Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Says this, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Someone say, thank you, Jesus.
[00:00:45] Therefore, God has highly exalted Jesus and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, everybody say Jesus.
[00:00:58] At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, that every tongue should confess. Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
[00:01:39] Lord, we pray that you would give us eyes that see and ears that hear in a heart, a mind that understands what your spirit is speaking. Today I bind Lord, the enemy who would desire to uproot, to confuse, to confuse or uproot the word as it comes forward today. Give us liberty in receiving your word. Today, in Jesus mighty name, I pray, and everybody say, amen. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:02:13] I've got a simple word for you. This has the potential to be a complicated text, but I'm not going to make it complicated tonight.
[00:02:24] The idea that I really want to communicate is having the mind of Christ.
[00:02:31] The mind of Christ. Everybody say, the mind of Christ.
[00:02:37] Did you know that you can have the mind of Christ.
[00:02:40] You can think like Jesus thinks. You can believe like Jesus believes. This is know all these strongholds in my mind, and I just can't control it. Yes, you can. You have the mind of Christ. You have the mind of Christ. You can have faith like Jesus has faith vision like Jesus has vision. I'm getting too fired up too quickly. But the mind of Christ, let this mind, our text says, be your mind. Let Jesus mind be your mind. The new living translation says, you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. The English Standard Version says, have this mind amongst yourselves which is yours. In Christ Jesus, you can have the mind of Christ. The Passion says, consider the example that Jesus, the anointed one, has set before us. Let his mindset be your motivation. Literally, the mind of Christ moves us to action. Oh, I like that. Jesus, what are you thinking about? Jesus, where is your mind? Where is your heart today? Oh, we would do pretty well if we would just ask that question every morning. You go into work, you go into school, Jesus, what do you want to do? Today. What's on your mind today? Come on. This is beholding and becoming. So I'm not going to go real deep. There's two main ideas that are expressed in this text here. What is it to have the mind of Christ? Or how is that actually manifested in our lives?
[00:04:21] People have gotten in trouble with this text because they talk about how God emptied Jesus, emptied himself of his deity, which is not true.
[00:04:31] People have gotten in trouble saying, well, Jesus became less than God when he came in the flesh. That is not true.
[00:04:39] Jesus is God. Jesus was God in the beginning at creation. Jesus was just as much God when he was born of a virgin on the earth 2000 years ago. And he's just as much God today as he's seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Okay? So he never once became less God. The Bible says in Hebrews one, three, Jesus is the express image of God, meaning all that God is, Jesus is the picture of that. I've talked out of Colossians two, nine and ten that Jesus is the fullness of God in a human body. So all that God is, all that God the Father, all that God the Son, is, is expressed in Jesus. Okay? You got that? So Jesus is God, and yet he clothed himself in human flesh. And the reason this is important, the reason that some have gotten in trouble is that they try and express this kind of complicated idea that this is really what it comes down to. You realize, when Jesus was walking the earth and working miracles and preaching with authority, casting out demons, healing the sick, laying hands on lepers, when he was doing all the things that he did, he did not do those things as God.
[00:06:04] Meaning it's one thing to see Jesus open a blind eye or cleanse a leper. And we look at him say, of course you can do that, Jesus, because you're Jesus, right? Are you trekking with me so far? However, if Jesus was operating in human image and likeness, which he was, meaning he had the same limitations that you and I do, meaning he operated by faith. Meaning he had the same Holy Spirit that we do, he had all the same tools that we do, and saw the results that he did. Now, when we understand that he operated in releasing miracles, not in the deity of God, I think I'm saying this right.
[00:06:57] He was not operating out of his deity. He was operating out of his humanity.
[00:07:04] He was always God. But he didn't tap into that. There were moments he allowed the disciples to get glimpses of it, like the Transfiguration, hey, see my glory? I am God. He made that known to them. And he professed that over and over and over again. I don't understand where anybody says Jesus never claimed to be God. Yes, he did, many, many times. It's the reason they crucified him seven times. Just in the Book of John, he said, I am the, I am the same. I am that Moses was talking about. Seven times he made that claim. And every time, well, I'm not going to go there, but it's like they had the Festival of lights in Old Testament celebration, and Jesus would stand up and say, I am the light of the world. I mean, seven times he was like saying, you know that Old Testament picture in celebration, I am that.
