The Transformation of the Mind: Practical Cultivation of the Mental Powers

Mental Powers

The word power is a very etymologically rich word. It carries the ideas of ability, capability, authority, and strength. At its heart, power means the ability or capacity to act, accomplish, influence, control, or produce an effect. In the context of this exposition, by mental powers I am referring to the natural abilities, capacities, or faculties of the mind. The mind is an integrated system of these mental powers, which may be distinguished into two broad classes: the higher or governing powers, by which the mind discerns, reasons, judges, and chooses; and the lower or responsive powers, by which it experiences emotions, desires, appetites, passions, and affections. These two classes are not independent but are designed to cooperate harmoniously, the lower powers functioning under the wise government of the higher powers and, ultimately, under the direction of the will. Sadly, often the will is subject to the power of the Adversary of God and man. The higher powers of the mind are weakened and become servants to the lower powers, enslaving humanity to the baser passions of our nature. This is the reality of a sinful nature: the intellectual and moral powers are made subject to the lower powers and the baser passions of our nature. Whilst we are still here, let us clarify one thing. By the term lower powers, I do not mean these faculties are evil in themselves or of less value; rather, I am pointing to their subordinate place in the divinely established order of the mind. They are intended to function under the government of the higher powers. I must make another very important distinction here between lower powers and baser passions. Lower powers refer to those faculties through which we experience appetites, desires, emotions, passions and affections. Their defining characteristic is that they are intended to be subject to the higher moral and intellectual faculties. Baser passions refer to the condition or expression of these faculties when they have become ungoverned, sensual, or corrupt. That is a moral description, not merely a structural one.

Be ye transformed by the renewal of the mind

From conception we are born with character defects, minds filled with distorted ideas of how to govern the mental powers, and rebellious tendencies and propensities. As we grow older, we cultivate more of these defective traits and exercise the inherent ones; therefore, we amplify the defects and fortify the problem. Scripture, speaking of this problem, points out that “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” This is a very penetrating and accurate diagnosis of the human mind and nature. Interestingly enough, this passage clearly describes the human condition. The idea is that the government of our minds is fully under the dictates of our fallen nature, a lawless nature inherently inclined to violate every principle that God has given, therefore ill-governed and misregulated. It is then crucial for us to acknowledge this problem and willingly accept the gift of mental renewal, a recreation of our minds. Again, Scripture, speaking of this process, clearly states, “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” This is another profound passage that carries far more than modern English can express; this passage speaks of the qualitative restoration of the integrated system of the mental powers, the governing system through which character and personality are formed and regulated. If we are to learn how to cultivate our mental powers for optimal performance and health, this transformation and renewal of our mental governance is imperative.

The Power of Thoughts

The concept of thinking is mind-captivating; it is a highly engaging one. Oh! It is amazingly thought-provoking. Our thoughts, under the power of the will, direct the course of our lives. Emotions, passions, appetites, and many other experiences that I will not mention here are primarily designed to be subject to our thoughts. Since the overall experience of life hangs upon the nature and quality of our thoughts, it is of the utmost importance that we use every means that God has placed within our reach for the government and cultivation of our thoughts. Thoughts are the substance of thinking. Thinking is the integrated operation of the mental faculties under the direction of the will, in which perception, memory, reasoning, judgment, imagination, emotion, conscience, and other mental faculties interact dynamically to perceive, interpret, relate, evaluate, organize, and apply information, experiences, and ideas in order to understand reality, solve problems, make judgments, direct conduct, and pursue meaningful ends. Simply put, thinking is the integrated operation of all the mental powers, with the higher powers governing the lower. Therefore, the mind is the system, and thinking is the operation. 

