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The Human Mind and In the consecrated life what is the biological reason for our failures? How can one overcome like the apostles did and attain victory in the race? Paul in Romans 12.1‑2 says "I beseech you therefore, brethren,...that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God".To summarise the 21 verses in Romans 12, verse one talks of a living sacrifice and being holy before God, verse two of the renewing of the mind to the perfect will of God. From verse 3 practical steps to follow the consecrated life: how to be humble, and to overcome all our failures, attain victory and to effectively love in action and finally verse 21 talks about 'Overcoming evil with good'. Renewing of the mind The renewing of the mind is essential. Phil.2.5 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Therefore we need to have the mind of Christ.1 Cor.2.16 (NIV) "For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ". The question is 'what is mind of Christ'? It is full of God's will. But what is God's will? The Lord's will is for all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim.2.4) Jesus completely surrendered to his Father's will and gave his life as a living sacrifice unto death. Christians are all chosen to follow in his footsteps and aim to glorify our Lord. The question is Why then do we fail? Why do we have conflict? If we were to rewind our life back for 5 years would we say that we are progressing well in our spiritual consecrated life? (Following the first advent of Christ we are still waiting for the 144,000 to be complete.) (Rev.14.1) Paul had the same struggle. He said in Rom.7.15‑23 (NIV) "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me." How does the human mind work?
The mind has 2 parts: the conscious (10%) and the sub‑conscious (90%) The sub‑conscious mind stores information (data) like an automatic recording machine storing from the 5 senses—sight, smell, taste, sound and touch. The subconscious does not think it only stores. Therefore, it cannot distinguish between information that is good and bad, colour or shape. It can store 2.5m beta bytes or 1m gigabytes or to put it another way it can store TV coverage which runs non‑stop for 300 years. How amazing God has made us! It works 24/7 from day one till our race in the flesh is finished. Emotions are bonded with this stored information and it is this combination that is responsible for the creation of activities and the character of a person. Even the new born child stores emotions. This sub‑conscious mind has 3 layers‑sensory memory (SM), short term (ST) memory and long term (LT) memory. Sensory memory storage can only remember 7 things at one time like when reading one page of a newspaper. Dreams at night come in the sensory memory which is why it is not possible to remember all of a dream properly. ST memory. This is used for work passwords, phone numbers etc… LT memory. This is essential as it creates where our habits and character are formed from. The conscious mind is 10% of the human mind but has no space for memory storage but it can collect data information from sub‑conscious mind as they are interrelated. It uses knowledge, can think well and can distinguish with all logical reasoning power, making decisions as well as having the ability to start and stop, unlike the sub‑conscious which is unable to stop. Male brains are conscious‑oriented and task‑focused. Female brains are more sub‑conscious orientated focusing on values, are more creative with good memory and the ability to multi‑task. Only females can give birth. Nevertheless we are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal.3.28) before God there is no males or females all one equal; all one in Christ Jesus. In Scripture the conscious mind is compared to a male mind, which is why it says "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." (1 Cor.16.13) Satan knows how male and female brains work and that the sub‑conscious works for 24 hours per day therefore making it easy for him to influence a human being.2 Cor.11.3 (NIV) "Just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ". Eve was deceived with a mind where it is possible for the subconscious and conscious to contradict each other. The conscious mind is vital to what is stored (God's will and truth) and how to arrest negative thoughts which are against God's will and truth and which are not good for the spiritual life. We need to store all spiritual parts that make us the fullness of Christ. This is difficult because on average each person has between 50k‑70k thoughts per day. It's challenging.2 Cor.10.5 (NIV) advises us to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and…take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." How important can the power and strength of conscious thought be? To understand more about the value of the conscious there is a need to understand the flip side of our conscious brain and consider why the conscious is unable to perform. In the Conscious mind there are 4 different types of waves. beta, theta, alpha and delta a.Alpha waves. Most negative thoughts occur when we are in the alpha state. This is where the conscious mind is idle or relaxed and where our sub‑conscious is performing. This is during the times where we are in front of our TV, laptops, other such entertaining things, apps and sports and when we are in lust mode. (Alpha waves responsible addiction in our minds.) They stimulate our brain cells to produce a kind of chemical which our brain gets addicted to. For example in drug addicts the brain produces an electrical discharge of dopamine to shut the conscious down. The brain is happy when the conscious is inactive. If we want to come out of an addictive state the human mind is able to open new pathways and blood flows so we can overcome and heal the damage. That is a gift of our God. According to research we all have brain damage in some way, we all have addictiveness so when we are awake and alert we can make sure we are not in an alpha state with an idle mind. An idle mind is the Devil's