Submit your mind...to the Holy Spirit

Believing what your mind sees is perception... believing what God's Word says is truth. Believing God is knowing the truth and the truth will set you free! (John 8:31-32). The mind desires a sense of control, but if not submitted to the the Holy Spirit will only find chaos. Our mind doesn't have the ability to navigate successfully independent of God's truth because it comes to the end of itself...there's a way that appears right to a person, but in the end leads to death (Pr 14:12). Reasoning leads to a spiritual death because the door to God's presence which lives in your spirit is shut off-thus you're "fair game" to the world's troubles. But if you submit your mind to the Spirit you will live "alive" because the door to God's presence is kept open-allowing direction and comfort from the Holy Spirit. Keeping the door open to God's presence doesn't exempt you from ever having troubles but it does guarantee God's presence...a righteous man will have many troubles, but God will deliver Him from each one (Ps 34:19). The more you practice agreeing with God's truth, the less your perception will try to weigh in on decision making with reasoning. You will have to be very cognizant of any thought that doesn't line up with God's truth, but as you practice, your awareness will move from a conscious to a subconscious awareness. Unless you're already very cognizant of your thoughts, you probably have many that contradict God's truth, but you're not aware of them because they've moved to a subconscious level. It's like when you first start to drive-your brain is on strain because you're checking the mirrors, seeing if your hands are on the steering wheel properly and looking in your rear view mirror-but a person who's experienced at driving doesn't have to consciously think about all these things because they do them so much that the thought process is moved to the subconscious. Your subconscious goes into an auto pilot to do what it's accustomed to doing without you telling it what to do. So you can see how important it is for us to be aware of what happens in our subconscious. You need to think on what's true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable (Phil 4:8) at a conscious level to wash out the thoughts that contradict God's truth at the subconscious level. The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:6). Be cognizant of your perception and what it leads you to believe-make sure it lines up with God's truth...so you can know the truth and know the truth will set you free! 8/21/13CIFL-LMM