Greetings to all brethren of our Lord Jesus Christ

We have begun to examine the commands of Jesus, starting with the first Commandment, that being that we are to Love God with all our Heart, all our Mind, and all our Soul. Lastly, we had discussed ways in which to love God with all our hearts. Today we will take a look at the second section, that we love God with all our minds. The commandment itself has been worded in variations at times in scripture, but always is the same idea and message to the Commandment itself.

Knowing that the first part, that being we love God with all our hearts, is literally a blessing to us, opening our inner eyes and ears and re-writing the history of our hearts into the path of righteousness and eternal life, we can faithfully recognize also that for us to love God with all our mind would be for very much the same reasons, and with the same results.

So let us ask, why is it important that our minds be converted to a God consciousness of love for God?

Before we became followers of Christ, was our mind as our own, thinking and planning whatever we wished, however we wished, and much of that was also good, for we can join our hearts and use the knowledge of the mind to dream great dreams and set about the work of doing those things and then behold, there is our thing we made, and it might be beautiful. Indeed though do we do those types of things because we love to. Our ability to think and to reason on several levels at once, and at the speeds in which we are able to do so, makes the mind of man a fascinating thing to study, and we humans have been studying the mind since almost the beginning of humanity. We have learned much, yet even they who are the most well versed in the workings of the mind will openly say we know only a little of how this thing actually works in us. Almost every department of man has contributed to the knowledge of the mind, from religions, medicine, psychology, science, art, family, cultural expressions, historical accounts, spiritual methods of every kind, and certainly documented practical experience. It has been at the forefront of many leading studies, because often to man, they believe themselves to be their mind, more than any other part of them.

What has become clear, even to all sciences, is that the mind of man can very easily become corrupted and wounded by things and events which go against it. We have also learned that our minds are easily influenced in how it may reason a thing, and we can literally put ideas into peoples heads with the use of technology. We have also discovered with great study, that the mind might possibly be the most lazy portion of us, not wanting to think, not wanting to know, not wanting to have to study or improve or pay attention to itself, denying and deflecting self responsibility in favour of excusing itself from having to think once again to save that which we may have been participant in breaking. Some people say, “oh the mind has the ego, and the ego is deadly.”… yet we must have our ego in order to preserve our life, and breath and eat and protect our children and pay attention to events around us etc so that all life might be safe. The part of the ego that can get corrupted so horribly, that people broad-stroke AS the ego, is simply that part of it that is our “self Importance”. The mind of arrogance is a prime example of self importance gone haywire. The mind of the man who while drunk driving believes they are not worthy of being arrested for drinking and driving (because doesn’t everyone know they are special?) is another example, whereas hours later, when sober, they can again realize that they did wrong in driving intoxicated, yet for some, even when sober, they still believe they have been persecuted for being arrested, even though they care not if others are for the same offence. I bring up this example, because being though that it may be extreme (though it happens every day), the fact of HOW that function happens in them is not different than how it functions in all men and women according to the matters pertaining to them in their life. We too make excuses for ourselves, essentially lying to our own self in order to preserve the status we wish to think of ourselves in whatever high regard we do.

So it is not real mystery as to why we would also require our minds to change, once we choose to follow the path of Life and the Word of Jesus Christ. This was established strongly both in the Old Testament and the New Testament that this is a thing of importance to us who follow our Lord Jesus Christ.

And as it should be, for in my mind at any given moment can be terrors, and horrors, and judgements and too much thinking and too little doing and too many questions of fear such as “what if?” and in the end it is all confusion and self wrath.  It is almost as though the mind of man acts against itself.  Given that satan is prince of the power of the air, no doubt we are influenced often within our mind by waves of information cast into the ether of the world, even such good things as radio, wifi, cell signals etc.  They all pass through us, and there are many more things passing through us that we are not aware of, than what we are aware of. Truly our minds need a guardian and one who cares to protect our minds from chaos.  Truly, we get restless, even to where we cannot command our bodies to sleep, for our minds become a mess of noise beyond measure at times.  Ever notice that a suicidal man most often puts the gun to his head?  They do that, because to them, that is where the problem of their life is.

