Have you ever felt you're losing your mind? Like everything is spinning out of control, and perhaps too hard to focus with no rest of mind?
Here is sound mind unwrapped as a gift it is; bringing us to steering the control of our spirits, from a city broken down without walls to a city set on a hill. Here, the words remain spirits and life, welling up from Mamertine dungeon holding Paul the Apostle. Listed as a wind towards the young Timothy at Ephesus. And fanning to flame the gift of the Spirit of Sound Mind of the young Bishop who would have found it tough to set his mind on things above, under the cruelty of Emperor Nero in 2nd Timothy 1:7
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a SOUND MIND.”
To focus on the mind, it’s key we have a concept of what man is made of.
Beautiful if you lay your hand on any coin. If you can’t, then pick one up with your mind.
Just like that coin you are holding or seeing now with two sides: the front, also called the obverse is the spirit – directly connected to God. The back or reverse is the body which enjoys physical expression. Where then is the popular soul or the mind? That can be taken as the thick round edge or middle part of the coin that joins both sides. Man therefore, is indeed that complete fullness of a spirit married to the hosting flesh by the soul or the mind.
This why attempt to split man by the spirit, soul or body defines death in one way or the other. While the spirit is given directly from the Holy spirit and can not die because He’s life himself, He can be taken away leaving the soul for dead instantly from God. Happy if you got that.
Whether or not any other spirit occupied that void, the taken away Holy Spirit would usually linger to reconnect the lost soul back to God before the soul is finally out of sync with the body. What we later see as physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. This is why death is a progressive disintegration of man that starts suddenly. But the window of opportunity between the Spirit departure from the soul and eventual death of the body from the de-spirited soul can be explored for a reconnection. That only happens if the taken Spirit is allowed back. Such a reconnection of the soul to the Spirit happens by repentance. It was that same time lag David seized when he realized his spirit signal was low, nearly dead gone, That he quickly prayed for a bar boost to God to renew in him a new spirit. In his words in Psalm 51:11, “do not take your Holy Spirit from me,” That was a sound mind when things were falling apart into almost becoming another King Saul.
This time lag was what the crucified thief on the right hand of Jesus maximized when he pleaded for mercy asking Him to remember him in his Kingdom. And somehow by grace, a condemned and executed thief became the excort candidate with Jesus to paradise despite all he did before the last nail was driven through his soiled hands. A Sound mind begins from approaching the throne of grace with your last string of boldness. Though it’s mercy you are pleading for, you would be shocked how that you have just found grace, especially in time of need for rest of mind.
That golden lag time is the soul time, taken by those who use their minds, and if it worked for those when nearly irredeemably dead, imagine what happens to anyone when alive.
So, with knowing that a mind promptly used can restore the lost Spirit to the body, WHERE EXACTLY is this reunion event of the lost Spirit and the flesh yielded back it? Or which venue does the body wrestled away from the Holy Spirit meet again? . Where does the trade-off of Spirit happen: that market place where the Holy Spirit can land on the Flesh and make it a living wonder, or be quenched to vacate the flesh temple to carnality: where is this interface?
THE MIND.
While we can relate well with our bodies, sculptured from the dust, and that the spirit is directly from God by His breathing on Adam just as Jesus breathed the holy Spirit on his disciples. The soul, however might be hard for many to conceive. Yet it is the interface core between the body and the Spirit. Remember the mid coin? What then, is this mind? It’s the direct extention of the soul, the active antenna of the soul. Can we bring it home early a bit?
Though one of the same, the mind is very motional, the soul is emotional. We daydream with our minds but actually dream with our souls when fast asleep in the body. The mind lunges us into thoughts and recalls memories whereas the soul is more felt when we think less, and are lost in passions.
Can you make anything out yet?
While the soul is the seat of the will, where desires stems from, the mind is where the actions on those desires are instructed on the body to execute. Okay, if you’re not using a simless phone, your body is like your smartphone with all the parts, outside or inside. Your Spirit is as that bar signal directly from the server; it can fluntuate in bars, based on the presence or otherwise of connection. The sim chip is the soul which further generates your subscriber identity – the mind- to the network.
