GRACE - OUR NEW THINKING SYSTEM - Unlimited In Christ

grace: our new thinking system

Last week we ended our discourse at Romans 12:1-2 MSG

Embracing what God does for you

Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1-2 MSG So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Verse 2 in TPT Romans 12:2 Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.

(a)Embracing what God does for you

What has God done for us ? He has graced us! John 1:16 And from the overflow of his fullness we received grace heaped upon more grace!

Ephesians 2:4-6 But God still loved us with such great love. He is so rich in compassion and mercy. Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, he united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace! He raised us up with Christ the exalted One, and we ascended with him into the glorious perfection and authority of the heavenly realm, for we are now co-seated as one with Christ!

Titus 2:11-14 God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age. For we continue to wait for the fulfillment of our hope in the dawning splendor of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus, the Anointed One. He sacrificed himself for us that He might purchase our freedom from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, passionate to do what is beautiful in His eyes.

Grace is a Person. Grace is the fullness of God. From the overflow of His fullness, we have received grace upon grace. Grace is the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in our lives. Grace is the enabling power of God through His Spirit in us. Grace facilitates the fulfilment of God’s will. Grace makes us! Form comes before function.

But be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think.

(b) But be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think.

Let’s read this verse again – Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Romans 12:2 NLT Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

The kingdom of darkness where we were transferred from had its culture and way of thinking. In the kingdom of His Son where we are now located has its way of thinking . There is a requirement to change, to be reformed or transformed so that our thinking can be consistent with God. Philippians 2:5 NLT You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Philippians 2:5 TPT And consider the example that Jesus, the Anointed One, has set before us. Let His mindset become your motivation.

We see from the scriptures above that the mind is the seat where the renewal happens and when our minds are renewed, we are transformed. A beautiful picture of transformation is found on the mount of transfiguration Matthew 17:2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.

Transfiguration means change of form and appearance! In Psalm 73:16-17 NLT So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper. But what a difficult task it is! [17] Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.

We see the psalmist way of thinking when he enters the presence of God, understanding comes and he no longer sees the wicked as prosperous but sees the mirage of success for what it is!

HOW?

By the Holy Spirit “…{He} saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit…” (Titus 3:5). Transformation is made real by the Holy Spirit.

By making choices consistent with the new man “…{Put} off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

By obedience , being teachable, John 14:26 But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you.

By knowledge – Colossians 3:9-10 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Let’s define knowledge – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.-Proverbs 1:7 Knowledge is the possession of truth by a mind. Knowledge is facts, Understanding we have said often is God-given perception of the nature and meaning of things, resulting in sound judgment and decision-making; in particular the ability to discern spiritual truth and to apply it to human disposition and conduct. Wisdom is the practical application of God’s truth to a specific situation. THE FACTS HAVE CHANGED now that we are in the Kingdom of God’s Son. Lying was a way of life in the kingdom of darkness but in the kingdom of His son we are full of Grace and Truth.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH

(c) THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH

John 14:15-18 NIV If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

The Holy Spirit is our Helper, our Advocate, In Greek “parakletos” that is a legal advocate who makes the right judgment-call because close enough to the situation . Our Helper enables us to journey with God & please Him . We see Truth is a Person, the LORD JESUS CHRIST who dwells in us by faith. John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth & Jesus is Truth. In our new life in Christ the Holy Spirit guides us into all the truth. The source of truth for us is the Holy Spirit not the news or any other sources. The Holy Spirit guides, teaches us and leads us into ALL TRUTH.

The blood of Jesus Christ and His mighty name are an antidote to all the subtle seeds of unbelief that Satan would sow in your MIND.” Smith Wigglesworth -“

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6

It is that we may be supplied with revelation knowledge according to the MIND of the Lord, that we may be instructed by the MIND of the Spirit, that we may be able to rightly divide the Word of Truth.