By John Thiel, Let This Mind Be in You Conference, Study 3, mp3

Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

The hymn ‘Prince of Peace’ conveys the messages of God. We are to not only worship the Lord as the great king of the universe, but to understand that He the monarch of the universe is to be the monarch of our mind, to be a throne therein. He who created us, created us with that very design in mind from the beginning, every creature that He created it is written of;

From eternal ages it was God’s purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. {DA 161.1}

The God of the universe who is the monarch of every intelligence and is the monarch of every atom of every cell in your body, if you study this carefully, you know inside of a cell there is a ruling government and that government is governed by the monarch of the universe. When we seek to comprehend this great God, it defies all human comprehension yet it is a reality that can be experienced and it is a great privilege to have Him as the monarch of your mind. It was the design of God that this be the case and al the hosts of heaven and the universe are joyfully subservient to that monarch but there is one dark blot.

 When this earth was created by Christ, it was holy and beautiful. God pronounced it “very good.” Every flower, every shrub every tree, answered the purpose of its Creator. Everything upon which the eye rested was lovely, and filled the mind with thoughts of love for the Creator. Every sound was music, in perfect harmony with the voice of God. {BEcho, May 21, 1900 par. 1}

   But a change has come. Sin has brought decay, deformity, and death. Today the whole world is tainted, corrupted, stricken with a mortal disease. The earth groans under the continual transgression of the inhabitants thereof. {BEcho, May 21, 1900 par. 2}

   Human beings have degenerated. One after another they fall under the curse, because sin has entered the world, and death by sin. The truth is not made precious by practice. It does not sanctify the soul. It fades from the mind because the heart does not appreciate its value. In consequence the mind becomes more and more darkened by the atmosphere which is malarious because of the perpetuating of Adam’s sin. The conscience has lost its sensitiveness. Through a repetition of sin, the impression made on the conscience by sin has no longer force enough to arrest the transgressor, diseased, depraved, and dying. The voice no longer echoes the voice of God, or gives expression to the music of a soul sanctified through the truth. The heart, in which God should be enthroned, is a place from which come forth all kinds of abominations. How has the fine gold become dim?–Man has lost the reflection of God’s character. {BEcho, May 21, 1900 par. 3}

On this planet in our life we are deceived if we think that it is all very good. According to this declaration it is horribly marred. Our mind has been darkened more and more. You and I have been born in a very dark minded time. I had to come to terms with that as what I’ve grown up with to expect as normal is extremely degenerated. The nearer I come to what God’s word is saying and what it used to be, we are not advanced race. We might be advanced in knowledge, technology and the comforts of life, but we are deplorably dying. Go to the hospitals, it is sick. The people in hospital are only a small portion of those sick outside of hospital. When I trained as a nurse I nearly gave up on wanting to live as I saw the deep sickness of the human race and the worst is mental. God’s purpose was not going to be thwarted.

Exodus 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

These depraved human beings, Israelites that had come out of Egyptian captivity perverted by slavery He said, I want to dwell among them. We are all enslaved to our past upbringing. Although there is this terrible darkness, God says I don’t mind. WH put God in a position where we think He is too holy to come and dwell with sinners.

Leviticus 26:11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

 26:12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

What sort of a mind are we meeting here? These sick depraved human beings, these people that haven’t got God in their mind anymore, he says I’m going to dwell among you. Who built the Hebrew sanctuary? The people provided all of it’s construction material but the most profound story in this typical representation is the reality of what Jesus was about. What was the tabernacle He had in reality? So perverted was the understanding of the Jews like us we place far more importance on sanctuary material and church organisation, we miss the reality.

John 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

Remember what they said in Babylon captivity? The temple of the Lord are these and today the temple of the Lord are we, the church. Here is the mistake of the Jews.

John 2:20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

 2:21 But he spake of the temple of his body.