workshop. Therefore when we are conscious we need to be focused. b.Beta waves. Here the conscious is focused and the sub‑conscious is quiet. For example when students are studying their sub‑conscious is quiet and they can concentrate on a particular thing. Like Jesus when was tempted by Satan "turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns." (Matt.16.23) The Christian needs be alert to arrest the influence of Satan. We need to use this beta state to say 'go away Satan'. God understands the importance of the conscious mind being alert and awake. Jesus after 40 days in wilderness in Mark 3.27 (NIV) says, "in fact, no one can enter a strong (conscious) man's house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man's house." So Satan uses the technique of arresting our conscious first before spoiling us. 2 Cor.2.11 says that we are not unaware of Satan's schemes to outwit us. The Christian should be sober and vigilant; because the adversary the devil, acts as a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Pet.5.8) Therefore we have to follow the advice of Phil 4.8 (NIV) "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." This can arrest any negative thoughts and keep the mind in beta mode. We need relaxation and God has provided day and night. The night for rest and 8 hours are good enough for the conscious brain to be relaxed. How can we store good things? The Long Term (LT) memory is responsible for habits and character (the positive fruits of spirit). Science gives 7 qualities which make LT memory. They are vision, desire, knowledge, effort, faith, intention and habit. 1.Vision. We need vision to develop Christ in us, to produce the fruits of the spirit and show the fullness of Christ before we finish our race and become part God's kingdom. For "where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he". (Prov.29.18) 2.Desire. Matt.6.21 tells us about desire as "where your treasure is, there will be your heart also". 3.Knowledge. Prov.12.1 (NIV) says "whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid." The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is therefore important to understand God's plan to be part of the Kingdom. 4.Effort. In Acts 24.16 (NIV) Paul said "I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man." The Christian is representing Christ. 5.Faith. Heb.11.6 (NIV) reminds us that "without faith it is impossible please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists." 6.Intention. The Christian's intention has to be to do God's will like Jesus Christ did during his first advent in all his ways and actions. 7.Habit. Heb.5.14 (NIV) "Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." "So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man" This can be taken to mean 'do it often then it becomes a habit'. These 7 things make LT memory storage. For example our Vision is stored in our LT memory which produces our character. Fellowship Meditating on God's word keeps the storage healthy and keeps good things in the subconscious mind. Praying regularly can store God's will in our brain. Balanced mind or a dual mind Our spiritual journey is like driving a car. When it is new we have to be very alert and try hard but after lots of practice it's added to the sub‑conscious mind from the knowledge of what to do and then we can be confident to drive. After being stored in the sub‑conscious there is no need think about breaking or using the clutch as it happens automatically. But we can't just rely on the sub‑conscious when driving as we need to be alert. So it is also in the spiritual journey there is a need to always be conscious like when driving a car. This produces a balanced mind. A Christian mind will be balanced when it follows the following scripture in Proverbs 4.20‑27 (NIV) "My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one's whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil." James 1.8 states "a double minded man is unstable in all his ways". Our Lord puts on record that "no man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon". (Matt.6.24).The apostle Stephen supplied us the example of the failure of the children of Israel in the wilderness who "refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts (subconscious) turned back to Egypt". (Acts 7.39 NIV) In their consecrated walk they failed because they had not stored properly the promises of God regarding the 'promised land'. James 4.1 (NIV) "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?" So both the conscious and the sub‑conscious have to be the same for God. He has one mind. Job 23.13 "he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth". Now the importance of keeping the mind healthy can be seen. By being mature and giving a living sacrifice the body can be holy and produce the fruits of the spirit. As it says in Romans 12.21 (NIV) "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Gal.4.19 (NIV) "My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you." Babies are immature physically and mentally but we expect them to develop and here; Paul is describing them as sub‑conscious because he is comparing his pain and patience with a mother who can give birth to young ones. So we should renew our minds to the mind of Christ and be one in 144,000 subconscious and join with our head, Christ and this complete whole brain is going to lead the whole world as one body towards the Lord's mind. This is the literal term but if we say in biblical terms we will be joined with the second Adam as his and go on to give the blessing of the Garden of Eden to the whole of mankind. This is the will of God that all should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim.2.4) AS |
Here
are some scientific facts to help us understand in our consecrated life. The
human brain is a vital part of human body. It is the most amazing thing in the
whole universe. It has 30 billion(b) nerve cells. However the maximum usage of
the brain is not more than 5% even for people like Einstein. Most people use
less 3% nevertheless if 4% is used it is still better than any computer invented
so far.