Dear Ones,
As we continue to contemplate the ongoing process of renewing our minds in Christ, it’s important that we understand there are certain laws governing the workings of God’s Creation that are at work in everything people try to do. Each of us is working with or against these laws, whether we know it or not. Obviously, working against those laws brings only futility and failure, while working with them is one of the wisest choices we can make. Here’s more wisdom from the Christ Life materials which have helped many disciples over the years. In this post, we will cover two such laws that are key in the process of renewing our minds (with more to follow in future posts):
- Energy always seeks the path of least resistance. Unless it’s trapped, it will always move along the easiest way open to it; and
- The underlying structure through which the energy must pass is what determines and creates the path of least resistance.
In other words, if the riverbed runs south, the energy will head south; if west, then the energy heads west, and so on. There are no surprises. You can predict it with great accuracy, thus whenever something is not working properly and we want to see why, we must work with these laws. First, we identify the structure and the individual parts that make up the overall structure. Then we can see what each part of the structure is doing to the energy flow. So our effective mind renewal must include creating new mental structures that produce effective change and channel our energies in new directions. Here are a few examples to look at… can you identify parts that reveal conflicting sources of headless self-life and Christ honoring, Christ filled thinking and choices?
- Farley is married to a lovely lady. They are raising four children. He runs his own business. He is one of the officers of a business association. He gambles at a local casino three to five times a week. He’s a boy scout leader. He’s studying computer science at a technical college twice a week.
- Dora is a member of a church. She is engaged to marry Morgan. She takes classes to enhance her real estate sales. She occasionally goes on business trips with her boss, during which they have sexual relations. She donates some of her time to help out at a home for unwed mothers. She is a vocal supporter of the pro-choice movement.
As you can see above, both Farley and Dora had some godly parts in the structures of their lives, but they also had parts working at cross purposes to them. And like them, once disciples begin to see structures and parts in how our lives function, we can then see which things aren’t functioning towards the goal we desire. We can then use the gardening skills we’ve learned to begin planting different thoughts, beliefs, and choices into our minds. And as we plant those new seeds, they begin to replace and choke out the old ‘weed infested’ stuff. And if we continue, we eventually find ourselves with a totally different path of least resistance through which our energy flows. And that’s when our lives and relationships change… because we’ve changed. We’ve begun to move out of a headless, self-centered path of least resistance and into one that’s filled and fueled with the perfect indwelling Life of our risen Lord of glory, Yeshua Himself. We’ve added more mental ‘territory’ that’s under His Headship.
Here’s another word picture to help with this concept: think of an old west prairie town with a building on fire. The townspeople form a bucket brigade between the burning building and the town well, passing buckets of water to put the fire out. That structure will only work if each person of it remains focused on putting out the fire and does his or her part to work toward that end. If not, the goal cannot be reached; the building cannot be saved.
Now let’s look at God’s Kingdom and how He has designed its advance on the earth:
- Father gives Himself to the Son.
- The Son receives Him, with zero resistance.
- The Son, being one with the Father, communicates Himself to the Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit offers zero resistance and receives all that pertains to Christ.
- The Holy Spirit begins to communicate Himself into the one who is next in line – us!
- We are supposed to receive the Holy Spirit, with zero resistance, so that we can be filled to overflowing with the Christ-Life He is here to give us, so that…
- We can apply that Reality to ourselves personally, and then pass it on to whoever gives us no resistance down the line.
In this bucket brigade, everything works as far as God is concerned. He always does what He sets out to do. He is not dysfunctional. Thus, His bucket brigade never has any trouble until we get to the one that comes after the Holy Spirit.
Can you see it? Can you see why it’s so important for us to ‘step aside’ from the autopilot flow of our thoughts and patterns? Why we need to look at them with new Gardener glasses, and to recognize what’s really going on rather than what we think is going on? We’ve got to break free from old patterns that rob our beloved Bridegroom from the glory He’s due… patterns that have diluted or hindered His Life from flowing freely. We want to be able to truly embody and accurately reflect His awesome glory, enabling Him to touch the world through our yielded lives. When we do, we become those points of entry on earth, enabling Him to reach more of the lost and dying headless people He died to save. Could there be a better purpose? I don’t think so.
Once we begin installing new Yeshua-centered mental structures and our brains begin to operate out of a new mental blueprint which contains what we really want, it changes everything. When we thoughtfully, wisely, and consistently install new parts to our structure that flow from God’s wisdom and purpose, all the parts that are now congruent dovetail with each other. The results become a magnificent witness to our overcoming Lord because now the flow of time and energy are focused, concentrated, powerful, fruitful and effective. Everything is synchronized and so each part enhances the activity of the others. When Christ is our all in all, there is no friction, conflict, scattering or cross purposes. Christ, the Head, is never opposed to Himself in His disciples. And so if He’s one with Himself in disciple A and disciple B and disciple C, etc. then disciples A, B and C are one with each other and the scope of His worldwide Body continues to grow and influence creation, all for His glory.
For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah. For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free; and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. For indeed the body is not one part but many. If the foot says, “I’m not a hand, so I’m not part of the body,” that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body. And if the ear says, “I’m not an eye, so I’m not part of the body,” that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If it were all hearing, how could it smell? But as it is, God arranged each of the parts in the body exactly as he wanted them. Now if they were all just one part, where would the body be? But as it is, there are indeed many parts, yet just one body. So the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you”; or the head to the feet, “I don’t need you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be less important turn out to be all the more necessary; and upon body parts which we consider less dignified we bestow greater dignity; and the parts that aren’t attractive are the ones we make as attractive as we can, while our attractive parts have no need for such treatment. Indeed, God has put the body together in such a way that he gives greater dignity to the parts that lack it, So that there will be no disagreements within the body, but rather all the parts will be equally concerned for all the others. Thus if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; and if one part is honored, all the parts share its happiness. Now you together constitute the body of the Messiah, and individually you are parts of it. (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)
Amen and Selah (pause and think about this)!
Delighting to be on the discipleship transformation journey with you,
Your sister, Nancy