“Folks”

“Folks”

How the Message Began

I will define Folk or Folks here as people in general. The way this message came about is quite funny. The Holy Spirit led me to intercede in prayer for a particular person. I had spent time in prayer as the Lord unfolded what to pray for. Sometime later, while talking with the person and listening I was so excited because I knew that God was moving and prayers were being answered swiftly. Listening I grew more excited just about ready to jump up and shout unto the Lord about their victories, until the conversation shifted. The more I encouraged them in the Lord, the more they would boast about their willful sin and ungodly decisions.

The air of rejoicing in my balloon began to slowly deflate. At this point, I’m really feeling ‘some kind of way’ like this conversation is over; But the Holy Spirit is saying keep listening quietly. As they went on and on I became concerned that my silence would be taken as agreement or approval or dissent. I didn’t realize it at the time but me continuing to listen was actually gaining intel or prayer points. The conversation ended politely and turning to God, I just began to laugh. I could not stop laughing, then the Lord began to laugh with me and as if we were both shaking our heads in laughter (This is the type of friendship I have with Jesus). I heard “FOLKS”. After hearing the word Folks I really began to laugh. While laughing in the Presence of God I got the revelation of ‘Folks’.

God Loves in Spite of our Flaws

We are all Folk, extraordinary people that God loves in spite of our flaws, quirks, issues, and hang-ups. We all have unique personalities and are wonderfully created by God. He knows every detail of our lives and the number of our days. The Holy Spirit showed me how God takes ‘Folk’ and turns us into His precious Jewels. Jesus came for Folks with all kinds of filth, disgust, mess, and short comings and He transforms us like diamonds and pearls. The Lord our God is not intimidated or frustrated by our ‘todayness’. Some of us take an honest look at ourselves and know, “I am not up to par”. “I need to get it together”. “I am better than this”. “I can do more than this”. “I am stuck in this”. “I can’t seem to break free from this”. “Will I ever get over this”. “I am disappointed in myself”. “Is this all there is to my life”. By ‘todayness’ I mean Folk who look at yourself your life through the lens of how you are right now, today; the natural you.

Folk will sometimes say the familiar phrase ‘I’m not what I should be, but I’m not what I used to be either”. So today in your ‘todayness’ mindset I want to challenge you to take the shades off so that you can see your flawed self clearly. Yes, we are all ‘Folk’ with shortcomings and imperfections that is true. However, my challenge for you is to “Put on the mind of Christ” concerning yourself and others. When the mind changes, everything else changes. You are who God says that you are and you can do what God says that you can do.

Get Your Mind Right

Romans 12: 1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (NIV).

Rom. 12:1-2 (NJKV) 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 (or spiritual worship). ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed (changed) by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Rom. 12:1-2 (TPT) Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.² Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.

A Challenge

Can I Challenge you to ‘Put on the mind of Christ.’? What does it mean to put on the mind of Christ. I believe that putting on the mind of Christ is thinking about ourselves like God thinks about us. Philippians 2:5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Isaiah 55: ⁸ “For my thoughts about mercy are not like your thoughts, and my ways are different from yours. ⁹ As high as the heavens are above the earth, so my ways and my thoughts are higher than yours. ¹¹ So also will be the word that I speak; it does not return to me unfulfilled. My word performs my purpose and fulfills the mission I sent it out to accomplish.”

Isaiah 55:8-13 New Living Translation ⁸ “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. ⁹ For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. ¹¹ It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. ¹² You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! ¹³ Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up. These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”

Let’s Talk About Love

Folk in order for us to put on another’s mindset, we would have to consider who they are and their nature. We all have a nature and personality. We are all made in the image and likeness of our Creator, God. And God is Love. First Corinthians chapter 13 talks about love. ⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.⁸ Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (NKJV)

First Corinthian 13: ⁴ Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. ⁵ Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. ⁶ Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. ⁷ Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up. Perfect Love ⁸ Love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away. It is more enduring than tongues, which will one day fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten. ⁹ Our present knowledge and our prophecies are but partial, ¹⁰ but when love’s perfection arrives, the partial will fade away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child. But the day came when I matured, and I set aside my childish ways.¹² For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood. ¹³ Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run (TPT).

