Book Four Chapter Two

TWO

Our New Mind

God’s spirit, God’s very mind, has been placed inside of us. God does not entrust such a treasure to us lightly. He has, in fact, entrusted Himself to our keeping. How will you treat such an endowment? Will the hungry speak ill of free food? Will the thirsty scorn a cool drink? Yes, one might – if worldly ignorance is a caul so burdensome that one never sees a thing for what it truly is. In the previous segment, Ananias blasphemed the Holy Ghost with a lie. We should now better understand the nature of blasphemy.

In case we do not, see the extended definition of blasphemy in Mark 3:28-30, “Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.”

God has placed in us something truly wonderful; how dare we call it base?

God is in my head, and I’m thrilled. Now I can begin to know the works of God. I can begin to piece together just how the spirit affects the flesh.

‘Mind over matter’ seems somewhat a musty phrase; and yet – see Romans 8:27, “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

He knows it because it is His own. Just think, every human that either performed or witnessed a miracle; that is: those who were in some connection to the spirit, had a heart-searching, mind knowing God in their heads. Every person that ever prayed the best they could, and afterward rested in hope, was helped along by intercessions according to the will of God. Every individual that was turned down a wrong road, or turned up a right road; every human being that fell or stood back up, that wandered into the arms of friends or into the nests of enemies: every one of them was affected by the mind. Wars have been won by manipulations upon a single mind. A Godless mind will lead an individual to great pains; a ‘God-mind’ will lead an individual through great pains. Similarly, it must be said that one’s choices and willful actions can also affect the mind. A simple misinterpretation can lead to a domino cascade of bad decisions.

Be warned by Malachi 2:16, “Therefore take heed to your spirit (mind), that ye deal not treacherously.”

Our identities are tied into a mental focus. The corporeal brain interacts with and reacts to the physical condition and the affectations of most immediate consequence. Naturally, the natural man pays attention to the natural world. That is his primary focus. A spiritual focus, on the other hand, will place the corporeal impulse on a back burner. The following reference puts me in mind of the fall of Adam and Eve.

See Romans 8:13, “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

This admonition is somewhat similar to the one given Adam in the garden: ‘if you eat the forbidden fruit, you will die’. Adam and Eve were of two contrasting mindsets. Whereas their focus had formerly gone in another direction, they came to a turning point: a point where they turned away from the previous mental focus, a point where they followed an impulse.

As contrasting mindsets go, identity can be known by its identifying markers. The identification process can be summed up in an equation where both sides are equal. The logic involved can be simple and straightforward: ‘B’ is ‘B’ because it falls between ‘A’ and ‘C’. We use this type of logic as second nature; without really ever giving it a thought: ‘up’ is ‘up’ because it is not ‘down’; ‘high’ or ‘right’ or ‘spiritual’ are what they are because they are not ‘low’ or ‘wrong’ or ‘worldly’.

See John 3:31-34, “He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His testimony. He that hath received His testimony (the sons of men) hath set to his seal that God is true. For He(/he) whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit (His mind) by measure unto Him(/him).”

Heaven is a roof that is over the whole house. In a house, there may be a couch in the living room, and a stove in the kitchen. The roof covers both; both are thus made equal. In a house, the attic is above the second floor, and the basement is below the first floor. There are levels, yet the roof covers all equally. The roof is above all in the sense that all parts of the house are connected and affected by it. The focus here is shifting from that which holds the house up to that which holds the house together. God knows the mind of the spirit because it is His own. And God is a spirit – yet, the Holy Spirit of God is referenced as if it is a separate and distinct quality. It is referenced as if the changes within it affect God to the extent that He takes on a different mindset, or focus; even a different personality.

See God recognizing His changed nature in Isaiah 63:10 & 11, “But they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them. Then He remembered the days of old, Moses, and His people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him (Moses)?”

