A Clear Mind

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, October 11th. If you're a believer, your identity is found in your relationship with Jesus Christ, and understanding that is crucial to enjoying a thriving Christian life. Our series on reaching your full potential continues with today's podcast, A Clear Mind. Are you one of those persons who just sort of satisfied getting by in life? Maybe you're a little passive and you sort of accept things as they are, and whatever's handed to you is what you accept in life.

Or are you one of those persons who really strives to do your best at everything you do in life in every area of your life? Deep down inside of you, you have this insatiable hunger to know what God would have you do with your life. You have a desire deep down inside of you to discover what your real potential is in life and then to seek to fulfill that potential in becoming the person God wants you to be, doing the things that God wants you to do, reaching the goals that God would have you reach in your life.

Well, that's what I want to talk about in this message in our series entitled, How to Reach Your Full Potential. And the first message dealt with the issue of a clean heart. Without a clean heart, you'll never reach your potential in life, no matter who you are and what you do or how hard you may try.

The title of this message is different. This has to do with a clear mind, a clean heart, yes, but a very clear mind, how you think. And I want you to turn, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The apostle Paul is comparing the spiritual life from that which is not spiritual, comparing the Christian to the non-Christian. In fact, he calls the non-Christian the natural man, and those of us who are believers, we are spiritually minded people. And so he's talking about how we understand through the work of the Holy Spirit. Then he says in verse fourteen, But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. That is, a person who does not have the Holy Spirit naturally does not understand spiritual things.

And sometimes people think they do, but they don't. Then he says, But he who is spiritual appraises, understands all things, as the Spirit gives them to guidance, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct him?

Of course, no one. Then he says, But we have the mind of Christ. Now most people don't believe that.

Listen to what he says. We have the mind of Christ. Now when you think about that, what an awesome statement that is, that we have the capacity to think the way the Lord Jesus Christ thinks. And when you think about it, you realize that God has to give us that capacity. He has to grant us the capacity to think the way He thinks. He says we have the mind of Christ. That is, the Holy Spirit indwelling you enables you to think the way God thinks, to see things from His perspective, to perceive things as they really are, to see them not as the world sees them, but to see them just the way He sees them. Now to say we have the mind of Christ doesn't mean that we are omniscient, we don't know all things, we don't know everything perfectly. But giving us the mind of Christ, He's given us the capacity to think the way our Lord thinks. So when you think in terms of your mind, how you think, what grabs your attention, what influences you, and the way you think is the result of what you allow into your mind and what you've allowed into your mind has governed where you are at this point in your life.

In other words, you don't like where you are, you don't have to stay there. You want to change that, God gives you the capacity, listen, to discover what He wants to do in your life. Because a clear mind can discern the will of God, can discern the mind of God, if you will really and truly want that for your life. So think about it for a moment. Here's this awesome mind that you have. And God has given you this ability and capacity to think the way He wants you to think.

To think about the way He wants you to think about your future, your life, what He has in mind, where He wants you to go, what He wants you to do. Now what have you been doing with that mind all these years? Have you been ignoring the God who created it? Have you been making decisions on your own? Have you decided that you're going to live your life the way you want to live it? Or has it ever occurred to you that the best life, the best life you can possibly live is the life that the living God who created you, who is a God of goodness and love and mercy and kindness, this God created the best pattern and the best plan possible for you, if you will line up with His will and think the way He thinks, you will follow His will, follow His course and achieve and become and accomplish and you're going to enjoy life. You're going to see things happen in your life that you never dreamed would happen because you've lined up with the will of God and now you're thinking the way the living God thinks.

Well what about it? Is that what you want in life? Or have you chosen not to think that way? Well, when I think about what this mind is like and what we can possibly do, what we can achieve, what we have to ask is this, how can we acquire a clear mind?

How can I do that? It comes about by a personal, listen carefully, by a personal relationship with God whose mind is perfectly clear. The Bible says that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. That is, He is absolute purity, that He dwells in unapproachable light, which means is that the purity of God and the holiness of God, the absolute clear clarity of the mind of God, that He is such a person that His holiness and His absolute purity and perfection is such that we cannot even approach Him. When the Bible speaks in unapproachable light doesn't mean some light like a light bulb or even the sun, but it is the holiness and the purity and the righteousness of God.

That is, that's who He is. And so when you and I place our trust in Him as our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ in His death at Calvary, what happens? Something happens. When we do that, the Bible says that we are born again. What does it mean born again?

Well, the very idea speaks about something new. And that is when we are born again, the Bible says we are forgiven of our sins. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and listen to this, we have a new nature.

