Q2. Setting the Mind on the Spirit

[Irmela]

. (Romans 8:5-6) Exactly what does it mean to set your mind on the things of the Spirit?

How do you do this?

I understand this to mean that my thinking (which causes action) is on things that would please God and not be a disappointment to Him. It is thinking on things which would ultimately produce the Fruit of the Spirit as spelled out for us in Gal 5.

For this to become part and parcel of our lives, we need to spend much time with Lord, by reading His Word, praying without ceasing. Concentrating on Him. 

How can you recognize when the things you're setting your mind on relate to your sinful nature?

When my actions are not Christlike  and are gratifying my fleshly nature in an inappropriate way. 

How much of this is deliberate?

I guess we have a choice to break away from that. 

How much is habit?

When we first hand over the reigns of our life to Christ, there are many habits that need to be broken or left behind or changed. 

What part does the Holy Spirit have in this? Or is this primarily right living by force of will?

We cannot do right living by force of will. It does not work. We need the Holy Spirit. 

[Krissi]

To set my mind on the things of the Spirit is, in part, to eliminate thoughts that are not about or of Him. There used to be a phrase, "Be Ye Separate," that old-timey fundamentalists used and progressive evangelicals mocked. Frankly, I think the idea behind this phrase is correct; I must separate myself from the world in order to cling to Christ. I can't do both simultaneously -- I cannot enjoy the world and submit to Christ, so, to set my mind on the things of the Spirit must mean to separate myself from the things of the world. 

Personally, my separation had to be drastic and total since I'm from a secular background. I've substituted reading biography, devotional lit, history, language study, and the usual academic stuff for anything popculturish or contemporary. I love architecture, though some of it is spiritually unnerving (post-war, brutalist concrete churches in Germany, for example).

The idea is to separate from old ways of thinking and then substitute for these ways new thoughts. There cannot be a void, I've discovered. When something is taken away, something else must replace it;  it's just too easy to slip back into old patterns of thought.

This is a deliberate choice. I chose to not be what I was. I chose to think differently. In part, this was human will-power but in larger part, it is the Spirit inside of me guiding the choices I make. I don't think it is exclusively either human will or divine power -- it's a bit of both. Having said this, as my Christian life progresses -- sanctification -- I'm increasingly dependent on the Spirit to guide my choices because what is right and wrong has become more subtle and easier to mess up.

At the beginning of one's Christian life, it's pretty obvious what displeases God. Those blatant sins were eliminated.

As we go on, though, sin tends to fall in the grey-zone. A particular act or thought may not be necessarily bad in itself, but bad for me at this time and place. Obsessing, as I do, over building an exquisite, small homestead in northern Idaho, is not a sin, but it does take too much mental space. Nothing is wrong with these thoughts, per se, but my passion seems out of balance. This is the sort of thing God deals with in us as we "age" in Him.