God is a spirit, said His only begotten. So, why do we see early writers writing “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God” instead of “grieve not God”? This style of writing seems to separate a spiritual God from His spirit. A conundrum – unless you recall that all along, I have suggested that the word ‘spirit’ is interchangeable with the word ‘mind’. If you were to grieve me, you would, in fact, be making yourself an annoyance to my mind. My mind would recognize the offense; my mind would convince my identity to enact a response to the affront. If you hoped to borrow from me, and then annoyed me, your hope would stand on shifting sands because your action changed more than our relationship: it changed me. Formerly a friend, presently an enemy: the surety of the loan has now evaporated.

See Ephesians 4:30, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit (the Holy Mind) of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

We move from valleys of verity to coastlands of confusion. Early writers placed ‘spirit’ as commonly attributable to human nature. They also used the word for God. They wrote of invisibilities, no wonder they had difficulty remaining zeroed in. One would say, it’s a chair in the study; another would say, it’s a bed in the master bedroom. I say it is the whole house. The early writers wrote of the Holy Ghost from myriad points of view, all colored by highly localized ideologies. We are not engaged in wool-gathering, but we are still intent on gathering sheep. We will round up the individualities, or they will flock together. Our new mind is prepared for spiritual discernment. God is in our heads; we know that He will show us what He wants us to see.

Book Four Chapter One

Book Four

What Exactly Is Spiritual?

ONE

The Effort to See

An expression of sight. We use it in our communications daily. It is this: “I see.” Our expression is not used to suggest the seeing of physical objects so much as to say ‘I agree’, ‘I know’, ‘I understand’. I have said that knowing can be the same as seeing - seems others have said the same thing. To know (or to see) spiritually, by which I mean ‘mentally’, takes a deliberate effort. One has either wide open spiritual eyes or sleepy little spiritual eyes with heavy lids. People try but a little, then tire; the eyelids droop. They say, “I just don’t see it”. This type is the un-exercised type: soft and flabby, mentally speaking. We seekers, on the other hand, exercise those mental muscles; we stretch our spiritual sinews: we are a buff new breed.

When it comes to the exercise of understanding, it must be said that knowledge is like x-ray vision. Case in point: since we know that our physical world is ‘built’ around function and intent, we may look at the outside of a barn and see the bales of hay stacked behind the walls. In an earlier analogy, I put forth the ‘gloved hand’. Now, obviously, we cannot see the hand for the glove, but, we can see the glove. And what is the glove exactly? It is a thing built around the hand, made to fit the form and function of the hand. The hand is hand-shaped, therefore, the glove is hand-shaped. Though we may not see the hand for the glove, we may know the hand by seeing the glove. Crude work gloves may give but an indication of the underlying hand, while refined silk gloves may give up the added information of a ring on one of the fingers. Then again, a form-fitting pair of surgeons’ gloves can offer the clear imprint of knuckles, creases in the skin, and even manicured fingernails.

It should be no wonder that Christ said, in John 12:45, “He that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me.”

Look closely, please. Christ said that we can look upon His physical, visible body and see the invisible God inside. Of course, since the physical eye will only see the glove, man must wake up his sleeping spiritual eye. Are you spiritually awake, or spiritually asleep? Are you spiritually (mentally) alert and watchful in regard to higher issues?

See the spiritually asleep in Proverbs 4:19, “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.”

See the call to be spiritually awake in Mark 13:35-37, “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”

The spiritually asleep, mentioned in Mark 13, reference individuals stumbling through life with no regard for higher issues.

A spiritual issue cannot sneak past you unless you are negligent of spiritual issues. Now, the world

is notorious for its gross negligence of things spiritual. They deny the light and stumble in the dark.

They imagine that the things they stumble at are of their choice. But how would they know? They

think they tripped on a rock, when, without light to see by, it could have been God tying their shoelaces together. This is the bottom line: blind ignorance is a rope stretched across every man’s path. One cannot step high enough to avoid it by stepping blindly. The only step that can avoid it is the step of opening one’s spiritual eye to the light.