The intellectual and moral powers of the mind ought to serve as the governing structure of every thought. Reason and principle must bear sway in the process of thinking, but above all, the will and conscience must be under the control of God’s Spirit and Word. Our thoughts must be brought into subjection to the principles of God’s Word through the Spirit. In order to achieve this, the will, the power to choose and to do, must be surrendered to the sovereignty of Christ. In ourselves, we cannot choose to think rightly, for our minds are naturally subject to the Adversary of man, Satan. Therefore, we must yield to a higher power and authority, “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” Oh! Yes, I am talking about God, who revealed Himself through the Bible and more clearly in the person of Jesus Christ. It is in the power of each one of us to choose which subjects are to fill our minds; our thoughts are our choices. That which we allow into our minds through the avenues of the mind, our senses, becomes the material of our thoughts. It is our prerogative to decide what we entertain in our minds; our safety is in using the Word of God as our measuring rod and wisdom in deciding what subjects we make the substance of our thinking. Effort must be made, and resistance must be applied in this grand enterprise. The enemy of our souls seeks to lure us by appealing to our lower mental powers and baser passions: “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death”; and at times he seeks to violate us and enter by force. Through the Spirit of God, we are to resist the Devil and he will flee. Satan seeks to corrupt our thoughts and inflame our passions. “All are free moral agents. And as such they must bring their thoughts to run in the right channel…. If Satan seeks to divert the mind from this to low and sensual things, bring it back again, and place it on eternal things; and when the Lord sees the determined effort made to retain only pure thoughts, He will attract the mind, like the magnet, and purify the thoughts…. The first work for those who would reform is to purify the imagination. If the mind is led out in a vicious direction, it must be restrained to dwell only upon pure and elevated subjects. When tempted to yield to a corrupt imagination, then flee to the throne of grace, and pray for strength from Heaven. In the strength of God the imagination can be restricted to dwell upon things which are pure and heavenly….” In the Scriptures we read, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

The Fallacy of Trusting in Feelings 

Naturally, we are inclined towards the lower powers of the mind; they rule over us. Our emotions tend to control our actions, and we subject our reason and principle to our feelings. This is a great mistake, a perversion of the mental order. To experience emotions is a wonderful ability that God has bestowed upon us, but they must not rule our characters and, as a result, dictate our behaviours. This ought not to be so. It has become an unspoken rule that human feelings govern our culture and behaviour. It has become the rule of action for many. “If it makes you feel good, it must be good.” No, no, no! It is a disaster to subject our choices and decisions to feelings. Having mastery over one’s feelings should be the standard we all strive for. We are in chaotic times, a perverse generation, completely enslaved by the baser passions. Ungoverned emotions lead to all kinds of shameful and dangerous acts. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city… He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.” Our feelings should always be subjected to pure reason and principle. Before we express them or yield to their demands, we must first ask, Will that reflect the will of God for humanity in us? Will it be for the benefit of our fellowmen? If we cannot answer these questions in the affirmative, then those feelings must be subdued. We are also to guard against the extreme of nullifying our feelings or those of our fellow beings. We must guard against the opposite error of suppressing or denying them, yet, though we are to respect them and acknowledge their existence and value, we also are to regulate them and never exalt them above the intellectual and moral powers. They must be under the government of the higher powers of the mind. It is true that feelings can be overwhelming and too intense. It will do us good to remember that, in our efforts to regulate our emotions, we must ask for the aid of God. As co-labourers together with Him, we must remember that our efforts are effective because God supplies the power. Where the force of feelings presses against the authority of reason and principle, it would do one good to withdraw into a secluded space, to pray, and wait for the fog of emotions to disappear so that one can perceive the situation or stimulus clearly and judge soundly. Faith and a well-informed application of principle will do much more good than an impulsive act of excitement or passion. Passion and excitement can be blinding. It is therefore wise to step back, take a deep breath in and out, reason, and test the spirit through the Word of God before you make any move. “If you fight the fight of faith with all your willpower, you will conquer. Your feelings, your impressions, your emotions, are not to be trusted, for they are not reliable.. the truth is that he who is mastered by his passions is a weak man. The real greatness and nobility of the man is measured by the power of the feelings that he subdues, not by the power of the feelings that subdue him.. If you cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, you can control the will, and thus an entire change will be wrought in your life. When you yield up your will to Christ, your life is hid with Christ in God.”