Beautiful things have passed away now, but things have become new. And what happens when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell you when you're saved, that Spirit of God comes within your life in order to do what? To enable you to become the person God wants you to be, achieve the things God wants you to achieve in life, to be fruitful and productive. That is to reach your potential in life.

That's what He's up to. And to do so in a way that will bring honor and glory to God. So you say, how do we acquire this?

How do we acquire this clear mind? Placing our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, developing a relationship with God as sins are forgiven, we have a new nature, we have a new beginning, and God begins a new start in your life and mine. All of our sins are forgiven, we're justified, declared no longer guilty.

We are reconciled, brought into a right relationship with Him. We are from that moment on the eternal sons of God. Now the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us to do what? To live through us the life of Christ.

Now think about this. If it is the will and purpose and plan of God that the Holy Spirit live through us the life of Christ, then we have the mind of Christ because we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us. And what is He going to do? He's going to express God's will in us. He's going to express God's will through us.

He's going to live out through us the kind of life that our Lord Jesus Christ would live if He were in your family, in this time in life, in your circumstance, He's going to live that out through us. So when you think about how to acquire it, it is a gift from God. It is a gift that He gives us. For example, He speaks of the mind of the Spirit in Romans chapter 8. The mind of the Spirit. What is the mind of the Spirit?

It's a clear mind. And you remember what Paul said in Philippians in that second chapter? He said, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

Well, what is that? Have this attitude in you. Let this mind be in you. Well, if we couldn't have it, He wouldn't have said it. He said, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Well, what was the mind of Christ about Himself? He says, I didn't come to be served but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many. Jesus' mind was the mind of a servant.

That is, that was His focus. He came to serve mankind. He says He was the Son of Man. He came to lay down His life, to give His life a ransom that you and I may be saved.

Well, that's the way He thought and that is exactly what He did. We have the capacity to think the way our Lord thinks. No matter who you are, if you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, when you were born again, He forgave your sins, transformed you, gave you a new nature.

He indwelled you by the Holy Spirit. Now you have been gifted with the capacity to think with a clear mind the way God thinks about the circumstances of your life and what's going on around you. Now notice I said the capacity. The capacity is God's gift. Now that becoming a reality in your life, thinking the way God thinks, thinking His thoughts, perceiving things as God sees them, that is our responsibility. The capacity to do so is a gift from God.

The actuality of that is my responsibility. I have to make choices, to make choices as to what comes into my mind and what does not. To make choices of confession, repentance, of sin or not.

So you have the capacity. The question is what will you do with it? What will you do with this capacity that God has given you to think right about your life? Because remember what we said, wrong thinking is not going to get you where God wants you to go. Right thinking will, but wrong thinking is going to do what?

Like a roadblock. You're not going to get there. There are a lot of people out there, and I may be talking to somebody, man, you've got it. Ma'am, you have it when it comes to all the skills and abilities and talents for your particular area, and as far as you're concerned, you're sitting on the top of the world, lots of prestige, prominence and all the rest. What does God think about you? Have you turned that for the purposes of God, of a personal gain in your life? Other people suffering and hurting, lives being messed up, fouled up, corrupted by what you're producing, or is your life invested in such a way that people who hear you, see you, watch you? Whatever you're producing in life as a result of what you're producing, what you're manufacturing, what you're providing, is that contributing to people's welfare, to their good? Is it enabling them to become the persons God wants them to be and achieving the things that God wants them to achieve in life? My friend, don't be misled by the fact that just because people have skills and abilities and talents and you think, well, they've certainly reached their potential until a person invests their life in the will and purpose and plan of God in such a way to bring Him glory and honor and live lined up with the will of God, they do not reach their potential no matter what. Because many of those people are living, listen, they're living in the scum of life. They may have wealth, live in a palatial home, but they're living down there in the scum, spiritually speaking. They are dragging God's given talents and abilities and capacities, listen, for destruction and corruption, not for the upbuilding of society and the upbuilding of people around them.

That's what happens. When a person, for example, who becomes a Christian and you don't maintain a clear mind, not only can you hurt yourself, but you can hurt other people. And that is oftentimes the thing that we forget about. You say, okay, so I agree that it's a challenge. How do I maintain a clear mind if I've got ten thousand thoughts passing my mind every day and three and a half million of them in any given year, how am I going to keep a clear mind? All right, I want to tell you how.

Here's how you can do it. First of all, the Bible says we are to renew our minds, and that's what Paul says in Romans chapter twelve. He says, don't be shaped, don't be conformed, don't be poured into the world's mold. But he says, but be by the renewing of your mind, let your life be transformed. Now what does he mean by the renewing of your mind?

