Our mind, our power to think, is an enemy of God. It is hostile toward God. How did it get that way? I don't have the foggiest. But our mind is the enemy of God.

We don't find God through our mind. God is not a philosopher. He is a fire, a sword. He demands a blood offering in order to make an atonement.

Jesus Christ came to reconcile us to God and to show God to us. Christ we can understand somewhat because He is a Man. But God is a Spirit.

Our mind is set on the things of the world how it can find pleasure through the five senses of the body.

Here is an important fact: God did not give us a mind so we could plan our way. God gave us a mind so we could understand God's will and do it.

The saint trusts God with all his heart and does not lean to his own understanding. In all his ways he acknowledges the Lord and the Lord direct his paths.

The sons of God are led in every decision by the Spirit of God. This is the rest of God. This is how Jesus lives.

Our mind says "no way" to this kind of decision-making, because our mind is the enemy of God. But our born-again spiritual nature rejoices at the opportunity to be able to trust God and not have to figure everything out.

God planned your life from the beginning of the world. It is the responsibility of your mind to help you find God's will, not to create your own heaven and earth.

Perhaps the greatest hurdle in front of the would-be overcomer is the insistence of the mind to maintain control over the personality.

The Apostle John "saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

It is possible that the beheading mentioned here is literal. But this would restrict the royal priesthood to the saints who died by decapitation.

Much of the Book of Revelation is symbolic. For example, we know that stars cannot fall to the earth because stars are very much larger than the earth. So we have to pray and find out God's meaning.

It is my personal viewpoint that being "beheaded" for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God refers to the subject of the present essay. We must get rid of our fleshly, sinful, rebellious mind and put on the mind of Christ.

Whether my interpretation is correct or not, one thing is certain: until we turn over our life to God and follow the Spirit instead of our own mind we will not get far in the victorious Christian life.

This too is part of the resolution of Paul's dilemma concerning the conflict between his mental desire to obey the Law and the sin dwelling in his flesh.