[00:07:58] And so repeatedly, Jesus was affirming, I am God. I am God. Yet the way that he ministered on the earth, the way he prophesied words of knowledge, healing miracles, he operated out of his humanity.
[00:08:14] Why is that important for us?
[00:08:17] Because if the things that he did, he did as God, we would stand back and applaud him. Good job, Jesus. Way to go, God.
[00:08:28] But if he did those things as a man operating on the earth, that puts a challenge in every single one of us.
[00:08:38] Now, it's like Jesus, if you did that as a man, that means that's what my standard of miracles and glory actually is. And so understand, Jesus never became less God. Jesus never devoid himself of God. Jesus was always God. And yet he operated in the same way, tempted as we were, hit with fear and unbelief the very same way that we were. And yet he never failed, he never wavered. He lived a perfect life, a miracle life, and he set a wonderful standard for every one of us. So here's what I want you to understand. We're to have the mind of Christ. So there's an important thought. I need you to get in this and I want you to write this down. If you haven't been taking notes already, write this down. Jesus was humble.
[00:09:33] Jesus was humble.
[00:09:35] Now, as God, if there was anybody who had the right to say, listen, I'm on a pedestal, worship me, praise me, it would be Jesus. And yet Jesus chose rather to come. Philippians, chapter two, as a bond servant. Verse seven, in the likeness of men, obedient to death. Verse eight, even death on a cross.
[00:10:05] Jesus was humbled. That means if we're going to have the mind of Christ, you need to hear me on this. We need to remain in a posture of humility.
[00:10:14] This is very simple, but we must remain humble. None of this idea. I'm going to get into church. I'm going to become a pastor. I'm going to become a minister. I'm going to be somebody. And then you have to listen to me. No. You understand, the higher you go in this organization, you're being called to higher levels of serving.
[00:10:34] Higher levels of serving. That's what Jesus did. Jesus didn't like the closer he got to the cross and the more that people recognized who he was. You realize he served more and more and more days before he went to the cross. He's washing feet, the feet of his betrayer. That gets me every time I think about it, washing the feet of Judas. He's serving, he's giving, he's laying hands on lepers. Even that picture that I've talked about, this woman who was in prostitution, she comes in. I mean, the fact that he let her touch him, put perfume upon him. Bless you, put perfume upon him and love on him, the fact that he allowed that to happen, you understand? He was humble.
[00:11:32] Jesus was.
[00:11:35] So let this mind be your mind. The Bible says, let this mind be your mind. If you're going to be like Jesus, humble, serving, giving, laying down your life, if that's what's asked, that is the mind of Christ. But there's a second part to this, and I need you to see this. Most preachers that I've heard talk about the mind of Christ will actually stop right there. But there's a lot of passages in Scripture I've noticed that people only preach half of the idea, or they take the part that they like. For example, like Philippians four. Is it 13? I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Like, people will quote that before they go out on the basketball field, and I can do this, or I can lift these weights, right? I can break my bench press record. I can pass this test. I can do all things. My daughter got her permit the other day. Amen.
[00:12:42] Yesterday, she was driving us around. She did a good job. Drove us to Starbucks. I bought her a Starbucks. She's like, we'll go and do a test. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Her goal was to beat, comma, in his score on his driving test.
[00:12:58] But they tied. She didn't beat him.
[00:13:01] They got the same score, but she didn't quote the verse. That's why she didn't say, I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
[00:13:10] But here's the fact, you realize people take that verse. Does anybody know Bible quiz? Anybody know what the context of that verse is?
[00:13:22] Living in little, and I've learned what it is to abound. I've learned to be abase. But I trust in the Lord. I can do all things. It's a giving verse. It's a verse about giving. It's a verse about generosity. It's a verse about God's provision. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's about money. It's about God's provision. And so the only reason I'm saying that is there's a lot of things that we just quote this verse. In fact, I remember we were in the men's bathroom at a church that I went to. There was a passage of scripture as written. I had a nice mountain picture on the background, and it says, if you will bow to me, I will give you authority over all the world. I'm like, wow, that sounds like a great verse. And I don't even remember quoting that. Authority over the whole world. And so I opened this up. This was Satan speaking to Jesus. If you'll kneel before me, I'll give you authority over all the kingdoms of the world. Who in their right mind picked that verse? Probably some heathen or, I don't know, demon possessed. I don't know. So check the context. Check your verses. Okay, before you just start quoting something, you don't know what you're talking about.
