THE FRAME OF MIND GOD REQUIRES
OF YOU WHEN YOU COME TO HIM

May 8, 2011
MF Blume

Hebrews 11:6 KJV But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

There is a mindset God needs in us in order to work powerfully in our lives.

It is a mindset that is based upon FAITH IN WHAT THE WORD SAYS ABOUT US as believers.
Too many believers look at themselves in ways after the flesh rather than after what God has accomplished in us.
Looking at yourself in light of what the Word says about you since your inclusion into CHRIST is living by faith, and it is the required frame of mind God needs.
God can only operate in you fully when you see yourself with eyes of faith based upon what the word says God did to you when he changed your life.
THE REASON SO MANY PEOPLE PRAY INEFFECTIVELY AND WANT GOD TO USE THEM BUT NEVER SEE HIM REALLY USE THEM IS BECAUSE OF THE FAITHLESS PERCEPTION WE HAVE OF OURSELVES.
When you pray and present yourself to God you need to have the concept of yourself that the Word provides to you in Paul’s teachings in Romans.
When you come to GOD IN THAT KIND OF FAITH about YOURSELF, based upon what the word says God did in you, GOD HAS THE FAITH HE NEEDS TO WORK IN YOU MIGHTILY!

Romans 6:12-13 KJV Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. (13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Satan fears a human who is driven by hearing from God and being led by the Spirit.

He knows this is what man was created for, and how he will be destroyed at every turn.
Paul taught that people who try THEIR BEST will never be able to accomplish the good they desire to do.
He taught that always resorting to the FLESH – human resourcefulness and human power – causes us to fall short.

Romans 7:22-23 GNB My inner being delights in the law of God. (23) But I see a different law at work in my body---a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body.

Romans 7:25 GNB Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature (FLESH) serves the law of sin.

Romans 8:1 Complete Apostles' Bible (1) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh (HUMAN NATURE), but according to the Spirit.

Paul said when he is “ON MY OWN” he messed up.

ON MY OWN means not relying on higher power of God.
When we act ON OUR OWN, ONLY OUR MINDS can he serve God’s law and not our flesh, since when we try to serve it with his flesh we wind up serving sin.
So then WE MUST NOT WALK AFTER THAT FLESH, or NOT TRY TO SERVE GOD WITH THAT FLESH ANY MORE.
Serve God with the SPIRIT.
RELY ON HIGHER POWER!

THIS IS THE DEVIL’S GREATEST NIGHTMARE.

It is what satan tried and succeeded with Adam and Eve, and what he failed to do with Jesus.

The entire truth of SEATING WITH CHRIST in His Kingdom throne over all powers is based upon our having DIED WITH JESUS.

Romans 6:8-11 Complete Apostles' Bible (8) But if we died with Christ, we believe that also we should live together with Him, (9) knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, no longer dies. Death is no longer master over Him. (10) For what death He died, He died to sin once for all; but what life He lives, He lives to God. (11) Likewise you also, consider yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are required to CONSCIOUSLY see ourselves as ALIVE FROM THE DEAD like Jesus, and present ourselves to God IN THAT STATE in order to have God EMPOWER US BY HIS SPIRIT.

This concept of full AWARENESS of what it means to be raised from the dead INCLUDES the thought that death is no longer master over us!
God sees you accept what He said about you.
He sees you are ready to be empowered by His Spirit when you come to Him in that frame of mind about yourself.
He is honoured that you took Him at His word and acted upon it.
These facts about who we really are in Christ now cannot be made known to you by any fleshly means, like getting a psychiatrist to analyze your psyche.
The only way you can know about these changes in you since salvation is from the word of God.
And when God sees you TAKE THAT WORD and believe it and be convinced of it to such an extent that you actually present yourself to God with THAT FRAME OF MIND about yourself, HIS POWER IS GOING TO USE YOU!!

Romans 6:13 Complete Apostles' Bible (13) nor present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Romans 6:13-14 MSG Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time--remember, you've been raised from the dead!--into God's way of doing things. (14) Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.

When Paul said we must present ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, he meant that we must consider all that “life from the dead” entails, as he just explained as we go before Him.

Look at Jesus’ state of being alive from the dead.
Since verse 11 says we are LIKEWISE alive form the dead, that means we must take all the facts that are true of Jesus being alive from the dead and apply them to us.
Keep that in mind about yourself when you come to God.
Then when we gather all the information about what facts Christ’s status, WITH THOSE FACTS IN MIND, present yourself to God LIKE THAT.
Have that concept of yourself when you present yourself to God.
Have that opinion of yourself.

People often think they are not good enough for God to really use them.

