The Parable of the Rowboat
Edgar was a retired college philosophy professor who lived by himself on a small island.
He enjoyed the peace and solitude of being off grid. In order to get provisions and fuel for his generator, he would go down to his dock, climb aboard his small, well used rowboat (Edgar did not like motorboats) and brace himself against the wind coming off the ocean from the port side (left). After struggling for an hour or so with the oars to stay on course, he would finally arrive exhausted at a small town on the mainland. As he rested, he remembered someone telling him that rowing was good exercise, and he grunted to himself and cursed.
After a short shopping trip in town, he loaded his provisions in his sturdy little craft, which he had thoughtfully named “The Mind of Man”, he began rowing back to his island. Now, on his return trip, the wind came from the starboard side (right) and he constantly adjusted his course against the relentless breeze until he made it safely to his dock.
As he unloaded the heavy gas cans for his generator, Edgar found himself cursing the unyielding and bothersome wind.
Several days later, as he was walking to his dock to make the arduous journey again, he noticed a quickly approaching boat with what looked like a large white triangle protruding upward from the deck, pointing proudly up into the sky. He was dumbfounded and wondered to himself how someone could row so fast. It was slicing gracefully through the waves. “It must be a motorboat” he thought, but there was no noise. As the beautiful bright blue and white boat slipped by, he noticed, to his surprise, that the one man on board was not rowing at all, but waving and smiling.
Edgar did manage to read the name of the sleek craft before it disappeared into the distance. He said the name out loud to himself, “…Renewed…” and ever so briefly wondered what that meant.
………………………….
Q: Any thoughts about Edgar? What do you see in this story?
I believe the wind of the Holy Spirit blows over the believer and the unbeliever alike.
(Joel 2:28 / Acts 2:17 “…in the last days, God declares, that I will pour out (Gr: lit. “some of..”) my Spirit on all flesh (Gr: “the whole of mankind”) …”
Scripture is clear that the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon the whole of mankind. What has also become evident is that most of mankind does not know the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Q: Has the Holy Spirit already been poured out upon the earth?
Romans 12:2 (a suggestion or a command?)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The renewed mind is like a sailboat that allows us to cooperate with the wind of the Holy Spirit. Many in the church know the wind of the Spirit is blowing, but like Edgar, find themselves unable, unwilling, or ill-equipped to fully cooperate with Holy Spirit.
The Spirit Breathes
In John 3, Yeshua is trying to introduce to Nicodemus the concept of being born again and the spiritual reality of the Kingdom of God – and the more he clarifies it, the more Nicodemus is confused. I don’t blame Nicodemus, for without the Holy Spirit, the Word of God is undeniably bewildering.
John 3:8
The wind (spirit) blows (breathes) where it wishes (wills, desires, delights), and you hear (listen to) its sound (his voice) , but you do not know where it (he) comes from or where it (he) goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (wind).”
“The wind blows ...and you hear its sound” / “The Spirit breathes ...and you hear his voice,”
These are both legitimate English translations of the Greek texts. They are both right, but one is more right. What is the context of the larger passage trying to communicate? Context is key.
Yeshua is talking about the spirit realm, the Kingdom of God. So the discussion about the wind is a metaphor to make a point about the Spirit of God.
Q: Does wind have a desire, a will, the ability to choose? Does the Spirit….?
Notice: “…where it wishes…” This could be translated, “…where he desires…”, or “…where he delights…”
John 3:8 (YLT 1887 old English)
the Spirit where HE willeth doth blow, and his voice thou dost hear, but thou hast not known whence he cometh, and whither he goeth; thus is everyone who hath been born of the Spirit.’
My personal paraphrase of John 3:8 — “The Spirit breathes where it delights him, and you listen to his voice, but you do not know where he comes from or where he goes. This is the privilege of those born of the Spirit.”
Q: What does the Holy Spirit desire?
Scripture speaks often of what the Holy Spirit does, but there is precious little recorded about what the Holy Spirit himself desires. What delights him? This is simply because he desires what the Father and the Son desire.
He honors the Son. He honors the Father. When we honor what comes from the father the Holy Spirit is immediately in our midst.
John 16:14
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The Holy Spirit without hesitation honors that which comes from the Father. This is why he is drawn to the expression of faith, because faith comes only from the Father. Faith is either a gift from the father, or a fruit of abiding in presence of the Holy Spirit.
We will talk more about that later.
I want my heart to be a place where the Holy Spirit delights to be.
My prayer is that this church will be a place where the Holy Spirit delights to declare the treasures of the Kingdom.
The Holy Spirit does not indwell us because it’s his “job”. He didn’t draw the short straw and get relegated to spending his time with humankind upon the earth. He dwells in mankind because he delights in the Father’s creation. He delights in revealing the Father.
Change the way you think
The Holy Spirit takes what is Yeshua’s and declares it to us. He spends endless hours throughout our lives revealing to us how the Father thinks, but we’re ultimately responsible and accountable for how we think and what we think about.
