What is the anointing of God? Is it an emotional experience? No, the anointing of God—the power that breaks the yoke of bondages, tears down the kingdom of Satan, heals the sick and delivers the sinful—is the Presence of God, something of vital importance to the mind as well as the soul. A vast gulf exists between the mind with the Presence of God and the mind without the Presence. The mind is a fragile instrument, more complex than an elaborate computer—superior because the mind can be used by God, by His divine Presence; but the mind, in order to function the way God intended, must be operated by the Holy Spirit.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God (II Corinthians 10:3-5). Casting down imaginations—keep that in mind. You never will be what God intends unless you use His Presence daily to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against His knowledge. Any thought, any opinion, any distracting influence that goes against the knowledge of God can be cast out when the Presence of God is controlling your mind so that the knowledge of God can act for you daily. The knowledge and wisdom of God have not operated daily for many because they have let imaginations, among other things, interfere.

And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). Capture every thought with obedience to Christ; in other words, every thought that would cause you to doubt God in any way, to fail or to detour just a little must be brought under captivity, must be shot down before it finds root. Thoughts have been allowed to linger in the mind that have robbed you of some or all the promises of God before these promises could enter your heart. This caused the mind to become a battlefield. Our minds will become battlefields with the enemy getting the best of it if we are not careful.

The Mind Is Vulnerable

The soul and mind are very different. When the soul is blood washed, cleansed by the blood of Jesus, it has the seal of the Holy Spirit upon it; and the devil cannot break that seal. Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13). [God] who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts (II Corinthians 1:22). Nothing but willful sin can break the protection of precious blood upon the soul of a born-again Christian. The mind, however, doesn’t have that seal of the Holy Spirit; it is not sealed against the enemy getting in. He will come, shooting all kinds of ugly thoughts right into your mind. What can you do about it? Put on the whole armor of God; use the shield of faith to stop those fiery darts that have been coming your way. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:12-18).

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee: because he trusteth in thee (Isaiah 26:3). How can your mind have perfect peace? By keeping it stayed on the Lord. How do you keep it stayed on the Lord? Through perfect trust in the Lord. Lose sight of the flesh; trust in the Lord one hundred percent. Some of you have just a little peace, perhaps ten percent of the time; and that ninety percent of unrest is destroying you. It destroys your health, your constructive actions, your work for the Lord. God promised to keep you in perfect peace, but the condition for this is keeping your mind stayed on Him in trust. Without peace of mind you will not be able to do the good work of the Lord.

Minds with God’s Anointing

In the beginning when God made man and woman, their minds were kept in perfect peace because their whole trust was in the Lord. They did not think to trust anyone else; they knew no one else who cared for them. God was their only source of supply, their Maker and Companion. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:28,31).

Adam and Eve had perfect love—God’s perfect love—and perfect faith—God’s faith. They had God’s perfect knowledge and wisdom. Their minds were sober and without fear; fear had never come their way; worry was completely foreign to them. In perfect harmony as they walked with God, their minds were set in total obedience. No rebellion, no stubbornness came between them and their God; Adam and Eve knew only humility before the Lord. They adored God with minds as well as hearts that worshiped Him totally. Each hour of the day their minds thought of Him. The minds God had given them responded to His voice, to everything about God. Theirs was the perfect marriage. Not having minds of confusion, they did not fuss or argue; they understood each other with an understanding that could have come only from God. He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding (Daniel 2:21).

People can live together today in that kind of harmony when their lives are placed under the guidance of the Lord. God is seeking to bring minds into the state of perfection that once existed in Eden. Perhaps you have not known such trust, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It is available to you; it comes from the same source that blessed Adam and Eve so abundantly in the beginning. Some of you have known nothing in your life but strife, fear and insecurity, and have never learned how to live the life that God intended for you. It will take the power of God to break those patterns and the love of God to repair the damage. Jesus said in Luke 4:18, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.

