A Vertical Mind

The vertical mind. What do you think when you hear a vertical mind? Is it something that you are into? Is it something you think you can achieve? Is it something you already have? Or is it something you want nothing to do with?

It's interesting because people relate biblically to the word free will. We understand it, but there are people in the neuroscience world that they do not like the word free will because it's too religious. It's too religious that we as human beings have free will. So they have another name for it, and it's the principle of alternative possibilities. True, I've been reading a book on rewiring the brain, and so I am into neuroscience quite a bit lately as I study more and more. Because I have a brain, I just need to rewire it more as I find out the older I get. God wants us to have a vertical mind. I can prove that if you'll go with me to Colossians 3. Colossians 3, verse 1, I'll be reading from New King James Version. It says, if you were raised with Christ, were you raised with Christ?

I'll go over to chapter 2 and read verse 12. Chapter 2, verse 12, right on my page says, buried with Him in baptism, in which you were raised with Him through faith in the working of God. So we are raised with Him. All right, let's go back. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above. Above. Where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. And then that famous scripture, which may be one of the hardest to do in the Bible, set your mind on the things above and not on the things of this. What earth? It's so easy to think of things on the earth because that's where we live. That's where our mind goes.

But He's telling the Colossians, who are Greeks, set your mind on the things above. Having the mind of Christ. Do we do that? Man, it's so easy to be lazy and not have to think positive thoughts, good thoughts, godly thoughts to want to be like Christ because if you're like me, you say, well, Christ wouldn't do that. And so I have to work my way to get my mind thinking vertically. So I set it up there, not about the things because, boy, there's a lot of good things to distract us down here. It's all over the place. You have one of these? You have one of these? Have all these things that can distract us?

There is a phrase we used in Tennessee. I don't know whether you used it or not because I mean, I've been here for almost 15 years now. I never use that much here, but I did back in Tennessee, and maybe because I was in construction for 30 years. And it was kind of instructions about the vertical mind. And the saying was, get your minds out of the gunner. You have heard that too? Yeah. All right, so this is nothing new. God has made us free moral agents. And He says, choose. I said before you life and death, choose life. He's given us a hint there. I think your life's going to go better, but we get to choose. Our minds can go up or they can stay right here. We can think those things which are good, whatever things are good, whatever things are positive, whatever things are lovely, as we see from Scripture. Dwell on these things. Do we? Uh, yeah. Come Friday we start thinking, huh, yeah. I need to get my mind right, Luke, as the old cool hand Luke story goes. And so all of us, we try to think that way. And God wants us to think vertical thoughts, to have the vertical mind. Good thoughts or bad thoughts who determines? Who determines right and wrong? Because we get to choose, but who determines what is right thing to do and what is the wrong thing to do?

Supreme Being. Supreme. It's simple. In this world today, there is one Supreme Being. And you get to choose. You are God. Think about it. Because if you don't want to obey what God has asked you to do, you don't want to love as Christ instructed us to love, to try to be more like Him, then we make the decision so we get to be God's. Right? We really do. Because He lets us choose. And that's what I'm speaking about today. We make decisions every day.

But you don't realize until I was studying this book on the brain, from the scientific part of it, and a lot of hours, years of study. How many decisions do you think you make a day?

The average American. Okay? Because they interviewed and went through thousands of people's lives. Decisions per day. 35,000 is what they said. So it's between 30 and 35,000 if you're not doing much. Because that's for the 16 hours you're awake if you do sleep eight hours. That gives you about 2,000 an hour. You say, well, how what decisions do I make? How do I make? I looked at that figure. I go, oh no. It can't be right. Uh-huh. Everything from the time your eyes first open to deciding whether this foot goes before this one out of bed, and then this one follows how many steps, the life.

Everything is involved. They're automatic to us because of this incredible brain that God gives us. That there's billions of neurons in there. Brain cells. Billions. That's how we can process. I find it interesting as they went into all this study because the more you are involved in the things of this world, internet, TV, movies, conversation, even travel today, is mind-boggling from a hundred years ago. I thought about that just yesterday when, because I'm a history buff. I love it. Stephen Ambrose, the famous writer, if you've read any of his, he wrote about history and some war, and he talked about World War II.

