Series The Fruit Of The Spirit II - Renew The Mind

Walking and living in the Spirit naturally results in the Fruit of the Spirit being manifested in your life. Our walk in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit requires transformation. In view of the mercies of God we need to offer up our bodies as living sacrifices, this being our reasonable act of worship. This means the whole of our lives is to declare the worth-ship of God and exalting Christ. This will happen through us not conforming to the world, not having the lust of the flesh and eyes, and the pride of life – no conformity, but transformation. This transformation is a process of metamorphosis into the will of God, and understanding what his will is – not necessarily his sovereign will, because that is not always known to us – but certainly his revealed will, which is contained in the Bible. The path that we take towards this end is the path of wisdom with humility. We are not to walk in casual, spontaneous, powerless godliness (Christian by name and not by nature) but to walk on the path of wisdom from above which is obtained through knowing the Word. This brings us into freedom, which is not the freedom to do whatever we want. On the contrary, the transformation is to such a measure that we love to do that which we ought to do, all through the love of the Father inside of us. This transformation takes place in our minds, but also the spirit or attitude of the mind is changed because in the natural mind of man there is rebellion, self-centeredness, ignorance, passions and deceitful desires. We need the illumination of the Holy Spirit to get rid of the ignorance, but we need the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the passions, otherwise, we will still be ruled by them instead of loving to do the will of God. The Holy Spirit illuminates and gives an understanding of the Word and in that process changes the spirit or viewpoint of your mind into seeing the glory of God in Christ. The transformation of our minds brings us to the light yoke of love and grace, free from the heavy yoke of law, sin and death. This is a truly free, transformed life of utter submission, total, loving enslavement unto God, a blending of your will with His – this is the mind of Christ. This results in godliness which is powerful, the path unto perfection. This is life in the Spirit.