Minds of Confusion

With a confused mind some of you said your wedding vows, not realizing that the Lord was there to be an overcoming force in your life if you would just turn to Him in perfect faith and trust. Marriages are meant to be a joining together by God. For this cause [marriage] shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder (Matthew 19:5,6). God must be the center of the marriage, with couples striving to love each other the way God wants them to be loved. Marriages are something to be prepared for; much work goes into them. Minds in a state of confusion are in no condition to select the mate God wants those people to have. A confused mind will not take the responsibility of truly caring for another; it is more concerned with being cared for. The Bible does not teach us to be burdensome but to Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). Marriage should not be entered into out of need, something to make up for one’s own weaknesses and lacks. Marriage is two people coming together as one; Amos 3:3 asks, Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Can you agree with someone who is walking hand in hand with the devil and trampling the blood of Jesus underfoot? Since people tend to marry those they date, I encourage all children of God not to date sinners. Unless a couple agree, they cannot live together and be happy. When agreement is not reached in a marriage it’s time to let the Lord take over and change you both. He creates and can re-create.

In this last and final hour just before the catching-away hour, we must live in the Presence of Almighty God so that we can think in accordance with His Word. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). Until you begin to think the way God intends, you will not act the way God wants you to. Some of you are trying to “act right” before you “think right,” and it won’t work that way. People tend to act out the things they think. Something comes to your mind: you dwell upon it and then put it into action. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7). The enemy knows this and he reaches out for you through your mind the way a fisherman tries to snare a fish with a worm. The devil casts first one thought and then another in an attempt to catch you. All kinds of thoughts he brings to the human mind to cause division and strife. This is why we are told to cast down every thought that would exalt itself against God; but the Bible also says to go further, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Clean Out the Attic and Keep It Clean

Unless thoughts are in obedience to Christ, a person will battle things of the world that separate man from his God—innocent-seeming things which at best distract one from the Presence of God or at worst harbor hideous thoughts of crime and passion. People come to God with their problems, and if they leave them in God’s hands those problems can be taken care of. However, all too often the mind is filled with small thoughts, thoughts of house cleaning, washing dishes, working on the job, cutting grass, until there is no room in the mind for the Lord to break through and work on the important things. It’s time to clean out the attic, time to be rid of the clutter. Don’t be satisfied with just knocking down the spider webs; kill the spider; root out mental confusion.

In your mind you conceive a picture of owning a home; and so you put yourself under obligation, signing papers that bind you for many years. Why? Because of your mental picture. Your mind can conceive marvelous thoughts about God if you will just let God use your mind; let God put things there. He wants to put much into your mind to elevate you into His greatness; He wants to instill into you the truth that sets free. Any time you throw up your guard against the truth or refuse to accept it, then the truth can’t get through to your mind. Now you are rendered helpless against the enemy, and he is able to drag you off into dungeons of despair and darkness. Instead of being freed by the truth, you’ll be imprisoned in darkness, tormented in your mind. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32). Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6).

If there is someone you dislike, someone who has been dishonest and unfair to you, it’s time to reach out to God for enough love to cover it. The Bible teaches to love your enemies. Learn how to get rid of the seeds of resentment on the inside, how to dismiss any thought that would be alien to the mind of Christ. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:44). Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins (Proverbs 10:12).

As Adam and Eve were dwelling in a state of perfection, one day something happened: the devil brought in a wrong thought. Into those clean minds the devil was able to plant a seed of doubt. “God really didn’t say it that way, did He Eve?” And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die (Genesis 3:4). Satan contradicted the words God had spoken to Eve, and Eve allowed the doubt to enter her mind. When you discuss the Bible with the devil, he brings all kinds of doubtful things to your mind. Jesus taught you what to do in these cases. Answer only with the Word of God: It is written (see Matthew 4:4,7,10). Never let the devil quote Scripture to you—he won’t quote it right. The devil cannot tell the truth; he lives on half-truths and lies. Turn him off. The devil came to Jesus to try to plant thoughts in His mind that would have destroyed Him, would have defeated His mission on Earth; but Jesus didn’t discuss it. He only said, It is written…it is written…it is written.

God Talk

All we need to tell the devil is what God has said. When your mind is in complete agreement with the Word of God you can talk God-talk. Until you develop a mind that will allow itself to be placed in God’s control you will not have God-talk. Down through the years Christians have been hindered because they have not had the mind of the Lord all the time; and consequently only part of the time did they have God-talk, only part time were they victorious. There has been provided a healing balm for our minds, souls and bodies: the Presence of God. If we fail to take advantage of it, we are without excuse.