Jesus His body was the temple that dwelt among them. He dwelt among the human race. Meditate what Jesus said about His body temple. As Jesus was saying that they should have remembered as He was there cleansing the temple of the money changers, sellers and buyers and animals.

 In the cleansing of the temple, Jesus was announcing His mission as the Messiah, and entering upon His work. That temple, erected for the abode of the divine Presence, was designed to be an object lesson for Israel and for the world. From eternal ages it was God’s purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for God. Darkened and defiled by evil, the heart of man no longer revealed the glory of the Divine One. But by the incarnation of the Son of God, the purpose of Heaven is fulfilled. {DA 161.1}

In whom was it fulfilled? In the man Jesus Christ.

God dwells in humanity, and through saving grace the heart of man becomes again His temple. God designed that the temple at Jerusalem should be a continual witness to the high destiny open to every soul. But the Jews had not understood the significance of the building they regarded with so much pride. They did not yield themselves as holy temples for the Divine Spirit. The courts of the temple at Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart, defiled by the presence of sensual passion and unholy thoughts. In cleansing the temple from the world’s buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin,–from the earthly desires, the selfish lusts, the evil habits, that corrupt the soul. {DA 161.1}

His presence will cleanse and sanctify the soul, so that it may be a holy temple unto the Lord, and “an habitation of God through the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:21, 22. {DA 161.2}

What is Gods purpose to this earth? I will not abhor you, I will come to you and Jesus is a representation of that. In the Hebrew sanctuary was the Shekinah glory in the most holy place. God is prepared to come very close to us inside of us to do what; to cleanse us by his presence.

Leviticus 16:18 And he shall go out unto the altar that [is] before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put [it] upon the horns of the altar round about.

 16:19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

The horns of the altar had accumulated what over the year? Sin. They are symbolic of the horns of our altars in the sanctuary.

Jeremiah 17:1 The sin of Judah [is] written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point of a diamond: [it is] graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

What was done symbolically once a year? It was cleansed from all those sins.

The soul must be cleansed from vanity and pride, and vacated of all that has held it in possession, and Christ must be enthroned within. {DA 494.4}

Jesus is looking for people who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Do you want Gods purpose to take full fruition in your soul? We are living on this dark blot with a dark blot in our brain and the Lord is asking us do you want my purpose to take full effect in your life? How will He come in?

The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man and affect his inmost life. {2T 347.2}

The brain nerves have to be carefully cared for so God can come into our being. The Holy Spirit can give us an electric shock and the whole system will be rearranged. Yours and mine understanding of life has been gained by a slow process. The brain nerves are picking up messages. For the senses coming upon us to make any sense are accumulated in the brain from baby hood up. Senses of hearing, sight and touch. The combination of all these different sensations coming in are carefully accumulated so they become meaningful to us. This has taken a lifetime as we are now adults. God comes along and says I have to rearrange you all. Everything that has become meaningful to you has to be rearranged.

By many this is called sudden conversion; but it is the result of long wooing by the Spirit of God,–a patient, protracted process. {DA 172.3}

Many believe God will do magic that He will touch your life and you will be rearranged magically and all that is required to be saved is going to happen like a magician and you are perfect. That is not how it works. God works via scientific principles.

Truth must be apprehended by the intellect, received into the heart, and its principles incorporated into the character; and then there must be a constant effort to win others to accept it, for God holds men responsible for the use they make of the light He imparts to them. {5T 272.2}

This is a new development from what had been developed in babyhood. It is patient process as truth comes from the intellect. When it discovers the sense of it, it goes into the heart. What is the first point of call? The truth must be apprehended by the intellect. It goes up from the senses from the hearing, the seeing as you hear the truth and read the Bible with your eyes, it all brings in messages to your intellect up your spinal cord. The work of getting that truth into the system is the sealing of the 144,000.

Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads–it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved– {4BC 1161.6}

We are to be developed in the intellect to reach the heart. There are horns of your nervous system reaching right up into the brain which also had horns as the Hebrew sanctuary had. The horns on the altar of sacrifice and the horns on the ark of the covenant. It is a perfect replication of the human body. These horns send messages to the intellect but to the intellect only? They must reach the inner chamber. The travelling from the outer court into the most holy place where the throne was to be established.

Man must not only read the Word of God, supposing that a casual knowledge of this Word will bring about in him a reformation of character. This work only the One who is the way, the truth, and the life can accomplish. Firmly may certain doctrines of truth be held. Again and again they may be reiterated, till the holders come to think that they are indeed in possession of the great blessings which these doctrines represent. But the greatest, most powerful truths may be held, and yet kept in the outer court, exerting little influence to make the daily life wholesome and fragrant. The soul is not sanctified through the truth that is not practiced.–Letter 16, 1892. {Ev 290.1}

Justification is only a small part of our work. I must accept justification because without it the work can’t even start but then the knowledge of justification which is grasped by the intellect must be brought into the inner chamber which means what? It means that it must be practised that the reiteration of doctrine in the intellect is only just the first point of call. Many people stop right there. In Early Writings it says people were worshipping in the first apartment and when Jesus wanted them to go into the second apartment, where did they stay? In the first apartment. This is typical of people today. I want to stay here.

But the greatest, most powerful truths may be held, and yet kept in the outer court, exerting little influence to make the daily life wholesome and fragrant. The soul is not sanctified through the truth that is not practiced.–Letter 16, 1892. {Ev 290.1}

You can know the truth and be the worst of for it as you become so judgemental according to intellect. This and that isn’t right according to intellect and you are judgemental and not very fragrant in the home or church.

The truth is kept altogether too much in the outer court. Bring it into the inner temple of the soul, enthrone it in the heart, and let it control the life. The word of God should be studied and obeyed, then the heart will find rest and peace and joy, and the aspirations will tend heavenward; but when truth is kept apart from the life, in the outer court, the heart is not warmed with the glowing fire of God’s goodness. {5T 547.1}

God is very precious. He comes to us at the first point of call through our brain nerves. He shows us the truth and we say wonderful. Nebuchadnezzar got it. He knew that God was the God of the universe and he even used his intellect to control everyone else. How many of us do that? God is so gentle leading us to the point where our intellect can grasp it but then he is only just coming close to the door of the heart. He has been so gentle to lead us intellectually to lead us into truth but now he calls.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

I will not abhor you. I will come and sup with you. Isn’t that what Jesus did? Didn’t he come and sup with us in Gethsemane? What was he supping with us? Our depravity and our sinfulness. He became sin so he could make us righteous. He came to cleanse our mental exercises of our brain. As you looked at the detail of what Jesus did for us your intellect says what and you are called to open your heart to that. There are many that come to the point and say if I open my heart, this is going to kill me. it is a reality it is going to kill us we have to die with Jesus Christ and that is what the intellect doesn’t want. The heart corrupted by sin says wait.

No man can of himself cast out the evil throng that have taken possession of the heart. Only Christ can cleanse the soul temple. But He will not force an entrance. He comes not into the heart as to the temple of old;. {DA 161.2}

Some say Jesus came with his whip in the temple and threw out the money changers and we think that it is okay. He did that to demonstrate that if we let him into the heart he will do to the temple of the heart what he did there. Cleanse it from all its passion and pride. Does a proud person want to be cleansed from pride? As your intellect grasps what God did in Jesus Christ and you discover through your intellect the depravity of the human race, can’t you see it? Stop living in a dream world it is going to come here too as it came to Japan, Christ Church and Brazil and all the places that had catastrophes, it is going to get worse. God will speak to us through catastrophes. Why? Because those catastrophes are the consequence of sin. It is not God arbitrarily saying let me in your heart. With all those things he is knocking may I come in. he doesn’t force and entrance.

but He says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.” Revelation 3:20. He will come, not for one day merely; for He says, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; . . . and they shall be My people.” “He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” 2 Corinthians 6:16; Micah 7:19. His presence will cleanse and sanctify the soul, so that it may be a holy temple unto the Lord, and “an habitation of God through the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:21, 22. {DA 161.2}

His presence will do this. Oh will you let him in? What does He say?

Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

What is He saying? I can’t make you. I can’t force you. Please give me your heart. who is speaking? Jesus. What is the heart?

The heart, the seat of the affections, must be transformed, the moral nature renewed by grace. {ST, March 3, 1881 par. 4}

The affections are operating in the frontal lobe and are being decided upon together with the frontal lobe. The heart must be transformed. What is our intelligent involvement in this? What is the intellect? Has that anything to do with the frontal lobe and the most holy place of the sanctuary. It is the channel through which you reach the most holy place.

it must be cleansed by the Spirit from all defilement. This cannot be done without the consent of the individual. {AG 295.2}

Your intellect must consent and then he can come in as the heart doesn’t want it but the intellect must consent. To consent for God to be enthroned as the monarch in the most holy place. Your intellect is also a monarch. The horns of the altar. There is a monarch there. It is called the will. Examine your will. Is that a monarch? This monarch is a very proud monarch. Nebuchadnezzar represents every individual with a strong will.

  Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding power which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or unto disobedience…. {OHC 103.2}

There is the monarch of your own self.

  You desire to make your life such as will fit you for heaven at last. You are often discouraged at finding yourself weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits and customs of your old life in sin…. Your promises are like ropes of sand…. {OHC 103.3}

   You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. You may believe and promise all things, but your promises or your faith are of no value until you put your will on the side of faith and action. {OHC 103.4}

Faith is the hand that must act. Your will must make the hand do what God says.

If you fight the fight of faith with all your will power, you will conquer. {OHC 103.4}

I hate it when people say you can’t do anything and God will do everything. Is that right? Your will must be operative. That is the monarch of the human nature.

Your feelings, your impressions, your emotions, are not to be trusted, for they are not reliable…. {OHC 103.4}

He will what? Immediately come rushing in.

Your whole nature will then be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ, and even your thoughts will be subject to Him. You cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire; but you can control the will, and you can make an entire change in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, your life will be hid with Christ in God and allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from God that will hold you fast to His strength; and a new light, even the light of living faith, will be possible to you. But your will must cooperate with God’s will…. {OHC 103.5}

Isn’t this a perfect answer to all human concerns? I can’t save myself I’m so weak and helpless. Yes you are. Of course but you have a will. Have you got a strong will? I will not is that right? That is a strong will. Yes I will do what God says I have a strong will. That is the intellect grasping and saying what God is showing us. The smoker is so enslaved and he really craves that cigarette and he is so enslaved but if he has a will it doesn’t matter how he feels. Okay I’m going through withdrawal symptoms but I have a will that says I will not and God I will do as you say and God will immediately come in and He will draw close and control your passions and cleanse your depravity. We must place. Let Him in as the monarch in the most holy place in the frontal lobe. God patiently waits. Knock, knock. Let Him in. Let Him into the secret chamber of your emotional affectionate being. Emotions and affections have developed that are contrary to this but let Him in to change those emotions and affections. To sit enthroned, to cleanse and rearrange everything. We are living in the time of the cleansing go the heavenly sanctuary in which every sin is to be removed out of heave but can it be removed out of there if it is not removed out of our body? This is the present truth held by original Adventism for many years and today it is thrown out and said we don’t’ need that past truth anymore. It is a bewilderment.

