BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

But it is a big deal! According to James 1, when a person is “drawn away of his own lust, and enticed…when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (verses 14-15). In other words, even for the believer, sin is deadly. Sin won’t keep you out of heaven, if you’re truly born again, but it will shorten your time on earth. It will also rob you of the abundant life God intends for you to enjoy here. It will doom you to defeat and rob you of the victory that belongs to you in Christ. What’s more, living according to the flesh and yielding to sin is contrary to your identity as a believer. I’d even go so far as to say, it’s hypocritical! A hypocrite is someone who pretends on the outside to be something he’s not on the inside; and born-again believers aren’t sinners on the inside. We’re not inwardly like the world. We live in this world, obviously, but Jesus said we aren’t of the world any more than He is (John 17:16). We’re of God. Our inner man has been created in His image, in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). How do we go about letting the man on the inside of us come out? Romans 12:1-2 gives the answer: “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.” According to W.E. Vine, the renewal of the mind is the adjustment of the moral and spiritual vision and thinking to the mind of God. It’s the change that takes place in your soul when you feed on His Word. The soul conforms to whatever information it’s fed—and the information in God’s Word is vastly different from the world’s information. The world says, “Hey, do your own thing.” The Word says, “Do all to the honor and glory of God.” The world says, “If it feels good, do it.” The Word says, “Whether it feels good or not, if it’s sin don’t do it, because it will bring death.” The world says, “Go along with the crowd. Everybody’s doing this.” The Word says, “Be imitators of God as well-beloved children imitate their father.” Feeding on God’s information renews your mind—and a renewed mind is amazing! It will reject the lies of the world as fast as a computer rejects data that’s contrary to its programming. Because it’s taught and trained by the Word of God, your renewed mind will cast off worldly ideas, habits and behaviors that have kept you in bondage; and open the door for you to experience true liberty. As Jesus put it in John 8: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (verses 31-32). If you don’t continue in the Word, on the other hand, and your mind remains unrenewed, it will continually trip you up. When the Holy Spirit tries to help you by directing you to do things God’s way, your unrenewed mind will reject His direction. It will say, “I’m not going to do that. It doesn’t make any sense to me.” Say, for example, you’re going through a time of financial lack. When the Holy Spirit tells you to sow seed during that time of lack by giving a big offering or blessing someone else who is in need, if your mind isn’t renewed, you’re likely to resist the Spirit’s leading. I can’t give now! you’ll think. I’m running short as it is. You won’t realize that giving is your answer, because he who sows generously will also reap generously (2 Corinthians 9:6). Don’t Complicate Things I’ve been renewing my mind with the Word of God for 55 years now and I can tell you—it works! It works victory. It works deliverance. It works when nothing else out there in the world is working. I can also tell you, though, that if you want the Word to work for you, it must be your standard. You must agree with what it says and reject everything that contradicts it. You must decide; I’m not going to change the Word to fit my lifestyle, I’m going to change my lifestyle to fit the Word. BVOV : 29

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