The Kingdom of God and "Renewing of the Mind"
By Charles Carrin
The miraculous life should typify every ordinary Christian life. We must discover that the trans-earthly Kingdom of God is a spiritual dimension that comes from that other realm and seeks to impact us in this earth-zone. When we fail to recognize this, we fail to apprehend the fullness of Kingdom power that Jesus provided for us and intended that we use.
After 60 years of ministry I am convinced more than ever that our penetration into the realms of God must be an ever-deepening pursuit of His Kingdom. Revelation-knowledge waits for us only in relation to the Kingdom. Studying the Church will not achieve it. I cannot over-emphasize this fact. We must be men and women driven in the holy quest for Kingdom truth. This destination can be achieved only with what Scripture calls a “renewed mind”. The “carnal mind” cannot go there. If the Universe is expanding at the speed of light, so is His Kingdom. It is this Kingdom which Jesus told Pontius Pilate was, “Not of this world”, meaning it did not originate on this planet, nor was it confined to the restrictions of the physical earth.
The Kingdom of God is not native to our world but is projected into our cosmos from the Great-Other-Realm. Therefore, all the dispensations of the Kingdom, including our ministering the gospel, experiencing gifts of the Spirit, exercising faith, doing miraculous works, etc., are all transearthly powers that are expressing themselves through us. The Kingdom of God possesses the potential to interact both with our physical dimension of time and space while it maintains a complete, uninterrupted union with the Eternal Dimension in which it originates. As gravity, electro-magnetism, centrifugal force, thermodynamics, etc., are native to our cosmos, so the Kingdom and all its works are native to the other realm. They are only projected into our’s. Scripture makes it very plain that all Kingdom attributes are extensions to us. They are “powers of the age to come”. Unfortunately,
1. We humans use only 3% of our brain power.
2. In the fall of Adam we lost access to 97% of our mental potential.
3. Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds in 1000 years, used only 7%.
4. If–before the fall–Adam used 100% of his what must he have been like?!
5. If someone on the planet today used 100%, what would he be like?
6. Though now out of our reach, I believe we still possess the original 100%.
7. A new-born baby’s brain increases by 10,000+ synapses per second.
8. An adult brain contains more synapses than stars in the Universe.
I am persuaded that God securely “locked away 97%” of man’s mental capacity after Adam’s degeneration to prevent our sinful nature from abusing its incredible, almost illimitable power. We are now operating on the barest minimum of human intellect. Were the body’s nutritional needs in such decline, we would have totally starved to death.
Even so, in spite of our reduction to 3% brain power, the human mind is an awesome, incredible, indescribable, being. If all 5,1/2 billion people on earth were talking on the telephone at the same time and using 18 different telephones, it would still not correspond to the electrical traffic a single brain is handling. Each brain is a universe within itself. The corpus callosum tissue separating the two hemispheres of the brain contains as many connections as all the combined telephone lines in America. In other words, to cut through the corpus callosum would be far more destructive than shutting down every telephone in the U.S. The 1,000 billion cells now operating in each of us originated from a single cell at conception. In that split-instant every other mental and physical system was successfully programed. That conceptual-explosion of power in a sub-microscopic way was repetitious of the “Big Bang”. Such a detonation, occurring thousands of times daily around the globe– unimaginable as it is–is only a feather’s-weight hint at the operational capacity of the Kingdom of God. God does not merely act. He is action itself. Astonishingly, He wills to reveal that power to us and through us.
I have a pastor friend in Florida who years ago was flunking Bible College. Intellectually, he struggled. Though grievously disappointed at having to drop-out of school he was preparing to do so when a friend encouraged him to seek renewal in the “spirit of his mind”, Ephesians 4:22-24. He exhorted my friend to ask the Holy Spirit to “give him the mind of Christ” and to “bring to memory” everything Jesus had said to him.” He obeyed, the Holy Spirit miraculously responded, and today–with a renewed mind–this pastor can quote all of the New Testament and most of the Old Testament from memory–and he can do that in more than one version. What happened? He experienced “renewal in the spirit of his mind”.
And be aware that my friend experienced more than just intellectual-renewal. It was the miraculous magnification in the “spirit” of the mind! Paul tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2-3, Today, that pastor quickly admits it is not humanly possible for him to have such phenomenal recall of Scripture. He also knows this experience does not make him immune to theological error. While he is the only one of my personal acquaintance who has experienced such mind-renewing transformation, I have had the privilege to pray for a number of children and adults whose mental deficiencies underwent radical improvement. I also ministered to my friend with the astonishing memory.
While I do not believe we will experience restoration to Adam’s original ability, I am persuaded that this is what the Apostle Paul targeted when he told the Ephesian believers to be renewed in the spirit of their mind. Notice carefully, Paul’s using the word spirit. He was aware that this change involved much more was than mere brain tissue. And keep in mind that renewal is restoration to something once possessed but now lost. Antithetically, the only option for believers’ mental renewal is to remain “carnally” minded. Paul further addressed this possibility in his letter to the Roman saints, 8:6,7, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God ...” My point is this: A carnal, unrenewed mind, no matter how long one may have been born-again, or how well-educated, cannot comprehend the phenomenal breadth of the Kingdom of God. No one on the earth today qualifies for that distinction. All of us are still learners. Everyone has his small bit of wisdom to share.
