Absence or separation from God’s spirit leaves a person solely to their own reasoning and thinking – of total reliance on self or others who are also blind. The inability to see what is spiritual is “spiritual blindness” – a groping around in complete darkness to all that is spiritual.
This seems such an easy matter to grasp, but it is only plain (simple to understand) and “real” to a spiritual mind – one in which God’s spirit dwells. This means that the “natural” inclination and sole ability of the human mind will be to equate the truths, prophecies, and ways of God on a physical plane, as they “cannot see” on a spiritual one. This is understandable when speaking of those in the world who have never known God’s truths, but some seem to have more difficulty understanding this could be true for anyone who had known the truth and then has been “cut off” from access to God’s spirit. This is what happened to Adam and Eve.
Being separated from God’s spirit is the reason for the physical focus of those who can now only “see” (through physical human reasoning) the curse on Eve as a matter of physical labor pain at birth. It is the same kind of mind that perceives (at this time in the “present” revelation of God) Petra as a place of safety in Jordan, the pope as Antichrist or the man of sin, the abomination of desolation being about a defiling of a physical temple or alter, that Jesus Christ has eternally existed, etc.
How the “Natural” Mind Sees God
The natural, carnal mind of mankind cannot see God as the sole Creator of the entire physical universe, who not only created it all, but also continuously sustains it all. They cannot grasp that God created laws that not only regulate the physical creation, but that He has created laws that regulate relationships (physical and spiritual). Even with God’s spirit and having the ability to believe this to be true, one still cannot begin to fully comprehend it; it is a matter of faith. So how does the carnal human mind view God? It will view God from a physical perspective by limiting God to being more on a physical plane in likeness and behavior.
There are simple but real examples of this kind of thinking that stand out more once God first brings someone into His Church. When called out of a world of traditional Christianity, it takes time for people to grow and have the mind cleansed of these false concepts about God and Christ. Even with (and only with) God’s spirit dwelling in a person, this transformation of thinking does not happen instantly, but over time.
It takes time for a person to have their mind cleansed from a false image of Christ having long hair who is made to look weak and pious or of that same image of him on a cross. It takes time for people to get protestant concepts (limited to human reasoning and false emotion) out of the mind in the way they think a person is to talk about or talk to (pray to) God. It can take years for an individual to come to see God as a Father in truth, joy, and genuine comfort when their own experience with a physical father has been a bad one. It can take years for a person to embrace the beauty, freedom, and true peace that exists in God’s government when their experience of government (in literal government, business, church, and/or family) has been bad because of abuse, oppression, injustice, and simply the result of being mistreated by controlling, selfish human nature.
When people read of God’s “wrath, anger, or jealousy” in scripture, they tend to equate that with human emotion, human reactions, and unjust outbursts in life, which is nothing like God who does all things with the highest ways of righteous judgment, sacrificing love, infinite patience, and abundance of mercy on levels the human mind cannot begin to grasp. A typical concept of the world within traditional Christianity is one of Almighty God being harsh, overly strict, demanding, and lacking in compassion. Such is equated solely with the human concept of oppressive and overly strict human government and behavior. Jesus Christ is then portrayed as the one to turn to in life who will understand us and love us unconditionally. Yet they fail to grasp that Jesus Christ is fully “of God,” and reflects the same attributes, qualities, and loving character of God Almighty.
Paul explains very well about this entire matter of the human proclivity to make God more physical and limited like mankind: “Because that when they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God and neither were they thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations (became lifted up by their own reasoning, thoughts, and ideas of God and His ways – they lifted themselves to a level equal to and greater than God), and their foolish hearts became darkened (spiritually blind). While professing themselves to be wise, they become fools, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God (not decaying in essence and continuance, not corruptible, immortal) into an image made like unto corruptible (decaying, perishable, weak) man, birds, four-footed creatures, and small animals. Therefore God also gave them over to uncleanness through the lusts in their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Who changed the truth (ways) of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the things created rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen” (Rom. 1:21-25).
The Mind of Sin
It would be good at this point to recall some of what we have already covered. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned, they had polluted, damaged, and adversely infected the precious mind God had created in them. With modern technology and the use of computers today, it is a little easier to grasp what happened to their minds. If a “program” becomes infected by developing a bug or receiving a virus, it cannot function as it was first designed and built. The same is true in a similar fashion concerning the effects of sin on the human mind.
So the result of the very first sin was that their thinking (reasoning) became “distorted” and it turned them inward concerning self. They became more intensely aware of self – “self-conscious” in a very negative and hurtful manner. One dictionary definition of “self-conscious” is exactly to the point of what happened to Adam and Eve. It is to be “uncomfortably conscious of oneself as an object of the observation of others, ill at ease.”
