Lesson 031 − God’s Greatest Enemy − The Subtle Enmity of the Mind

Lesson 031 − God’s Greatest Enemy − The Subtle Enmity of the Mind

Before the foundation of the world, the Servant of Jehovah (God) offered Himself the lamb slain.  The incorruptible Seed, the Word of God came in the likeness of man that He might take the first creation into death with Him.  In the crucifixion, the Son of the covenant put to death the body of sin and the lawlessness of mankind once for all time and for all eternity. 

The body of sin – the flesh body of humanity was put to death; and the lawlessness, the enmity of the pride of man’s self-will, was put away.  The Son of Man offered Himself without spot to God through the Eternal Spirit that He might purge [His sons] from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14). 

In the one offering and sacrifice of the body prepared for Him, God reconciles man to Himself; His body was a living sacrifice unto God.  Sons of God receive Life Eternal and make an exodus out of the creation in Adam.  They are made alive unto God.  Sons of God are clothed with “coats of skin” − given a body – that the body presented might be a living sacrifice.  The body of a son of God has purpose for God. 

The body is the living sacrifice that God uses as a channel to reconcile men unto Himself.  The body is a flesh and bone body of Life Eternal of the Spirit.  The body comes from the Seed of his Father and identifies the man with the family, the creation into which he is born.  Alive unto God from the Seed of the begotten Son, the son of God is identified with the family of God and subject to the creation of which he now is.  As a new creation, sons of God are completely severed from the creation in Adam.  Death causes a complete severance – the body of flesh was crucified that the body of sin might be done away with. 

The deliverance from the body of sin and the lawlessness of the pride of man’s self-will – the enmity of the mind − is final.  It is a complete termination not a partial or temporary stay.  A son of God cannot be other than he is; Life overcomes sin in righteousness and overcomes death in Life.  The son of God is holy; he is perfect – complete without spot or blemish.  Now alive unto God, sons born of the Seed of the begotten Son are identified with the family of God and subject to the creation of which they now are.  Old things have passed away.  He who is has done it; it is finished; it is done!  Both the being in the body and the body are a creation of God. 

The Son of His Love has secured for God a sanctified people suited to Himself − His sons are set apart in His will and according to His pleasure from everything that they were naturally; such is the effectiveness and such is the result of the death of the Son of His Love.  On the cross, the life of Jesus was made an offering for sin.  He was the righteous one, perfectly acceptable to God.  In this righteous one, sin in the flesh was dealt with; in Christ, God delivered His sons from the penalty, the power and the presence of sin.  At the cross, sons of God died out of the creation of the flesh in Adam and were born His children − sons, justified – fulfilled.  In the resurrection, sons of God are sanctified and glorified - fulfilled.  His sons are set apart unto God.  Sanctification is not “set apart from sin” but “set apart unto God.” 

With the redemption of the body (future), sons of God are adopted as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.  Dwelling in his mortal body or habitat is the Holy Spirit who lives with him (soul of spirit being).  With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the mortal body, the body is sealed for redemption; the sealing of the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of the redemption of the body (Ephesians 4:30). 

Sons of God are now other.  Sons of God are identified with the family of God and subject to the creation of which they now are.  Death results in a complete severance – old things have passed away.  Free from the lawlessness of the enmity of the mind, sons of God can do righteousness; God can fulfill the righteous demands of the law in them because they are free.  Freedom is the deliverance from sin and self.  Freedom is righteousness lived out.  Freedom is genuine love in practice. 

We walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit of Life, because we are not in the flesh – (we died out of that creation − Romans 8:9). 

Romans 8:5-8:  “For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; … for to be carnally [fleshly] minded is death; … Because the carnal [fleshly] mind is enmity against God:  for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. …”

What does it mean to mind the things of the flesh?  What is the flesh?  It is the creation in Adam.  They that are after the flesh, the creation in Adam, mind the things connected with that creation.  What is that creation but dead and perishing.  In the mind of the flesh, one will not admit that he is a creation of God.  In the flesh, one contends to be his own person; that is enmity against God. 

The mind of the flesh does not want to look at what God has done.  One wants to think the way he wants to think and wants God to think like he thinks.  In so doing, man chooses to have his will for himself and his own desires rather than the will of God for him.  That is enmity, which is sin.  Sin is lawlessness.  Man desires to know – to see in his reasoning mind. 

