The Mind of Jesus
Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series
where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years,
the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them
with you. This morning we seek to understand the technique of acquiring the mind of Jesus.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Mind of Jesus
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
Phillipians, Chapter 2, Verses 5-8.
Good morning brothers and sisters, dreams are not always reliable sources of truth, but sometimes,
just sometimes, fragments of truth can be found floating on the surface of the sea of night time
escapades. And this is such a dream.
He has been walking down a long a hall way with an unidentified person, and finally turned around
and headed back to a large hall where people were gathered for a dinner. On the upper floor of this
hall was a large table where some of his friends had gathered. They have not yet begun to eat, but
were sitting and talking quietly among themselves waiting for the meal to be served. As he made his
way towards them, he realizes that he had to go back to the bottom floor to do some quick errand.
What the errand was, was not disclosed in the dream. But as he headed down the escalator to the
bottom floor he looked back up at the table and noticed that all of his guests had not yet arrived at
the dining table, including his wife. He reasoned that he had times to complete his errand before
they were all seated. Continuing to ride the escalator down to the bottom floor, he observed that
there were a lot of people moving around, the crowd of people that you might see in a busy airport
waiting room. People were moving back and forth from a ticket counter, but this is was not an
airport. He continued to walk across the floor after getting off of the escalator, and walked towards
the back of the huge building. There he observed a row of chairs, and there sitting in one of the chair
was a woman who appeared to be in her late 30s. Sitting diagonally across from her was another
lady who appeared to be in her late 50s.
He approached the back of the building and sat down and started talking to the women sitting at the
back of the building, including the lady sitting diagonally across from him. The two women were
involved in a conversation about the mind of Jesus and were having a rather animated conversation
as to how to obtain the mind of Jesus using intellectual means. During this conversation, he
interjected that the mind of Jesus can be had, but not through intellectual means. During the course
of the conversation, he said, "In the mind of man, there are two wills, one human and one divine.
The human will is self evident, but the divine will is not. Nevertheless, there is a divine will in the
mind of man. And this divine will is not a philosophical construction. It is a bonafide spiritual
reality. This will is spiritual, and can be chosen by the moral free will of man. In trying to obtain the
mind of Jesus, human efforts alone will fail. No human in and of himself can obtain the mind of
Jesus. You may admire and desire but unless you submit to the Father's will, the divine will, you will
fail."
And now we divert momentarily from the flow of the dream to do some analysis.
If our minds do not serve us well, by the technique of doing the Father's will, we can exchange our
minds for the mind of Jesus, which always serves us well. The technique whereby we can accept
another's idea as ours is the same whereby we may "let the mind which was in Christ be also in us."
Now we know that this sense of mind is meant to convey like-mindedness--similar in attitudes. We
know that we cannot literally use the material mind that Jesus used while in the flesh. That mind
perished with the material body. But we can use the spiritual mind of Jesus, the Spirit of Truth, to
think like Jesus, to talk like Jesus, to walk like Jesus, to be like Jesus.
And we can begin to see even in our lowly material state that to come under the influence of another
person, we must desire that influence, and must have some affinity with that person, and a desire to
be like that person. We must obtain a certain knowledge of that person, living knowledge. But how
are we to obtain living knowledge of Jesus? We know that the human Jesus died over 2,000 years
ago, and we cannot get it from him as such. But a wonderful thing happened when the human Jesus
died, his Spirit of Truth continued to live, and is now available to all who seek it. The Spirit of Truth
provides an up-to-date living biography of Jesus that is perfectly suited to any person's disposition.
This living knowledge allows us to know him. It allows us to talk like Jesus, to walk like Jesus, to
think like Jesus, to act like Jesus, to in short become like Jesus. We can acquire the mind of Jesus.
To acquire the mind of Jesus, we must submit to the Father's will; we must choose the Father's will.
Jesus is the revelation of the Father. Without submitting to the Father's will, we lack the power to
acquire the image of His Son. The Father's will can be chosen even though the material mind may
not consciously discern that mind. But the Father's will is known by seeking it, and the proof that
it is chosen is the ever increasing growth in character likeness of His Son, Jesus. And this is the only
way of acquiring the mind of Jesus. Experience shows us that no other way is possible to think like
Jesus, to live for the glory of the Father, to be the spiritual representative of the Father to others, to
live with the only purpose of doing the Father's will. The only way to talk like Jesus is by choosing
the divine will, to utter words of compassion, kindness, love and mercy, even forgiveness. The only
way of walking like Jesus is to choose the Father's will, to live the life of the Father's spiritual reality,
to walk the walk of long suffering, gentleness, meekness, and temperance. The only way to act like
Jesus, to become like Jesus, is to wholeheartedly choose the Father's will.
Today not many individuals wish to acquire the mind of Jesus. They don't understand that the acts
of life are determined by the quality of the inner life. A life that is filled with selfishness can never
grasp the spiritual reality of Jesus' life. We must sincerely recognize the spirit of love and abandon
the selfish pursuit of life. No matter how much the material self desires the selfish road, because self
will is paramount it can decide which road it will follow. We must realize that all inner desires,
impulses, urges, hopes, fears, anxieties, every single reality that emerges in the consciousness must
be readily submitted to the Father's will. Realities that are true, beautiful, and good can be glorified,
while those realities devoid of these qualities can be eliminated. And this is the so-called barrier to
total righteousness: that self insists upon holding certain realities from the Father's all-transforming
faith. "I surrender, I surrender all" is the true meaning of submitting to the Father's will.
Finally we return to the conclusion of the dream.
He said to the women, "acquiring the mind of Jesus by the technique of subjecting to the Father's will
no matter how hard it may appear at the start is the most wonderful, most blessed, liberating and
joyful, most satisfying and peaceful experience that you will ever experience in all eternity. Even
infinity cannot exhaust the values and meanings of doing the Father's will, for the Father's will is
actually infinite."
This concludes today's message on understanding the technique of acquiring the mind of Jesus. We
hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
The Mind of Jesus
