As we saw in my earlier post, Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled, fear is a spirit that attacks from the outside...it is not coming from within!
And fear is insidious...let down your guard, start enjoying your freedom, and wham! You get blindsided!
When this happens, remember this: fear attacks the mind, and you are not your mind. You are a spirit, you have a mind, wherein lives your will, your thoughts, your emotions...and you live in a clay vessel we call a body.
And the Spirit within is all God, all the time.
Crucified
Romans 6:6,7 says '...knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is feed from sin.'
Romans 6:6,7 says '...knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is feed from sin.'
Paul understood this completely, and said of himself "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
Need more proof?
'Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him...' [Romans 6:8]
'But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.' [Romans 7:6]
'For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.' [Colossians 3:3]
'It is a trustworthy statement: for if we died with Him, we will also live with Him...' [2 Timothy 2:11]
Look at it this way...Ephesians 1 and Colossians 2 both explain that we were buried with Him and raised up together with Him. Was that our bodies, 2000 years ago, resulting in a race of some kind of zombie Christians? [GREAT movie title, by the way...]
No! Our act of faith in His sacrifice joins us to that sacrifice...we died with Him, 2000 years ago [actually, before the foundation of the world], now, today, whenever we accept His sacrifice! It's a quantum reality, but reality nonetheless. And, we were raised up together with Him and seated with Him in heavenly places! [Ephesians 2:6] There are lots of articles about that on this blog...use the search function to find them.
Yes, we are in two places at once...in the Spirit, we are seated in Him in heavenly places, in the city of the living God, with all the church, angels, and the sprinkled blood of Jesus! {Hebrews 12:22-24] On earth, we're walking around in these earthen vessels! Someone once called it an earth suit!
But I Digress...
Ok, back to fear. You are not your mind, and fear comes against the mind. Oh, your mind thinks it's you, but it's not...it's something you possess and can control! Psalm 94:11 says 'The Lord knows the thought of man, that they are a mere breath.'
Ok, back to fear. You are not your mind, and fear comes against the mind. Oh, your mind thinks it's you, but it's not...it's something you possess and can control! Psalm 94:11 says 'The Lord knows the thought of man, that they are a mere breath.'
Psalm 146:4 tell us that when we die, 'His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.' Of course, that was from an Old Covenant perspective...as we've seen, our spirits have already departed! Hallelujah! And now we are One Spirit with the Lord! [1 Corinthians 6:17]
How do I know I can control my thought? Because Romans 12:2 tells me to renew my mind. Unfortunately, modern psychology has brainwashed into believing that our thoughts are uncontrollable...they are just who we are.
NO! My thoughts are not who I am, and I will purpose to do what David did in Psalm 94:19: 'When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.'
Take Charge of Your Thoughts
The Bible calls us vessels...think of your body as a container, filled up with God [Ephesians 3:19] Mediate on that, day and night, until you start to believe it.
The Bible calls us vessels...think of your body as a container, filled up with God [Ephesians 3:19] Mediate on that, day and night, until you start to believe it.
If you know who you are in Christ Jesus, and understand the spiritual reality of the New Birth, you will realize that you have authority, not only over the physical world and evil spirits, but over your own mind, as well. [I've written lots on these subjects, please refer to relevant blog articles...there's not enough room here to go into it all again]
Take charge, or control, of your mind. Renew to the Word of God. You are what the Word says you are, in Jesus...'For in Him ALL THE FULLNESS OF DEITY DWELLS IN BODILY FORM, and in Him YOU have been made COMPLETE...' [Colossians 2:9,10]
You can do it because He says you can...all things are possible to him who believes, remember? How? Through the power that works in you!