Scripturally, the mind is called the soul usually when emotional. And it’s quite interesting that this same mind is also interchanged for the heart and we can understand it was more so to emphasize that it is very key and central, the mind. Though we all the mind called a heart know it’s not the same as the fleshy heart inside your chest. Little wonder Jesus would go for all three in similes : you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind – Matthew 22:37. Kindly read that again if you have some time on you.
You would see He didn’t mention the Spirit or body directly, guess why? The mind or the soul is the wheel of our will to love or not to. The Spirit only possess if the soul or the mind permits. The body in turn is slaved along to carry out the decision taken from the mind. That is why you can say your mind is made up. This is where the Spirit of sound mind come into place – a Spirit of self control. It is absolutely your will to allow God’s will to be done on at every garden of decision, be it Eden or Gathsemane. This is why the thinking king summed it up, “for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
On the sameness of the mind and the soul, it is said by christian apologists that The mind is the projection of the soul. What do you make if that? That strikes me like the mind is the funnel surface and the soul the tapered deep end of our same core.
Like the tip bud of an antenna, surfing the space, sorting out the chaffs from the dross, the mind impresses predominantly in the connective phase of our daily engagements. Whereas the launch pad itself, where things sorted are eventually settled for magnifying or minimising changes to be effected is the soul. So you can see. The soul is bolted down to our body for execution. While science would take the mind to be in the corporeal brain and some religious the soul to be in the bodily heart, both simply describe one incorporeal core of our being intricately linked one to another which is why I have chosen the picture below.
So, from now on, we can say the mind, or the soul or the heart are much the same if we don’t want to be splitting scriptural hairs. If you will, then take the mind as a widening window into the soul and when the ledge around the window of your mind is shattered for good or bad, what ever comes through your mind lands directly on your soul.
Yes I know we can relate with the word ‘mind‘ better the soul as the sole part of the body, just don’t forget that the mind is like the crease on the coin continued deep down into the soul and as one entity bolt the spirit and the soul . Which is why, God when the inspiration of His Spirit landed on Adam’s body, he became a living soul – far deeper than just a living body and certainly not a living Spirit because the Spirit itself is life and His absence means death. And because the soul is the interface to the body, the host body of Adam rose from the ground. It was the soul, the mind or the heart of Eve that the serpent of old decieved, not the spirit or the body. And the aftermath was instant Holy Spirit departure from her – spiritual death while the body would join the dust much later – physical death.
“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” Think of that mind game and relate it to Paul’s revelation, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so YOUR MINDS may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ,” That’s 2nd Corinthians 11 verse 3 showing that Eve’s mind, invariably Eve’s soul was the target. And when the soul gumming the Spirit and the body is shattered, everything separates and we see it as death. It didn’t stop with Eve. Then followed by Adam’s mind linked to his soul, who in turn despite not being deceived like Eve, decided in his mind to yeild to the lead to the fragile flesh - 1Tim 2:14.
The upshot was that, both their minds or souls sinned. And it’s the soul that sins that dies. And the sin here is simply unbelief that they were already like God, living forever. Whereas the Spirit of God can’t die, but only comes apart or departs from the body. The body in turn, left alone dead, buried or burnt – continues to hibernate in death until it is resurrected from Abrahams bosom as glorified host to life eternal or resurrected as a corruptible body from grave into eternal damnation at judgement.
Which means, God forbid if the Spirit is taken away against the prayer of David, and the body is hidden in death, the soul can actually die. It can die as a connector of the two sides of the coin when with nothing to connect. The soul dies when it loses its ability to be restored either way. It’s the soul that sins that dies. And that sin is unbelief. If time calls on the body into hibernation which we call physical death, a lost or de-spirited soul at that point can lose its ability to reconnect or reject the Holy Spirit and die eternally.
In the same vein, its the mind or the soul that can be won and that’s why he who wins a soul is wise. It is the soul that can be lost, that is why what does it profit a man if all his body gains the whole world and he loses his soul. So, the soul the deep hold of the mind is one thing never to lose. And the beauty is that this soul can be restored into rest like David maximized the window time, “He restores my soul.” – Psalm 23:3. So by the time a ones soul is restored, the mind which is lost too is being restored, remember the mind is just the outer portion of the soul. And it connects the Spirit and the body.
