Scripture reading: Hebrews 8: 8-11
God’s desire for His people is that they would be a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, a kingdom of priests. How will this come about? Hebrews 8:9, “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”
Verse 10a, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind.” Notice he said, “into their mind.” Jeremiah 31:33b says, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” When Paul was translating this verse from the Hebrew into the Greek, he received the understanding and used the word “mind.” “I will put my laws into their mind.” The mind is the HEAD of the soul. God will put His laws in their souls, in their minds, and write them in their hearts – the very center of the human being. This center controls the actions, the thoughts, the emotions, the desires, the feelings, the will, everything.
The heart is like a pendulum that swings to the right and swings to the left according to how the individual thinks and behaves and desires to be. With the desires, with the mind, with the emotions, with the will, and with the influence of the spirit, a position is arrived at which is the heart of the individual. An individual locks himself into that position in his will and begins to act like he thinks in his heart. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he,” Proverbs 23:7a.
Hebrews 8:10b, “And write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” We will never come to be what God wants us to be until we receive that covenant written in our minds and in our souls and in our hearts. The CHRIST must come into our HEARTS and change our minds, our feelings, and CHANGE US.
Paul again writing to the Corinthian church in II Corinthians 6:16a says, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for YE are the temple of the living God.” This is one of the temples the antichrist wants to sit in. There are three temples and he wants to sit in all three. He first wants to sit in the human temple and then sit in the congregation, the church, and then to control the church and humanity.
II Corinthians 6:16b, “As God hath said, I will dwell in them.” Paul is quoting the very scripture we just quoted from Jeremiah, from Isaiah, and from Ezekiel. Verse 16c, “I will dwell in them (as I live in them), and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” God wants a walking temple, a temple moving from place to place and speaking.
Jesus Christ was the ABSOLUTE PERFECT EXAMPLE of God’s will for you and for me. Therefore, we must be careful what we bring into our mind, what we bring into our temple, and what we bring into our desires. The enemy comes and shakes something glistening in front of us, like catching a fish with a lure. As the fish sees this glittering lure, he darts at it and sometimes it provokes him enough until he snatches it. He might have been cautious at first but he throws caution to the wind and swallows it whole, so is the lure of the world upon us. If we see the world luring us in any way we should resist it. I observe very little resistance among Christians and I am urging you, if you do not resist it now, you will not be able to resist it ever again, for things are going from bad to worse and the power of the enemy is increasing. We need to resist the will of the devil.
He will walk in us and talk in us and be our God and we shall be His people.
The Spirit of God is to come upon humanity and to perfect His work on us and in us, through us and by us. Hallelujah!
(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 50-51)
Thought for today: We will never come to be what God wants us to be until we receive that covenant written in our minds and in our souls and in our hearts.
Sonlight Devotional 