See another admonition to wakefulness in 1 Thessalonians 5:6, “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”

In this fourth book, I ask, ‘what exactly is spiritual’? I have said that spiritual is mental, but here, we begin with spiritual states as recorded by the early writers of scripture. Spirit has been called many things by many writers. Numerous individual attributes have been ascribed to spirit, and these

individualities are like milling sheep, each one seeking its own mouthful of turf. Here, we will attempt to lead these individualities into the stable, and see if, together, they constitute a flock. We see the ‘generalized’ spirit, and we note the ‘spirit of’. We understand that early writers used the word ‘spirit’ to identify natural and common states of the human condition. Something of the nature of man is also of the nature of spirit.

See Ecclesiastes 2:17, “Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

Everyone has felt ‘vexed’ at some point in their life. Is this verse in Ecclesiastes an affirmation that every human has a spiritual component? Is that component ‘mental’, as I have asserted?

See the ‘spirit of’ that component in 2 Timothy 1:7, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

The question must be asked, is a ‘sound mind’ a spiritual quality? The effort to know, that is, to see the spiritual, is like knowing the invisible wind by the movement of trees. Sometimes a tree will move but slightly. Other times it is uprooted. Thus, the wind may be ‘seen’ in its levels of strength. Above that, there are levels in the whole spectrum of matter. One may look at the lower level of water, and learn much about the higher level of wind. In man, there are spiritual levels: from the babe to the adept, from the nature of man to the nature of God. Our next reference contrasts the two obvious levels of physical and mental. More important, it shows us which one God prefers.

Romans 2:29, “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit (that is: the mind), and not in the letter (a set formula); whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

In other words, God respects the inner man of the mind; the true people of God are those who have deliberately cut away the gross caul of worldly thought to reveal the true mind. That newly exposed mind is man’s ‘God-mind’.

See the lower and the higher mind plainly in 1 Corinthians 2:11, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit (or mind) of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit (or mind) of God.”

Our present topic: mental levels between the mind of man and the mind of God. These two extremes, as our next reference suggests, are like oil and water.

See 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit (or mind) of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (by the mind of God).”

Now, obviously, none of the early writers were experts on the mind of man. Some approached a measure of expertise. The psychiatrists and psychologists of our day and age are no closer. If all modern psychological knowledge is based in the premise of our cognition being the neural firings of a corporeal brain, I must confess that modern professionals are less the experts than early writers. No wonder man has so much trouble approaching God: he has reduced mentality to a formula that he may control. Such an amputated creature will never stand.

But, we can begin to find our legs in Ecclesiastes 11:5, “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit (mind), even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”

If we do not understand God, it is that we do not understand the God that is in us. If we act against God, it is that we act against the God that is our own higher nature. The next reference shows Ananias acting against God. Was he acting against the God of other men, or the God that ruled from within?

See the higher quality of man in Acts 5:3-5, “Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.”

We speak of the Holy mind of God. It is an implant, a thing grafted into man. As such, we now have a nature higher than our former selves. The Holy Spirit inside of us gives to us an added dimension. The Holy Spirit of God is now our higher nature. As the ‘children of men’, we have reached a point where the ‘oil and water’ has become ‘milk and honey’ - that we may know the good and avoid the evil. It is only by the ‘God-mind’ that we may know the good and evil.

See Ecclesiastes 9:1, “No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.”

What is before the natural man but the corporeal world? The children of men have received a higher mind, and it is that better nature alone that may justify or condemn a son of man.

See Matthew 12:31, “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”

Book Three Chapter Nine: A New Focus

NINE

A New Focus

I have called Jesus our example. As a man, I think, He was a model of how we ought to be. He walked the same road we do; He was baptized like any one of us is. We believe our Lord, so when He said what He said in John 3:6, we assume that He referred to Himself and to His followers as those who were ‘born of the spirit’.

We assume that Jesus was neither all flesh, nor all spirit, but He said in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

I ask a rather separatist question, then. Being the first fruits, was Jesus the first to be ‘born again’?

Formerly, our eyes have glazed over at the hard sayings of scripture. Now, we train upon the truth a steelier eye. We take a new focus on the things that once eluded us. Things like the relationship between spiritual and corporeal. To be born of the spirit; to be the children of God – we wish to know just how that works. Is being born of the spirit (being spirit), as Jesus said in John 3:6, the same thing as being a child of God? Let’s see what the early writers thought.

