The mindfulness of God. Isaiah 17:10. Message delivered today 17-03-2019
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The word mindfulness of God according to the scripture is to be occupied with him, and to be thoughtful of him, and to seek the Lord and his strength, to seek his face forever (for thou, O Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. Psalms 9:10. Psalms105:4): much more, to attend to the Lord by attending and giving him all our attention, and to turn over or lay down every challenging and distracting cares at the feet of him who give us life and sustains us with abundant care (the Lord has been mindful of us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; he will bless those who fear the Lord- small and great together. Psalms 115:12-14) for which of us, by taking thoughts, can add one moment to his lifespan? Not only should the soul bless the Lord for the sweet and blessed memories of his goodness and all his benefits, but the soul should be careful and mindful to dwell on the fountain of life which holds our soul in life and suffers not our feet to be moved. Psalms 66:9.                            
On these definitions shall I, by the grace of God, to establish the above text, and to give explanation and sense of what should be our attitudes and responses to the uninterrupted mindfulness of God towards us: to make known, through divine examples, those things which consists of the mindfulness of God in our lives. To start with, the failure and fall of the first parents was on their unmindfulnesss and thoughtless neglect and effects of it to the instructions and warnings from the owner of the garden they were placed to live – the condition for their stable and continuous accommodation and existence before him who has placed them to live in it: and to talk about the Israelis failure in the wilderness, it is summarise in this, that they soon forget (mindless and thoughtless of his steadfast love, greatness, faithfulness and might) his works, and waited not for his counsel. Psalms 106:13.                                                                                             
What is man that thou (God) are mindful of him and the son of man you visit him? Psalms 8:4. For the sole fact that man was created in the image after the likeness of God, man is God’s greatest eternal project. This is no surprise that his focus, care and attention are on man (his treasure or precious jewels. Malachi 3:17) so he’s mindful of him to invest all his resources to save and keep him with him, and his eyes sees not sleep neither slumber for man’s safety, but how little man thought of him, and how evil it is when no attention and devotion is given to express appreciation to the loving kindness and great affection shown by bastardize (John 8:44-47) acts before him who performs all things appointed for man (Job23:14) and in whose hand is the breadth of his life. The right and grateful response from man is to reflect God in his thoughts and feelings: to show, not only by expression, lest he becomes as such whose mouth is closer to God but their heart is far from him, but by behaviours and attitudes in his pursuit to glorify Christ in him and him in Christ in word of deeds in whatever he says or does, and to desist from seeking his own will or glory.
Satan and the world seek to engage us with many things to get the mind filled with nothingness and vexation of spirit away from God. The devil seeks for our attention to engage us in our own strength and wisdom in battle, but if our mind is stayed solely in God and our soul follow hard after him, his right hand shall forever hold us (Psalms 63:8) and we shall be kept now and forever in his perfect peace from all fears, dangers and troubles. While some seek him, they don’t trust him at all times because they falter in difficulties to lean on their own understanding, and look away from God like Peter looked away from Christ when he saw the wind boisterous while walking on water, thus are mot mindful of him. Those who are mindful of him also trust perfectly at all times by not turning to human’s wisdom or heathen’s solutions – not going down to Egypt for help, by strength shall no man prevail. God will not share his glory with any man, but those who are mindful of him shall not do anything to enable anyone to lay claim to the glory due unto their God, lest any should say unto them what their father Abraham found repugnant before the king of Sodom that I have made Abraham rich. Genesis 14:23. This have laboured to enter into the rest of God and they are enjoying the present rest of God in their tribulations, distresses, persecution, afflictions and trials to keep his way, and to wait on him; and in them is the love of God perfected, not giving any attention to the world or Satan, but their concentration is on what God is bringing out of those things he allows them to go through – thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:yea, in the way of thy judgments, o Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Isaiah 26: 3-9.
