New Mind; New Man!Sample

Thoughts Produce Desire – Action – Fruit (Life Or Death)

So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands. For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature]. Romans 7:21-22 (AMPC)

The Apostle Paul is writing about the inner struggle we all face in life – the struggle of having a desire to do things we don’t want to do yet finding it hard to do the things we know are right. A constant battle rages between the flesh and the spirit. Our born again spirit desires to commune with God, to pray, praise and worship, but our desires and appetites are constantly bombarded by images on TV, movies, and social media. We have information coming at us from every side and we literally must fight to get quiet times. The spirit man in us has to be fed spiritual food which comes through worship, prayer, praise and reading our Bibles or other Christian materials in our quiet times. However, the enemy of our souls knows that he cannot touch our spirit because the Holy Spirit lives there, instead, he tries to appeal to our natural senses. He draws us by making things look, sound, feel, taste, and smell nice so we can be drawn away from the reality of what is important, and that is our relationship with God.

Often we don’t recognize that the battle is won or lost in our thought life. Long before we commit an act, we would have pondered the whole scene in our minds first. The Apostle James also chimes in on desire, action, and fruit, He said, “But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions). Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death.” James 1:14-15 (AMPC). So you see from this scripture that what we feed grows in our lives. If we feed the spirit with the word, praise, worship, and prayer we can develop thoughts, desires, actions and fruit for the kingdom. However, if we feed the flesh with movies, music, images, books and even friends contrary to the word of God we are setting ourselves up for sin and eventually death both spiritually and physically. 

Your thought life is powerful and precious and whatever you allow to dominate and stay in your mind will also bring forth actions, and fruit be it life or death. I want to encourage you to take time every day to feed your spirit in God’s word. 

“What consumes your mind is what controls your life.” - Unknown