The Server

The mind is the server; it serves the body. In much the same way that you choose your menu for dinner, you can choose what to feed your soul from God’s menu, the Holy Bible. Condition your mind to dwell on the things mentioned in Philippians 4:8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Obeying this verse will bring about a state of mind that can effectively order from God’s menu daily. What are you going to order from His Word? If you need more faith, then order faith; it’s a gift from God. If your mind decides you need more love to help you, then order it. Do you need more understanding, more wisdom? James 1:5 says, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally. Some of you, as God’s people, have not sought God for His wisdom; instead, you sought out man to find the wisdom of God, and man has given you a distorted picture of the One who created you and loves you so much He allowed His Son to die for your salvation. You have been beguiled by a personality rather than taught the truth in the Word of God. You could have asked God for wisdom, and He would have given it to you; but your mind failed you. When the mind fails to serve the necessary food to the stomach, the body deteriorates. Food that does not suit the body at all may look good to the mind; it’s the same with the soul. The mind may be drawn to something beautiful—but destructive—and so the mind serves the soul poison that works against the truth in the Word of God.

With what do you spend your time? Do you pay more attention to this world than to God and the things of God? How much of God are you serving your soul anyway? The mind will rule you unless you give that control over to the Holy Spirit. God will not force you to be under His control. He gave you a mind: you can decide to sit or to stand. You can decide whether or not to eat, to bathe, to go out on the street or stay at home. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve (Joshua 24:15). God placed great trust in man by giving him a mind that could be detached from God if man wanted. God gave man free will because He wants to be with you, not as an intruder but as a welcome Presence. God desires to be with you because you desire Him. Do you enjoy being with someone when you know he is forcing himself to tolerate you? Neither does God. The mind must live in the Presence of God so it can be operated by the Holy Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (II Corinthians 3:17).

The Seeding Bed

The mind is like a seeding bed. You put the seed into the bed so you will have good plants; when they are mature enough you plant them in the good earth. What kind of seeds are you collecting to place in the seeding bed of your mind? Those are the plants that will grow in your field, in your soil. Whatever you are reaching out for will eventually go into the soul if you embrace it, if you endorse it and put it into action. You cannot help evil thoughts coming to your mind, but you can help putting them into action. When thoughts that are not good come to your mind, be diligent not to embrace them lest they get into your soul and cause you to lose your salvation. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).

You young people: sexual thoughts will come to your mind; you’re young and healthy—God made you like that. It is nothing to fear so long as you do not endorse the thoughts and carry them through to completion. Looking at someone with desire is not the sin; the sin is looking and knowing you will fulfill that desire if you have the chance. When you are fasting you look at food; but so long as you do not put that food into your stomach, the fast has not been broken. When the Lord talked about adultery of the heart, He didn’t mean looking at a woman with desire was adultery of the heart; but looking at a woman with the intentions of having intercourse with her if there were an opportunity was adultery of the heart. Desiring sex is natural; God placed that desire in men and women, but it was meant to be fulfilled only within the bonds of marriage, a giving of love to each other that will keep a couple close. Indulging in sex outside of marriage is a sin which will send you to hell if you do not repent.

Do not feel condemned for the desire of sex but for embracing illicit thoughts, for planning evil, for maneuvering to seduce; putting these desires into action means you are in the works of the flesh, the field of the devil. You have accepted his thoughts—evil seeds that will bring a harvest of sin in your soul. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7). You must be very, very careful, to not let the devil’s seedlings grow, produce. Let them be destroyed by your love for God; God’s faith within you, His Presence will do it. The Presence will destroy the seed of the enemy.

Although the seed is pushed aside, the devil may come back tomorrow…and the next day…and the next with the same seed, trying to pierce your armor. The devil can keep one person on your mind to try to break you down, someone you are enticed by. He will keep coming back until he has determined that he cannot break you down, cannot destroy you, cannot weaken you with that thought. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).

You cannot play with sin; you cannot play with one another’s body before marriage. That long kissing can set into motion a harvest of sin. The plants will grow right into the soil of the soul, and the lust of the flesh will become sin. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (James 1:14,15).