So they hesitate within when it comes to presenting themselves to God.
They think God sees inadequacy and weakness and failure.
This is doubt and unbelief and it causes us to lack confidence we need when we come to God in prayer.
However, Paul is telling us how to present ourselves to God, and it is a far cry from inadequacy, after reading what He just said about us.
Present yourself as one who, like Christ, died to sin and death has no mastery over us at all.
Present yourself as someone who died the only single death ever required for anyone.
Everything that made you inadequate is BURIED and you are resurrected from that whole mess.
Get rid of every grain of lack of confidence.
Every enemy of your mind that seeks to weaken yourself in your own mind and THEREBY CAUSE YOU TO COME TO GOD WITH SUCH DOUBT THAT GOD CANNOT ANSWER YOU!

God needs us to have confidence and faith in ourselves when we come to ask Him to use us.

And if we think the least grain of thought of not being good enough, we will DOUBT GOD CAN USE US LIKE WE ASK HIM TO.
And that destroys our prayers.

Mark 11:24 KJV Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

If we lack confidence in ourselves and have some kind of doubt that we are fit before God, then asking Him to use us will be tainted with unbelief.

This will cause us to not fully believe what we pray for will come to pass.
And Jesus said we will not get our prayers answered in that case.

We are destroying CONFIDENCE KILLERS.

We are presenting ourselves to God FOR HIS USE BY HIS SPIRIT.

All the hindrances by way of inadequacies to His Spirit working in us have been crucified and buried!
They’re removed from our lives.
This is what God sees.
God sees us alive from the dead.
He sees us fully fit for use by His Spirit.
But unless we join Him in that faith about ourselves, we will doubt and second guess ourselves.
And our prayers for Him to use us will be destroyed.

The problem is that God sees we are fit and suited for presentation to Him to use us, BUT WE DO NOT THINK SO.

Without Paul’s revelation, we feel inadequate and think too carnally about ourselves.
We have to realize that since our baptism into HIS DEATH, there has been such a huge change that we have to think completely different about ourselves.

2 Corinthians 5:14-17 KJV (14) For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: (15) And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (16) Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. (17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Notice Paul uses the same terms here as in Romans 6.

WE SHOULD LIVE UNTO GOD.
Romans 6 says Jesus is dead to sin AND ALIVE UNTO GOD.
LIVE UNTO HIM!

The faith in what the death and resurrection experiences of Christ that we share have done for us is absolutely necessary.

Without that faith you will not present yourself to God properly as ALIVE FROM THE DEAD.
When you present yourself to God as alive from the dead, you are consciously aware that you have power over sin.
You are then in the right state of mind!
You know death has lost mastery over you.
You are convinced of it.
You know these facts:

Romans 5:20-6:13 MSG All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. (21) All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life--a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. (6:1) So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? (2) I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? (3) Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace--a new life in a new land! That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. (4) When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. (5) Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country. (6) Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the Cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life--no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: (8) If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. (9) We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. (10) When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. (11) From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did. (12) That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. (13) Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time--remember, you've been raised from the dead!--into God's way of doing things.

When you come to God like THAT, your faith is soaring and He has all He needs to fill you and use you mightily!

That is what Rom 8:11-12 means when it says He will QUICKEN or MAKE ALIVE or EMPOWER your mortal body while it is still mortal, and you will overcome sin.

Romans 8:11-12 Complete Apostles' Bible (11) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit indwelling in you. (12) Therefore, brothers, we are debtors--not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

Romans 8:11-13 MSG It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! (12) So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. (13) There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life.

Notice it says we do not have to live after the flesh because the SPIRIT can GIVE LIFE to our mortal bodies.

Satan knows that if we live according to the flesh we can get no where.

That is living like none of Romans 6 is true.
Living in ignorance of these facts.
That is exactly what he encouraged Eve to do – act according to her human ability and focus on herself and forget she was made to be a vessel for God to use.
Forget the LIFE – SPIRIT OF GOD – of the Fruit of Life.
The fruit of Life is the SPIRIT OF GOD IN OUR LIVES.
That is why Paul said if we WALK AFTER THE SPIRIT we will live.

Romans 7:17-8:2 MSG But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! (18) I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. (19) I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. (20) My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. (21) It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. (22) I truly delight in God's commands, (23) but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. (24) I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? (25) The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. (8:1) With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. (2) A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

Romans 8:4-10 MSG And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. (5) Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them--living and breathing God! (6) Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. (7) Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. (8) And God isn't pleased at being ignored. (9) But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. (10) But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells--even though you still experience all the limitations of sin--you yourself experience life on God's terms.

THE FRAME OF MIND GOD REQUIRES OF YOU WHEN YOU COME TO HIM

THE FRAME OF MIND GOD REQUIRES
OF YOU WHEN YOU COME TO HIM