As we're now celebrating Memorial Day come Monday, I was interested in that fact. Stephen Ambrose says we can't even imagine what it was like to be the paratroopers in 1944 in Normandy. And he looked and his percentage was somewhere around 75 to 80 percent of all those young soldiers that jumped that day, had never before they were drafted, before they went to, had never, ever been on an airplane.

And many of them, it was their first or second jump, because they were jumping from towers rather than airplanes. You remember your first trip on an airplane? I had the window up, like, wow! Can you imagine going, okay, you like that? Now get out! But this is what they had to do. Imagine that mind that it took. They had to believe what they were doing was right, and they were so sold on it. I thought about that because of that mindset that they must have had. They had to know what was right, the right thing to do, because everything in their nature would say, no, 20,000 feet, no.

I'm going to jump out in this little place, and I've never even jumped, but they told you how long to count before you pulled the, and then you landed on the ground, you got up with your weapon, and you went, and you fought.

And many of them were dropped behind the German line in France at the time. Well, I want to talk about this mind that we have, because how you study it, it's an incredible mind. And we have been blessed with that mind, and God created that mind. He was behind that mind. So let's go with me to 2 Corinthians, if you will. 2 Corinthians, verse chapter 10, and verse 4 and 5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God.

Wow! Means we're what? He's giving us stuff. He's giving us stuff up here. He's giving us brain power, if we want to have the vertical mind. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. And I would dare say every one of us has some strongholds that need to be torn down, that we actually need God's help. We need the Holy Spirit to tear down those strongholds that want to get ahold of us. Maybe I'm just so carnal compared to you guys you don't even think about it. Because I battle it. I battle it, and I say, who's going to win?

Good or evil in my mind. And the more you think about it, the more on guard you are, the more vertical your thinking becomes. So let's read on down here. Casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

Well, John was talking about earlier, there's so much now that they make fun of the knowledge of God. Oh, you poor pitiful people. You don't know. We're so elevated. We're so intelligent that we don't have to have a higher power. We don't have to have a greater power over it. No supreme being. I can make these decisions, you weak-minded people. Bringing, as I love this one, and it may be the hardest, you know, set your mind on the things above rather than things on the earth. That's hard. This one, this may be even a step harder. Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Every thought, every decision, all 30 to 35,000 of them, to the obedience of Christ. That means He's constantly in our mind. You know, what I find amazing is the neuroscientists show that there are 30 to 35,000 decisions or thoughts we have every day. Amazing that God gave us 31,000 scriptures to dwell on, to set our mind on. That's a scripture for every thought.

Every thought into captivity. The Greek word for captivity is Aic melosia. Aic melosia for you Greek scholars. Aic melosia. I won't make everybody say it with me because it's actually two words, Aic, Aic, and melosia. Aic means spear. It actually means a spear. Melosia to be taken captive. It was a military term because at that time the spear is what they used to take you captive. It's how they kept you in line. It's how they took you to imprison you. It took you into captivity. So this is the word that they used there. I found it interesting. Aic melosia. Because that's what we're supposed to do to those thoughts. All 35,000. But you see, of the 35,000, most are automatic to us. Except sometimes the switch to go to automatic takes us where we probably don't need to go. That's why every thought, because one can take you out here and you'll go out here. You ever see that on your phone where you're actually looking up something really good and then something pops up and then next thing you know 30 minutes later you're not even anywhere near what you were looking at. Ah! Gotcha! Gotcha! Yes! Bring every thought into captivity. And it happens. They know. They know how to do that. Over 40 years ago, I was in a seminar conducted by a man. His name was Captain Gerald Coffey. Captain Gerald Coffey. And he was shot down over Vietnam. He'd flown many flights. And he was telling us that day he was taken captive, B.O.W. And he was held for seven years in a six foot by six foot by six foot tall bamboo hut. It was a cell. He had just enough room at night to crawl together because he couldn't. His head almost hit the top and he could reach almost. That's where he spent. Seven years. And except for his beatings that he would get, which he said he actually looked forward to getting because he could get out of the cell. He got one time a year to walk out.

