"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 12:2)

The wrong mentality is one of the biggest obstacles in the increase of the believers of this era!  Yes, the mentality, the way of thinking, the character. You see, what often  is not considered enough is the fact that, although the human spirit becomes instantaneously regenerated from the Lord in the new birth, the mind of the believer remains instead the same. The mind (in which the Bible includes, other than the mentality, also the character) does not undergo the same instantaneous metamorphosis that the human spirit experiments, because other is the strategy of God for it. The apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reveals it clearly:  “ ... but be transformed by  the renewal of your mind ".

Here is the key: transformation!   

And who is that is supposed to transform their own mind?

Still the apostle comes to our aid, revealing "... but be transformed... "  this command “be“ indeed leaves little space for alternatives. We are, naturally helped from the Lord,

to having to change our mentality and our character! This brings us to understand that if a believer does not commit to change ones own character and own mentality, risks to continue to walk in the  old way of thinking, in spite of that walk and that maturity that instead the Lord wishes for every believer.

But why is it, that the mentality and the character are so important?

You see, the way to think and the character can be a great aid to our re-born  spirit in Christ, but also an enormous obstacle. A bad character, in fact, would not allow the virtues that God has seeded in the heart to manifest in the life of the person.

In the same way, a bad or wrong way of thinking would prevent the believer to walk in that spirituality that the Lord had giving at the moment in which one had received Christ in ones own heart. The spirit of a re-born person, that spirit who covets the things of God, would in fact find itself hindered from the mentality and the character that, instead, have remained the same and that therefore they do not have the same desires of the regenerated spirit.

A believer who refuses to change his own character and his own mentality is in reality placing serious obstacles to the Spirit of the Lord who dwelling in him!

But let us  make an example. The mentality of the world says: "God is not really good otherwise there would not be wars and no  innocent children would die...", but a redeemed mentality says: "If the Nations would receive Jesus Christ and honored Him,  the war would be banned from them and there would be no children who die!".

Unfortunately, there are instead believers who continue to say: "But if God is good, then why does He allows all this evil!?”  You see, this thought does not consider the fact tha an evil devil exists that fulfills and provokes the evil and a good God that instead fulfills the good.  It deals with a worldly thought, in the sense that a believer who thinks it in this way is not doing no other than to think how a person would think that has  never met Jesus.

The apostle Paul says that they "are conformed to this world".

The same happens in times of illness when people do not get healed. The  person far from God - the "world", would say the apostle - often says: "If God wants to heal the sick, why then there are many sick people that don’t heal?" Certainly, the world does not consider that many sick people do not believe at all in the divine healing  and that many in fact do not consider the possibility to receive from God also a healing.

But it is sad that there are also the believers that make this consideration!

They  say: "If God wants to heal, Then why is it that some that pray then do not get healed?"  by  saying this, they, do not think that there are many  varying that they can take part in a divine healing, but above all they put what they see above all that the Bible confirms, that is,  it is the will of God that the sick heal. I know it well, although God wants to heal not  all the sick people heal,   but I know also that although God wants to save, not all are saved: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. “ (2^ Peter 3:9).

 Its therefore obvious that between the desire of God and that of what instead man allows God to do there is a beautiful difference! A renewed mind says: Yes, I know well that all do not get healed, but I also know that Jesus has brought all our diseases and therefore it is the will of God to heal  all the sick, even if that is not happening".

Its therefore clearly that a renewed mind is a strong conductor of the faith of God, because it does not only not hinder it, but quite stimulates it and it supports it. To the contrary, a mentality not renewed is a strong impediment to the personal faith of the believer, because  not only  hinders it, but denies the Word of God and brings the believer to living following that of what he sees in the natural and not according to what the Bible asserts.

But also the character, as we said before, is really important. You see, if a person with a mind of goodness has also a bad tempered character, it is truly difficult that the others notice and take advantage of this goodness. Only who knows  such person deeply would notice, but what to say of all those that they have something  to do with him only superficially?  Considering that they will be the majority, here is why this good person will not be able to bless his neighbor  like he would cause  of his bad-tempered character.

In other words, his bad-temper character would prevent his goodness to manifest itself.

This is exactly what happens to those believers that have never chosen to change their own character.

When some believers acts in a rough way, I often hear  others say that "he is like that".

Nevertheless this is not a license not to change. If a believer is rough and has a bad character, then he must change, don’t you think? The same Bible orders us to change: "Be transformed..."  admonishes the apostle! Why, I ask myself, these people do not obey?

Let’s not forget that the Father, beyond to being good, has also manifested a good character. Jesus, that has the manifestation of the Divine character, has always been kind, educated, magnanimous, in other words equipped of a good character, and surely has been this to have brought the multitudes to come close to Him. How nice it is when people  are attracted from the Christians!

"Be transformed", exhorts Paul’s teaching.

It is not a council, but it is an order. God wants us that we are transformed also in our mentality and our character.  "But Pastor Luca - I have been asked several times - if God wants us to be so re-newed then why then He has not instantaneously transformed our mind and our character also, as He has done with our spirit" You see, God has transformed our spirit for the simple fact that we could have never made it and neither could have contributed to its born again! Only He was in a position to wipe out the sin from our life and the only effective way to do it was to completely destroy the old spirit, the old nature of sin, for then being able to replace it with the new nature of justice, but if He did the same thing with our mind then He would transform  us into a robot, do you understand that?

Here is why God not only wants us to transform our way of thinking, but He wants us to do it with knowledge and our will. He does not want robots, but of people who have matured their own character and have decided to walk in line with the new life in them.  

What do you need to do to be transformed? You do it through the power of the Word of God, that Word received in the heart and meditated continuous in which, joined to the prayer, is powerful to change our life. But there is one thing that is not always observed by the believers. You see, all are convinced that you must re-new the old, but few are disposed to get rid of the old!

Here is how the apostle Paul put it: “But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.“ (Ephesians 4:20-24)

The context here is not the nature of sin (the believer does not disrobe of the sin a little at time, it is something that happens at once and for always), but it is the conduct: "...in regard  to the former conduct ". The strategy of God for us is therefore the following: (1) disrobe yourselves of the old conduct (2) and put on the new. Receiving only things that are new without get rid of the old, does not create mature believers, but of spiritually proud and awkward people! Here why, for an effective renewal of ones own mentality it is also necessary to decide to disrobe the old. 

therefore in thanking God for having transformed our spirit instantaneously, let us pray till He grants us the grace to disrobe our old mentality and our old character for then being able to put on a new mentality and a new character in line with our re-born spirit, giving life to a true and own spiritual team that brings the believer to maturity and to be truly used by God.

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