The Snare of Appetites

“And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.” Self-mastery is the standard we are to constantly reach out to. God created mankind to have mastery of himself in all things. That is godliness—godlikeness—to have the image of God. We are to have control over our desires and appetites. The word appetite is an interesting one. An appetite is not merely a feeling that happens to us. At its root, it is a movement of the soul or mind toward an object, an inward impulse that reaches out or strives toward something perceived as desirable. One could have an appetite for food, knowledge, honor, pleasure (whether sexual or otherwise), wealth, power, etc. Appetite does not refer only to hunger; it means desire, longing, inclination, eagerness, and pursuit of something regarded as good. Appetites must also be brought into full subjection to the higher powers of the mind. Up until now, I’ve been mentioning reason and principle, but what is the nature of this reason and principle by which we are to govern our mental powers? Reason is not a mere faculty of the mind; it is the ability to establish what is truth by assessing and evaluating evidence or facts in a given matter or subject. Since the Word of God is the very essence and foundation of all truth, what better standard is there by which to test all things than the Word of God? In His Word, He has also given us the only principles by which we are to live and thrive, the Ten Commandments. Every appetite is to be examined by reason using the testimony of God’s Word and the Ten Commandments as the standards. 

Appetites are a gift intended for the benefit of mankind, but when they are left unchecked, they become a curse and a cause of many heartaches. Every good gift comes from the Lord; yet good things, when misused, serve a purpose contrary to that which the Giver intended. This is Satan’s specialty: to cause us to misuse the gifts of God. The greatest deception in defence of this fallacy is the belief that, “If I am made with this appetite, there is nothing wrong with indulging it as I wish; after all, I am to follow my heart.” How wrong we can be on this matter! All things that pertain to life are made to be subject to the laws that the Maker of all saw fit to establish for the good and well-being of His children. Love is the goal of both moral and natural law. Our appetites are to serve only two purposes: to reveal the will and heart of God toward humanity and to benefit both the individual and his fellowmen. Anything that serves either to misrepresent God or to harm man is never to be allowed to become the standard by which we determine how to exercise our God-given mental powers, both the governing powers and the responsive ones. Like every other power entrusted to mankind, the appetites are not independent rulers but responsive servants, intended to operate under the government of reason, principle, and the will of God. 

We are the crowning act of God’s work of creation; we are a unique and special order of creation, made in the image of God. Though we have lost our high estate in the order of the universe, though sin has dragged us down and corrupted our beauty and God-given ability to live in harmony with Him, Christ gave all to restore us to our God-intended state. In Him and through Him, we can be transformed, mentally renewed, and become new creatures after the heavenly order. The renewing of the mind, therefore, is not merely the correction of wrong thoughts, but the restoration of the entire government of the mental powers according to the divine order established at creation. As every power resumes its God-appointed place under the authority of reason and the principles of God, the image of God is progressively restored in man, fitting him once again for harmony with Heaven. Redemption is not merely the forgiveness of sin, but the restoration of God’s moral government within the soul, where every mental power once again occupies the place assigned to it by the Creator. The question is, are we going to let this grand opportunity pass us by?

References

Holy Bible (KJV)

• Romans 8:7
• Romans 12:2
• 2 Corinthians 10:5
• James 1:14–15
• James 4:7
• Philippians 4:8
• Proverbs 16:32
• Proverbs 25:28
• 1 Corinthians 9:25

Ellen G. White

• Mind, Character, and Personality, Vol. 2, pp. 595–596 (Chapter 63, “Imagination”; especially 2MCP 595.2–595.3).
• Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, p. 513.
• Mind, Character, and Personality, Vol. 2, p. 693 (on mastering the passions; compiled from earlier writings).
• Steps to Christ, p. 47.