That's captivity. And he talked about how you push the dirt over so the rats wouldn't get in and eat your fish head, fish heads and rice every meal, one meal a day, fish heads and rice for seven years. Except there were some occasional vegetables thrown in that they had already eaten on and thrown away. Imagine that for seven years. Makes me think he couldn't escape. He said if there was any way, shape or form, he would have escaped. He would have gotten out. But the bamboo prison cell was so tight there was no escape. This is what God wants us to do. Bring every thought into captivity so we control it and it doesn't control us. You work around people who curse and you never curse but get yourself because it begins to rub off. And what you thought you would never do? Sometimes we do. Go with me to Philadelphia. One of my favorite chapters in the Bible. I think it was written to me.

I think it was written to me.

And Diane, I heard you laugh. I think it's written to you too. Let's read. I'll read from the New King James Version. It said, therefore, if there is any consolation or encouragement, as my margin says, in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the what? Spirit. Spirit. If any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love being of one accord of one mind. He wants us to have that mind of Christ, being of that one mind. He knows that if we have that one mind we're going to want to be good people. We're going to want to make good decisions that he has laid out this way of life. If you'll do it this way, you'll have less problems, and you'll have more joy. I said before, you blessings and cursings, if you remember that scripture. Are those scriptures? Yes. He wants us to have that. Be of one mind. Verse 3, Nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than himself. Boy, it's getting harder and harder. You're going to esteem this scumbag that tried to run me off the road the other day, and I have to esteem him as better than myself. That's this mind. I need the vertical mind. I need to go. God, Christ, one of your sons tried to drive me off the road.

God, help him. Maybe he's on drugs. Maybe he's got a heart problem, and he's having to get to the hospital. See, I gotta bring. I gotta bring this mind into captivity. I have to take this mind vertically because I don't know what he's going through. I just know one thing. He sure ticked me off. But it helped me to see I can't be like everyone else. I have to be like Christ, who said, forgive them, Father. They don't know what they are doing. Hanging off a piece of wood after being beaten half to death or three-quarters to death. I gotta work on that. But that lowliness of mind is the same Greek word as humble. Humble. Verse 4, "...let each of you look out, not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others." The vertical mind. And then he says the ultimate. There's a lot of things I've said. This is the hardest. Verse 5, "...let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Let this mind be in you. That is the vertical mind. That's what he wants us to do. So, I can't... that's a little bit hard for this country boy who now lives in a city. Verse 6, "...who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." This is bringing back to the time before he came to earth. He was with God, and he didn't consider robbery. They were equal. That's what this is saying, because he's telling us what happened before, and he's telling us what he comes down to earth and tells us everything right here in these few verses. "...who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." But then, he wanted to say, "...made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant." Anybody know what a bond servant is? You know what another word for bond serving is? Slave. He became a slave to this world. You imagine you never felt pain before. You never had to worry about traveling. You never had to worry about anything. You just, okay, I want to go around the world, and there I am. Not limited by time, space, energy. Not limited by anything, and then you come down and you've got to take the form of this of a slave.

He never had to go to the bathroom. Right? Now he's got to learn all that. Ooh! You know, if I'm doing the thing, I'm going to go, well, yeah, but I'm going to make it so I don't have to. You know, I don't have to worry about it. No! He became so human.

