One of the most beautiful things you will ever observe is a powerful being demonstrating meekness and self control. It’s expected to see the menacing driving force of power at work in a being that is all powerful, but when you see a super powerful being apply some brakes and control, you marvel. That power becomes even more reverential — it’s almost like the being is more powerful than the power he possesses, because he can tame and control it. Unlike those who become possessed by power to such a degree that they can’t control it. This is why when it comes to inheriting the earth (that’s a lot of power), only the meek can handle it!
I said all that, to say that God’s meekness is so beautiful to imagine! God’s meekness is one of the reasons why atheists, agnostics, and humanists even exist in the first place. Imagine with me, that this all-powerful God, who does exist, chooses to slam dunk everyone who ever denied His existence, into the abyss… we all will be believers by coercion! But God controls His power with His meekness. That meekness is not weakness as many think. It takes true power to control power and not be possessed by it.
Jesus — the perfect representation of the Father, said of Himself that He is meek and lowly. God is meek! Power looks even more beautiful on the meek. The next time you assume a position of power and authority, don’t forget to wear your garment of meekness.
If any of us were God, we’ll most certainly delete the meekness button from our God-suit! Because what’s the point of being God, if you’re controllable? You should be the one controlling everything and everyone, right? And that’s the idea so many people have of God. Which is why they lay all dysfunctions of the earth and humanity at His doorstep. They make Him look so pathetic and weak. How could there be a “God” and there’ll be this much evil in the world?” Well, because our God chooses to be governed by His own rules. He won’t just intrude into the earth space He has bequeathed to man, except man calls for Him.
Now, make no mistake, God is powerful! More powerful than your mind could ever even imagine: All power belongs to Him!
But while meditating recently, the Holy Spirit inspired in my heart these thoughts: He said, the only miracle I cannot do, is the miracle of a renewed mind!
God can transform your spirit in an instant and get you born again, He can heal your body in the twinkling of an eye… but with the soul, no matter how much He wanted to, He couldn’t! That is one miracle, only man can perform by himself. And that miracle happens slowly over a period of time, it is never instant. This is why people hardly pursue it. People want the instant bread and fish miracles that satisfy them in the short term, as seen in John 5 but when you present doctrine to them, the kind that can guarantee long-term stability in their faith, as seen in John 6… they’ll japa — even the Apostles sef consider … lol. Mind renewal is tough! But it is the only way everything else God gives you, will remain gifts in your life.
Friends, everything God will ever do for man, will require the soul to maintain it. Anyone who hasn’t renewed his mind is like a basket in the realm of the spirit. Anything God puts in them will waste. If the person gets healed today, he’ll be back to the healing line in a matter of weeks; if he wins a lottery, he’ll be broke and indebted after a few months; if he gets out of Egypt, he won’t make it to the promised land! If there was any miracle God wished He could do, it’s the miracle of transforming the mind of a person, but God expresses limitation in this regard.
Yea, they turned back and tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand, Nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, And his wonders in the field of Zoan — Psalm 78:41–43 KJV
How do you limit God? With your mind!
No amount of miracles can compensate for a lack of mind renewal. If you will not stick that face into Scripture and receive a reorientation of reality by The Word, it doesn’t matter how great the promises God has in store for you, you will not experience them. And if God ever insists on performing the miracles, He either has to continue performing them in perpetuity or the moment He stops, you have no chance of survival. Dependency on miracles may be indicative of a wilderness season, which is never God’s best; in the promised land, you plant vineyards, cultivate lands, build houses and create transgenerational wealth. That… requires a robust level of mind renewal.
God healed their bodies in the wilderness, sent them quails and manna, preserved their clothes and caused light to constantly stand above them at all times… no generation has been more privileged to see the various assortment of miracles these people saw in one generation. How can the same generation that saw the 10 plagues, the parting of the red sea, waters gushing out of rocks and daily supernatural provision, have the mind to not actually believe God? That generation watched their clothes and shoes expand and maintain structural integrity as they grew older… this generation saw the hand of God, yet they will not believe. If there was ever a miracle God wished He could perform, it is that of the renewal of the mind… yet in this regard, even God was limited!
Some generations have not seen a tenth of what the COI (Children of Israel) saw, yet they believed in a hurry.
The quality of your mind renewal will always be your bill board for God, not necessarily the faithfulness of God in your life. Your life will ultimately take up the posture of your mind, not the nature of God and His disposition towards you. When you begin to see men and women die in the wilderness like flies, without an understanding of what God had done for them, you would be the first to blame God for injustice — ‘Why bring them out, only to kill them in the wilderness? At least, they were not dying in Egypt, they were only slaving. They knew when and where their next meal would come, they knew they were victims but at least they were alive.’ These would have been your conclusion. But God cannot force you into the promised land. He so desperately wants you to get in there, but not without your own permission. If you don’t want it, there’s not much even God can do.
The God people see in your life, will only look as good or as bad as your mind presents Him. The state of your mind renewal is what determines what people say about your God, not God Himself. When you see them dead in the wilderness, you don’t see the loving and jealous God that fought Pharaoh till Israel was released to worship Him, you don’t see the might of God parting the red sea, you don’t see the generosity of God in providing 24hrs uninterrupted power supply in the pillars of cloud and fire (something some Nations are yet to manage in 60 odd years), you don’t see the miracles of manna… when you see them fall in the wilderness, you don’t see a good God, all you see is a “wicked” God who kills the people He claims to love!
Many believers with unrenewed minds are the reasons why some have remained atheists. They see some lives, and those lives are such a poor representation of the goodness of God. Everything God does in your life will ultimately fall to the level of your mind renewal. God can do all things, but He can’t renew your mind for you. This is why the Apostle Paul beseeches us by the mercies of God for us to present our bodies and renew our minds… if there was another way to get it done, Paul wouldn’t have been beseeching us by the mercies of God! That phrase is the highest form of appeal recorded in Scripture!
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. — Romans 12:1–2 KJV
Whatever you do this week, insist on renewing your mind until you’re able to prove that which is good, acceptable, and perfect will of God for your life.
God bless your heart.
Have a beautiful week ahead.
– Dami Oguntunde
IG/Twitter(X): @damioguntunde