Let’s see Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit (mind) of God, they are the sons of God.”

That is a very straightforward statement. To be led by the spirit is to be born of the spirit. It isn’t hard to spot those born of the flesh: we’ve all been there. The focus of that type is on the flesh, and on what

affects the flesh. They go on and on about bodily functions, about materials that affect the body. In

their thinking, the final good is the physical good. Mentality and attitude in that type bear the brand

of the flesh.

Romans 8:5 gives us the distinction between those born of (led by) the flesh, and those born of (led by) the spirit: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

Please recall that we have adopted the word ‘mind’ as an edifying substitute for the word ‘spirit’. It’s a matter of focus. Throughout this study, the general focus has been that our cognitive abilities are spiritual.

We sort of have a mantra to that effect: our cognitive abilities are spiritual; spiritual and communication go hand in hand; there is no action without communication.

How does one tell another that he is not in the visible flesh, but in the invisible spirit - and get away with the absurdity of the claim? It’s a matter of focus. The spirit filled are still real flesh and blood people; they have simply shifted the focus (the center of their whole being) from the flesh to the mind.

Focus for a moment on Romans 8:9, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit (mind), if so be that the Spirit (mind) of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit (mind) of Christ, he is none of His.”

To have a new center of being; to have shifted the focus up, requires a changed inclination, a changed attitude. The things that once were important have been supplanted by newer, more vital issues.

See Romans 15:30, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit (mind).”

The followers of Jesus were given a new focus. When they compared themselves to their predecessors, they saw that their focus had shifted up from the flesh. Their forefathers were the physical circumcision: that was their relationship to God. They lived by a formula that had them counting steps in the dark. That former connection in the flesh was replaced by one in the mind. They considered that the taking away of the caul from the mind was a spiritual circumcision.

Cut to Philippians 3:3, “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit (mind), and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”

Why no confidence in the flesh? It was a dead end; no more than signs and tokens. If larger preparations led one to an ability to live largely, those preparations could not be found in ritual motions of the body. No matter what the body did, the body died. Ritual washing and other physical gesticulations became mute when one was empowered to prepare the mind for a new world.

See Galatians 6:8, “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit (mind) shall of the Spirit (mind) reap life everlasting.”

In fact, a new kind of ‘washing’ had dawned in baptism. It was the washing of regeneration. The thesaurus gives us some enlightening alternatives to the word ‘regeneration’. Try these on for size: ‘better’, ‘improve’, ‘uplift’, ‘replace’, ‘re-create’.

Baptism, it seems, is the crossover point from the purely ritual to the spiritual. See the words of Christ in Mark 11:30, “The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer Me.”

It’s mind over matter. Formerly, God’s loving-kindness toward men was ensured through compliance with a formula. Every early society had its rituals. God took a people to Himself and pointed their ritual inclinations away from the rest of the world. In doing so, man was given time to develop. When the early mind reached a critical alignment, it was given an example to follow. What was lost through Adam’s fall had to be renewed.

See the renewing of the Holy Ghost in Titus 3:4, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared.”

A spiritual ear. What do we pick up on?

So we built on former successes! The top rung of a ladder is not there for itself. It is there that we might reach a higher place. There is a place of change, and man simply must climb off that top rung. A new beginning must necessarily leave the old in its dust.

The sons of mankind moved into a spiritual dispensation, begun by Christ communicating the mind of God into men. It is the dispensation of the communicated mind.

See Galatians 3:2, 3 & 5, “Received ye the Spirit (mind) by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit (mind), are ye now made perfect by the flesh? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit (mind), and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”

Man was made a living soul by a communication from God. The Holy Ghost was then, for the most part, lost. However, man still had access to the spirit; the mind of God. Man had to begin an ascent from the very clay of his corporeal nature. I speak of an evolution of the spiritual that dragged physical man along behind. Man began as natural: that is on a par with the animals. As natural, man could progress but so far. Then came the point of crossover. When Christ is referred to as the last Adam, it is said that He was ‘made’, or turned into, a ‘quickening spirit’. But Jesus was a flesh and blood man, protests the mind. How could He be an invisibility? My, how the old mind clings! Time to check out the thesaurus.

