Christianity is not just another religion. It is the life of God abiding within and flowing out of the believer. Other religions leave you the same person you were before. But the wonderful thing about the Christian life is that it will completely transform you.
When you are born again, your spirit is instantly transformed into the image of God. The spirit is the part of you that takes on the nature of God. According to the Word, once that happens you should immediately start the process of changing your soul. The Bible calls it "renewing the mind."
Your soul is your mind, will and emotions. Spiritual growth is determined by how much your soul is changed by the Word of God. The more you know the Word, the more you conform to the image of Jesus. When you are born again, nothing is wrong with your spirit - the life of God is in there - but you are hindered from living a spiritual life by a soul (mind) that thinks like the world instead of like God.
After becoming a Christian, the Bible instructs you to "put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24). This means that your soul and body are to take on the same image that is in your spirit. This happens through the process of changing your mind, your will and your emotions to understand and walk in the ways of God. We are to conform to the image of God's Son (Rom. 8:29). You and I ought to act just like Jesus. The only thing that stands in the way is our soul. Without a renewed mind, we could not dare to walk and act like Jesus.
That's why Romans 12:2 tells us "be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." The word transformed is translated from the Greek word from which we get the term metamorphosis. This Greek word is used in the Scripture in two other places.
One such account is when Jesus was transfigured on the Mount. The other is in 2 Corinthians 3:18: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Changed is the same word in the Greek as transformed and transfigured. Our souls are changed when we spend time beholding the Lord in the Word and in prayer. It is a natural process like metamorphosis.
Renewing our minds causes our outer being to be transformed in much the same way as a caterpillar is changed into a butterfly. As we behold Him, our outer man changes to match the inner man which is created in righteousness and true holiness.
The world would have you think that God is a liar. Yet God tells you that Satan is the liar, and in between these two adversaries is your soul. Here is where the spiritual battle is fought. Therefore, your soul must be anchored. Anchored to what? To the Word. To eternal things. If it is moored to this world, you will never walk in victory or in the power of God. If your soul is not fixed on eternal things, it will not hold steady in the time of crisis.
When you become a Christian, you are sustained from the inside. Your spirit is steady in adversity. You are upheld and maintained by your spirit man and not by your intellect or reasoning. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).
God's Word divides (distinguishes between) the soul and the spirit. Nothing else can cause you to recognize whether you are being led by your soul and natural thinking or whether you are following your spirit which is led by the Holy Spirit.
Every problem, weakness or difficulty you have could be solved immediately if you could know the mind of God. But it takes effort, dedication and faithfulness to renew your mind. Mind renewal is not like the new birth. It is a process and doesn't come overnight. Though your spirit is renewed and transformed, your soul must be saved. Saved from what? From the world's influence and thinking.
James 1:21 is quite clear concerning this: "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." You can't just read the Word. It must be implanted in your soul (your mind) and be received with meekness.
Meekness is often misunderstood. It is a thing of power, not weakness. It is an attitude in which we accept God's dealing with us as good. Therefore, we do not resist His correction or guidance. Meekness is giving your will to God and letting Him change it. So, your soul is saved as you yield your will to God's will.
The Scripture says that God energizes and creates in us the power and the desire to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). He works from the inside out, not from the outside in. He takes the image of the Word that is in our spirit and grafts it into our soul as we behold Him. Only then can we outwardly express the image of Jesus that we inwardly possess.
But this takes conscious effort. If you are just going to give God a couple of hours a week, your mind will not be renewed. The Word won't be implanted in you. You might know it with your head, but it's the engrafted Word in your soul that changes you. It's the Word of God that controls your thinking and transforms your life.
So, take the time to get away from the world and study God's Word. Meditate on it, and let it change you from the inside out. "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you" (James 4:8). Make a conscious effort to allow the Word of God to be engrafted into you. Only then will you begin to understand His Word and His will. Only then will you be on your way to renewing your mind.
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God's WORD to their lives.