We see Adam and Eve now with the thoughts of the devil; their Garden of Eden has changed into thorns and thistles. Many gardens of the soul have gone the way of Eden. Why? Because minds were given over to Lucifer. Lucifer used minds as his seeding bed, and the people furnished the soil for their souls so that Lucifer could cultivate his evil plants. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (James 4:1-3). What a terrible harvest of damnation and destruction!

The devil entered Eve’s mind, sowed the seed; and the seeding bed produced the devil’s plants. The soul was ready, weakened by the devil daily as he came to Eve with his subtlety. Weaker and weaker she became until at last she opened the door to her soul; she was under the influence of Lucifer. No longer moving according to the command of God, she reached out to take the forbidden fruit. The devil operates the same way today. The soul that sinneth is reaching for death. You may get by a day in sin, a year or more; but judgment will eventually overtake you. The soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:4), God has said, and He means it. God will not change His Word. He sent His Son to save you from hell, but if you reject that marvelous gift you will be turned into hell with the other wicked. The Bible says, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God (Psalm 9:17). Everyone who forgets God shall be turned into hell, and that is “thus saith the Lord.”

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrew 4:16). In order to enter into that Presence at the throne of grace we must first be cleansed through the blood of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Then we can make contact as the grace of God rings out in our voices and we cry, “Father, in the name of Jesus we come!” The Father’s ears are opened to your prayers when you use the name of His Son Jesus, when you are adorned with His love and His faith. There are no limits on what God can do for the mind and soul that are really given over to God one hundred percent.

The Ruins of Disobedience

Some of you have failed God for no reason at all; you just let the devil plant an ungodly thought. He kept that thought before you—grinding you to nothing with just one thought—and he intends to keep that thought flashing before you as long as he can. That is the reason you cannot afford to go to bed even one time with any malice, any evil thoughts about another; for if you do you are weakened, harmed more than you ever realize. Some of you have gone to bed with just a small grudge or resentment in your heart that the devil planted. The mind fed the soul tools that the devil could use to grind you down, taking your joy, your strength, peace and happiness, rendering you helpless the way he did Eve. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled (Hebrews 12:14,15).

There are many today whom the devil will grind down until he destroys them in the ruins of disobedience. Good people, ones you never think would fall from the grace of God are falling. It started with something small, a bitterness or a stubbornness that no one could talk, pray or fast out of them. Why? Because they were embracing it, feeling justified in holding on to resentment when it was the very thing that opened the door to the devil and closed it to God: the same pattern that brought Eve to ashes. As long as you embrace a thought, it is yours; you are welcoming it, and it will stay with you. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God (James 1:8,20).

You have the ability to furnish soil for the Word of God or soil for the evil thoughts of the devil. You haven’t backslid? Maybe not, but you have been rendered helpless through the thoughts that you embrace, thoughts that damage you and take you away from the Presence. You cannot do things for God, you cannot move with liberty, you resent your obligations to God, you do not give of yourself freely to Him; but you give with resentment. Why? Because you embrace attitudes that drive away the Holy Spirit, and He is grieved. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30). Wrong thoughts have given you spiritual paralysis, and you cannot reach out to God. The table is there, but you cannot feed yourself. Your eyes see the food, but your mind is unable to make your body function; your spiritual mind will not reach out for the things of God. The carnal nature has taken over; carnal powers that have destroyed so many in the past are holding you and will not let go. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:6-8).

Are you justifying yourself by blaming others, by looking at how others have mistreated you? You think you were mistreated? Look at what they did to Jesus! They mocked Him, hung Him on the Cross; but He still loved them. On the Cross He said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). You must not let these things stand between you and the Lord. Cast down the resentments, the bitterness that festers in your mind; let the Holy Spirit lift you up, edify, bless you and open your eyes to the things you were doing wrong.

Don’t think the devil won’t work on you; he worked on the first Adam, and he worked on the second Adam—Jesus, the Son of God—but thank God the second Adam was wiser; and He conquered death, hell and the grave for you and me. Many of God’s benefits and promises have been lost by not keeping one’s mind anointed and blessed by His Holy Presence. When feelings are hurt it’s easy to hug self-pity close to you; but if you allow those thoughts to take you away from His Presence, they will produce a bitter harvest.

Remember when you were a child and could almost be brought to tears by someone doing the least little thing to you; remember when you got into fights, said ugly things and pouted? Paul said in I Corinthians 13 that when he became a man he put away childish things. The anointing helps you to do that, helps you to grow up, to not let every little thing bother you. It’s time to grow up, to take on the mind of Christ and do the will of the Lord.