Bringing it back to truth. Now think about this. It's easy for any one of us to walk out on any given day of our life in society, wherever we're going, whether it's shopping or whether it's in church or whatever it may be, and your mind drift. It can drift into all kind of thoughts. That's why you should be careful who you're with, where you go, the kind of friends you have, the kind of people you fellowship with. Because they're going to influence you to some degree, you're going to influence them one.

And so what happens? Our minds can drift. We live in a worldly system and the system of the world is ungodly thinking. That doesn't mean everybody thinks ungodly. But there is a core in this world system in which we live that's ungodly. And if we don't listen, if we are not careful, and you see we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us, and listen, it's His job and His responsibility to do what? To bring to our attention when thoughts come our way that don't belong to us.

And we're to renew our mind. Let's say some thought comes your way and all of a sudden you grab that thought, the Spirit of God convicts you, that's not who you are. And what you turn it off, turn it out. You say, well, I don't know that I can do that. You have the capacity to do it.

That's a gift of God. Whether you choose to do it or not is something else. Now think about this. Ungodly thinking doesn't fit who you and I are. So what do we do? When it comes, we turn it off, renewing your mind. When He says don't, He says, don't let the world pour you into its mold.

He says, because that's not who you are. So we have to be continually on guard that our minds don't drift into that. The second thing I would say is this, you remember the message we preached on spiritual warfare and on putting on the armor of God and talking about satanic attacks? We talked about putting on the armor of God and so what happens? When I put it on, I think about it in this way, put on the helmet of salvation. Put on the helmet first. Why? Because that guards my thinking.

Very important. And this is why I said to you over and over again, before you get up in the morning, what do you do? You put on the helmet of salvation. God, I want you to guard my thinking today. I want to think clearly. I want to think the way you think.

And so we put it on. Then of course He says in Colossians three, the first couple of verses, set your mind on things above where Christ is seated at the Father's right hand. Don't set your mind on the things on earth that corrupt.

So what do we have to do? When He says set our mind on things above, what is He doing? He's saying set your mind upon the Lord.

For example, you get up in the morning, there are lots of thoughts that are going to go through your mind. But if you start the day off saying, Lord, I yield to my life to you today. I want you to live your life in me through me. I want to be the person you want me to be today.

I want to achieve the things you want me to achieve. You've set your mind on God to begin with. Oh, one of the best things you can do, and I've said it over and over again, is at least find a few verses of Scripture when you get up in the morning and get your mind thinking godly thoughts to begin with. Set your mind on things above. Then of course, He says in Philippians four eight, we're to dwell on good things.

And He talks about Puritan and all the rest in verse eight. Do He say set your mind, think about these things. So now think about this. You have the privilege and the choice and the capacity to think good thoughts or evil thoughts.

You can do that. It's a choice you make. If you're going to have a clear mind, you must make choices. And what you do, you choose to think on what?

Things that are good. And then continually remind yourself that you have the mind of Christ, which says some things don't fit who we are. Now I want you to listen carefully.

Watch this. So let's say some thought comes into your mind that you know doesn't fit who you are. Here's what you say. That doesn't fit who I am.

Cut it off. So let's get this in our thinking for a moment. A thought comes into your mind and you know it's not the right kind of thought. So what are you going to say? Well, you're in sad shape. What you're going to say is that doesn't fit who I am.

Let's say it together. That doesn't fit who I am. That doesn't fit who I am.

That doesn't fit who I am. You know what? You have the power and the capacity to turn off all wrong thinking in your life because God gave you the capacity to think, listen, think clearly. Those thoughts don't belong to who you are. And you know what?

They will confuse, clutter, absolutely corrupt your thinking if you don't deal with them. Now think about this. Think about the awesome adventure you're on today. Here you are at this point in your life and you don't know what the future holds. God has this potential of what you can become, what you can accomplish, what you can achieve, what you can do in life. And now He's saying to you, if you could just see what I see, you wouldn't even think about doing anything but obeying me.

Think about it. If you and I could see what God has in store for us, we wouldn't even think about doing anything other than what's the will of God for our life. You have the potential. You have the possibilities. You have the capabilities. The issue is this, do you care enough about yourself and do you love God enough to keep your heart clean and your mind clear so that you can reach your potential in life, bringing Him honor and glory, and impacting the people around you, everybody around you in a way that will point them to Jesus Christ, your Savior, your Lord, your life, and their hope of eternal life to become their life. Thank you for listening to A Clear Mind. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.