SHARING THE MIND OF CHRIST

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:15

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Through a good part of chapter two of 1 Corinthians, we have found Paul delineating between those who think and live in accordance with the world’s way and those who surrender their will and the will of the world so the will of the Lord reigns supreme. These latter believers are Christians, those who have gained their salvation by placing their belief and hope in God’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

Now the scriptures tell us that those who believe in Jesus receive the imparting of the Holy Spirit, the great Counselor Jesus promised God would send after He brought His Son back to heaven from earth, placing Him in authority over everything in heaven and on earth. That Counselor Holy Spirit guides all Christians in the ways of Jesus and convicts them when they start to go astray. The end goal of the Holy Spirit’s work is to conform and transform worldly sinners into eternal life bound, Christ-like disciples.

What happens when a person fully submits themselves to the refining work of the Holy Spirit?

They become more and more like Jesus in all ways of life and as we see in today’s scripture, the final verse of this chapter, they also gain “the mind of Christ”.

Think about how monumental this is.

Jesus was the only person who lived His life on earth in perfect righteousness. That means He never did wrong and always was in good standing with His Father in heaven. This is what is available to anyone who places their trust in Jesus and commits to follow His ways by way of the Holy Spirit. The more devoted they are, emptying themselves so that Jesus can abide within, the more they have the mind of Christ.

They think like Him.

They talk like Him.

They act like Him.

Friends, this is God’s hope for all His people, that they might not only accept His salvation offer through following Jesus but they also would dedicate themselves to be more like His Son in the way they live. Sharing the mind of Christ is the way to accomplish this and the Holy Spirit will help us achieve it, just as He did Paul and other apostles and disciples of old.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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REVELATIONS OF THE SPIRIT

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In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

These are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:10-14 

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Every day I get the opportunity to sit down and write messages from the word of God. It’s the best time of every day for me because I get to have intimate relationship with the Lord for the hour or so it takes to share His message with others.

Did you catch that?

His message.

The words I write are not my words, not any more than anyone who is called to His work. The same holds true for pastors, or at least it should. For no one going public with the written or spoken word on the Lord’s behalf should be speaking on their own accord. Rather, they should be speaking revelations of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the means by which the Lord communicates with us. He helps structure our thoughts when we submit to Him and those thoughts dictate the words that are written or typed or spoken. This ensures the message is His and His alone.

As for those who get to share His message, they are blessed and privileged to be able to do so, and I can tell you this is exactly how I feel. The Lord doesn’t need to use me. He wants to and for that I am His grateful servant.

Going to our scripture passage for today, we find the Apostle Paul, another faithful servant who is grateful to the Lord for the honor of being His spokesperson. Paul also refuses to take any personal credit for the messages He shares during his ministry. Rather, he intentionally gives credit where credit is due. Look at his words here:

These are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:10-14

Here we find a deeper dive into the Holy Spirit who provides the revelations of the things of God. We learn that the Spirit “searches all things” to include the “deep things of God”. This ensures the Holy Spirit knows not only the God He shares from but those he shares that message with. He is the only one privy to the thoughts of God and so only He can share them. The spirit of the world has no access to such wisdom and knowledge.

Once informed by God as to what should be shared, the Holy Spirit then speaks through those who become vessels used for that sharing, believers who fully surrender their will so that the will of God can reign supreme in their lives. Paul confesses that he was speaking “words taught by the Spirit” rather than words based on human wisdom. This ensured that “spiritual realities” were delivered “with Spirit-taught words”. And these “spiritual realities” could only be accepted and understood by someone who had received the Holy Spirit themselves, those who had believed in Jesus as their Savior for this is when the Holy Spirit is imparted on Christians. Anyone who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit views the “things that comes from the Spirit of God” as “foolishness”.

Want to be privy to what God wants you to know?

Receive Jesus as your personal Savior, gain the Holy Spirit, and then make sure you connect to Holy Spirit filled messengers who are devoted to allow the revelations of the Holy Spirit to be given through them. As stated earlier, I’m so humbled and thankful to be counted in that number.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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GOD'S HIDDEN GIFTS

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In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love Him.”

1 Corinthians 2:6-9

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As Paul traveled from place to place sharing the Gospel to the “ends of the earth” while on his missionary journeys, he did his work through a special power, the very power of God, the true source of all things to include wisdom.

But here’s the thing. Not everyone has this wisdom because not everyone submits and commits themselves to God. Instead, they invest in the “wisdom of this age” or the “rulers of this age”, from sources and authorities that are “coming to nothing”. There is a day when this world as we know it will be no more but before it is laid to waste as God hits the reset button on His creation, those who chose the ways of the world while rejecting God and the salvation offered through His Son will be judged and sentenced to eternal damnation and torment, abiding with the very devil they allowed to lead them into Hell.