Dr. Lisa Randall, 45 year-old female theoretical physicist, author, and Harvard University Professor says “The Universe has higher, hidden, infinitely larger dimensions so vast that our’s in comparison is nothing more than a 3-D sinkhole.” The greatest living physicist of all, Dr. Stephen Hawkins, actively pursues her concepts. I am not saying that the “dimensions” of which Dr. Randall speaks are Heaven, Hell, Eternity, etc. I don’t know. I want never to forget that “the world by wisdom knows not God” But I want also to remember that one of the earliest Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah came from the mouth of a pagan witch-doctor, Balaam. Numbers 24:17. I will not reject truth because it doesn’t wear a denominational label.
While I totally believe in the new birth, the baptism in the Spirit, impartation of spiritual gifts, and the miraculous benefits they bring, I am equally convinced that we humans cannot comprehend Kingdom-reality apart from receiving renewal in the “spirit of our mind”. For this intellectual need, being born-again is not enough. There is a holy progression into God’s realm which we dare not fail to recognize and apply. Even with the best of Scripture learning, spiritual gifting, fervent devotion to God, without exception, the mind must be renewed! Lacking it, we cannot apprehend the Kingdom.
The Kingdom message–imparted by Jesus to Paul, Peter, Philip, others–was accompanied by mighty signs, wonders, manifestations of Kingdom power. When Peter walked the streets of Jerusalem the touch of his shadow restored invalids to health and strength. Acts 6:15. At Joppa he raised Dorcas from the dead. Acts 9:36-43. At Lystra, Paul commanded a lame man to stand and walk. Acts 14:8-10. In Samaria, Philip drove out demons. Acts 8:5-7. In every case, these men experienced the “powers of the age to come.” Hebrews 6:5. These displays were not normal earthly-events for that day. Not at all. Instead, they were invasive-flashes from the Kingdom of God.
Though the Kingdom’s full revelation is reserved for the future, these flashes of divine power suddenly–and abnormally–appeared on earth. In that moment, these men were more than mere humans; they were followers of Jesus under the revelation of Kingdom authority and the Holy Spirit’s anointing. In a sense, they stood in the edge of Glory. Their feet were on earth; their faces in Heaven. Simultaneously, they were in both realms. Eternity shone through them like sunlight through a window. They were not the Light but only the pane through which the light passed. Jesus is the Light.
When Jesus delivered the maniac of Gadara, the townspeople returned and found the man “in his right mind”. Jesus did more than regenerate his soul and cast out demons. He restored his mind! The day of the Resurrection, when Jesus appeared to the disciples on the Emmaus road, they later said,"Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’ Luke 24:32. In part, this was a mind-opening experience. Today, fresh mental and spiritual knowledge of the Kingdom of God is being projected into our realm and we must be prepared to receive it. I need to illustrate that scene:
If you were standing at the edge of a pool of water and threw two rocks into it that land apart, each will cause a circle of ripples to flow toward the other. In our purpose, the circle on your right represents the non-physical, spiritual Kingdom of God. The one on the left can represent the natural or physical kingdom. Ripples from each will pass through the other. Where they overlap you have an eliptical shape in the water that has been created by the two circles of waves. The eliptical zone in the middle is the area in which all born-again believers live. Simultaneously, we are part of both the natural and spiritual realms. Though living here, believers have already been entrusted with miraculous “powers of the ‘age to come’”. Hebrews 6:5.
The tragedy with many born-again believers is that they remain locked into the concept of earth-life only; they keep themselves restricted to its prison-like confinements. They have never discovered the reality of their spiriutal realm and forget that “Now are they the sons of God. ”I John 3:2. Now! Now! Now! Their assumption is that “eternal” life begins when they die. Not so! Nothing is more astonishing than our discovering that God has placed within reach of ordinary believers the Kingdom’s amazing power of the Holy Spirit. That is precisely what Jesus made available to us.
He said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Acts 1:8. “These signs will follow those who believe.” Mark 16:17. Through these miraculous invasions, the Holy Spirit draws back the Kingdom’s veil and allows us to experience the wonders of the “age to come” Though we experience only a grain-of-sand demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s Kingdom power, even the smallest revelation of His presence displays this fact:
The miraculous life should typify every ordinary Christian life. We must discover that the trans-earthly Kingdom of God is a spiritual dimension that comes from that other realm and seeks to impact us in this earth-zone. When we fail to experience this, we fail to apprehend the fullness of Kingdom power that Jesus provided and intended for us to use.
SCRIPTURES
Romans 12:2-3. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind , that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
1 Corinthians 2:16-3:1. For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Isaiah 26:3-4. “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You.”
Mark 5:15 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
Mark 12:30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.
Luke 12:29 "And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind .
Romans 7:21-8:1. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 8:5-8: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Ephesians 1:15-19. “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding (kardia/heart) being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power ...”
Ephesians 4:20-25. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
1 Corinthians 2:1-6. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Philippians 2:5-9. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 1:7-8. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Philippians 2:5-7. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Colossians 2:18-19. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head.
1 Peter 1:13. Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Hebrews 9:14. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
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