So then, we see once again that part 2 of the First Commandment is another gift of blessing given to us.  For if we are to be in the Body of Christ, would not Jesus wish for our minds to be clean of the wrath of the world and self delusion?  For Jesus is not deluded in anything, and only Jesus can withstand the wrath of the world, but has also offered us a way out, if we obey His commands.  That way out, is by allowing God in.  We allow God in to heal our minds, heal our manner of reason and thinking, and heal our thought processes.  For the ways of man are opposite the ways of God, and spiritual knowledge makes no sense to the human flesh mind.  For instance, we have learned that if we do not have enough time in a day, then we should take more time to pray even more, and somehow when we pray more, we have more time.  It makes no sense to man, for man says you have taken even MORE time to stop and pray, when you had not time even for what you must do!  But God shows us something else, that by aligning with Him are we more productive with the time we have. Again, the wisdom of God is something that must be experienced, for the knowledge of it may be wonderful and fill you with hope, but it is not until we set ourselves also to that work, do we see the result inside us, though we may see it in others before that time.

And we have been given the key to this miraculous alteration of mind, and that key again is Love, and that Love, directed at God, directs God’s love also to us and to our minds.  How do we love God with our mind?  We think often of God!  The bible strongly urges that we THINK on good things, noble things, wondrous things, things of beauty and of peace.  That by doing so we stop thinking in the pattern of the world, and start thinking in the pattern of God. The pattern of the world is to trust in itself, and even in proverbs are we shown that only a fool trusts in himself, but those who walk in wisdom are made safe.  For if we are to be inheritors of the Kingdom of God, then it is well with us to train ourselves even now for that goal.  Jesus wants us to understand the nature of the Spirit of His Father, who by His command were we given His Son in order to save us, and His Son did the work to save us and even more.  He took the time to teach us HOW to be sons and daughters of God, as He is, desiring for us to be His brothers and sisters, and present us before the Throne of His Father clean as He is clean.

Use your mind to consider great things, and to find great things in the small things.  Stop, look upon the creatures of the earth and their wonderment, see how the small and the large are made the same.  Devote your mind to good things, beautiful things, and when in horror and doubt, cry out to God to restore your mind.  Indeed I have often failed in my mind, and it was that when I cried to God in the midst of my darkness, did God answer and not only did He answer, but also removed all doubt.  Pray often, devoting your MIND to God, asking your Father in Heaven to cleans your mind and to protect your mind from the influence of the evil one.  By seeking instead all those things good and wonderful are we proving our love in our minds to God.  We love God by seeking God in all things.  Man likes to seek fault and failure and wrong and reason for them to exact revenge.  God likes to seek wonder, and create wondrous things, seeking even for the good in us, seeking where we may be redeemed and made well.  And how much good in us can God find, when we have love in our mind for God?  Indeed, our Father would see Himself in those places of our mind and find favour with it.

Truly any of you who are of age to know, already know that you have been your worst enemy.  You have butchered and blamed and held yourself in contempt of your own thinking at times, and then also you have praised and glorified and set yourself up above others as greater in your own mind.  Our minds are broken, and of such things could an entire book be written.  So therefore turn your mind over to the Love of God, by Loving God.  The more you seek to find ways to love God in your thoughts, the more God will reveal of secrets in life you could not otherwise know.  Indeed truly give earnest attempt, and you shall not be disappointed in the great gifts our Father in Heaven wishes to show you and place on you because of His Love, and He is not alone in this, for His Son Jesus Christ, in whom they are as ONE, did all things base and small and servile as a man on this earth, in order to establish the potency of His Love and everlasting desire that we may live in peace with Him.  He made Himself small, so that He could make us large.  What greater Holiness do we require for us to trust our minds with God?  For even as flesh, did He Triumph over evil, establishing that the Kingdom of God surely will be here at the appointed time, and that we may be inheritors also.

In all things remember, YOU are not your mind. YOU are the one who makes witness of your thoughts. I can say, wow, I just had a thought that I should confront that man who upset me! This presents me with a choice, do I listen to my mind, or do I listen to the spirit within that has the power to examine the thought independently? I can examine the thought, and see it from outside of it. That is the proof we are not our minds, for those things of human instinct is about our flesh brain. Most of the world believes that the thoughts they have ARE themselves. This is a darkness of the world. But the Holy Spirit awakens our Spirit, which is the actual life within us, as the mind eventually perishes along with the body. With the Holy Spirit as our guide, we are continually given more and more freedom to witness and see the torrent of our thoughts and mind, so much so that it becomes glaringly obvious we are not those thoughts. I do not want to harm anyone, but my brain will tell me that I do. This is because of instinct and the function of the mind to preserve itself. The brain and mind is a wonderful tool that our bodies require, but it is not who we are. When confounded by such terrible thoughts, give them to God, ask God for His Spirit to direct your thinking and He will empower and establish His wisdom and strength within you..

So Love God with ALL your mind, the beautiful and the difficult parts as well. It is love to give God all of it, hiding nothing from Him.

Ryan