 The Mindfulness of God cannot be separated from (1) seeking to increasingly grow in intimacy by spending quality time daily with him, and by watching against, and careful of any man or anything that may come between to diminish or destroys the flows of the fellowships with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. (2.) The flesh should be subdued and keep under subjection, lest the old man once crucified with Christ be revived and I make myself a transgressor. My personal will and objectives which are in conflict and not in conformity to the good, acceptable and perfect will and purposes of God for my life should be drastically discarded, lest I wander out of the way of good understanding to abide in the congregation of the dead (Proverbs 21:16), ignorantly unaware that blindness of heart alienates from the life of God, even as the first parents were made to pay for their spiritual laxity and unmindfulnesss (the trait of ignoring or forgetting your responsibility) of their benefactor. Relationships flourish on active – conscious fellowship and responsibility in the faithful readiness of the performance of duties of each party involve, but the absence of increasing growth in your fellowship shows an inconsequential spirit for all of God’s care and an in-considerate heart for how he feels about you. If you don’t care or don’t even want to know how the heavenly Father feels about you (John 8: 29), then you are accursed. Though a profess child of God, you should know that resolute adherence to your own ideas and desire is stubbornness – continuous or persistent damnable idolatrous life, but yielding to and living by the word of God in gradual or increasing obedience enlarges the scope or extent of God’s mindfulness in your life. As your obedience increases, the inner transformation works of the Holy Spirit is also made visible, and you are consciously watchful so you don’t lose what you have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward. 2 John 8. Note: we can never get the true picture of God’s majesty and greatness, to experience his omnipotent power in our personal life and experiences if we are not mindful of how he feels about our courageous, cowardliness, wise or foolish decisions, or the egoistic ambitions; and to stand still, and not to retreat from any danger, pain or any suffering for his name’s sake…by faith Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, seeing him who is invisible. Moses realisation of his life’s purpose, its obligation to pursue its course, and willingness to pay the price of self abandonment to fulfil the will and purpose of God was the character of the man filled with God’s thoughts and will (mindfulness) not bothering to secure his happiness and future prestige at the palace. This is the activated grace that activated the power and God’s glory displayed from the desert of burning bush, back to the land of Egypt, and to the crossing of the red sea into the wilderness until his death. God’s thoughts toward us are peace and his feelings are good-will and not evil, even to give us expected end. Hebrews 11:27. Except we remove the inner mind eyes, thoughts and affections away from God, we cannot fail, fall or be moved by the enemy’s assaults. The heart where Jesus is truly dwelling by faith should not dwells on its problems and difficulties, but to set the Lord on his right hand and cast those burdens onto him, if he’s mindful that he cares for him, and his feet shall he pluck out of the net. Were Shadrach with his two other brethren not delivered from king Nebuchadnezzar furnace of fire because they were not careful to deny the king of his request, but mindful not to hurt God’s feelings if they should bow to the king’s image? Today, many prefer to hurt God than to displease earthly father, mother, relatives, friends and society’s unholy and ungodly expectations and demands on them. They are fearful and mindful of men’s approval, honour, acceptance and commendation than that which comes from God. Many would half -heartedly do or altogether excused and refused to do anything in their capacity they would not profit or be thanked and openly appreciated for because of their unmindfulnesss that they are indeed serving Christ through their brethren – and whatsoever you do, do it with all your heart, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing (conscious and mindful) that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of inheritance: for you serve the Lord Christ. But he that does wrong shall receive for the wrong which he has done: and there is no respect of persons. Colossians 3: 23-24. The present attainment to the fullness of God in Christ Jesus is derive from the conscious mindfulness of him, when your action is centred on his opinion, and your attention and time is consumed by him, at work, in the street at home and not only in the church, when his ways are your ways, by forsaking the ways of the foolish and of this world to walk in the paths of life and understanding: knowing assuredly that whatever is done to any of these little or great one which believes in him is done to him or against him: by these principles, you’re remembering and mindful of him in all your ways, and are acknowledging his omnipresence (out of sight is out of mind) in your submissiveness to his pleasure and sole interest, not considering man’s reaction and frowns, just like Joseph was mindful of his Maker and expressed that any evil done to defraud his master of his wife is done against God. To grow into the fullness of Christ image is the purpose of our adoption into sonships, but it requires gradual inner transformation which can only be wrought in us by being mindful of Christ ways of life in the flesh, his pursuit – I seek not my own will or glory, but his that sent me; and seek to dwell on those character traits of our divine model and forerunner, that our conversation may be as it becomes the gospel of Christ. It is the only way to reflect the Christ that dwells in us – the hope of glory, if it is the true Christ; or for shame and sorrow of eternal damnation, if it is false Christ from another gospel. God is a spirit, and to keep cultivating and producing the fruit of the spirit (which is not seasonal) and to manifest and keep growing daily in its sweetness in any circumstance without interruption in your life is to walk in the spirit. This is all what it takes to be spiritually minded and it is God’s mindfulness which would keep you living in his designate abundant life and peace. Has the scriptures not warns you to be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to make your requests known unto God: and his peace, which passes all human understanding shall keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus? Have you forgotten the exhortation that says, set your affections on things above, and not on things on earth – lay hold on eternal life – here, you have no continue city, but you seek one to come? If you are not mindful of that celestial city and of his great King, whose maker and builder is God, to labour and strive to enter in through the narrow gate, how sure you are that your faith and