God calls upon you to yield pride and stubbornness, and to let His peace rule in your hearts. A meek and quiet spirit must be cherished. Carry Christ’s meekness with you in all your labors. An excited temper and cutting censure will not impress the people or gain their sympathy. If we have the truth, we can afford to be calm and unexcited. Our language should be modest and elevated. The spirit you have cherished within has left its impression upon the countenance. Christ, enthroned in the soul-temple, will efface that fretful, peevish, unhappy looked; and as the cloud of witnesses looked upon a man reflecting the image of Christ, they will realize that he is surrounded by a pleasant atmosphere. The world will see that amid storms of abuse he stands unmoved, like the lofty cedar. That man is one of God’s heroes. He has overcome himself. {4T 348.2}

Have you seen how people glow when Jesus is in them and then something comes and it’s gone? We have put our conscious to sleep, we start concentrating on other things. Who is a good example of that besides Jesus? Daniel. He was calm and meek and stood firm. He was the example for the 144,000 which we must be. Let this mind be in you.

Every man through whom God works will have to learn that the living, ever-present, ever-acting God is supreme, and has lent him talents to use–an intellect to originate;. {ML 332.2}

As God is taking you along the path of cleansing, what does He make you aware of?

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

 55:9 For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Now I’m enthroned in your heart, thoughts will come but those thoughts are not my thoughts. There is going to be a conflict in the mind. The recorded memories and feelings and emotional entrenched experiences that you have relied upon in the past god is systematically cleaned. The emotional past that has governed me, it is no longer to be part of me as God is controlling. The will must continually function as he doesn’t take away our will. Even now He is the monarch he still wants my will to coincide with his.

  “What voice will you acknowledge as the voice of God? What power has the Lord in reserve to correct your errors, and show you your course as it is? What power to work in the church? If you refuse to believe until every shadow of uncertainty and every possibility of doubt is removed, you will never believe. The doubt that demands perfect knowledge will never yield to faith. Faith rests upon evidence, not demonstration. The Lord requires us to obey the voice of duty, when there are other voices all around us urging us to pursue an opposite course. {9MR 205.1}

Just because Jesus is enthroned in my holy place does it mean I won’t hear those other voices anymore. I must continually follow the voice of the monarch of my mind when there are other voices telling me other things.

It requires earnest attention from us to distinguish the voice which speaks for God. We must resist and conquer inclination, and obey the voice of conscience without parleying or compromise, lest its promptings cease and will and impulse control. {9MR 205.1}

How The Voice Will Talk to You

The word of the Lord comes to us all who have not resisted His Spirit by determining not to hear and obey. This voice is heard in warnings, in counsels, in reproof. It is the Lord’s message of light to His people. If we wait for louder calls, or better opportunities, the light may be withdrawn, and we left in darkness. {9MR 205.1}

Will I listen to the voice?

We should ever cherish a sense that, individually, we are standing before the Lord of hosts; no word, no act, no thought, even, should be indulged to offend the eye of the Eternal One. . . . {AG 202.5}

We should ever cherish a sense that, individually, we are standing before the Lord of hosts; no word, no act, no thought, even, should be indulged, to offend the eye of the Eternal One. We shall then have no fear of man or of earthly power, because a Monarch, whose empire is the universe, who holds in His hands our individual destinies for time and eternity, is taking cognizance of all our work. {5T 69.1}

Just because He is the monarch does it mean He is allowed to control unless we constantly cherish His presence there. Intellectual knowledge is only the first point of call by the Lord. To be truly effective and saving, the soul temple must be enthroned by the monarch of the universe and served by the monarch of the will.

The Atonement

   The only way in which we can gain a more perfect apprehension of truth is by keeping the heart tender and subdued by the Spirit of Christ. The soul must be cleansed from vanity and pride, and vacated of all that has held it in possession, and Christ must be enthroned within. Human science is too limited to comprehend the atonement. The plan of redemption is so far-reaching that philosophy cannot explain it. {DA 494.4}

Don’t worry about arguing the point on the atonement with people who are only concentrating on philosophical understanding. They can’t understand it. The true nature of the atonement can’t be worked out by the most profound reasoning but it can be experienced. May God allow us to have his thoughts and ways be the controlling force in a mind that can’t fathom it.

Amen.