"...made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant, coming in the likeness of man." See, the first talked about where he was, and now it says, coming in the likeness of man. So he went from this high up. He went very... he went down. And he knows what it's like to be down here, and he says, no, it's better up there. And I want you to go up here. Well, how are we going to do that? Because that may be a little too hard for us to do. "...and being found in appearance of a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at that name of Jesus every knee shall bow." Should bow. "...of those in heaven..." Well, no man has ascended into heaven, but so who is he talking about? The angels! Absolutely! "...and those on earth..." Look around. "...and those even under the earth." They're dead. They're in the ground. "...and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God our Father." Amazing! So how do we get this vertical mind? How do we bring every thought into captivity? How do we set our mind on the things above rather than things of the earth? There was only one way God found to give you part of himself. It's called the Holy Spirit. Oh, we do. We don't understand it. And anybody tells you they understand it? Run. They don't. It's so high above. It's so great above us. It's the actual power and energy in which God created the entire universe. And he said, I'm going to give you. Because Christ said, you remember what Christ said? Unless I go, I can't send it to you. Unless I die. And he knew from living this earth and going to the bathroom a time or two a day and every other degradation he would have felt being sped up on, being looked at, being called a bastard, being all this stuff that he heard down here, he said they need it. They need part of what we are. The very essence of God, the very power of God. He said, I want to give it to them. Genesis 1 verse 26 says, let us make man in our image. It was only the beginning. It was only the beginning. Because he was going to give the Spirit so they eventually, he didn't give a piece of Spirit, so eventually you would become all Spirit just like Jesus Christ. And your mind would be nothing but vertical. But you, the beautiful thing about this, he lets us test drive. He lets us test drive the Holy Spirit. It's greater possession he could ever give us. It not only equals eternal life if we fulfill that, but he lets us test drive it. But see, it's like his car. He lets us test drive his car. And we may go, hmm, this is pretty nice. But he can look and go, no, you're not driving it right. So he has a right to take it back. Because you don't treat it right. You don't respect it. You don't love it. You don't appreciate it. I think I'll take it back. Because you don't deserve it. Because it's a free gift. Nothing you did. It'll never make you deserve it. That's an amazing mind. And he wants us to be like Christ, so he knew. If he says, let this mind be in you, or... What is this? He couldn't. He knew we cannot do it unless we have the Holy Spirit. And that's why he gave it. So with it, we can do it. Oh, we're gonna have our own thoughts. And we're gonna be like, why did I do that, God? And he's gonna go, I don't know. I don't know why you did that. You know better. Let's not try to do that again.

In Genesis 1, verses 1 and 2, it says, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the earth. Was that like Superman? You know, it's man, it's all, and he's hovering. No, it's the actual energy and power of God. The essence of it that he used to create the entire word, the entire universe. It's so powerful, all he had to do was speak it. Speak it. He just had to speak it, and it happened. Read the book. Read the book. But what we have here, and that's the sad part about this promise and everything he gave to us through the Holy Spirit, is people don't understand it. They want to call it a, oh, a being with three persons.

Okay, well it's one being, but it's three persons. I can't find that in the Scripture. Which, anyone that wants to believe in the Trinity, and I know I've done sermons on Trinity, and I get emails, or I get phone calls, or whatever, you just don't understand. Oh, really, enlighten me. Well, it's a mystery that no one really knows. Well, that really enlightened me. So, one of the things that I ask, so the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is a person. Yes. Let's go. Let's go. Matthew 1, verse 18. I actually took one person on this journey that joined me on the phone. Let me get back to Matthew.

Well, where are you? Matthew 1, verse 18. After the birth of Jesus was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband being a just man, not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take your Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Did you get that? If you believe it's a person, the Holy Spirit raped Mary.

He raped her. She got pregnant by this person. Well, wait a minute. But the three pieces, three, one being, and there are three different people, but they're all one. So Jesus raped his own mother. Are you hearing this? I'm just telling you what it says. And if you believe that stuff, no. Isn't that asinine? And yet there are people who believe it, and they will swear on their graves as a Trinity. In fact, there was a building to be rented here that I met with. The guy, and he really liked me, liked everything. But when he went to the board, they don't believe in the Trinity. We can't rent the church to them. Hmm. Okay. I can't change my belief, and it's not my job to change theirs, is it? Let's go on. The Holy Spirit is the power. It is the energy of God, and He's given it to you. He's given it to me. Do we use it? Not like we should. That, yeah, sometimes it needs to be stirred up. Stir up the Spirit. We have to. We also get down, because we're humans in God and Jesus Christ, because He's our advocate. He's sitting there going, yeah, He knows. We need to be stirred up sometimes, because we get down, because we don't have a mind that's as vertical as it needs to be. And He, but He's not blind. He says, I understand that. That's what I can do intercession for them. Go with me to Acts 1. Acts 1. Acts 1 and verse 8. Oh, this is so powerful. And this is the last words of Christ before He took off and went vertical on everybody. His mind was already vertical. Now He's going vertical. So, Acts 1 and verse 8. But you shall receive power. That's the whole power. We have to realize it is the power of God. It's the very essence of Him, and it's unlimited. Because it's His. He controls it. He also controls us, and He wants us to learn how to control that power. How to drive that Ferrari at 70 miles an hour and not 170. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, into Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. That's us. With the Holy Spirit, we can have that vertical mind. The mind like no one else can even dream about. Follow me over to Acts 5 as I begin to wrap this up. Acts 5, verse 32. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. He's just not turning. I had a minister in church of God one time tell me, well, you know, God doesn't really give the Holy Spirit out. We were sitting there having lunch. And he goes, it's more like a radio signal, how you could just tune into it. Anybody wants to tune into it, can tune into it. Yeah. And he had a theology degree.