The Mind of Christ

I am still talking about putting on the mind of Christ and viewing yourself through the correct perspective as a Christian Believer. Seeing yourselves clearly truly understanding who you are. To have this mindset you have to understand God. To understand God we have to understand the dynamic of His love. This is how God sees us, through His love, the mind of Christ:

• “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9
• Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will… Ephesians 1:4-5
• For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
• Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people, for all the earth is Mine Exodus 19:5
• But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life Romans 6:22

The mind of Christ about Folks:

• I created you in my own image Genesis 1:27
• My eyes saw your unformed substance Psalm 139:16
• I knit you together in your mother’s womb Psalm 139:13
• I know the number of hairs on your head Matthew 10:30
• Before a word is on your tongue I know it Psalm 139:4
• While you were still sinners Christ died for you
• God’s Grace gets the last word, not sin.

We, Folk, that have received Jesus Christ as Savior are the righteousness of God. Second Corinthians 5:21 ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. NIV. ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (NLT) ²¹ For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God through our union with him. (TPT)

The Power of the Holy Ghost

First Corinthians 2: 14-16 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Since we have the mind of Christ, why not put it on. Like having your favorite outfit hanging in the closest waiting for a special occasion to wear it. Just put it on, why not, you have it. To put on the mind of Christ we need to become more acquainted with the Holy Spirit. God is a spirit John 4:24 says, God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit that lives within us. Our goal is to become more aware of the Presence of the Spirit of the Living God within us.

The Holy Spirit of the Living God within us. Can you imagine having someone who loves you dearly living inside your house. A person living in your house who absolutely cherishes you, wants to spend lots of time with you, where you are the priority. The Person is right there in your house, but you never even acknowledge their presence. Growing up in Detroit my parents would remind us, always be aware of your surroundings. Folk I would like to remind you of this today, be aware of your surroundings, the presence of God within you: The Holy Spirit.

Put on the mind of Christ through your world view of every aspect of your life. Having a Biblical worldview is putting on the mind of Christ, Jesus makes this possible. Your worldview is the lens through which you see the world. The mind of Christ is the Word of God. John 1:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 

These things cannot be understood with your natural mind, you need the mind of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit who will lead and guide you into all truth. To sum up, see yourself and others through the mind of Christ, through the lens of love with an eternal Kingdom of God view point. To do this you need to be aware of the Holy Spirit within you and to acknowledge His presence like you would a Wanted guest in your home. The more aware you are of the Holy Spirit in you, the more you are able to put on the mind of Christ. You need the Holy Spirit in order to see yourself as God sees you, to renew your mind and be transformed.

Folks, partner with the Holy Spirit to put on the mind of Christ:

1. You have the mind of Christ by Grace through your faith in Jesus Christ
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you put on the mind of Christ
3. Give God your time and attention meditating, studying, rehearsing, pondering, considering, thinking, and confessing the Word of God daily a priority
4. Choose your thoughts on purpose, choose to think with the mind of Christ as you are led by the Holy Spirit

The mind of Christ concerning His Folks: Isaiah 62:3 You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

If you are already Saved, you have the mind of Christ. Just put it on.

If you are not Saved this is an Invitation just for you to Receive the Free Gift of Salvation. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Invite Jesus Christ into your heart right now today. Say Lord Jesus I am a sinner. Forgive me of all my sins and come into my heart right now. I receive you as Lord of my life forever, Amen.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved Romans 10:9.

Welcome to Salvation. Welcome to Eternal Life with God. Welcome to Abundant Life. You are now welcome to Put on the Mind of Christ. You are being celebrated and rejoiced over in heaven. In Luke 15:7, Jesus continued, “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents.

Folks, put on the mind of Christ and be led by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus, after His Resurrection promised His Apostles that He would send them the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. “For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). John the Baptist also foretold this: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). On the 50th day, Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles as tongues of fire. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:4).