The Art of Thinking Powerfully

by Graham Cooke
Summer 2014

In Romans 12:1–2, Paul laid out the importance of leading with our spirit, not our soul:I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. — New King James Version

When our soul submits to our spirit, we think differently. In essence, we are transformed by this renewing of our mind.

Blessings can and do occur in the most difficult circumstances, but we need a renewed mind to see and accept these gifts. Otherwise, we end up only focused on the immediate discomfort that is present. A spiritual warrior stands still long enough to focus his attention on God and find out what He is doing in the situation.

Manifesting our spirit releases wisdom and enables us to see and respond to what God is doing. It gives us a clearer perspective of God's desire. When we resist God, a contraction occurs; we get smaller in the spirit. But when we submit to the spirit, an expansion happens. Our heart is enlarged as we submit to God's hand. Our faith increases. We grow so rapidly that we push the enemy's territory into itself. The space in which he works contracts. Suddenly, the enemy has no room to operate. "The prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me," Jesus said in John 14:30–31.

Likewise, the enemy has no hold on a spiritual warrior who is doing what his Father has commanded. When we submit to God's hand, we can see clearly into His heart for us. Life in Christ is not about primarily discovering what God is doing, but rather about exploring Who He is and specifically, Who He wants to be for us now!

He manifests His spirit to us. Literally, He reveals Himself to our heart, and we are touched by His desire for us. Like a flower opening up to the sun, we are unlocked by the beauty of His love for us. To renew our mind we must be engaged with the mind of Christ. We are renewed in the spirit of our thinking when God is the object of our mindset.

Living out of our soul is a lower order of engagement because we are the primary focus. Our preoccupation with what we lack actually drives us away from God's desire for us. We feel unworthy, dissatisfied, discouraged, and we become mentally and emotionally tired.

When we reckon ourselves dead to our old nature and alive to God (Romans 6:11), we become aware of all the possibilities that exist for us in the smile of God. Being aware of God's heart is refreshing, empowering, and cheerful. We feel His joy as a tangible expression of His goodness to us. He loves because He is love. His eternal joyfulness radiates peace and acceptance. We learn to live under His constant smile, and His affection makes us laugh on the journey of becoming more. We become what we behold about God and ourselves. This is true, of course, whether positive or negative. To be renewed in the spirit of our mind is to always engage with the positive. God has not asked us to deal with the negative aspects of our lives. He has already dealt with them in Christ. We are dead to sin. He has crucified us with Christ. Our old nature is dead and buried. It is no longer our concern. We are in Christ in order to learn to become Christlike. Our whole engagement of life is to be created in the image of God. It is the ultimate reinvention.

Every day our primary focus is on living under God's smile and engaging with the Christlife within. It is a process of discovery. We are exploring Jesus and Who He is for us. When the Holy Spirit points to a part of our life that is not working, He is not pointing out our sin. He is not exposing us; He is manifesting the Father. He is exposing the warmth, the beauty, and the radiance of Who God is for us. He is also pointing out the site of our next miracle of grace. He is indicating our next transformation.

Conversion of our thinking to God's thinking, is the crucial element in all transformations. The Father has dealt with sin once and for all in Christ. Now He is dealing with life in all its beauty, grace, and power.

We are learning the art of thinking powerfully. We are becoming engaged more fully with the mind of Christ. Jesus exposed Himself to the wonder and majesty of the Father. He lives in that place of radiant light. Whatever He heard, He spoke. Whatever He saw, He did. It was His sustenance — more important than meat or drink.

Before we can manifest our spirit in the circumstances of life, we must become fully exposed to God's light within and over our own minds and hearts. We are not asked to engage with a negative. We are requested to become fully absorbed with the life of Christ.

COLOSSIANS 3:1–4 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. COLOSSIANS 2:9–15 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. ROMANS 6:5–11 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:14–21 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.Our goal is to become the righteousness of God in Christ. We are focused on holiness, not sin. We are engrossed with the new nature of Christ, not the old nature that is dead. So, if a man has a problem with lust, he does not deal with it as a negative. He does not engage with it, receive counsel for it, learn to overcome it. He has lust because He is missing something about himself. He has not understood nor experienced his purity in Jesus. He has not fully engaged with righteousness.

He does not deal with lust, he engages with purity. He renounces the old behavior and submits to the power of the new nature with the amazing help of the Holy Spirit. We confess the old nature is dead. In prayer we are cut off from old behavior, and we begin to soak in the holiness of God. As we engage with a new mindset, our behavior becomes fully new; and we develop the joyful habit of purity. Our mindset becomes new. Actions follow thoughts. New mindset, new behavior — the essence of transformation.

All the time we are engaging with what we are not, our mind has no possibility for transformation. The art of powerful thinking lavishes itself on the personality and provision of Jesus. As He is, so are we. We become fully absorbed in the name and nature of Christ. We enjoy the journey. We are fully engrossed in Who He is for us. We are grateful when the Holy Spirit points to a part of our life that is not working. Hope rises within us. It's time for change, and all transformations start with a superb thought about God and Who He is for us. It's exciting, energizing, and compelling in its beauty. It is the loving restoration to a higher glory. It is important to be thrilled about change, to love the learning. Process is a happy event! We are putting on Christ and experiencing heaven on earth as part of the process. Joy is at the heart of all our God encounters. Love is the result of His smile upon us. We are free to change, free to think incredible thoughts about ourselves in the fullness of Who God is for us.

In the place of His deep affection, we cannot feel unworthy. We are accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:6) Being loved of God is therefore our starting point for transformation. There is no performance here, no earning of love or grace. It is the place where we stand and relax in His goodness.

We learn to be, before we start to do. It is vital that the Father washes over us. The right word will cleanse us. The wrong one makes us feel soiled. That's how we know when the Lord is speaking through someone. If there is no encounter with goodness, then it is not God; and we must continue listening. It is the goodness and the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.

Repentance is thinking again, having a better thought. It is a key part to transformation — renewing our thinking. All thinking must be rooted in God's goodness and kindness. Change is so much more enjoyable when we begin with the desired outcome and work back to our present condition. A pathway opens up in the loving–kindness of God. The future is never in doubt when we observe it through the lens of God's perspective in Christ. We think of it in the same way that He does. We run towards it as David ran towards Goliath. He did not see a giant; he saw the majesty of God and ran to meet it. He engaged with God, not Goliath. There was no possibility of defeat. Goliath would go the same way as the lion and the bear. The enemy is defenseless against the majesty of God. When we become vulnerable to the same glory, we are strengthened through the intimacy of our encounter. Our intimacy, in turn, intimidates the enemy.

When God is the object of our thinking, the power that flows from a renewed mindset increases our relationship with Him; and we are radically changed.

— This article is an excerpt from Graham's book — Manifesting Your Spirit.

Graham Cooke is an author, and founder of Brilliant Book House and Brilliant Perspectives.