Romans 8:5, 6, 9:  “… but they that are after the spirit (sons of God) [mind] the things of the spirit; …to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  … You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you.  Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ [Seed of eternal life], he is none of His.” 

Born of the Seed of the law of the spirit of Life, His sons mind the things of the spirit – life and peace.  Is that not simple?  So what is the problem?  Sons of God will not reckon on the truth and admit that they are a new creation and that death causes a complete severance. 

Sons of God have died out of the creation of flesh in Adam.  Sons of God will say they are a new creation, but do they think of God as their Creator?  Sons of God will say that they are dependent upon Him and are responsible to Him for what they do, say and think. Really?!  The truth is that sons of God have changed creations and are other than they once were; a son of God cannot be other than he is; he is a son of God; he has changed creations. 

So what is the problem?  The problem is that sons of God take their thinking with them; they contend to be their own person; they are at enmity with God.  Enmity is sin; sin is lawlessness.  If sons of God think the way they want to think and want God to think like they think, they are at enmity with God.  

United to the Son of the covenant in His death, sons of God have been freed from the deceit of the heart, which causes them to choose their own will over the will of their Creator and Redeemer.  Freed from the deceit of their heart, sons of God are free to ask to have the eyes of their understanding opened to hear the voice of the Spirit of God who enlightens the eyes of the understanding.  

Unless sons of God in the understanding of their spirit understand why God sent the Son, those sons cannot walk in the spirit.  Without understanding in the spirit of their being, there is no power to live in the spirit.  To have understanding in one’s spirit, one must see from where God is coming – God’s mind on the matter.  Unless sons mind the things of God in their spirit with understanding, nothing changes. 

Knowledge or information in the mind without understanding in the spirit makes one ignorant of the truth and arrogant in the pride of self-will.  Transformation of the person through the renewing of the mind in the understanding of the spirit of one’s being must take place. 

If sons of God would desire Him and His thinking rather than gather information so they can “know,” they would be satisfied and would experience their freedom in the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.  They would experience Life and peace.  When one changes his mind about the way he thinks and sees “how” God thinks, when one sees that God’s thinking is the way to think, then one “moves” from the earthly – a fleshly way of thinking (reasoning) to the heavenly, minding the things of the spirit with understanding.   

With the renewing of the mind, there is the transformation of the person.  Transformation is not a behavior change.  So often one sets out to change the behavior, thinking a change of behavior is a transformation of the person.  A person can change his behavior – for a while, and the appearance of the outward man will appear as a transformation of the person, but a behavior change is not a transformation of the person; behavior change is an attempt to transform the person without the power or ability to do so. 

God has the power to transform; the transformation of the person is the result of thinking God’s thoughts after Him, “seeing” God as He really is and not as one sees him according to the flesh through the reasoning of the facts.  Romans 6:1-2:  “What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”  Made safe from the condemnation of death, made secure from the wrath to come and sanctified alive unto God, “how shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:2).  

This newness of life is the true testimony of a new creation, the true testimony of a son of God. 

Romans 6:6-7:  “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin.” 

In verse 6, “Our old man” literally in the Greek reads “the old man of us” and refers to the first creation, and it is crucified.  There is only one old man of all of us.  There is not your old man and my old man; the old man of the first creation is the old man of all of us.  Likewise, there is not my new man and your new man, but the new man of a new creation – the Son of the covenant – Christ Jesus.  Those who believe in Jesus are of his Seed. 

Death causes a complete severance – as a new creation, we are completely severed from the creation in Adam; the deliverance from the body of sin and the lawlessness of the pride of man’s self-will is final.  A son of God cannot be other than he is; he is a son of God.  However, a son of God can be at enmity in his mind against God.  A son of God can conduct his manner of living as though he were a son of humanity.

When a son of God refuses to lay down his own thinking to have the eyes of his understanding opened to hear the voice of the Spirit of God who enlightens the eyes of the understanding, that son’s thinking is at enmity – that thinking is self-willed, selfish, and self-serving; it is lawlessness, it is sin against God. 

