Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We are in the new covenant now. Hebrews 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people.”
verse 13, “In saying, A new covenant, He has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.” The old covenant failed. It was based on works – if men did “this” God would do “that.” Man could not effectively keep his side of the bargain so the sovereignty of God brought the plan of Salvation into being to establish His new covenant with mankind to everyone who received His Son, Jesus Christ. Under the new covenant our minds are transformed because God “PUTS.” The greatest putter in the universe puts His laws in our minds and writes them in our hearts. The signature of the Living God is written on our hearts, our innermost being in the form of His Son, the Indwelling Christ.
There is an on-going process taking place of metamorphosis as our minds are renewed and transformed to the mind of Christ. Our mind is our thought life which is just the process of the heart, out of which we make decisions and say, “I have a mind to do such and such.” Jesus said, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” We cannot change ourselves, but God has given us His Holy Spirit to guide us, and as we submit to His guidance, transformation takes place.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 prophesies about the new covenant, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and CAUSE you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep My judgments and do them.” There is a tremendous revelation in God “CAUSING.”
In Ezekiel 37, the well known chapter on “the valley of dry bones,” scripture declares that God will “cause” in His sovereignty. Verse 5 “Thus says the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will CAUSE breath to enter into you, and you shall live.” God creates and “causes” me to walk in His ways. When I try to do it, it does not work, but when God is guiding me and gives me a choice, when I make the right choice in humility then God CAUSES and creates in my life for His divine purpose and He fulfills another measure of my divine destiny. My choice is an activity that has to be married to the sovereignty of God, thus ultimately, God gets the credit and His is the glory!
When I allow Christ to rule and reign in my heart under His new covenant then resurrection life flows out of me in demonstration. Jesus only did the things that pleased the Father, (John 8:28-29) and this can be my portion by choice. Out of this choice comes Godly authority and we can decree creation as the Lord guides and leads us, for the extension of His kingdom on this earth in people’s lives, for His glory, (not man’s.) But when my heart is out of order in pride, resisting the work of the Holy Spirit in areas He is wanting to transform, my prayers fall to the ground and creation and change does not take place. The Holy Spirit delights in humility, it is the Spirit of Christ and delights the Father.
There is a spiritual warfare that takes place in my heart and I have to pull down the strong-holds of wrong believing that remove Christ from His rightful throne there. When my heart is out of order I cannot speak creation, see clearly or function properly because the heart and mind are intertwined, as discussed earlier. My heart “gives me a mind” to do something and thus leads to a place where it finds expression. When my heart’s attitude is in humility and right with God, there is a process in the sovereignty of God where He directs us to speak creation and bless for His kingdom, and He pulls down the strongholds in people’s lives in order to build again, but on His foundations – new life for His glory and purposes.