Enlivening psyche, or mind.

A communicator of the living mind. See 1 Corinthians 15:45-47, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”

The second man, by extension, must include all of us who are changed into the image of Christ. Those of us who have the communicated mind of God: the Holy Ghost. Are we, then, Lords from heaven also?

Communication is key. Spiritual issues are passed back and forth like currency. It is the norm that a father will share his substance with his child. An allowance, if you will. Fathers give such to their young, without regard to their level of understanding, degree of righteousness, or spiritual inclination. Back in the day, the allowance might have been in sheep or goats, granted; the point of the communication is that the children follow in the steps of the father. The family business, and

the nature and skills of the father, like a mantle, would pass to the children.

See the good gift in Luke 11:13, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”

So God, through Jesus (the word), communicates the mind of God, the Holy Ghost, into man. It races forward like a spiritual chain letter. Everyone who gets a letter passes it on. Everyone that is ministered to becomes a minister. We are all emissaries of the mind of God.

A sick person depends on others for help. A well person is at liberty. If you took the blood of Christ, made a vaccine with it and inoculated the next person in line; then, made a vaccine from that person’s blood and repeated the process, by the time everyone was inoculated, not only would everyone share immunity, they would share the same substance. If the mind of God is our immunization, we share the mind of God and are fit to live in self-governance.

Roll up your sleeve for an injection of 2 Corinthians 3:8 & 17, “How shall not the ministration of the spirit (mind) be rather glorious? Now the Lord is that Spirit (mind): and where the (Holy) Spirit (mind) of the Lord is, there is liberty (immunity and self-government).”

A single mind indwells, but not just the mechanics of thought. A real personality comes with the Holy Mind of God. A Christ-like personality is ours, and an active personality that doesn’t simply wait to be called on. It also functions independently of our faculty of choice. Our new mind does things we can only guess about.

See Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit (mind) also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit (mind) itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

The very nature of that new mind, like the indication of a finger ring beneath a glove, can be plainly seen in us. Manifestations of the invisible are detectable in the corporeal plain and are therefore proof of spirituality.

See the detectable invisibility in 1 Corinthians 12:4, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.”

It is the same mind, but not the same in every man.

See also 1 Corinthians 12:7, 8 & 11, “The manifestation of the Spirit (mind) is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit (mind) the word of wisdom (communication); to another the word of knowledge (communication) by the same Spirit (mind); To another faith by the same Spirit (mind); to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit (mind); To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy (communication); to another discerning of spirits (minds); to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit (mind), dividing to every man severally as He will.”

Two questions come to my (mind) regarding faith. Why doesn’t everyone have faith, and how is faith

communicated?

Can a shift up; a new focus, help us see the invisible? Some people call our ‘point of activation’ an epiphany. But, ‘epiphany’ is a word that casts a shadow on itself. Such words fall into the hands of the contrary, and through their usage receive an improper connotation. But, the mind in man may be activated. Even the worldly share in that. A new focus may have, as part of its overall package, a new direction. To see the invisible, one opens the eyes where others look not.

Look at Matthew 3:16, “And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him.”

Did Jesus speak from that new focus?

He said in John 4:24, “God is a Spirit (mind): and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit (mind) and in truth.”

Does a mind require mental?

Does spirit demand spiritual?

The world says that ‘seeing is believing’. That is a concept that may be worked two ways. The one way would be to prepare for seeing: to strive and practice. You begin with a thought that there may be something you don’t see on the far horizon. Do you disclaim its existence? No. You get binoculars. Lo! And behold, there it is. The other way would be to reject every unseen thing out of hand.

There is the seeing eye, and there is the unseeing eye. The former is accompanied by the mind and thus may see things the unseeing eye cannot.

See the difference in John 14:17, “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you.”