Satan Enters the Mind to Reach the Soul

Adam’s mind before the fall was great; but the mind of Jesus is much, much greater. The mind of Christ understands evil and good. Had Adam and Eve possessed an understanding of evil, things might have been different; but they failed. What caused it? A thought. The devil entered through the mind to get to the soul; he cannot reach the soul unless he first captures your mind. Cast down every thought that exalteth itself above God.

When the mind becomes polluted, the soul becomes polluted if something is not done very quickly. You cannot carry garbage around in your mind without it sooner or later contaminating your soul. When the mind is gone, you are destroyed; if the mind doesn’t function right, you do not function right no matter how successful you may look to others.

Adam and Eve were driven from paradise because God could not bear the minds they had taken on; God cannot look upon sin, and He will not dwell with a person whose mind and soul have embraced sin. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear (Isaiah 59:2). Harboring thoughts unlike God leads to acting them out, and at that point the Spirit of God will leave you. The Spirit of God left Adam and Eve; they no longer had the Presence. The horror of being separated from God was something Adam and Eve had not taken into account; they were to spend a lifetime learning it. Now the demons had taken over the minds of two who once had been so pure and wonderful, who once had possessed minds that operated in perfection. The contamination was passed on to their children. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him (Genesis 4:8).

One of their children kept a clean mind, the other allowed his mind to be seduced by a murdering devil. How would you feel if you had a son who killed another son? They probably had never imagined such a thing, but now it was done. My God, what a strain on the human mind! The many nervous breakdowns today are because the mind was not made to stand the stresses of living out of step with God. Only through the Presence can we handle these pressures; only through the Presence can we endure. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (Isaiah 40:29-31).

Spiritual Zombies

The Presence in the Early Church was the key to their overcoming. Doing your best for God is not enough; you must live in that most Holy Place, for the mind will never function right without the Presence. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1). If you are not living in the Presence of God your mind is scattered; it’s like a car engine not hitting on all the cylinders, missing power, force. Not having the power, the force to operate, you become a spiritual zombie, out of touch with the reality in God. A spiritual zombie cannot do the things which God put that soul here to do, cannot operate in a spiritually intelligent way. A sense of something missing makes you wonder what is wrong with you. It’s the mind; the mind is not in the Presence of God. The mind has been taken away from God, divorced from its Maker. Only with God can the mind operate in perfection. Many since Adam and Eve have tried making their own decisions, only to end up with broken lives.

When man came to the place that every thought of his mind was evil continually, God determined to destroy him; and with the exception of Noah and his family, God did. How would you feel if you had a child whose mind constantly was running on the dreadful: murder, rape, whoredoms, something evil, untruths, deceit? It’s the mind of a garbage dump. God is looking down on an earth today that has that kind of stench coming up to Him continuously, as it did in the days of Sodom and in the days of Noah.

Jesus made it possible for us to use His mind; just as we take on the new heart of a born-again experience, we can take on the mind of Christ. Some, however, take on the new heart; but the mind is still cluttered, warped from the past. They can’t come out of their old patterns of thinking. You can vomit out your past to man, but if there is no solution in God, you end up eating it again. God’s plan is to empty up and leave the past in His hands; wounds and scars disappear through the blood of Jesus, through the power and the Presence of God. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death (Revelation 12:11). Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you (I Peter 5:7).

Changing lifetime scars and patterns of behavior is not a do-it-yourself thing but takes place through God’s living on the inside of you, God’s touch, His smile upon you, His love, His breath of life, His Presence, His thinking for you. God brings the beautiful thought, gives the wisdom, the strength and the knowledge. He will do it.

God Works Patiently with the Mind

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD (Genesis 6:8). God took over Noah’s mind and patiently worked with it. One hundred and twenty years it took to get that ark ready. Noah had never before built even a small ark, and this ark was mammoth, constructed with crude tools and equipment; but God had the wisdom, the knowledge, the know-how, and Noah’s mind was given over to God. The impossible can be accomplished when the mind is given over to God. Noah had a mind of grace; through grace Noah found favor with God. God’s grace, God’s loving care was in Noah’s mind. He looked to God steadfastly.