Remember, it is as a man thinks in his heart so he is and not as he is in the Spirit which leads or the body which follows. Instead it’s in the joiner, the diplomat, the soul, the mind or the heart. This Soul, the mind or the heart is where the hosting body whose marvellous strength lies in following can be surrendered to the Holy Ghost whose nature is leading. Still, the same soul or the mind, as you now understand is that interface where the Holy Ghost best at leading can also be sacked for the flesh to take over the console. In which case, one is then carnally minded, like a city without wall, the leading flesh given the wheel then begins to follow anything it sees around because it’s made to follow.
That’s why to be carnally minded is death and to be Spiritually minded is life and peace. Note the mindedness here, and the peace that passes all understanding in the other side - which is the rest of mind!
THE MIND DECIDES
The Spirit leads, the body follows but the mind by the soul decides. The switch not to put the cart before the horse is triggered by the mind. Roman’s 8:17 speaks of the mind of the Spirit. That’s a mind that has so much yielded the leadership decision to the Spirit that it has been dubbed so as the mind of the the Spirit. It’s very easy at this point to follow your mind because you are spiritually minded. The Spirit wants your mind like never before, He would not give us up to reprobate minds.
The Spirit wants to boost your Spiritual bars and fan into flame the dying ember coal of the gift of Sound Mind in you more than Paul wanted to Timothy. This is why what God the Spirit gifted you isn’t only the Spirit of love (see BICQ4,) of power (BICQ5), but of SOUND Mind - this BICQ6
Your beautiful mind yielded to the Holy Spirit is a wonder to behold on the flesh. When Moses yeiled his mind to the Holy Spirit, he could think the unthinkable. He could pour the heart of God through his ink. Through his mind, flesh became so paper thin to the Spirit that seeing God became a asking. It was that so that his eyes almost saw the formed back of God the Word in the cleft, while people physically couldn’t look on him.
For us to have the mind of the Spirit or be Spirit minded, our minds have to be renewed. The lost mind can rejoin the taken spirit to the corruptible body. Your mind has to be renewed to the like mind of christ that is very sound and can self-control, the Spirit to lead and the body to follow, even when the wind in is contrary. Not an old mind that is yeiled to the Holy Spirit today and then to the flesh to lead tomorrow. He said such a double minded man should not think he would even receive anything from God.
So, this old mind has to be renewed with the mind of Christ. “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”-1 Corinthians 2:16. So, we are the fulfillment of new mind or new heart God promised in Ezekiel 36:26 he would give us at new creation with a new spirit, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh”. Kindly think on those words for a moment: a new heart or soul or mind, a new spirit, what more can we ask for? Okay, the body is missing - a new incorruptible body, which is inside the Spirit will be revealed in the package in time at rapture – little wonder we are actually new creations!
Now you understand Paul saying, you can “let” this Spirit mind be in you which is also in Christ, or not let it. The mind is where Jesus warned, give no space for the devil, because it can be given. Your mind, soul or your heart is where the Holy Spirit is downloaded and uploaded to the body, because it will show on it. Your soul or mind is the binding port for the Spirit of God. It’s where the weakness of the flesh can be depleted for the fullness of the Spirit to be expressed. Unlike the unbelieving Eve, it was her mind virgin Mary yielded to the Holy Spirit and said, “be it unto me according to your words” – she believed the water of the word in her mind – and the Holy Spirit became expressed physically in her womb – her flesh.
SOUND WORDS
There will be no sound mind without sound words. Remember the words are Spirit and life and this sound mind is the gift of the Spirit. Paul made it clear to Timothy in verse 13 of the same first chapter just before mentioning sound mind in verse 14, “Hold fast the pattern of SOUND WORDS which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” Your sound mind is where the law of the Spirit is written.
And unlike the letter that kills, these words jumps out alive from the pages of your Bible and becomes engraved in your heart without ink. Even that right-sided thief on the cross had some little charge of the sound word of hope to think about. So, he used the little and dying out sound mind to cry out for the boost of Spirit of sound mind. There is that little sound mind in us waiting for a boost.
