Of a Ready Mind From: Maria vonAnderseck [mailto:maria@second8thweek] Sent: 12 July 2013 04:01 PM To: [email protected] Subject: s8w lesson: Of A Ready Mind (07-10-13) Of A Ready Mind by Teacher Maria vonAnderseck Our teaching on reflection continues with 1 Peter 5:2 whereby the Spirit says, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.” So we’re going to be talking about what it means to be of a ready mind. I want to start this teaching by first sharing something Apostle Eric brought to my attention the other day. He shared that demons refuse to speak of Jesus Christ by name and instead refer to Him by the number they assigned to Him, the number 6442, which means Emmanuel ‘God with us’. And even then they show Him disrespect by referring to Jesus as 644 instead of 6442. The refusal of demons to speak of the name of Jesus Christ or even refer to our Lord correctly reminded me of two things: first, in stark contrast, God has given us tongues as a token to fully express Emmanuel ‘God with us’ and God gave us the priesthood to fully express the knowledge Jesus has shared with us—to speak it correctly, to speak it fully, to speak it without restraint. From this contrast we get an idea of what it means to be of a “Ready Mind”. The refusal of demons to speak of the name of Jesus Christ also highlights for us why the devil would take our minds captive that we, as the demons, would refuse to speak of Christ, and instead speak of the vanity the devil has filled our minds with. Whether it be the responsibilities of the day, the pleasures of this world, frivolous cares, or the conflict of this age—Satan purposes to remove Jesus Christ from our minds and hearts and our conversations. Distractions are Detractions that Soon Diminish Christ When this truth is brought to bear upon the mind we understand clearly that every token of this world, no matter how necessary, is a distraction from the altar. This whole dimension was designed for our testing and reward, the rest is a distraction from God’s true purpose. And we see that in Jesus’ teaching where he spoke of His invited guests allowing the distraction of many things to call them away from His feast. And how the distraction, calling them away to something deemed more important, was in fact a choice made to refuse God’s invitation. God’s invitation is to one and all, “Come to the feast I have prepared for you!” But each had an excuse or justification that called them to something other than God’s feast: one to his newly wedded wife, one to his farm, and another to some other seemingly important duty of the day. We see it again in Jesus’ reproof to Martha, pointing out that while she allowed herself to be burdened with the cares of this world (preparing the house for Jesus’ presence), Mary, her sister, had chosen the better part (to prepare her heart for Jesus’ presence). We hear this warning as well in Paul’s letter to the Philippians where he states, “All seek their own, not the things which are Christ’s.” (Phil.2;21) I want us to look at the one word that might stand out in this verse to begin putting this together, to prepare us to apply this to our daily challenges. The word that stands out is “seek”. There is a natural tendency to seek out those things that ensure our survival, pleasure, and reciprocation in this world. We can consider this a vulnerability. God isn’t saying to us that we ought not to pay attention to the important matters of life, but He is pointing out that they have no value in His kingdom. And so we can bear this in mind when prioritizing our time AND when communicating to one another AND in our response to enticing thoughts that present themselves as a lure to diminish in our eyes the very thing God is seeking to bring to the forefront of our minds. When we take the time to observe this vulnerability that is common to man we and then consider actions needed to be taken to stand in the testimony of God. We are vulnerable to be dismissive of the reality of God and to act on this dismissal by restricting our conversation to the natural world. One of the problems encountered when doing that is, that when it comes time to build someone up in the faith it’s difficult to go back to what you’ve learned to continue to build on that. A distraction then is not only the daily consumption of our time, but it is the minute-by-minute burning desire the devil has to remove the knowledge of Christ from our minds as unimportant, not necessary for the moment, something to be reserved for later, something that we know already so well that it is not deemed necessary to exercise our will to voice it. What can we discern from this slippery slope of reasons to justify the declining reflections? We might discern that there is a diminishing of the reality of the kingdom of God taking place. A distraction then is a diminishing of grace and requires from us a response. A choice is awakened by the prompting of the Spirit. And if this is not happening for you, or you’re not observing it, take this to the Lord and petition Him to help you see when the diminishing takes place that He might awaken you to the prompting of the Spirit. But remember, we’re not praying, sitting on our hands. The training in reflection through the 5-Steps has allowed for