Let thine eyes observe my ways (Proverbs 23:26). Looking to God means keeping your mind on God; whatever you are doing, your mind must be on God. God must be your focal point. You have God as your help, God as your hope, God as your rock, your salvation, your high tower, your protector. God is with you, everything to you. God is your healer. There is no madness, no tension in the mind of God, no contradictions or confusion. The way of the Lord is perfect.

Noah was a great man because his mind was stayed on the Lord. Others in the Bible were great because they gave their minds to God, and He worked them over. It took time to get Abraham ready to really accept the fact that Sarah would have a son when she was far beyond child-bearing years, but Abraham had a mind to look to God. The longer he looked, the more faith he received.

Does your mind long for faith? Does your mind dwell on the faith of God? Like Abraham, serve yourself faith until you can believe God for anything. Abraham was able to believe the impossible and it happened. Later his great faith was tried severely when God told him to offer that son he loved so much as a sacrifice. Did he love God enough; had he reached out for that much love, or had his love stopped with the son he wanted more than life? Isaac was his dearest jewel. Had God asked him to offer his other son, Ishmael, it might not have been so hard; but God asked for Isaac. Had not Abraham’s mind been serving his soul faith as well as the love of God, he would not have been able to stand the test. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure (Hebrews 11:17,19). “Yes, God, I love you better than Isaac. If you want me to offer him, I will.” How many times has your mind held on to something, to someone other than God?

From the day Moses was born, God overshadowed him. God was with him in the rushes of the Nile. God went with him into the palace of Pharaoh. God worked on the mind of Moses. Again and again that mind lost control, went like wild horses in all directions, but God was patient; He would reach out for it and bring it back to His Presence. It took years and years for God to make a Moses. At last there he stood, ready with the rod of faith. BY FAITH Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. BY FAITH he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. THROUGH FAITH he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. BY FAITH they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned (Hebrews 11:24-29).

Unless you have the rod of faith you’ll never be ready. Many times people think they’re ready to do the work of God, but they don’t have the miracle power working for them. They are not ready. Their minds played tricks on them; the mind is noted for playing tricks. Remember when you were a child and your mind told you you could jump out of a tree? You listened to your mind and hurt yourself. Moses thought he could do a lot of things too; but, thank God, he didn’t think he could bring the Israelites out of Egypt without God; and he didn’t think he could separate the waters of the Red Sea by himself—there were a lot of things he didn’t think he could do. He couldn’t do them, but God could.

A Mind to Reason

Come now, and let us reason together, we read in Isaiah 1:18. Is your mind one that will reason? Can God get through to you? Do you reason things out with Him? He welcomes you to bring your problems each day—anything—to Him.

What kind of mind do you have? Is it so cluttered that you can’t find God when you have a problem? So cluttered that you cannot sort out your problems and lay them before God? Are you unsure whether you even want God to work them out; is your mind unwilling to take your cares to God? Unless you have a willing mind, God cannot work with it. Be willing for Him to take it over, to correct you; take the discipline required to stay under His authority. Only then will He let you use His authority. Not until you come under subjection to His authority, not until you yield to it, humble yourself to it, can you use His authority to overcome in your own life and to help others.

Are you willing to accept the Lord’s chastening as He seeks to mold you into a more perfect vessel? Growing in the Lord means breaking out of old patterns so that you can take on more of Him. Often this is a difficult and painful process, but Hebrews 12:6,7 says that whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Without that willingness to subject yourself to Him in grateful obedience, you will remain one of those Christians who has never risen into the greatness of God, into that place where His truth can set your mind free. In this final hour there is no time to be an unproductive Christian; we must rise up and get ready for the battles and for the coming of Jesus.

Moses shed many tears; his heart bled again and again because of the burden of his people. He wanted to deliver them, and in his eagerness he murdered an Egyptian. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand (Exodus 2:12). It was an answer of his own mind, not of God’s. Forty years later, however, he was ready; he had the rod of faith that would perform miracles—he had God’s faith, God’s love. Losing sight of self, he was able to fix his eyes on the God who made him; the mind of Moses was lifted to his God—pure, clean, and holy. Oh yes, he had his times of failure: he failed at the burning bush. God wanted him to lead the people without Aaron, but Moses was afraid God wasn’t enough and he asked for his brother.

