One Mind?

January 21, 2020   Meri Ford

One Mind?

I want to suggest something that may seem “far out” to a lot of the Christians who would be reading this blog in the next few days and weeks.

In the upper room, it said that there were 120 and they were of ‘One accord.”

Ephesians speaks of the equipping ministries are to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry until we come to such unity in the faith and the knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord.”

Other places it speaks of “making us One”. Jesus spoke himself that we would be one in Him as He is one with the Father.  Paul the apostle spoke of being of “one mind. “and being “like minded.”  Romans speaks of “...one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And Philippians., "Make my joy complete by being likeminded, having the same love, being in full accord in spirit and purpose."

Why then do we hear of Christians who even profess to being praying and fasting over issues that concern this nation,  who are NOT of one mind, one voice? Why then are Christians, especially in the US, at odds over a multitude of issues?

Am I suggesting we should all think alike? NO….what I am saying is that because we know we are not in our human nature and with our human bent, in agreement with our fellow Christians for a lot of reasons that maybe there is something else we need to consider.

So what then do I suggest? I am suggesting that in most areas we have not laid down our human thinking, our sense of right and wrong, good and evil, and divested ourselves of thoughts that exalt themselves before the throne of God, and come “humbly” before the Lord,  aware of our potential to base our thinking on our own, even a biblical, sense of right or wrong as we assess situations and issues in our lives. I am suggesting that those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ, believers in the Good News of the Kingdom of God, often seek the counsel and wisdom of God, search the scriptures for “correct understanding” and come away with just another aspect of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

James says if we want wisdom and want to know what God wants you to do, just ask Him as he will graciously tell you. However, as we approach the whole counsel of God, we can expect to understand what He is saying only if we come with clean hands and a pure heart and have been to the cross with all that human stuff we carry.

First, most of us are more interesting in what “we are supposed to do” than concerned with  what the Lord is doing and how to co-labor  with him in the harvest fields, or  if he is sowing and reaping or whatever the place God has revealed to us  that HE is working.

Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing. He only said what the Holy Spirit was saying.  Yet we Christians take our sense of right and wrong from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the ten commandments, or what some all New Testament law, and go to the Lord and expect to hear Truth and Righteousness Himself reveal to us what He is doing? Or we take it from what might have been applicable yesterday when God was doing something different than today, but we haven't really sought Him to find out what He is saying and doing.

As I listen to my fellow Christians, what I hear most often is that even if they are praying and fasting, they are still “bound”, so to speak, to respond to things that are before them in consideration according to their own moral and ethical code. I heard a fellow say that many Senators and Representatives that are in a bible study with him are seriously praying and fasting about what they must decide concerning the issues at the fore in the Senate. He ended his conversation by saying that he was confident that those Senators and Representative would make their decisions based on their own moral and ethical codes!!

No wonder we are a group of Christians, especially in the US, that are not of one mind, of one accord in word or in deed!  We are still feeding off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, using our personal moral standards given to us perhaps,  for our  personal living and relationship with the Lord, as the standard to interpret what other people  are to do \ and what decisions should be made in the political realm.  To most of my fellow Christians, I suspect they would say, what is wrong or bad about that Meri?

Wrong or bad….what tree are you eating out of, I would ask? The tree of Life in Christ Jesus, will reveal to us as we seek Him, what HIS mind is, and then we can bring our mind and thoughts into align ,not with what is right and wrong, but  with what He is saying and doing in our circumstances…be it an immediate application or an overall understanding of what He is doing in our lives and circumstance. 

How many of us take time to lay our own thoughts and opinions, and even our moral values and ethical standards down at the cross, so we can see and hear clearly what the Lord Jesus is saying and doing in our circumstances and how His love and power are being played out?  Do I want to co-labor with Him in his eternal plan, or do I want to have my righteousness based on a moral and ethical code which serves for us human beings as a “safe judge” of other people and circumstances apart from the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus?

I know for me, it takes much more time and energy to seek the Lord and what He is doing and saying, than it does to be laying down my sense of right and wrong concerning situations, to cast down every thought that exalts itself before the throne of God, and to truly seek to access the oneness in Him that he paid such a price for…that the mind of Christ might be worked in my being!!

Do we even want “the mind of Christ?”  I suspect we most often just want to know what to do and what not to do as if we were little children, still under the guardian of the law, not born again of the Spirit of God that allows us intimate fellowship with God, to the place of knowing and sharing in  what He is saying and doing.

For example: what is God doing with America and the government, and President Trump? Where does it fit in His plan, and where is it, that He is asking us as His people to co-labor with him in his eternal plan? Where does what is going on fit in with what His attitude with the US and it’s response to God’s plan and purpose for this nation? How would we know unless we lay down all our positive and negative and neutral points of view and opinions and seek Him? One thing my father used to say back when he would tell me about seeking the Lord, and that was, "Meri, you have to lay down everything you know, even about the bible, and right and wrong, if you want to have “revelation” of what God is saying and doing. " And obviously I don’t do that as often as I could because my life doesn’t overflow with revelation, why? because I don’t seek Him, for Himself as often as I could. Only then will I  know what He is saying and doing. It isn’t even enough to know what He’s doing in my life, because my life is intertwined with the rest of the body of Christ, those present and those who will in the future be professing Jesus Christ as their lord and savior.

There are so many issues the Body of Christ is divided on. It is so sad because we know that is not God’s plan for His people. His plan is that we have the mind of Christ, as  He works His will and purpose in us through revelation in our intimate relationship with Him.  Recently I heard of someone who takes a divergent point of view about same sex relationships. It saddened my heart, not because of her point of view, but because of the confusion and chaos  it brings to us, revealing that we are not hearing what the Lord Himself is saying or doing in this time. Do we know what the ramifications of  man’s way of addressing these issues is going to bring upon a society.? I suspect she had not earnestly sought what HE is saying and doing in this day and in this culture.  

His word is like a double edge sword. When we seek Him, it will always cut me as it gives me understanding of my circumstances as He is at work in them. It isn’t a cut and dried matter of right and wrong, good and bad/evil.   While there is good and bad, good and evil, right and wrong, it is always about us as we see ourselves in light of the love of God as revealed by Holy Spirit within us. To see others and political issues apart from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, requires laying down all the goodness and rightness and sense of wrongness, etc. we have at the cross so we can hear and see Him.

Father, I ask that you take us through the process necessary to unstop our ears and open our eyes to see you, instead of being blinded by our own sense of moral and ethical values and even the standards and precepts, and statutes you have laid down in the scriptures. Your Word alone, that comes from your mouth as we wait upon You through our day as we abide in you is what gives us Life and allows us to pour life into the circumstances we face according to Your wisdom and insight, counsel and might, in your own personal authority as ruler and creator of the world and the universe that exist around us! To Him be glory in the church. His mind, His ways, His everything now and forever more!! AMEN

Meri Ford