Amazing. Amazing. And he was from your area, dying using smart. So it's your fault.

This is what he's trying to do for us.

Now, some people have this problem, and I'll go through this fast. I can do this, of why they call the Holy Spirit He. Well, you know, there's over 7,100 languages in the world today, and only 38% of those languages put gender on nouns. We're one of those. The Greeks are one of those. Italians one of those. French one of the... Yeah, Spanish, but only 38% do, because they want to break it down and explain it. And there's a few that actually use neuter, and it's in the right place. It's neither one. But in here, He, or they're putting He, because it's a masculine pronoun, is what they're calling it. So that's why it is, and I even changed mine to what are it. But I want you to think about it. God gives it to keep our minds vertical, and He calls it...

I have five things, and I want you to give me my five things. In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is called what? By name. Wait a minute. Comforter? That's one. Okay, you... I don't... let me get my... that's one. Okay, counselor, helper. Come on now.

What? Well, that's an attribute, but no, this is what it actually calls this helper. Right? Comforter? Teacher? Remember? I'll give it, and it will teach you all things. Counselor? Advocate? It's actually called our advocate. Finally, intercessor. They all come from one word. If you heard my sermon this morning, you will understand. If you don't, you know, you're just lost. No. The word is paracletus. That's the Greek word for the Holy Spirit, paracletus. And so anywhere you go, like John 14, when Jesus Christ said last night, he said, I will send the helper. The word is paracletus, and that's what it means. It's all these things, and it's there to help us. And you know what paracletus means if you watch this morning? The actual word means one called alongside to help. One called alongside to help. And I actually threw it out as a sidekick this morning if you were watching. Yeah, like Long Ranger and Tonto, or Batman and Robin. Because it's there to assist. It's not there to run your life. That's not the Holy Spirit's purpose. His purpose is to help you have the vertical mind. It's not going to make you, okay, I've had too much a drink. I'm going to get in the car. I can't. The Holy Spirit's not letting me put the key in. No, that's not. It's the helper. It's to help you have the mind of Christ. It's what it's all about. So I've run out of time. But let me go to one. I gotta go to one scripture. Romans 8 verse 26. Sorry, Dave. I didn't get to all the scriptures, I guess. I didn't speak fast enough. Had my southern voice. I said to my northern voice. Romans 8 verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses. There's that helper. And I'd say most of you can thoroughly say amen because you've had it. Where, boy, you didn't know what you were going to do. You had to come to the decision and you made the right one and you go, wow, that's not of me. Thank you, God. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weakness for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. And many of us bow down going, man, I'm not in any shape to pray. God, I don't want to do this. I've disappointed you all day what I'm going to do. And you hit your knees and then all of a sudden it comes. And you think of all these things. And there's things you didn't even know you needed to pray for that entered your mind. Those people who are sick, those people who you had forgotten about. That's what it is. But the Spirit himself or itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

The Spirit is part of God. It's very essence of God and he's allowed you to have it. But if you're not going to use it, he's going to take it. It's going to. And how do we know that? Because in 1st Thessalonians 5 and verse 19, just one little scripture there that tells us everything we need to know as this incredible church in Thessalonica. And he gives them these, I think there's 19 points at the end that he just covers in all these scriptures. And he says, don't quench the Spirit. Don't quench the Spirit. And I think most of you know what that means. So, brethren, think vertically. Ask God that at this weekend we will celebrate the Holy Spirit, the giving of the Holy Spirit to us puny humans who don't deserve it. But Christ said, yes, you do. I'm going to make you. I'm going to make this thing possible. I'm going to make you be able to think vertically. So keep looking up because what did Jesus' half-brother say? All good things come from above.