To see and to know can be the same. The world wants to hunt for floating lights and spooky noises. That is just looking for physical manifestations. We seekers believe that to know the invisible is to see the invisible. The world wants the eye alone to see a proof: that is self-defeating. Once an invisibility is known (seen with the mind), it is no longer invisible.

In the end, the world seeks only self-justification.

We practice a different skill.

See Jeremiah 22:16, “He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know Me? saith the Lord.”

Book Three Chapter Eight: The Power of the Mind

EIGHT

The power of the mind

Now we, being small and immature, may look at someone in an advanced state and say, ‘Wow! Signs and wonders!’, but, those signs and wonders come from the mind of God - the same mind He has placed in all of us. When we mature to that higher level, it is certain that there will be greater familiarity, but, I think there will be just as many ‘wows’. It will always be ‘signs and wonders’: it will always be the ‘power of the mind of God’.

See Romans 15:19, “Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.”

Let us remember, here, that most of our reality is cyclic: that (perhaps) the mind of God is cyclic communication imparting the cyclic nature of the communicator.

For this, see Psalms 104:29-30, “Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created: and Thou renewest (restart) the face of the earth.”

That being said . . .

There is more strength in spirituality than there is in corporeality. Many an individual has had an inclination to do thus and thus, but as Acts 16:7 says, “The Spirit suffered them not.”

The spirit is mightier than the flesh. I’ve no doubt that such strength is the true root of our expression ‘mind over matter.’

See how the spiritual can affect the corporeal in Ezekiel 3:14, “So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away.”

It was a matter of resignation in early man. He knew that the spirit, or mind, of God, was like the wind, changing direction without notice. Early man placed God at a distance.

See early man’s trouble with the mind of God in 1 Kings 18:12, “The Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not . . . but I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.”

Men not only believed that the mind of God had power over the flesh, but actual records of the occurrence of such events made their way into scripture via eyewitness accounts.

See Acts 8:39, “And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.”

Men placed God at great distances from themselves. The sons of men began to see that the works of God could issue out from their own communicated minds. The power within was there because the mind of God had been imparted through communication.

See 1 Corinthians 2:4, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power.”

The sons of men began to understand.

See communication imparting the nature of the communicator in 1 Corinthians 2:10, “God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

Read that again, but now replace the word ‘spirit’ with the word ‘mind’. What does that do? It brings forth that God placed His mind in man so that with the mind we might search out the deep things of God. The culmination of the shared mind of God came by way of a very long process from the rare individual to the general population.

See the rare individual in Micah 3:8, “Truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might.”

We see a process akin to that of a scientist laboriously bringing about the seed of the ‘super-grape’; a process that is meant to guarantee a predictable result.

See the culmination of such labors in Luke 1:17, “He (John) shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts (minds) of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

We speak of a new breed; we speak of the sons of mankind. We assert that to these sons of mankind is communicated the mind of God. What a power within! It is a matter of the mind, seen clearly in the attributes of mentality - such as wisdom.

See Luke 2:40, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.”

Also, we speak of something quite noticeable: the power of the mind – the very imprint of God. People will run to see such a thing and will remember it when other things have been forgotten.

See the imprint of the powerful mind of God in Luke 4:14, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about.”

A new and powerful mind cannot be found by looking in the same old places. One must necessarily turn his eyes in a new direction. You cannot fill a cup that is upside-down. Turn it up. At that point an action is possible.

See such a point of ‘activation’ in Numbers 24:2, “Balaam lifted up his eyes . . . and the spirit of God came upon him.”

See another point of ‘activation’ in Judges 6:34, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.”

See yet another point of ‘activation’ in Judges 11:29, “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.”

Most of us have occasions where something just comes ‘all over us’. A chill runs up the spine, for instance, we laugh or cry without reason, or a sense of foreboding overcharges us with adrenaline. If you are such a person, then you can easily understand the word “upon” in these verses. The use of the word points to that moment of ‘activation’; the moment when something is evidenced as having come upon or changed the individual. It is the spirit; the mind that we receive of God.

See it again in 2 Kings 2:9, “Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.”

‘Upon’ may also be viewed as a ‘one-up’, a term borrowed from the video game industry.