He speaks to our spirit, but perhaps we don’t hear him, because we have exalted the soul (mind, will, emotions) over the spirit.
The mind is the battleground, because it is also the territory that the Holy Spirit wants to retake from the enemy.
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Q: What is repentance?
To Repent: (Gr: metanoéō) = “to think differently”
(Heb: shûwb, “shoob”) = “to turn back to God, repent”.
Each of these definitions is appropriate for its intended audience.
To the Hebrew, it means, “turn back to the God of your fathers.”
To the Greek and gentiles, it means, “the way you learned to think needs to be changed.”
Repentance essentially means to first change the way you think. When we change the way we think, we will automatically change how we act. Only then does repentance actually result in changing your behavior.
Repentance is so much more than feeling bad about your sin; it’s changing the way you think about sin.
So Yeshua is basically saying, “Change the way you’re thinking and acting because I have brought the reality of my Father’s Kingdom with me – and if you don’t change the way you perceive, you could coexist with the superior reality of the kingdom of God your entire life and never actually see it.”
Training your mind to cooperate with the Holy Spirit
Romans 12:2 (a suggestion or a command?)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Vines:
“Renewing of your mind is the adjustment of the moral and spiritual vision and thinking to the mind of God, which is designed to have a transforming effect upon the life, the passage stresses the willing response on the part of the believer.”
** Next to salvation and being filled with the Holy Spirit, this is the most important process that we, as Christians, need to take part in.
Being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Q: Does God renew my mind – or – Do I renew my mind?
A: Yes. (good Jewish answer)
The process is the result of a partnership, a relationship between the Holy Spirit and me.
We are responsible to change what we think about and THEN the Holy Spirit transforms us.
We respond to the voice of the Holy Spirit and then he brings about a transformation.
“Conforming to this world”, and “Being transformed by the renewal of your mind” – are each processes that work in exactly the same way, but in opposite directions. You’re either doing one or the other, but not both.
That which you give attention to you empower.
If you don’t intentionally choose the Kingdom of God, then by default you’ve chosen to conform to this world. Many believers struggle with a tug-of-war within the mind because they have not actually taken sides.
They long to walk and speak in spiritual authority, but they don’t want to “get the Devil angry”.
OR… They would like to be a good Christian but they also enjoy the pleasures of sin.
OR… They like to worship God, but they’re anxious and fearful concerning areas of their life. OR… They agree God do anything, like heal the sick, but don’t really believe he will do it for them.
These are all evidence of double mindedness.
James 1:6-8
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded (“of two souls” ) and unstable (unsettled, inconsistent) in all they do.
Double mindedness is literally being “of two souls”. Unstable indicates indecisive, uncommitted, “on the fence”.
Q: Why does it say, “That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”?
Lack of faith and subject to fear of man. (We will discuss more about faith and fear later.)
We are responsible to change what we think about. And we are accountable if we don’t.
To clarify – You are saved by the renewing of your spirit at the moment of salvation, but you’re transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Redemption is both instantaneous and a continuing process.
Your human spirit came into harmony with God instantly – at the moment of salvation – by the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit. This is the moment you become born again, born from above, by God’s grace alone.
Yes, we become completely holy – in our eternal human spirit – when, by faith, we are washed in the blood of Yeshua. That is a completed work. It is finished.
Individually, we each have an important part to play in the continued ‘working out’ of that transformation.
Like we mentioned in lesson 7 – Philippians 2:12 says we “…work out our own salvation…” and
1 Peter 2:2 says that we”…grow up into salvation…”
This doesn’t mean you initiate your own salvation, but rather, you demonstrate that you are saved by your actions and behavior.
In Renewing the Mind, we find there is more! More than we could ever imagine!
We discover our completed identity, our gifting, our calling, how to walk in the authority and power and victory of the Holy Ghost, and how to know the Father’s will for us …. And so much more!
Salvation is just the first step of the grandest adventure.
The Human Mind
The human mind is capable of both wonderful and terrible things, and many believers have somehow concluded that the mind must be beyond redemption, and looking at the world today, we might agree.
BUT, that’s not the Father’s plan. The soul (mind, will, emotions) is the necessary bridge for your physical body to interact effectively with the spirit realm. Your soul is your unique personality. This is why he desires to renew the mind.
The darkness and chaos of the soul of man is exactly where the Holy Spirit “sets up shop” and gets his hands dirty, in order to cleanse and redeem our hearts.
He lives in your spirit, but his workshop is your soul.
As a born again believer, your spirit is already in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. This is why it’s imperative to complete the process and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is all worked out over time in our ongoing relationship with Yeshua.
The Mind is the Battleground
Q: why are we told that the mind is the battleground?
Remember, God does not think like we do, so we need to change the way we think.
The renewed mind recognizes and cooperates with the Spirit of God, like a sailboat allows us to interact with the wind.
We can’t say the renewed mind fully understands the thoughts of God – but it knows not to resist them – because it understands the character and nature of the Father. The renewed mind is at home in the presence of God, and expects God to speak.