[00:14:33] Now, why do I say that? Because, guys, we live in a day and an age where it's like, become low, become humble.
[00:14:42] You're nothing. And we glorify that. And listen, that is how you must come to Jesus. It is how you must come to Jesus. But you don't stay there. You come to him as a broken vessel. You allow him to break you. But, friend, I don't need you to stay broken. I need God to build you back up into something glorious so you can actually carry his glory and pour out his glory. I don't need you to stay a broken vessel, become a whole, and then you can be of use to other broken vessels. Do you understand? So we don't stay there. Watch what God did for Jesus. We continue in this verse.
[00:15:24] In verse nine, he was humbled to the point of death. Therefore, everybody say, therefore, God has highly exalted Jesus and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Those in heaven, those on earth, those under the earth, and every tongue that confesses Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So he didn't just stay low, the Father exalted him. The Father lifted Jesus up. Now here's what's crazy about this? You want to know where this gets crazy? I want you to flip over to Ephesians, chapter one. Ephesians, chapter one.
[00:16:13] Oh, I like this. And look at verse five. We'll read a couple verses here.
[00:16:21] Ephesians one and verse five says, having predestined us to adoption, everybody say adoption. That's what a lot of this series has been about. You're beholding a father who has adopted you. Jesus, in his death, burial and resurrection, has given you the right to become sons and daughters of the Most high God. You have been adopted. You have inheritance. You have rights. You are a child of God. I want you to say that to your neighbor. I am a child of God.
[00:16:55] You're a child of God. And so my watch thinks I'm working out. I need to relax a little bit.
[00:17:05] He's predestined us to adoption, as sons by Christ Jesus to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Jump down to verse eleven. He continues in this same thought. In him we have obtained an inheritance. There it is again, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Jump down again to verse 18, Ephesians 118.
[00:17:36] Oh, I like this, actually. Read 17. This is one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible.
[00:17:42] That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Now let me pause right there. Keep that verse on the screen. This is beholding and becoming. I'm going to show you this, that you may behold the glory of the Lord. Why? Wisdom and revelation. You know what that is in Christ? The veil being removed. Now you have wisdom and revelation to see God in his glory. Now watch this. Verse 18. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. What have we been talking about? What you behold is what you become. It's literally looking at God. And as you look at him, yOu're reflecting his glory. Now watch where this verse goes. The same place that I'm seeing this everywhere I read in the Bible. Now watch what it says, that you may know what is the hope of his calling. Pause right there. Do you remember what have I been talking about the last weeks? When you understand your sonship and your identity, the very first thing that God does is give you a vision for your calling, your purpose, your identity. This is who I've called you to be. What does the spirit of wisdom and revelation do? It opens your eyes so that you know the hope of his call on your life. Now watch it doesn't stop there. This gets better and better that you may know the hope of his calling. And what are the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints? How many times have we talked about the glory of the Lord? That's your inheritance.
[00:19:33] Your inheritance is the spirit of the living God on the. I'm an heir with an inheritance. Oh my goodness. Now watch this. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power? You've heard me say it. If you can get this idea, it is the key to the supernatural.
[00:20:00] If you understand who Jesus is, what our inheritance is, what he's called us to, what he's moving us to, what our rights are as sons and daughters of the most high God.
[00:20:12] We're going to see the power of God. We will see the power of God. It's the same pattern everywhere. Now flip over to the next chapter. Actually no, don't do that yet. Look at the last verse here. Verse 22 and 23.
[00:20:28] He put all things under his feet Jesus and gave him to be head over all things to the Church.
[00:20:38] Get in church if you're watching at home. Hallelujah. Which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Now go to the next chapter. You see the victory of Christ in this. He's seated above every principality, power, authority. Now watch this. Verse six. Oh my goodness. Ephesians chapter two.