certain skills to be gained in discernment. Let me briefly point out 5 skills gained that you are now well familiar with and set each one within the context of “the ready mind”: We are of a ready mind to place our thoughts upon the scale of Christ. We are of a ready mind to take that which we have gained to further build upon the knowledge the Spirit is setting before our consideration. We are of a ready mind to reflect for meaning, rehearse for faith, and reciprocate for charity. We are of a ready mind to carry in our memory the desire, will, and power of God and to accept the name of Jesus Christ as the true authority, our true history, our true memorial in the bosom of the Father. We are of a ready mind to accept the reality that we live by every Word of God. We have made our minds ready to accept the Word rather than allow the devil to use our cycles of growth to fight against the Word to replace it with the echoes of the imagination that speak to us about that which is real to the senses, to set the carnal mind upon the throne of the will. Our Ready Mind to Reflect is Also Our Ready Mind to Discern We have many negative role models in scripture to help us understand, by God’s testimony of them, that when we fail to make our minds ready for Him we are instead seeking to make provision for the flesh, thinking only of our survival. The prophet Nehemiah, speaking of the rebellious children of Israel, and their passage into the wilderness for their testing and reward says, “And [they] refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.” (Nehemiah 9:17) There are several things in this verse that we can look at that’s going to help us gain understanding. First of all, God points out in this verse that the refusal to obey is first seen in the neglect of being mindful of God’s wonders. These were opportunities God had granted them for their faith to labor and they were neglectful of these opportunities. This “being neglectful” then led to the hardening of the heart, which they could not see, but did voice when faith was again tested. The problem was that as God manifested each sign for their faith, they gained a natural perspective in place of a God-perspective. When the natural eye saw the Red Sea part at the word of God’s steward, Moses, the mind did not consider this as God’s voice and provision for faith’s reflection, but only saw only what the natural eye could see—the survival of the flesh. Later, when God again tests faith, allowing the children of Israel to be hungry and thirsty in the desert, their minds had not been laboring to gain God’s perspective and they again thought only of their survival, thus seeking provision for the flesh rather than faith. God provided for their stomach, but sent leanness into their souls, thus preaching to us that when the appetite of the flesh dominates, faith becomes dim and the soul loses strength. We can understand the admonition of the Spirit through Apostle Paul, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” (Romans 13:14) If all we want to do is survive then we’ll not see God’s daily provision in the challenge to provide tokens of reflection. We won’t see the opportunity to observe Christ to labor for our confidence in Him. Going on further in the verse, where he says that they appointed a captain to return to their bondage, the Spirit is again bringing to our attention the reversion that takes place when the mind ceases to consider the path selected by God and His appointed Captain of our salvation, Jesus Christ. A reversion, again, is a return to thought patterns that promise something familiar (like the children of Israel returning to the familiar routine of Egypt) but bring the soul back into bondage, under the persuasion of the adversary. The children of Israel wanted to go back to something familiar, not considering that this, first of all was not God’s will, and secondly, it was a place of bondage. What we see here is the inclination of man to fight for survival. In doing that, we will accept bondage over liberty, because liberty is seen by the natural eye to be burdensome and painful and unclear. What the natural man sees, hears, handles, and touches would lead us to build again that which God has torn down. Reflection Draws upon the Confirmation of God’s Presence for Faith’s Continuance Early on, when first gaining experience in reflection, you might have seen how Satan countered God’s commandment to reflect by maybe bringing to you attention that: You don’t need to reflect now because you are not in an emotional state of contradiction. But we’ve learned that we’re not isolating discernment to resolve emotions, nor are we reserving reflections to resolve contradictions to our pleasure. You’ve learned that the Spirit prompts opportunities to set order to our thinking and it is our responsibility to see those opportunities as they are presented to us. Just like in our analogy of learning to swim (in the lesson “Learning to Assess our Vulnerability), the reasons for learning to swim goes beyond the point of not downing (although that will happen); our reasons likewise for learning to reflect goes beyond learning how to prevent our emotions/passions to mold our perception (although that will happen). You made your minds ready for