Paul, and other Christian apostles like him, completely dedicated himself to the cause of Christ and in doing so was just as much in opposition to the world and its ways as Jesus was. This is because Christian values and wisdom will always clash with the world which promotes ungodliness, unholiness, and unrighteousness.

So what made Paul’s message counter to the world?

It was because his message was grounded in “God’s wisdom”, a wisdom not readily known to everyone but reserved to be imparted on those who choose to not lean on their own understanding but allow God to lead them so their paths might be made straight. This hidden gift from God was not understood by worldly rulers in Jesus’ time just as it isn’t known today. For if rulers truly had devoted themselves to God’s wisdom, they never would have crucified His one and only Son because they would have fully known who He was and why He came from heaven to earth.  

Friends, the glory, goodness, mercy, grace, wisdom, forgiveness, and love of God are all unfathomable for mere human sinners like us. They are hidden gifts revealed to God believers who will never grasp the full extent of His care and the plans He has for their present and future. No one truly has a firm conception of God but everyone has the opportunity to receive Him. And one day, those who have received Him, giving Him the fullest measure of their trust, will see Him face to face, every day, abiding and dwelling, not just with their Master and Creator but with the Son He sent to be the Savior of the world.

What a glorious day that will be, a day I look more and more forward to every day.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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HUMBLE MINISTRY

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In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How should someone approach Christian ministry as they answer the call of the Lord to carry our His purposes?

We find the Apostle Paul provide us three answers within the opening five verses of 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, our text for today’s message. Let’s look at these now.

1. We should approach Christian ministry humbly.

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

Paul could have boasted greatly about how Jesus had hand selected him to go on all his missionary journeys and presented data to show how greatly he succeeded in bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth. He could have arrogantly bragged about having spiritual superiority over those he ministered to, asserting that he had privileged insider knowledge since he was so close to Jesus, an intimate relationship established on the road to Damascus and then into Damascus itself, the first place where Paul proclaimed the good news about God’s Savior Son.

But he didn’t do anything like this, did he?

Instead, he made sure his Corinthian readers recalled how he exercised great humility while proclaiming “the testimony about God”. He didn’t come with eloquent words based on his own wisdom but rather was a mouthpiece that God spoke through, much like the prophets of old.

As we go about our work for the cause of Christ, we need to offer ourselves to the Lord completely, relying on Him to send us where He wants us to go...to do what He wants us to do...which includes saying the things He wants to say, the things He wants His people to hear.

2. We should keep it simple when we minister.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Paul didn’t seek to dazzle the Corinthians with extensive theological knowledge. Rather, he showed great modesty in his ministry work, resolved to make sure his message was succinct and to the point. There was no need to use some wide sweeping exposition on the salvation offered by God to His people through His Son. No, Paul kept it fundamentally about Jesus and his life.

By his own testimony, Paul reminded the Corinthians that he spoke solely about Jesus and Him crucified while he was with them. The focus was on Christ and Christ alone as it always should be because without Jesus and His redeeming work completed on Calvary’s cross, we wouldn’t have a Gospel message to share.

We don’t need to make Christian ministry hard. We only need to make it about Jesus, about His life and death, His resurrection and ascension, and about His coming return.  

3. We need to allow the power of the Holy Spirit to work through us.

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

Jesus knew there would be times when His followers would struggle with knowing what to say in certain circumstances, especially in the heat of the moment during their labors for Him. You’ll remember Jesus told His disciples that if they were ever hauled into court due to their affiliation with Him, they would never need to worry how to testify because Jesus would give them the words to say.

Paul experienced that same intervention as Jesus gave him the words to speak through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, when Paul spoke, he did so not by way of his might but rather the Spirit’s power.

Why?

Because he desired that the faith of the Corinthian Christians would not rest on wisdom from humans but rather on the power of God, a power surpassing anyone or anything else in heaven or on earth.

When we humbly allow the Lord to lead and guide us in our ministry work, then we will submit to carrying out the Lord’s will and not our own. We will speak with the Spirit’s power so that the strength of God might be revealed and draw people to Him in faith.

Friends, as Christians, Jesus has called us to carry on His work in making disciples. He didn’t tell us how to go about it but He did say this:

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b

As we answer His Great Commission, we do so knowing we never walk alone. Rather, He is walking as close to us as He did the two men on the road to Emmaus. We only need to humbly surrender control to Him, allowing Him to lead us to ministry opportunities, knowing He isn’t bringing us to something that He isn’t going to bring us through. And once we are in those ministry opportunities, all we need to do is allow the Spirit’s power to work through us, providing the words to speak or wrote.

That’s what Paul did and we would be well served to follow his example.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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