Setting your mind (and mouth) to what God says

God says in Colossians 3:1-4a, "Now, then, Son, I want you to understand what your true identity is and the method I have designed to enable you to live it out. If you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, because you're in Him, seated at the right hand of God. "Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth."




What "things above" should you be thinking about? Well, don't dwell on golden streets and mansions. That won't transform you. Rather, see yourself relaxing there in Christ. All your needs are met. Your Father has everything under control. He is totally accepting you and loving you. You are a son or daughter in the Father's family. You are holy and blameless before Him. You have become a "partaker of the divine nature." Think on these things.




"Setting your mind on things above" is to set your mind (by faith) on the fact that you are holy, blameless, righteous, and accepted, with all your needs supplied. Set your mind on the fact that Christ is expressing His life through you to meet your daily circumstances. You and I are not to worry about life. "Be anxious for nothing" (Phil. 4:6). That's not something to be felt; it's the act of setting your mind.




Visualize yourself as being in heaven. You are relaxing in Christ near the right elbow of God the Father. How many troubles do you have there? How nervous are you? How badly do you hurt emotionally? How rejected are you? How worried are you about what tomorrow holds? Isn't it peaceful there? While you are resting there, imagine the Father reaching around you with His strong right arm and snuggling you up to His chest. Set your mind on this scene because this is reality.




What if you set your mind on the reality I've described for about three or four hours each day? Not all at once, but fifteen seconds here, a minute there, and so on. What would happen to you? You'd be "transformed by the renewing of your mind." Because, you see, this process would leave you four hours less time to set your mind on what Satan says is true.
　
　
If you are embracing and living out what Satan keep telling you is truth, you are living a lie. You are acting as if what Satan says is reality and what God says is an idealistic pipe dream that you can't seem to make "come true." Therefore, you are "pretending" that what Satan says about your true identity is real, when in fact what God says about you is the real truth! You are pretending to be what you are not. And you know what God has to say about folks who pretend to be what they aren't? He calls them hypocrites. (Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites because they claimed they were holy, when in fact they were not.)




Satan’s definition of a hypocrite is "anyone who acts contrary to how they feel." It's all based on emotion. Try to act in a manner contrary to how you feel and he will accuse you in your mind of being a phony. He is "the accuser of the brethren" (Rev. 12:10).




It will seem like self-accusation, the thoughts will be presented to your mind by the power of sin with first person singular pronouns: " I can't tell my wife that I love her and that I'm thankful for what she does for me when I don't feel it. That would make me a hypocrite!" Christians swallow that line because they don't know that it’s originating from the accuser. Most of them never break through the deception and into victory. They sit there and wait, hoping the Lord will somehow change their feelings so they can act accordingly without "being a hypocrite."




Set your mind on these truths. Choose with your will to force your mind to generate appropriate, Biblical, productive, true thoughts while refusing to accept sin's thoughts fed through the brain to your mind. Force yourself to concentrate on a confession of what God says about who you are in Christ. Do this for five minutes, ten minutes, whatever time is necessary until the "attack" of sin's thoughts begins to ease off. If Satan tries to crank it up again, you crank it up again with thoughts counterproductive to his. You see, it's the setting of your mind on what God says that will enable you to experience being dead to what Satan feeds to your mind. Generating therapeutic, Biblical thoughts and setting your mind on these is what will make you more and more victorious over the world, the flesh, and the devil.
　
　
You're going to be "transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2). You'll begin to mature experientially into more of what you already are in Christ. Your emotions will begin to settle down and the ultimate outcome will be the emergence of godly character that will evolve out of your godly nature and godly behavior.




Watchman Nee, a beautiful Christian brother made a powerful statement years ago. He said that all knowledge is the outgrowth of obedience; everything else is just information. In other words, you can believe the truths taught in the Bible. Yet, they can still remain just information.
If you would convert this information into knowledge, you must obey it. You must grit your teeth and hold a good funeral, celebrating the after-the-fact death of the old man.




So, start setting your mind. Your character will take on the properties of Christ. The fruits of the Spirit will begin to emerge from you as a natural product of your obedience. You don't see the branches on a grapevine straining and groaning to produce grapes. They simply abide, and the life of the vine produces the fruit. That is what you will see happening to you when you begin to appropriate your true identity in Christ.




If you are to confess what the Word of God says about you, you will need to know what God has said about who and what His new creation is in Christ Jesus.


You’re more then forgiven, you have been made perfect in Him.

YOU ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST, A SON OF GOD, AND SATAN HAS
NO POWER OVER YOU, (I COR. 12:27). FOR GREATER IS HE
THAT IS IN YOU THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD, (I JOHN 4:4).

YOU HAVE BEEN DELIVERED FROM THE EVILS OF THIS PRESENT
WORLD FOR IT IS THE WILL OF GOD, (GAL. 1:4).