See the son of Kish one-up in 1 Samuel 10:6 & 10-11, “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man. And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”

One-ups, in the sense that I here put them forth, are temporary. Moreover, they are general and may speak of the elemental nature that lies dormant in man. It may have been a quick fix that a hero flew into a rage and slew thousands single-handedly, or it may be a matter of interpretation on man’s part or the fact that history seems to romanticize certain individuals.

Othniel seemed a young man of great determination; hailed as a deliverer, he was obviously the right man for that time. But Judges 3:10 may only be speaking of the ferocity of a warrior when it states, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the Lord delivered Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushanrishathaim.”

On the other hand, God may have elevated Othniel to that level to address that single issue. On the third hand, however, if it was the ‘mind’ of God that came upon Othniel - well, God is also considered a man of war. We consider also the ‘might’ of a person that is not always evident, the skill and prowess that are evidenced in times of dire need, even the boldness to act as being of the communicated nature of God.

Sometimes it is there for the present need, as in Judges 14:5-6, “Behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid.”

See also Judges 14:19, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men.”

At other times, what we see is a more permanent change in the individual’s nature or character, as in 1 Samuel 16:13, “Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.”

When men became greater than their everyday self, or when they seemed bigger than life, the ‘spirit of the Lord’ may have been used generically to reference traits such as bold action, focus, or zeal.

See Judges 13:25, “The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.”

And then - there is the romance of the berserker. Flying into a rage has often been romanticized. It is romanticized even in our present day by those who follow such sports as wrestling and boxing. In the old day, though, rage was a part of the ‘warrior persona’.

Why people think that flying into a rage has something to do with God I have yet to piece together, but see rage romanticized in 1 Samuel 11:6, “And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.”

It may be that people respect a decisive solution; as when God deals with man in no uncertain terms.

See romanticized rage multiplied in Judges 15:14-15, “When he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.”

What if - the mind of God, at least in Moses, was a quality that grew? Do we see the ‘harvesting’ and replanting of God’s mind in our next reference?

Glean Numbers 11:25 & 29, “The Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!”

Those seventy elders were not always prophets. They were ordinary elders right up until the action was taken. When I say action, I mean a charge to commence; a beginning of some kind. I speak of a thing often called an ‘anointing’, as when Samuel anointed David: it was only afterward that the spirit was upon him.

It is interesting to view this next verse in that light. Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

It is a thing of the mind of God that we may see what is said. Christ did not say that He was sent to deliver, but that He was sent to ‘preach’ deliverance'. That, of course, is the communication that imparts the nature of the communicator - and Christ, after all, is deliverance.

Book Three Chapter Seven: Man and God: a two-sided coin

SEVEN

Man and God: a two-sided coin

As I said at the beginning of the previous section, there is a special relationship between the spiritual and the corporeal. The spirit exists in relation to the corporeal. The mind of God exists in relation to man’s physical state. This is the mind of God: He said, ‘I think, therefore I Am’.

We explore the mystery of the Trinity.

What is the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost? We have seen that the word ‘spirit’ may be interchangeable with the word ‘mind’. We have seen that the ‘Holy Ghost’ has been called the ‘Holy Spirit of God’. Jesus told us that God is a ‘spirit’. We have read that one of God’s names is ‘Holy and Reverend’. God is a spirit named Holy and Reverend. The ‘Spirit’ is never simply called ‘Ghost’, but is always named ‘Holy’. If the Holy Ghost is the mind of God in man, then God is that mind. How is that mind communicated to man? It is communicated by the ‘Word’: another name for Jesus. God communicates His nature and mind to Jesus, Who in turn, communicates the Holy Spirit to men.

It’s all the same, as you can see in 1 John 5:7, “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

On the low-end, quantity ensures success. On the high-end quality ensures success. Many millions of single cells overcome the odds, and a few survive to carry on. Many cells combine into organs: a tactic of higher level survival. Many organs perish to bring about the survivor-organ. These further ensure success when competition ceases, and they team together to work as one. It’s called a body.