When God tells you to do something, if you are not careful, your mind will reason in the wrong way with God, saying, “I can’t do it.” God would not tell you to do something you cannot do. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). Many times we do not understand the way of God, how to yield to Him; but, remember, the mind gets those in trouble who rebel in any way against the will of the Lord. In this final hour you cannot afford to allow your mind to rebel against God in any way, however small. Your mind is to be a fertile ground for the Word of God so the Word can come to you clearly, be your companion day and night; for it is the truth that sets free.

With the Presence of God Come the Fruits of the Spirit

The miracle outpouring of God will be so great in this last hour that living under the miracle hand of the Lord will be the nearest thing to living in Eden since the fall of man. You can live right in the Presence of God; He offers you all of His goodness. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth (Ephesians 5:9). All the fruit of the Spirit was found in the Garden, all goodness, righteousness and truth. It was truth they lived in; truth surrounded them along with goodness and righteousness, and they were free, free, free. No one can be free without the truth; no human has ever been free without the truth or ever will be. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance (Galatians 5:22,23). In Eden Adam and Eve didn’t need all the fruit we need today. They had no need for the fruit of longsuffering because there was nothing to try their patience or bring them sorrow. They had no need of the fruit of temperance because there was no desire to be intemperate; they had self-control. Later, when man would need more fruits, God gave the fruits of longsuffering and self-control.

The gifts of the Spirit are different from the fruits. I Corinthians 12:8-10 lists the nine gifts of the Spirit. In the Garden of Eden it wasn’t necessary for Adam and Eve to have all of the nine gifts, for they did not have minds or hearts that needed them all. They, however, did need the gifts of wisdom, knowledge and faith. Adam possessed great knowledge; it was a gift from God. He had the knowledge to name all that vast variety of animals. Since there was no sickness in the Garden, Adam and Eve didn’t need the gift of healing; they didn’t have the gift of miracles, for God gave miracles when needed. Eve came to the place she needed the gift of discerning, and I’m sure the Presence of God was there to help her; but she did not accept that help. Adam and Eve didn’t need the gift of prophecy or divers kinds of tongues; they had the tongue of God—with that there is no need for another. The interpretation of tongues was unnecessary because there was only one language. The language of God had been given straight from Heaven.

The things, however, that Adam and Eve did not need, we need; and God has made everything available to us that we must have. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). As we yield to His Presence, His anointing, the fruits of the Spirit can be produced in our lives. With these available helps at our disposal, there is no excuse for not serving God; the Presence is here to overshadow all who will turn to Him. The Presence went with God’s men of old; it overshadowed them, surrounded them, and the Presence is with us today. We have a protection, a hedge around us; we are closed in by the blood of Jesus, the power that stained the Old Rugged Cross.

It’s time to look up, time to be done with self-pity and resentments. Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before (Philippians 3:13). We have nothing to pity ourselves for, for we are children of the King; we were born to live in the Presence. The hand of the Lord is upon us; the grace of God is abounding, ready to help us out of every valley, help us to climb the highest mountain peaks in this final hour of the Gentiles. The climb will take us so high that we will hear the cry, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him (Matthew 25:6)! The One our minds have beheld so many times, holding Him up above everything else, is coming for us. We have kept our eyes upon Him, looked upon Him; and at last we are beholding Him as the change comes. At that glorious moment you’ll be glad you kept yourself holy, that you stayed under His control, that you walked with God instead of the world. In the catching-away hour you will rejoice that you fasted, prayed and stayed in the Word of God, that you humbled yourself before the Lord; you will be glad for all the valleys, all the temptations that made you stronger as you overcame, made you feel the need of more of Jehovah God. The harder you have it in life the more you reach out for God—if the soul stays right.

Cleanse Your Mind with His Promises

Cleansed from the things of the world and sanctified by the blood of Jesus, start working with the mind. Some of you have worked so much with the soul; and, thus saith the Lord, the hour has come you must work with the mind. You must, you must. The Lord told me years ago that the greatest battles in the final hour for His people would be the battles of the mind. Haven’t you found it to be so? The devil is coming at us with everything, all kinds of trouble to torture, to torment.

