular world evaluates people.  But to God each mind is precious precisely because He has created us to be unique.  Each can fit into His purpose regardless of the world’s definitions and regardless of the extent of their capabilities.  It is only God’s wisdom that allows them to develop their potential because it is only God’s wisdom that can sort out what, when, where and how to use what we have been given.  This is true of the heart and spirit as well.  Is it any wonder that Scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov.9:10)?

So where do we start with the mind?   The mind is given three abilities, observation, evaluation and conclusion. 

 

Let’s look at observation. 

If you want a biblical overview of this gift two books stand out, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.  They provide an endless supply of the wise King Solomon’s worldview.  When you read them it is important to see them through the person of Jesus since they reflect a fully pre-Christian view of life.  Their content is filled with the frustration arising from the seemingly unanswerable issues that the king’s observations raise.  However, both books conclude that God’s wisdom is the only possible means to handle what anyone observes.  They set the stage for true wisdom that will exonerate them when Jesus arrives on the scene and speaks specifically about the work of the Spirit of truth (John 14 and 16).  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and wisdom.  Reading those two Old Testament books with Jesus in mind really makes sense of the truth revealed in them.  It’s the wisdom of the Spirit.

 

As far as observation is concerned Solomon’s father David really gets it right when he asks the Lord to examine both his heart and mind.   This opens the way for the Spirit to encourage David to stand on the truth of God’s presence and support when he faces his enemies.  “Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth (Ps.26:2-3).”  God’s love and truth help him to discern just who and what his enemies and their plans are all about.  The same approach is what we are called to do to handle every next step in every next moment because every next moment is a spiritual moment.

 

Let’s look at evaluation. 

How we evaluate is based on what we believe in to sift reality from unreality.   When I consider what was just said or what just happened it takes some kind of principle, method and point of view to analyze their source, the manner of expression and the effect they had.  Each of us has a personal makeup constructed over the years that has both pain and pleasure attached.  Our judgments and responses are conditioned by our experiences.  But how we sort them out is based on what system of belief we have used to evaluate them.  Remember, all of who we are and what we do reflects an invisible inner process that is dependent on how we have let our past experience condition us to respond.  All of us come from dysfunctional pasts of one degree or another due to our sinful imperfection.  When decision time is at the door of our consciousness we are alone and we will retreat into what we think is the best choice for that moment.  Perhaps I have been hurt in a personal or social circumstance which has been the reason for an emotionally based conclusion.  I construct a response that will save me from any future similar occurrence.  It may be a bias, a prejudice, a defensive reaction, an attitude that becomes my personal shield.  That is a stronghold.   I built it to keep me from again experiencing the pain and unpleasantness that resulted.  That is my idolatry at work.  If I have built a system of response based on the shifting sands of cultural conformity, ‘fitting in’ and self-justifying excuses, then life is all about adjusting through self-protecting strongholds fueled by fear.  If fear is the evaluating medium then aloneness is the payoff.  

 

It is here we turn to David again, “The Lord is my light and my salvation---whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid?  When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.  Though an army besiege me; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident (Ps.27:1-3).” If we realize who the real enemies are, the devil, his spirits and my sin, then the battle is within and recognizing those same influences in others.  It is the presence of the Lord in the Spirit that gives us the insight for every next step in every next moment.

 

Let’s look at conclusion.

By the time we have been through observation and evaluation, and have done it honestly, we can move toward a conclusion.  That’s what David did when faced with the myriad problems of being a king.  His conclusion was that God finally and ultimately was the ruler upon whom he depended.  His observation led him to evaluate everything in terms of the direction God had given him.  His conclusion was that God had enlightened his mind, led him through the valleys of decision and had saved him from both his internal and external failures for the sake of him and his people.  He came to the conclusion that God alone was his personal stronghold and the final stronghold for his people.  Over and over again we read the prophetic judgments of God’s people and see that their conclusions had been idolatrous.  They had fallen prey to sin, constructed and multiplied their anti-God strongholds, the momentary emotional and intellectual justifications they chose to satisfy themselves apart from God.

 

For us today every next moment, every next step we take, we have the choice of growing and maturing as disciples by taking every observation, evaluating it by the Word of God and entering the one stronghold that makes sense, Jesus the Christ.  As we walk with Him He drives out the spirit of fear and fills us with His Holy Spirit so that every next moment is filled with the light that makes every next step a realization we are fulfilling His purpose for us.