Renewal of The Mind Requires Humility

The main warning for the end times is to "not be deceived."

This warning has little to do with a lack of correct information.  The deception of last days is related to heart attitudes about what God is, or isn't, doing.

Matthew 24:42-51 NKJV — “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. “But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? “Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. “Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. “But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ “and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, “the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, “and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

In my experience, most people that learn about Jesus erroneously think more information produces better behavior.  This is because the flesh believes that it will be good if it knows the right thing to do. That is THE lie all sin rests on! The Bible tells us the opposite is true:

Genesis 3:5-7 NKJV — “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

No! Information expanding in our minds isn't the point of gathering for instruction!  Death of self is!

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 NKJV — And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Really good Bible teaching isn't meant to give faithful people more information... It's meant to rally our hearts to pick up the cross again.  True, Biblical, helpful Bible teaching RENEWS the mind... It keeps bringing the mind back to the simple truth in a multitude of ways. 

Psalm 51:10 NKJV — Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Steadfastness is renewed by those willing to gather and be stirred.  Most people who get excited about truth get bored when they think they know things they aren't supposed to KNOW, but rather DO!  This is why love grows cold, and people burn out and drift away from faithfully growing in sanctification and instead become religious "occupiers."

Romans 12:1-3 NKJV — I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Truly being renewed is a sacrifice and requires humility.  It requires looking at what I do and gauging my need for renewal based on what I am drifting from rather than the arrogant attitude of, "been there, know that."

Backsliding is the result of pridefully believing there is nothing new to know.  There is always a God to experience. There is always something deeper in God that He does in the gathering of His HUMBLE people. 

God won't pull us out of backsliding. We have to have the humility to recognize where we have drifted in our commitment to being gathered, taught, readied and crucified. We can see our backsliding and return to God. Few will:

Jeremiah 3:14-15 NKJV — “Return, O backsliding children,” says the LORD; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. “And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

The church of our day is on information overload but suffers from a massive lack of true zeal for meeting together, and being stirred into humility and vision!

Few people are skilled to set vision consistently back on the One Thing required and never taken away. 

James 3:1-2 NKJV — My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.

Show me someone laying down his or her life for Jesus and I'll show you someone who should be heeded.  The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.

The number of teachers will grow. That is guaranteed. But, the numbers of spiritually mature prophetic vision-casters will always be few.

2 Timothy 4:3 NKJV — For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;

In this season, the wise are looking for more and more reasons to gather together to be stirred up into a renewal of the mind...

Hebrews 10:24-39 NKJV — And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while,
And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.  Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

The wise are very few.  They are wise because they consider their pride before they fall!  The time of Yeshua's appearing is much more near now than when we first believed, but most will be caught in the cares of this life, not the vision of the kingdom coming.

Revelation isn't something to know.  It's something to hear, and do.  Are you part of a people that reads the words and KEEPS them?

Revelation 1:1-3 NKJV — The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.