action, your works and righteousness in Christ would profit and justify your admission and entrance into it? For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh, and they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit. Carnal mind is enmity against God and his laws, he does not subject to them: so then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans8: 5- 8. From this precious text, you can clearly see that the doctrine of self – sufficient, self- consciousness, self- attainment, self sufficing, self supporting, self- discovery, self- improvement, self- enlightenment, self-mindedness, self- indulgence, self-gratification, self exaltation, self – adoration, self- willed and commutative spirit in the free world is from the pit of hell, such as we see the calamitous effects of yielding to the appellation from Satan to undifferentiated consciousness of the first parents – you shall be like God- you shall be wise- you shall know evil from good- you shall be independent of God. The mind that is filled of God would at any instance commit his ways and works into his hands so that his thoughts should be established and his paths be directed from above, and if he is not allowed, will instantly restrain or hold himself back in obedience to divine guidance: but the deceitful heart which is after the pursuit of vain glory would impose his projects upon God as God’s projects, and the end of those projects and their usefulness and gain thereof reveals the intent of the heart and the initial motive behind those things accomplished – self aggrandisement. The devil is after man to think more of himself and for himself. To think and labour of making more money (Proverbs23: 4) and to set his eyes upon that which is not, which makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky. The enemy would make us think of new Island to explore for in the next summer for vacation, but never to think and pray for breaking a new ground for the Lord’s kingdom home and abroad (Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions; how he swore unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; surely, I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Psalms 132: 1-5) to support the missionaries in the field for the Lord’s cause and to plant a new local church. The enemy hates our devotion to God and his purpose; therefore, he seeks to diminish the time we spend with him, and the time we give to him, and to attack us intellectually and emotionally by way of persecution and other distractions of life, purposely to steal and to destroys the momentum of total consecration, allegiance and commitment to God’s mindfulness.
In the old as well as in the new testaments, you’ll found such words as my soul follows hard after you, your right hand holds me up – behold, as the servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he has mercy upon us – Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely, I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child – to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and to lay up for yourself a treasure in heaven, for where your treasure is, there shall your heart be – to rejoice evermore in the Lord, to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks – as obedient children, not fashioning yourself according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he (God) which has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call on Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear – looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent, that you might be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless – it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God – see that you refuse not him (God) that speaks, for if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven: and this word, yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire….these and many other scriptures as them serves as deterrent and preventive measures against whatever lifestyle you delightfully chose to live, and the appearances or resemblance you labour to represent, depict or portray at present in the hope of false eternal salvation you may have in Christ, but not safe in him because his word is testifying against your interest, pursuits, priorities, deeds and ways, even as he exposed Israel’s divided heart when he waxed fat, and kicked, Jeshurun waxen fat, and grown thick, he was covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. Deuteronomy 32:15. Note: both poverty and prosperity has the tendency to distract away from God. They have the power to expose the sincerity, simplicity, pride, humility and the evil in the heart. The former as well as the latter would take away and torn apart the unlearned and unstable heart in the way of righteousness in the times of temptation as the seed sown among the thorns was shock by the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things killed and prevented it to live and grow. Let us therefore implore the Lord for grace and power from his spirit for the ability to be content in whatsoever state, to know how to abound and how to be abased, (temperate and moderate) everywhere in all things to learn both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need, lest the heart be deceived to fall into the error of the rich fool whose soul God took away suddenly for his concentration and mindfulness on food, riches and pleasure against God’s mindfulness, lest the stomach replaces God, and lest we be drawn into the same confusion and condemnation of the perverse disputing of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness.1Timothy 6:5.
 
Be you mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. 1 chronicle 16:15. Note: the measure, quantity and the quality of the covenant word of God mixed with faith in your heart and you chose to live by them to frame your ways and doing before him determines the level of attainable spiritual brokenness to produce half or full or no measure of God’s mindfulness in you. All scripture is given by the inspiration of God (Matthew 13:52) and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instructions in righteousness. It is simple, if you embrace all scripture, to speak and do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty: certainly, you will receive the super abundance grace coming from the knowledge of God and of our Christ, being filled with the word and the spirit, and being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ: these three are inseparable as factual evidences to establish the truth of the mindfulness of God in Christ Jesus in your life. 2 Timothy 3:16-17. You can have more of God and be filled of him, but it all depends on what you give access to your thought life – into the heart. You can choose to break away from the other link which opens the door for the strangers and kick them out and shut the door of your heart from whatsoever things that are not true, honest, just, pure, lovely and obedient to the word in your thoughts pattern and lifestyles in supplicating prayer before God that all your attention and energy might be directed to the most important thing – the mindfulness of God.