We decide to let it die or and the taken Spirit is forever gone or we let it live by crying for help. It is left in everyone even at dying minute so that no one then would have to teach his neighbor what to do, for the spirit shall teach you all things, and you become living epistles for men to read.
This sound mind, the place where God said I would write my law on their heart is the tablet of the last days for broadbanding of the Spirit network and His outpouring on all flesh. Your sound mind is the face of the deep that if loaded day and night with the meditated water of the words. It will all suddenly becomes like the water baptism forerunning fire baptism. For as our mind binds the Spirit of God, this quickening Spirit sparks the light of immortality on motal flesh like Elijah’s fire called to lick the water of the word.
How so? As the Holy Spirit broods over the sound words of God seeded in your mind. Like a double edged sword which opens up issues in your Spirit, soul and joints and marrow – the body, He goes to descern the intent of your heart or soul and thoughts in your mind. He searches out all things that are not right in our mortal flesh. He finds His words that you have hidden in your heart like David and digs up even the deep things of God to the surface of the deep, then you can tell with the rest of mind what excatly is the perfect or permissible will of God.
Again, if you recall the Egyptian glover on a Nile croc in BICQ 5, you see the Spirit has just landed a wonder touch through your mind to reshape your flesh, His temple. He is such a creative and recreative Spirit of rest of mind. He poises you to begin to break unprecedented silence on the quiet face of your deep of the water by teaching you the sound words of God to speak. You then begin to see things created but without shape in the spirit becoming shaped up into fleshy reality. Previously void life becomes an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to others. Things deformed or conformed to the world becomes transformed by a renewed sound mind. All by sound words. It is from a sound mind that the graveyard silence of uncreativity gets broken by the spoken sound word and the darkness of our Gen 1 verse 2 lights up to the brightness of verse 3.
So, this renewed mind that is self-controlled by the help of the Holy Spirit is the sound mind. It is the wheel of our will, is where the Spirit engage your thoughts, because this sound mind is not lazy. It thinks and only just asks in prayers. Again it’s a mind that thinks, so then will the spirit to do exceededingly abundantly more that we ask or think. This is how He then works in us both to will – by the mind; and to do – by the body, so that the success of the leading will not be by power or might of the flesh but by the Spirit of the Lord.
The mind, the soul is the interface where the will of God in heaven can be done on the earth – and on the earthen vessels, the flesh. Just imagine the things eyes have not seen, ears haven’t heard and haven’t come to the mind of men, the Holy Spirit is about to manifest through your sound mind.
SOUND MIND ON THE BODY
A battle won in your heart can never be lost on earth. So our minds the volitional place of surrender or resistance, it is where the Holy Spirit comes visible on the flesh, and the beauty of the His Holiness radiates. Its in a sound mind His spirit inputs righteousness in us so much that we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, it is by the renewed mind that we begin to reflect it on this corruptible body – which then called holiness. A sound mind receives righteousness like the gift of a white a chair: white down to it thinnest fabric in the Spirit. Though hosted by the body which is in contact with this dirty urban compound, the flesh is probed to gathering dusts, give no space for the devil to deceive you that mind that the chair has has changed color. Decide in your mind to give your Spirit of sound mind the lead. Watch the flesh jump at following as you boost the bar of His presence on your flesh. He is the Spirit of love, powered to renew your mind, and make you fearless and sound. It is in the renewing of the mind that the courted body dirts are dusted in daily flesh sacrifice which maintains the whiteness.
Dear, by yielding your mind to the Holy Spirit, holiness becomes the extension, of the core gift of righteousness deeply imputed in us. It appears like a dust servicing on a shining wrapper of our core gift. This gift of renewed sound mind of the Holy Spirit is what keeps us holy and acceptable till the day we bag the glorified body which is like a new smartphone finally housing the already new Spirit signal and a newly ported sim soul at His second coming.
David would say, “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.”
Until our minds which are broken like a city without wall is sacrificed and renewed daily by sound words to set it on things above like a city on a hill, it may never be sound.
Join the real time application of sound mind in BICQ 7 titled Wise Harlots, foolish virgins.
- Olusanya Olusola,
Topic Writer, BICQMag
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