Stand true to God; He will make the way. Cleanse your mind with His promises and look up to behold the man called Jesus. Cleanse your mind and say, “Lord, everything is going to be all right because you will make the way; you have promised, and my trust is in the Lord. I will have His perfect peace in my heart because my trust is in the Lord.” Take an anointing for your mind; conceive in your mind the promises of God being fulfilled and let them grow in perfect trust in your soul. Let your mind be conditioned by the Holy Spirit. Let Him take over and anoint your mind, erase any hurts, any despair, anything the devil has been able to grind you down with. Let the Holy Spirit melt it all out of the way as if it had never been. He is the only one who can do it.

In the beginning you could have overcome the thought, the hurt the devil brought to you; but you embraced it, and now it’s been there too long. Every day the hurt has been allowed to live in you its roots grew deeper. You’ve wanted to be free of it, but could not remove it within your own strength; however, now the grace of God is abounding for you, the love of God is moving for you.

God is not here to condemn you but to tell you that He is your helper, your Savior. He will deliver you, will make you to sit in a heavenly place. He will reveal Himself unto you as He gives you His love and grace. He will produce His fruits in your life if you will just yield to Him: peace, faith, love, longsuffering, self-control, goodness, mercy—you will have all things needed. Let God replace that worry with His faith, for God can only work with His faith.

Stop condemning yourself for failures of the past—the devil would like you to keep your eyes on them—close the door on the past. Start living right now. AS THE SOUL WAS BORN AGAIN WHEN YOU ACCEPTED CHRIST INTO YOUR HEART, LET YOUR MIND BE BORN AGAIN THROUGH THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. Take a new birth for the mind no matter how damaged your past may be, no matter what kind of circumstances you are in because of it. Let the anointing of His Presence help you work it out, and face tomorrow with a new mind—the mind of Jesus.

A Message in Tongues and Interpretation

I am the Lord thy God; I am in the midst of my people, and I have come down. I have come down to bless my people as I told Abraham I would bless him and I would make him a blessing. And I will bless you, and I will make you a blessing, and I will use you. I will use you to flow my love through you to the people. I will flow my faith and my wisdom and my knowledge and my greatness. I have raised you up for this hour, but your minds must be conditioned now for this final hour.

The powers of evil will come against you like you’ve never thought they could come. You have not had your greatest battles yet; I am preparing you. None of you expected what is going to happen; you never knew how it could be, but you’re going to find out through my Spirit; and you’re going to learn knowledge at my feet, and you will know the way of the Lord thy God, and you will know my Spirit. You will no longer be deceived by man as you yield your mind to me. You will not give your mind over to false teachers and false doctrine; you’ll not spend any time with those who claim to be servants and prophets and preachers of mine and they do not have my love and my grace and my anointing and my power. You will recognize at once that they do not have my Spirit; and you will turn aside because you will desire my Presence and you will desire my love and my faith, and then you will have understanding. And you will know—and you will KNOW—that I am moving; and you will know my Spirit. And you will know where your God is working and you will know the works of your God.

The devil is seeking to deceive my people, and he is pouring out deceit; and many are carrying the name of the Lord God that are not righteous, saith the Lord. Many preachers and teachers are carrying my name, and they are living unholy and living and walking with Lucifer; and you know it not. And my Spirit is rising up against it; and my people must know, and my people must discern. My people must not be without understanding. My people have been cheated of my Presence again and again because my Presence will not go with you into false doctrine. My Presence will not go with you, and I cannot anoint your ears when you listen to false prophets, teachers or preachers. My Presence will be with you when you use the truth and only when you use the truth.

My Presence will be with you to listen to the truth—and my people must have the truth. It is my truth that will bring the people out of bondage. It is my truth that will deliver and give life to those that sit in darkness. It is my truth that will set the demon possessed free—nothing but my truth. My people must know the truth, and my people must not be deceived by evil.

My people that are called by my name must walk uprightly. My people must recognize the God that they follow; and my people must recognize the truth, my truth, when they hear it; and my people must recognize false doctrine when they hear it. My people must recognize Lucifer; no matter when he dresses as an angel of light, my people must be able to discern him, saith the Lord, in this final hour. My people must cry for understanding, for wisdom; as Solomon asked for it, my people must ask for it and then—and only then—will it be given, saith the Lord.