reflection because you knew that you needed a confirmation of God’s presence for faith’s continuance and that confirmation/witness is gained by drawing near to God with the tokens of Christ. You’re reflecting upon the knowledge of Christ to discern the token you’ve been given to build with. This is what Chief Apostle Peter brought to bear upon the church in his teaching when he said, “I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.” (2 Peter 3:1) Again, this verse not only speaks to the responsibility of stewards to guide and protect God’s people, but also to each believer, as a servant of Christ, we do the same, we follow the same example, we stir up our own pure minds by way of remembrance. The “pure mind” speaks of the washing that takes place when we exercise our will with the record of Christ. The Pure Mind is Able to See Christ With the Spiritual Eye 1 John1:1-2 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) We are given sight with our spiritual eye because we FIRST heard His voice. Because we see Christ we handle His Word (which speaks of experience with His knowledge), and because we handle we gain experience and because we gain experience we understanding. This is regeneration and the renewing of the mind. In this way the Word of Life becomes our profession. For as servants of God we do service to the Spirit. There is no Preclusion Having again laid out our thinking and bringing to our minds that as servants of God we’ve made our minds ready by reflection, I want to address the disappointment or confusion the saints might sometimes experience when revisited again by the adversary especially when it is in the same area that you’ve gotten so much victory through many cycles of growth. While the reversion teaching addresses one aspect of this, the Lord ministered to me “There is no preclusion” as a word of wisdom to help address another aspect. The word preclusion is going to open up some other things for us. PRECLUSION means: “The act of preventing something by anticipating and disposing of it effectively; to prevent the presence, existence, or occurrence of; make impossible; to stop; to remove the possibility of; to rule out.” In each cycle of growth, when observing the Lord peeling back a layer of deception to reveal a particular vulnerability, you overcame and you gained the victory over that vulnerability in the inclination of man as you stood in God’s perspective. Did the understanding gained bring much liberty? Yes. Was the paradox removed? Yes. Did that which you set your mind upon change? Yes. Are you able to draw upon that substance, understanding, and benefit of strength in future cycles? Yes. Are you able to prevent the presence, existence of, or occurrence of that vulnerability to again manifest itself? No. Has God removed the possibility of the shadow returning? Has the priesthood ruled out all further temptation? No. Your considering and reflecting now does not prevent the adversary from revisiting later. But that does not change the nature of faith. None of what the adversary does has any effect upon faith at all other than to allow for an opportunity for it to be rehearsed and strengthened in the presence of grace and in the power of the Spirit. So, we can see in this word a very powerful revelation provided again for our confidence in that the Lord addresses the discouragement that can act as another stoppage point: “Why does this continue to affect me the way in which it does if God has already addressed this for healing?” Keep in mind that there is no preclusion provided in the terms of the covenant other than the second circumcision when the memory of death is circumcised from our memory, which is now necessary for the contradiction. When the second circumcision takes place God no longer has need of the devil to provide the resistance necessary for faith’s exercise to observe Christ. There is no preclusion. Meaning, faith is not working to make it impossible to again suffer affliction. The only effect Satan wishes to carry upon the soul is to hinder faith from continuing on. And this is what we see brought out for us in the parable of the Sower. Jesus gave 3 examples of the devil having succeeded in preventing faith from maturing: The seed that fell by the way side -- the fowls came and devoured it, The seed that fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth and soon withered in the heat of the sun because they had no root, The seed that fell among the thorns that choked them. If we look at all 3 of these cases where the seed of truth failed to produce fruit, they all have one thing in common and that is a lack of continuance. And it is by taking heed to and building upon the distractions presented by the devil that has a direct bearing upon the lack of continuance, as Jesus Himself bears out, explaining to His disciples: 1. The 1st group: Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 2. The 2nd group: They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. 3. The 3rd group: And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. The 4th group of seeds brought forth fruit with patience, as Jesus says, “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 07:05:29 +0000
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