Sunday, June 02, 2024-Apôtre BILLEY
The mind and the Word of God (continued n.6)
Luc17.
5 The apostles said to the Lord: Increase our faith.6 And the Lord said, If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this sycamore tree, Uproot yourself and plant yourself in the sea, and it would obey you.
Faith is essential – without it, no one can be pleasing to God.
Hebrew 11.6 But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he who comes to God must believe that God exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
The Christian who loves God but finds it difficult to walk with the Lord, is because he conceives the things of God with his head, with his thoughts.
We must be careful to bring thoughts to obedience to Christ.
Otherwise the Christian can easily lose his victory.
The solution is the Word of God. And this Word must be received in the heart.
So, the solution to mastering thoughts is to have the Word in your heart. The heart, the place where God wants to dwell Eph.3.17
Thoughts must not be left easily to the enemy but must be submitted to Christ.
And if God dwells in the heart, then everything in us must submit to his Word. For what we have received from God must affect everything in our lives.
God’s Word is God – and when everything in us submits to the authority of God’s Word, THAT is how victory is possible.
As long as thoughts don’t submit to God’s Word, the Christian will find life with God complicated and difficult, if not impossible.
So it will be a constant battle within him.
Today, many Christians don’t know this battle within themselves – and so the Christian life is in the balance. It’s hard to live a harmonious life with the Holy Spirit, a life of victory because of battles in the mind.
There’s a big difference between living, talking, listening and giving with your head, and doing it all with your heart.
When you try to walk with God with your head, it just won’t do. For we walk with God with our hearts.
In secular schools, from kindergarten to university, we learn to do everything with our heads: mathematics, geometry, technology…
So you don’t go to school with your heart.
We analyze and use intelligence, which is connected to matter and not to the mind.
The intelligence of matter is a small part of man.
When we talk about the head, we mean the mentality, the way of thinking, the habits…
For example, a person can develop a selfish mentality, prideful habits…
And by dint of behaving this way, it becomes a behavior, a way of life.
In the Lord, all this must change in our lives.
The Christian must understand this, in order to get out of this type of battle, to get out of the instability in the Christian walk.
-
First, to know what thinking is.
-
Secondly, to know how it works.
-
Thirdly, to be able to control your thoughts.
Remember
** If we are asked to give our cell phone to someone else for free.
If you give with your head, i.e. with the mentality of Man, in reality, there will be the desire to get your phone back, there will be no peace. Because in human logic, I don’t have to give my phone away like that.
However, with the heart, there will be in the heart the joy of giving, of love in it for the person.
What makes the difference?
Our habits that oppose God. And these habits have become the driving force for some.
So when the Holy Spirit speaks to us, we resist him too. We reject it.
Because of this system in Man.
You can’t walk with God with your head.
** If you receive an unfamiliar dish from a foreign country as a gift, you won’t be quick to eat it.
But if you receive a dish from your country, you’ll quickly feel at ease and enjoy it.
** So if the Holy Spirit asks us to take this foreign dish for ourselves, we’re going to resist him.
We have our habits, stored up in our heads – so much so that anything outside our principles – is rejected. That’s what creates our problems – our debates.
The head doesn’t know how to give to others, not at home, not in church, not anywhere.
We must learn to give from the heart – as well as speak, listen, see, think, serve…from the heart.
For example, when we give from the heart, the hand with which we give becomes the hand of the spirit.
That’s why Jesus said, he who gives, receives. But not just any old way – there are principles. It must be with the heart of love.
Giving with the head will tire the person out and even give them a headache.
We are God’s temple – (the physical body)
And God the Father is in his temple, with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
And we too find ourselves in this temple.
How does God enter us?
Through his Word, he is spirit, and we too are spirit.
** Let’s look at a pregnant woman-
In her body, there’s at least one baby inside-and it can happen that several babies are inside her.
So naturally we take for granted the presence of babies in a pregnant woman’s body.
So how can we not wholeheartedly accept the Truth that comes from God?
Beloved, you are the temple of God –
Jesus is in you.
Luc17.
5 The apostles said to the Lord: Increase our faith.
6 And the Lord said, If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this sycamore tree, Uproot yourself and plant yourself in the sea, and it would obey you.
How do we obtain faith?
Romans 10.17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
So to have faith, a person has to hear the Word and let it go to the heart.
What must the Word encounter? My heart.
This means that The Word of God + My heart (my mind) = Faith.
So how hard is it to increase faith?
No – that’s why Jesus didn’t answer that or lecture on faith.
However, he explained what we can do with the Word in us.
We already have everything we need to have faith.
We have the heart and we have the Word – we just have to mix the two.
In reality, the disciples already had faith. Since they asked for it to be increased.
But they didn’t think it was enough.
Their concept of faith in their heads was fighting them. This was contrary to the definition the Lord was explaining to them.
Jesus said that even if your faith is as small as a grain of mustard seed, you can already do great things.
And it’s by doing all these little things that your faith will grow!
Man’s habits fight his faith – for he can say to himself: I’m not worthy, I’m weak, I don’t have enough faith…
We absolutely have to change that.
It’s very easy, faith isn’t complicated.
Example: If you want to drink coffee and you start praying and interceding for it.
Will you get an answer?
No, because God has already provided everything you need to drink coffee. You’ve got milk, sugar, water, coffee…
Just take them and mix them up – then you can drink as much as you like.
Beloved, the Word + your heart produces Faith.
If God says you’re fair, you take it! – Then that means you’re right.
If he says, you are blessed, you are blessed.
That’s faith, accepting what God says – I become everything God says I am.
Is it Jesus who increases faith? Who then increases your faith?
It’s you accepting and becoming what God has said.
What fights against this is our head – it will try to reason, to see first before believing like Thomas…
This means that those who have no faith, have rejected Jesus – the Word.
Faith is very accessible. A single Word can move mountains.
Without the Word, faith is impossible.
Brother, sister, you are a winner, you are a champion, you must do God’s will!
If God wants you to become a minister, a strong man, a pastor, a president…
So put God inside you, because men aren’t going to want you to achieve God’s will for you.
God will give you everything you need: wisdom, strength, intelligence… according to His will for you.
But you must stand firm and fully accept what God has said and planned for you.
And no one can stop what God has decided in his sovereignty.
LET US PRAY →
Lord Jesus, you are in me.
You are great.
You’re strong, powerful.
You’re wonderful.
My life belongs to you, I am your temple.
Illuminate me completely.
May all darkness in my life disappear in Jesus’ name.
I’m one with you.
I am blessed, my week is blessed, my family is blessed…
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.