God’s greatest enemy is not Satan.  God’s greatest enemy is the enmity of the mind.  The subtlety of the mind to reason within itself and glory in what it knows, rather than to be led into the truth, is hostility and animosity against thinking God’s thoughts after Him.  So subtle and so beguiling is the enmity of the mind that it takes God to expose the beguiling of one’s own reasoning.  God cannot force one to consider being led in the understanding of his spirit, and God cannot change anyone’s mind. 

As a man thinks, so is he.  The lusts of deceit of the pride of self-will are very subtle and very deceitful.  So how is the problem of the enmity of the mind to be remedied − resolved for a son of God?  

Three things are required; first, there must be the reckoning on the truth that death causes a complete severance.  A son of God cannot be other than he is; he is a son of God. 

Next, a son of God must be willing for the exposing of the heart to see the beguiling of the deceit of the sin of self-will. 

This exposure provides the opportunity to be enlightened by God in the understanding of one’s spirit.  Once enlightened with understanding, then he sees. 

Finally, a son of God must renew his mind to think God’s thoughts after Him, to see God as He really is and not as one sees Him according to the flesh through the reasoning of the facts. 

A transformation of thinking is the result of love.  A heart at leisure from itself is a heart that is free indeed.  Light without understanding is knowledge without glory.  The fulfillment of God’s requirements for His sons can come only from a heart set free from the values of this world − a heart dramatically changed by God to place first importance upon the qualities of God and His eternal kingdom of righteousness and life, of humility and closeness to God. 

The next stellar sign Sagittarius shows that man is responsible to God for the way he thinks and he is responsible to God for upon what he thinks. 

During the thousand-year reign, all enemies of the kingdom will be restricted.  The man of lawlessness with his false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire.  The Dragon is cast into the pit; the outward manifestation of the enmity of the pride of self-will has been restrained, and the only power of rule enforced in the kingdom will be the rule of Love. 

God will provide everything; there will be no needs.  All the inhabitants of the kingdom will be taught the truth concerning the Son of the covenant in the signs of the luminaires and all will celebrate the Festivals of Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles.  

There will be no crime, no violence, and no war for a thousand years.  By outward appearances, all is well; however, division will exist in the kingdom.  The enmity of man’s mind and the lawlessness of man’s heart will still exist.  This enmity and lawlessness will prove that given a freedom of choice, man in the flesh will have his own will sourced in his own thinking and in the desires of the imagination of his own heart.  Man in the flesh will have his own will above the will of his Creator God for him, and he will go his own way.  

However, a son of God is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in him.  On the cross, the life of Jesus was made an offering for sin.  He, the righteous one, is perfectly acceptable to God.  In this righteous one, sin in the flesh was dealt with; God’s sons are in Christ and perfectly acceptable to God because of the Son of His Love.  God delivered His sons from the penalty, the power and the presence of sin.  

At the cross, sons of God died out of the creation of the flesh in Adam, which means they were freed from the beguiling deceit of the enmity of the mind, the pride of self-will.  Our freedom in Christ is not dependent upon the redemption of the mortal body for a body of glory.  No, right now, present tense, we are the sons of God (1John 3:1-3).  Right now, we are free!  

However, our experience of freedom from the enmity of the mind is dependent upon reckoning on the truth that death causes a complete severance from the old creation in the flesh.  Our experience of freedom is dependent upon our willingness for the heart to be exposed to see the beguiling of the deceit of self-will; our experience of freedom is dependent upon the transformation that God does when we change our minds and let His “light” shine into the very spirit of our being.  

Children of God inherit everything that belongs to God; sons of God are His heirs − adopted as sons through the Seed of the Son of His Love.  Sons of God are joint-heirs with Christ.  Everything pertaining to Life and godliness belongs to His sons; they are the successors and beneficiaries of all that God has done; it is finished; it is done! 

Sons of God must learn to think God’s thoughts after Him and “see” Him, as He really is, with the eyes of their understanding in the very spirit of their being and not according to the reasoning of the facts. 

Unless sons of God in the understanding of their spirit understand why God sent the Son, that son of God cannot walk in the spirit.  Without the understanding of the union of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus in the spirit of our being, sons of God have no power to live in the spirit. 

The purpose of union is for the purpose of communion – for the purpose of partaking of and entering into His holiness.  What does that mean?  

What does it mean to partake and enter into His holiness?  Freedom!  Entering into His holiness is freedom from the beguiling deceit of the enmity of the pride of self-will, which does so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1).  Freedom to Love!