Winter 1988
The Consecration of The Mind
by Walter Beuttler

(Edited)

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice" Rom 12:1.

When the children of Israel brought a voluntary offering to the Lord, they were to lay the head of the offering upon the altar (Lev 1:8). This speaks to us of the consecration of our mind.

In the second chapter of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he contrasts two kinds of minds, the natural mind and the spiritual mind. The natural mind is a darkened mind as regards spiritual things, however brilliant it might be in its own natural sphere.

It is possible to be a child of God, and yet be largely dominated by the laws of the natural mind. The need for a spirit-enlightened mind is emphasized by Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know," Eph 1:17,18a. The knowledge of spiritual things does not come by intellectual effort, but by revelation. Simple minded, and humble people receive things which are hid from the wise and prudent (See Matt 11:25).

God complained in Hosea's day, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," Hosea 4:6a. He was not speaking of a lack of secular knowledge, but of a lack of the knowledge of God. It is one thing to know about God, yet quite another thing to know God. Just as it is one thing to know about a popular personage, and quite another thing to personally know that person.

Men can store up theological facts in their minds, while the God of these facts may mean little more to them than subject matter. Not yielding their minds to be illuminated by the Holy Spirit, they fail to experience a transformation in their manner of thinking. This illumination can only take place as the Holy Spirit renews their minds, without which they are incapable of proving "What is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" Rom12:2.

The thoughts and ways of God are diametrically opposed to what is called "common sense." "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" Isaiah 55:8,9.

The natural mind can be a trouble maker, especially in the realm of the spiritual. It intrudes into a sphere in which it has no part, and asserts the authority of its own logic in a realm from which it is disqualified. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" 1 Cor 2:14. Or, as the Revised Version reads, "The unspiritual man does not receive ... and he is not able to understand,"

The unspiritual mind of the unspiritual man has done, and is still doing incalculable damage to the cause of the Lord in His Church. For instance, not satisfied with the undeniably necessary Scriptural regulation of what are commonly called the "Gifts of the Spirit," the man with the unspiritual mind makes his own judgment the authoritative criterion of the working of the Holy Spirit, until he regulates the "Gifts of the Spirit" out of the Church.

Having become wise in his own conceit, he eventually substitutes for, and finally denies the spiritual operations, or manifestations that brought into being the movement of which he is "nominally" a part. He will substitute feasting for fasting, ritual for life, entertainment for revival, popularity for the cross, compromise for courage, and human psychology for spiritual discernment. He will present Christianity as sugar instead of salt, and solicit the praise of men instead of the honor of God. The unspiritual mind is one of the greatest dangers within the Church today.

In searching the Word of God for the knowledge of His ways, in contrast to those of our own ways, we find that:

l. GOD DOES NOT LIMIT HIMSELF TO MAN'S CHOICE.

In the employment of an instrument, God is not restricted to the choice of human judgment, based upon the consideration of observable qualifications or the appeal to the human eye as in the case of Eliab (I Samuel 16:6). God in His superior wisdom and knowledge may by-pass the most likely choice of man and instead reach out for an instrument which man would reject.

In the selection of a King for Israel, God regarded neither experience, rank, or seniority rights. He chose the youngest instead of the eldest, a stripling with a heart for God in preference to a man with an attractive countenance and impressive stature. Eliab appeared to be the right choice, but he was rejected by the Lord. "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" I Samuel16:7b. Appearances are deceitful, and our own understanding is inadequate. Wherefore we are admonished to "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" Proverbs 3:5.

In I Samuel 17:28, God gives us a glimpse into some of the reasons for His rejection of Eliab. There, he is exposed as a man of great unfairness and emotional instability, with a heart full of rancor and jealousy. All of this escaped human observation at the time of Eliab's "candidacy". A more correct appraisal of his fitness to be chosen as King over Israel awaited the right situation to bring his true character into the open. However, this came about too late to be considered.

Israel was spared an unqualified king because God did not restrict Himself to man's choice. God only knows how many "candidates" are functioning out of their proper places, because they were elected on the basis of merely human considerations. Has the Lord spoken? God does not limit Himself to man's choice.

2. GOD DOES NOT LIMIT HIMSELF TO MAN'S METHODS.

This principal is dramatically set forth in the taking of Jericho (Joshua6). Being a walled city, it defied any natural means at the disposal of the Israelites. The instructions which Joshua received for its conquest were utterly unorthodox. God did not send him to the equivalent of the Library of Congress for the latest textbooks on military science. Instead, He gave Joshua instructions which were ridiculous in the extreme, from a natural point of view.

The Israelites were to compass the city once a day for six days, and seven times on the seventh day, concluding with shouting and the blowing of trumpets. Textbooks would have called for a certain number of scaling ladders, battering rams, and the like. God's method called for an obedient faith, regardless of the outrageous affront to the "common sense reasoning" of the natural mind.

3. GOD DOES NOT LIMIT HIMSELF TO MAN'S MEANS.

The inadequacy of man's own means in distinction to those of God is taught throughout the Bible. It is indelibly written on the pages of the history of the Church, and constantly demonstrated in experience. Yet man still prefers the glitter and polish of his own equipment to the humble simplicity of God's provision. It is so easy to forget that the Lord's battles are not won by the might of numbers, nor by the power of human means, but by the Spirit of the Lord.

An outstanding New Testament example of the employment of humble means by God is the Bible School of which a lowly Nazarene was its principal. He was unknown, and came from an unpopular district. His supposed father was but an ordinary carpenter. He himself had neither theological nor academic training. In selecting Him, God bypassed all the graduates of the rabbinical schools of the day. This God-appointed, academically unqualified principal told skeptical inquirers repeatedly that He could do nothing of Himself, and that He was dependent upon His Father for all that He did and taught.

The school of which He was principal and instructor, master and servant, and at times cook and director of out-station work, had an enrollment of twelve students. They had no prior religious training or experience. Some were but crude fishermen. One of the twelve failed. He was a thief and committed suicide before graduation. Another cursed and swore in his senior year.

No sensible person would suggest that we should follow the same standards. But their consideration serves to show the lowly means which God used to bring about events that profoundly affect the eternal destiny of countless multitudes, and the entire course of world history. It further shows that factors other than those inherent in the means themselves were responsible for these results.

It is certain that no person seeking the same accomplishments would have selected similar means. None of us, had we lived in those days, would have believed that such a primitive, non-accredited Bible School, with such a small and crude student body, and with academically untrained leadership could have accomplished such phenomenal results. Most assuredly, God did not use man's means.

Its principal was the object of hatred by the ecclesiastical sectarianists and the subject of controversy by the multitudes. He was arrested by the authorities on false accusation and finally put to death as a criminal. The graduates of this school were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and executed. All things natural were against this school and its graduates. Yet in the words of their own enemies, they turned the world upside down, although they should have said, "Right side up".

Far from having their works and words neutralized, and their name obliterated from the memory of man, their works and words are covering the face of the Globe in more volumes and languages than any other book, and their names are revered by more people than those of any other person in history.

God used the humblest to accomplish the greatest end, and "hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence" 1 Cor 1:27-29. God does not limit Himself to man's means.

Let us remember that "Now, we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" I Cor 2:12. The Lord is yet seeking those who will accept, and submit to His ways.