In our natural world, we see the low-end in salmon. Thousands of thousands perish to ensure success. In these low-end organisms, we see the gestalt mind. Flocks of sheep bolt as one; clouds of birds wheel as if a single entity. We also see, in the low-end, agreement, solidarity, oneness. But what is the thing about man? Where does man fit into such a scheme? In the low-end, all the instincts in a flock of sheep are the same; their working in unison gives the appearance of single-mindedness. In man, our thoughts are similar, yet diverse.

Only those things held in common may be considered the ‘glue’ of oneness. There is oneness, for example, in speaking the same language. There is oneness in a common faith. The analogy already given by Christ is the analogy of the grape. In a cluster of grapes, any one grape is like all other grapes. They are not alike, or one, for any quality of the grape as an individual. They are one because they all draw their oneness from the same vine.

See the great grape matter in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”

We draw, all of us, from the same vine. We must come to see that the things we draw into ourselves are the same things that others draw into themselves. We cannot say to the next grape over, one just as plump and purple as ourselves: hey, you’re bad. If we’ve drawn goodness, the other has also drawn goodness.

See 1 Thessalonians 4:8, “He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, Who hath also given unto us His Holy Spirit.”

We behold mankind in the light of God’s special relationship with them. It is indeed special, but not as many have appointed it to be: a thing of rarity and distance.

See Genesis 41:38, “Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?”

It is all too easy to note the heroes of scripture in possession of the spirit of God. Note Numbers 27:18, “Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit.”

Also note Luke 23:46, “When Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost.”

It is all too easy to forget that the very life and mind are shared in common with those more recorded than ourselves. See Ephesians 2:22, “In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

Moses was a temple of God, Joshua was too. Joseph was a temple of God, and, who can doubt that Christ had the mind of God? But, the mind of God also dwells in the common man.

See 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

Right here, right now: God is in my head.

Some individuals prefer to cling to their individuality. They see themselves as singular and apart. They see themselves, under their own volition, as able to navigate any wave or waterway. Some, under their own volition, have traveled to the cluster. They say to themselves, ‘here I am in the body of grapes; therefore, I must be a grape’. I doubt you’ll ever find a Muscadine in a cluster of grapes: only the vine can make a grape.

See 1 Corinthians 6:15 & 19, “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”

It is only the mind of the vine that dictates the reality of the cluster. The mind of the grape is the mind of the vine. It is a process of development by which the grapes, being infused, reach maturity.

Read Romans 8:11, “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”

That spirit, that mind that dwells in us, as this scripture indicates, is the very same spirit that dwelled in Jesus. The formula is this: Christ was a two-sided coin. He was physical man on the one side, and

Spirit of God on the other. More than just identification, Christ’s name is a reputation of high-end

quality. When I shop for the very best in jeans, I look for the name ‘Levi Strauss’. When we are “in

the name” of Jesus, it is no mere expression for verbal repetitions: it is an ambassadorship. While

not being the genuine article, we are as much the two-sided coin as our present level allows. We have

drunk into the same spirit, or mind. It can be said then, being more than the symbolic ceremony of

baptism, that our old mind is awash with new fluids. The clutter is washed away; the holy nature of

the new mind shines forth. Our drawing from the ‘vine’ is supported by all others who draw from

the same mind.

See 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

I know I’m going on and on about the grape, but, Hey! - I wouldn’t welch on you.

I am pointing to a direction. We do not initiate the process: it is not from man to God, but from God to man. There is no muscle we can flex that will cause the mind of God to develop from the flesh. The mind of God is A Priori, and as previously surmised, God is manifesting the spiritual into the corporeal.

You’ve heard of the pearl of great price: that is the mind of God in man.

See Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit.”

The process runs from thought to action; from spiritual to corporeal. Remember, it’s a dance in which God leads. I have asserted that our cognitive abilities are spiritual; that ‘spiritual’ and ‘communication’ go hand in hand; that there is no action without communication. Remember that? First is the spirit; then communication; finally comes action. From the highest and biggest to the smallest and lowest, mind truly is over matter.

See Job 26:13, “By His spirit He hath garnished the heavens; His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.”