YOUR BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WHICH DWELLS
IN YOU, (ROM. 12:1). HE TEACHES YOU ALL THINGS. AND
GUIDES YOU INTO ALL TRUTHS. YOU HAVE PERFECT KNOWLEDGE
OF EVERY SITUATION AND CIRCUMSTANCE THAT YOU COME UP
AGAINST. FOR YOU HAVE THE WISDOM OF GOD, (JOHN 16:13;
JAMES 1:5).

GOD IS ON YOUR SIDE, WHO CAN BE AGAINST YOU? HE HAS
GIVEN YOU ALL THINGS THAT PERTAINS TO LIFE AND GODLINESS.
YOU ARE A PARTAKER OF HIS DIVINE NATURE, (II COR. 6:16;
JOHN 10:10; II PETER 1:34; ROM. 8:31). NO MAN SHALL
TAKE YOU OUT OF HIS HAND FOR YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE,
(JOHN 10:29).

YOU ARE A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST, HIS WORKMANSHIP. THE
RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS. (II COR. 5:17;
II COR. 5:21). YOU LACK NOTHING FOR YOUR GOD SUPPLIES ALL
OF YOUR NEEDS ACCORDING TO HIS RICHES IN GLORY BY CHRIST
JESUS, (PHIL. 4:19).

YOU HAVE BEEN MADE FOREVER PERFECT IN CHRIST JESUS (NO MATTER WHAT THE CHRISTIAN BUMPER STICKERS SAY, ( HEBREWS 10:14).

YOU HAVE BEEN MARKED AS BELONGING TO CHRIST BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND HIS PRESENCE WITHIN YOU IS GOD’S GUARANTEE THAT HE WILL GIVE YOU ALL THAT HE PROMISED: THE SPIRIT’S SEAL UPON YOU MEANS THAT GOD HAS ALREADY PURCHASED YOU AND THAT HE GUARANTEES TO BRING YOU TO HIMSELF. (EPH. 1: 13,14).

YOU HAVE BEEN ELECTED AND CALLED OF GOD (I THES. 1:4; 5:24). REDEEMED BY GOD THROUGH THE BLOOD OF HIS SON (COR. 1:14). RECONCILED TO GOD BY THE DEATH OF HIS SON (II COR. 5:19).

YOU ARE SHELTERED ETERNALLY UNDER THE PROPITIATION MADE IN THE BLOOD OF CHRIST (JOHN 2:2). YOU ARE JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE (ROM. 3:24). SANCTIFIED POSITIONALLY, SET APART UNTO GOD IN CHRIST (I COR. 1:30). YOU HAVE BEEN MADE ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED (EPH. 1:6). YOU ARE A CHILD AND SON OR DAUGHTER OF GOD (JOHN 1:12; I JOHN 3:3).

YOU ARE NOW FREE FROM THE LAW (ANY LAW) AND DEAD TO IT ( ROM. 7:4). YOU HAVE BEEN DELIVERED FROM THE POWER OF DARKNESS (COL. 1:13). TRANSLATED INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD’S DEAR SON (COL. 1:13). YOU ARE GOD’S GIFT TO CHRIST ( JOHN 17:11, 12, 20; 10:29). SEATED IN THE HEAVENLY IN CHRIST (EPH 2:19, 3:15).

YOU ARE GOD’S INHERITANCE (EPH. 1:18). YOU ARE A CITIZEN OF HEAVEN (PHIL. 3:20), AND OF THE FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD OF GOD (EPH. 2:19). YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM (COL. 2:10).

AS A BELIEVER YOU ARE BORN OF GOD (JOHN 3:6), BAPTIZED (I COR. 12:13), INDWELT (I COR 6:19), SEALED ( EPH. 4:30), AND GLORIFIED (ROM. 8:30)

Every one of these wonderful scriptures is true of every person who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are all Gifts of God. Not one of His gifts can be obtained by any good works a person may ever do, it’s all by God’s grace through faith in Christ. All these great positions and relationships in Christ are all gained, and all retained without struggle or trial; they are God’s gift in grace and come as a small part of His great and wonderful salvation.

We start by faith in Christ, we continue by faith in Christ, and we end by faith in Christ.

It is important to remember that your standing or position in Christ will never change. You did not receive it by being good enough or by keeping some law, it was a gift of God by grace through faith in what Christ has already done for you. Nothing you can ever do, good or bad, will ever change that. You need to keep that in mind as God works through your entire Christian life to conform you to your standing in His Son, matching your practice with your position.

Now start confessing what the Bible says about who you are in Christ and no matter how humble you may think it is, stop confessing what Satan says about what you do or how you feel.

Comments or questions write Shadowhawk at vqcom@comcast.net