[00:21:00] And he's raised us up.
[00:21:03] He's raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
[00:21:17] Do you understand?
[00:21:18] When Jesus was exalted and given a name that is above every name, things in heaven, things on earth, things under the earth, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. When that happened, when Jesus was exalted you were lifted up with him.
[00:21:46] You were lifted up with him.
[00:21:51] The first demon I ever cast out.
[00:21:55] This was awesome. I laid hands on this guy and his face turned green and different voices started coming out of him. It freaked me out. He slapped my hand away and I had no idea what to do in that moment. I wrote about this in my book dealing with darkness. I had no idea what to do. So I'm just pleading the blood. I didn't know how to pray. I was like six months old in the Lord at this time. And so I'm just praying how I knew to. And all of a sudden that verse in Philippians chapter two comes back to my mind. And I began to read that Jesus has been highly exalted and given a name that is above every other name. That at the name of Jesus, things in heaven, things on earth, things under the earth. That means it doesn't matter if it's angels or demons or other people. Every power is subject to the name of Jesus. I read that single verse, my friend, and then I commanded that spirit to loose this young man and let him go. And that was the breaking point. I watched the power of God hit that young man. He fell out under the power of God. That had never happened for anybody I'd pray for before that time. And this was crazy, you guys, I don't know if you go into weird stuff if you believe this kind of thing, but the moment that demon left, the entire room began to smell like sulfur.
[00:23:25] It was like this demon got thrown straight into the pit of hell. It was the wildest thing. I mean, we came out of that. There was choir practice going on in the very next room. And even the men, it was a men's choir practice. They were all talking about. Why does it smell like sulfur in there? You guys, this stuff is real.
[00:23:46] What happened even there? I came to an awareness.
[00:23:51] The exalted name of Jesus. It has power. It has authority. A dominion over every other name that can be named. And guess what?
[00:24:01] You're seated in Christ in heavenly places. If you have been born again, if you have been brought into his body, his position is your position.
[00:24:12] His authority is your authority. He gives you his name.
[00:24:22] That's wild.
[00:24:24] That's wild.
[00:24:27] You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
[00:24:31] You must have this mind that Jesus has. Consider the example of Jesus, the anointed one, and let his mindset be your motivation. I have the mind of Christ. What he has, I have. I am a child of God. His position is my position. His authority is my authority. My standard of glory is not what I've seen in my favorite preacher. My standard of glory is what he modeled before me. He is the express image of God. He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is full of glory and power. And I behold him as I behold him. I am being transformed. I am demonstrating and releasing his glory.
[00:25:20] I have the mind of Christ.
[00:25:23] I have the mind of Christ. I want you to say that out of your own mouth. I have the mind of Christ.
[00:25:29] Now, this will frame our prophetic ministry for the rest of our time together tonight, because I want you to consider, if you want to know, how do I even begin to prophesy. One of the greatest questions you could ask yourself is, what does Jesus think about this person?
[00:25:49] It's very simple. What is Jesus thinking about this person? I don't want you to freak this out. I had a dream last night. It was so powerful. I was getting words of knowledge, single words for people. And I remember in the dream there was a young man. I had ministered over a number of people in that setting, and God was healing people. It was wonderful. I woke up just. You ever have dreams that you feel the power of God or you feel the love of God? You wake up and you're actually, like, in the anointing, you know what I'm talking about? That was powerful.
[00:26:27] Lord, do that for every open heart in this place, even tonight. Do that for every open heart here tonight. So I woke up and I just began reflecting on this and the way the Lord was ministering. Pay attention to what I'm going to share, because this is how we're going to minister tonight. The Lord would give me a single word. I would come to a young man and say, the Lord is speaking. I would actually hear Romans nine. And the minute that I would tell them, here's the word, Romans nine. All of a sudden, the verse would open up in front of me and I would see what the Lord desired to do.
[00:27:04] I looked at a lady in the dream and the Lord spoke to me hand.
[00:27:10] And as soon as I spoke the word hand, I saw a vision of a desire of hers to be healed, being in another meeting where she was not healed. But as I prayed for her, she was healed.
