Have you lost your mind?

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?

Amazing as it was, a while back as I was standing against the wall in the back corner of a large conference room where over 200 people were seated listening to a speaker, I saw a giant sword sweeping back and forth just over the audience’s heads. Strangely, I was the only one standing in the entire room as I watched this spiritual vision. I was so shaken by what I saw, I decided to leave the meeting to pray and ponder about what I had just witnessed.

As I drove around the local area praying and seeking understanding, my foremost impression was that the Lord had directed me to be at this conference, see what I had seen and that I was to wait for the interpretation. At first, I thought the sword was forewarning a judgment on the group since a sword is a type of the Word of God and the vision felt ominous, but that thought did not settle in my spirit.

Upon my return home, I shared with our local Body of Christ what I had perceived, but found no confirmation in my spirit from anyone’s response; that is, until months later, at one of our Sunday gatherings a brother said he felt he had the interpretation of my vision at the conference.

The brother, William Linton, said he saw that all the people were staying seated because the did not want their heads cut off by the spiritual sword. He perceived they came to the conference to have their heads/minds filled with knowledge, and he felt the sword that was sweeping back and forth was sent to do just that in the spirit. Immediately I knew this was the key interpretation for my encounter.

Most people feel their mind resides in their head. The Scriptures tell us that this carnal, logical mind is at enmity (animosity, hostility, alienation) with God as opposed to the mind of Christ that abides in our belly or heart as the seat of thought in our innermost parts. Yet, many Christians believe (and are taught) that more and more knowledge is the key to receive the benefits of the Kingdom of God and spiritual maturity. The more knowledge you fill your head with, the better off you are.

Certainly, according to Hosea 4:6, we can be destroyed for lack of knowledge. Yes, for lack of the knowledge of God and omission to do good (See 4:1 and Jeremiah 4:22), but we can have a plethora of information and still be silly children with no understanding.

Of all people, John the Baptist began to doubt who Jesus was and sent his disciples to ask the Lord if He was the Coming One or was he to look for another. This same man who declared, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” when he first saw Jesus must have had a “head trip” while in prison. John’s life was ended when he lost his head.

The other John had a vision on the Isle of Patmos and “Saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4

The souls of those who had lost their heads; who had not worshiped anyone or anything other than the Living God; who had not had their minds and the works of their hands imprinted (affected, given over to) by the beast system, these are the real martyrs or witnesses (as the Greek word really means). These are those who will rule and reign with Christ in the Tabernacle/millennial Age.

This Christian life is not a “head trip” of man’s theology and “What would Jesus do?” mentality. We are not to be led by “figuring things out” and logical “insights”, but by the voice of the Holy Spirit within us that comes through the Pentecostal experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We must come to be the place where Jesus can lay HIS head by losing ours.

“And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’” Matthew 8:20

“Father in heaven, I ask You to “behead” me of my carnal mind and fill my heart with the wisdom of Your Word and love so that rivers of living waters flow out of my belly everywhere I am. Give me the mind Christ according to Your Word in I Corinthians 2:16.

Make it so, Father, in the Name of Jesus, Your beloved Son and my Savior.”

NOTE:

Let not our minds be holes/lairs for foxes who “spoil the vine” and are types of crafty teachings or nests for birds that are types of demons.