April 12

“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

We must be single-minded in our faith.

There are too many factors that intrude upon our living the faith of the Bible. Many Christians have a concept of Christianity that is social not spiritual; they want a bit of the world of God and a bit of the world over yonder. But that cannot work; the Spirit cannot fill what is not empty; Christ is not to be valued as some sort of insurance scheme, but the source of life itself. The whole outlook of Christianity today is more influenced by the world than it is by the Word of God. Much of what we see in our Churches is what A.W. Tozer described as “a little bit of religion grafted onto a heart that is sold out to the world in its pleasures, tastes and ambitions”.

True faith must see the world recede and heaven draw nearer. In nature, we see that when the sun and the moon are aligned, the gravitational pull of the moon causes the seas to rise and fall and when the moon is full the tide is highest. This is a figure of man’s condition; just as the moon is drawn to the earth most powerfully when aligned with the sun, so too, we will be drawn by the pull of heaven when aligned with the Son.

The Holy Spirit was only given when Jesus was glorified (John 7:39). There is a principle here, I think; the Spirit will never be comfortable or effective dwelling in a person in whom Jesus is not glorified; we delude ourselves when we think that we can walk with the Spirit of God if we are not walking in the same nature and character of Jesus Christ, for how can two walk together unless they be agreed? (Amos 3:3).

It is not the external adornments that spell out the truth about ourselves, but the internal adornments of the heart (1 Peter 3:3-4). The mind set on the flesh is death, Paul writes, and it is in the thoughts of the mind that we either make, or do not make, a righteous sanctuary in which the Spirit of God may dwell and do His work. Our thoughts are the furnishings inside the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and we need to ensure that they bring joy, rather than grief, to Him.

To grasp the Spirit, and to make His acquaintance a part of the consciousness, we must get hold of our thoughts and not allow the mind to become a wilderness in which the wild beasts of the world have freedom to roam and do their destructive work.