[00:27:24] So as I was ministering in this way, I look, and there was a young man, had colored hair and very flamboyant, very clearly gay.
[00:27:38] And I am giving these other words. And then I come to this young man and I said, I want to give a word to you. And immediately I could tell he was fearful. He was sure I was going to rebuke him. He was sure I was going to come against him.
[00:27:55] But the Lord gave me the word, and I began to see the abuse he'd endured, how his father beat on him, how his mother verbally abused him. I saw all of these things, and I saw his heart to protect his younger siblings, his heart to defend his family's name. And the Lord's word that came into my heart for him was not sinner or hypocrite or immoral or abomination. The word that God gave me for him was loyal.
[00:28:31] You are a protector of your family. You are one who has cared for and covered your family. And God sees that. He broke down crying. It blew the door wide open to invite them to church. What does God speak? You understand? That's how God operates. That's how God. God does not speak to us about where we are. He speaks to us about where he's taking us.
[00:28:57] Do you know that? Like Gideon, you are a mighty man of valor. He's hiding. He's insecure. He is not the warrior that God is calling him. But he says, no. That's what you are, Peter. You are a rock. You are a foundation. He's wishy washy. Denying him in front of girls, like he is the opposite of that. But he spoke into him what he saw, not where he was.
[00:29:29] He spoke to that immoral woman. Forgiven.
[00:29:34] Worship her. Everybody else was saying, immoral prostitute.
[00:29:40] So this is where I challenge us. Even in the prophet, we pray this for those who show up to our prayer time 730 every Sunday morning, we lay our hands on our heart. Lord, give us your heart. Give us the mind of Christ. Give us that mind that saw the warrior in Gideon when he didn't see it. Who saw the mouthpiece of God in Moses when he said, no, I'm just a stutterer. Who saw the foundation stone that Peter would be when he was wishy washy?
[00:30:10] Who looks at a sinner and says, you're loyal.
[00:30:15] We're going to pray, and we're going to ask the Lord to give us a single word.
[00:30:22] The Bible says that prophecy. One Corinthians 14, three and four. Prophecy. Its purpose is to strengthen, to comfort, and to encourage. And so God's going to look down. He's going to see the treasure in lives, the call, the purpose, the destiny. I know some of us, you get scared of the prophetic, oh, what if they see the junk? What if they see friend? God will speak to us. I prayed for somebody today, and they said, you know, God is constantly correcting me. God's doing this, and he's doing it through the word. I said, praise God. He corrects those whom he loves. But this prophetic time. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. We're going to pray, and God's going to give words that'll strengthen comfort and encourage. Amen.
[00:31:11] Hallelujah.
[00:31:14] Is anybody else hot?
[00:31:17] I'm just getting fired up, I guess. I don't know. My wife says it's okay.
[00:31:22] Does your butt hurt? Why don't you stand up? Let me pray for you.
[00:31:26] No. Those chairs are hard. I understand.
[00:31:30] Hey. Our new sanctuary. We're going to have chairs with cushions. Praise God.
[00:31:37] Let's pray for a prophetic anointing. Let's pray for the mind of Christ. I want you to put your hand over your heart right now.
[00:31:44] And Jesus, I ask right now that you would give us your heart, Lord, that we would love the way that you love, that we would care the way that you care. God, you were so gracious with people that others were casting out and rebuking and didn't allow in. But you welcomed them. You loved them, you honored them, you celebrated them. You called out the treasure in them. And, Lord, I ask that we would love the very same way you love.
[00:32:17] Come on. Put your hand over on your mind. On your head right now. Lord, I pray you give us the mind of Christ, that we would have your mind that is both humble and yet you know your position. You have been highly exalted. You operate in authority. You have power, wisdom, revelation and dominion. And God, I ask that sonship, that identity you would release in every single mind across this place. We would not be limited by fear or doubt or unbelief. We would not be dominated by sin, by discouragement, any thought that is contrary to you, your will, your desire. I pray now that you would give us the mind of Christ. May we think like you think, believe like you believe, and have confidence and faith, just as you do give us the mind of Christ. Even in a moment when we minister one to another, speak to us your thoughts, even about others, what your delight and your treasure is in their lives. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.