That definition describes them perfectly. It helps explain part of why they thought they could “hide” from God. They were uncomfortable about having to face God, knowing they had disobeyed Him. They also began to “feel” something else as part of this new self-consciousness. They began to be disconcerted by feelings of guilt and impropriety. They began to experience what it was like to be ashamed. Although they had justified the taking of the forbidden fruit, they violated and damaged their mind – the pure conscience God had created to exist in the human mind. That is why the searing of the conscience is such a dangerous thing.
There is yet another aspect of what sin does to the human mind. It infects the mind in another area of moral behavior, which is sound and right thinking toward matters relating to sex. This is why Adam and Eve both began to “feel” naked and wanted to cover their sexual organs. Even when they were the only two humans on earth, they not only felt uncomfortable to be in God’s presence and sought to hide from Him, they also felt uncomfortable with God seeing them “naked.” They did not yet grasp that all things are naked before God, both physically and spiritually. God sees and knows ALL!
The uniqueness of God creating male and female in both human and animal life is in large part about a cycle of continual production (reproduction) that works to perpetuate all such living life. This matter of sexual reproduction within humans was created to be different than all other forms of life. The difference is in the mind God gave mankind. God reveals that the selfish motives of mankind come from three basic factors that influence (even to regulate and control) the thinking process of everyone. These are the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16).
The Mind of Sex
There is one area of life that seemingly affects these three patterns of thought (motivation) more than any other. It is the thinking and reasoning that is swayed by hormones that God created in man and woman to make them unique and different, but to also affect how they are drawn to one another. We are drawn to food when we are hungry and to liquid when thirsty. We are drawn to warm the body when we are cold, and vice versa. But the aspect of sexual hormones at work in the human body has a completely different effect on the human mind. Sex is one of the primary areas of human life that can test and reveal much about the “state” of the mind and of one’s true reasoning and thinking.
God created the mind to respond to matters of sex in a specific manner. How each person “chooses” to respond to what God created to be beautiful and right in relationships determines a vast portion about how the “mind” will think (reason) and then act (live life). How one deals with the subject matter of sex in their mind is one of the most powerful and important influences on “thinking” that determines (establishes) the kind of interaction and social behavior one will have in all relationships toward others. There is no single greater influence that affects human reasoning and relationships throughout life. Much of that development is learned through the examples set from others in early life and then begins to take on a “personal development” through adolescence.
Since God created mankind in this manner as He did by design and purpose, with the powerful influence of hormones that can highly influence thinking and behavior, He also revealed how such things should be controlled and lived. Yet even as God has given instruction about right and wrong thinking regarding sex, He did much more. He made mankind in such a manner so that “any sin” in life would infect and adversely hurt the mind (one’s reasoning and thinking), and it would also result in distorting the thinking of the mind regarding sex. This is because the whole mind is infected and the result is then made manifest in this thinking that has such a bearing on one’s life in relationships – how one “thinks” toward others. This is far more relevant than people see and understand to this point in time. The more one sins and sears the conscience, the more it will be manifest in one’s relationship with others. Infecting the mind by sin also infects relationships in an adverse manner.
God is beginning to reveal much more about the “cause” of the kind of bondage “family” has been under and why. This has never been fully grasped by mankind or even God’s Church. It is through this ongoing process of God’s continuing revelation to His Church and the change that His people will make in their thinking and living that women are going to be freed from 6,000 years of bondage. This is bondage that has also been upon men, but more readily seen and understood by how women have been treated and looked upon by men. Men will grow to see that such a distorted outlook they have held regarding women has held them in bondage too and has robbed them of a far richer, happier, and more fulfilling life. As this continues to be addressed and understood more fully in God’s Church (which is about to include all the world), “family” will take on a far deeper meaning, purpose, and joy in life. All this has much to do with the process whereby God more fully heals the human mind.
The farther mankind has turned away from God and has delved more deeply into sin, there is a direct correlation to an increase in the distortion, perversion, and unsoundness in thinking regarding the subject of sex. Before we proceed further into this overall subject, it would be good to pause and begin considering this correlation of thinking that affects mankind so adversely. Ask God for help to begin seeing some of this as a part of your own life experience and/or that of others. This is all “key” to understanding how relationships, especially in family, are going to be freed from great bondage.
By design – by God’s design – this entire series of posts is being given in a manner so that you can begin to more fully digest what God is revealing and so that you can more readily build upon each section and be better equipped to receive what He gives next. This entire revelation that God is giving will prove to be one of the most exciting and inspiring phases of deliverance from bondage ever given to mankind.
[This series will continue next week with Part 5.]
The Church of God - Preparing for the Kingdom of God