True Mind: How Truth Can Change What You Believe and How You Live

By Tom Steward

In True Mind, Tom Steward makes a daring attempt at describing, practically and specifically, how we may grow and change in Christ by the Spirit. Written for todays disciple, this book seeks to illuminate and inspire as well as instruct those who seek to be renewed and enlarged in their inner lives.

In the three parts of this book, Steward addresses the following:

Our Inner Legacy
Beginning with a proper foundation, knowing God for who He is, glory and majesty, and encountering Him in intimacy
Knowing who we are and what we have been given, that we may carry out our destiny in the Lord
Learning to listen and hearknow and seeour God and all He has to offer us Walking in Gods energy and power and the unlimited bounds of His provision

Our Inner Work
Understanding the role of the Spirit as he searches and reveals to us all we need to know about God and ourselves
Offering submission and surrender as a daily spiritual practice
Ensuring that we respond well to all the issues of lifethe arrows that strike us all too oftenas God supplies His goodness and mercy
Contending with the inner nature of sin as it is represented by fear and pride and offering humility and courage as a timely replacement

Our Inner Life
Experiencing the mystery of oneness with God and being found in Him as He is in us
Knowing transformation and renewal so that God can drape his righteousness and holiness over us like a garment
Learning to be still and at rest, as we abide and flow in and with our God, and learning the benefits of thanks and praise in all of our days

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781449717902

Tom Steward

Tom Steward is a Licensed Psychotherapist in Northern New Mexico who seeks to facilitate the healing of himself and others by using tools and practices from ages past and also the latest developments in energy healing. This book is his latest effort to provide practical tools so the reader is set on a course of discovery, recovery, and transformation.

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Copyright © 2011 Tom Steward

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-1789-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-1790-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011907891

Printed in the United States of America

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/31/2011

For

Andrew Thomas

Ryan Bradlee

Daniel Mark

You, my sons, are kings

On earth as it is in heaven

Soli Deo Gloria

Also by Tom Steward:

Into Solitary Places-

One Father’s Journey of Faith Through His Son’s Struggle with Psychotic Mental Illness

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

INNER LEGACY

Angling Toward Encounter- Presence & Intimacy

God’s Formless Dimensions- Glory & Majesty

Spiritual Anatomy Poised for Motion- Identity & Disposition

Godhead Murmurings- Listening & Hearing

Apprehending the Invisible- Knowing & Seeing

The Left Side of the Equation- Energy & Power

INNER WORK

The Work of the Spirit- Search & Reveal

Draining the Unsavory- Submission & Surrender

Life’s Arrows- Grief and Trauma

A Timely Remedy- Repentance & Forgiveness

This Long Held Legacy- Pride & Fear

Our Primary Attitudes- Humility & Courage

INNER LIFE

Absorption Into All That Is- Inness & Oneness

God Ordained Shape Shifting-Transformation and Renewal

Holy Attire Draped over Earthen Vessels- Holiness & Righteousness.

The Stance of Eternity- Stillness & Rest

Gliding In the Current of the Great River- Abide & Flow

A Sensible Response to God’s Overtures- Thanks & Praise

About the Author

Acknowledgements

I am an avid reader and have perused many texts during my lifetime. I am unable to account for all that I have read and the many authors to whom I am indebted. I am grateful for all my spiritual fathers and mothers, those who have gone before me, whom I call my teachers. I have listened, and assimilated as necessary.

There are many people I have learned from over the years who have enabled me to practice my craft as a psychotherapist. There are scores of people in the field of psychology from which I have gleaned many important truths and techniques. Additionally, this writing reflects the work of people like Mark Virkler, Chester and Betsy Kylstra, Art Loomis, Ed Smith, Janie Meisinger, and Dawna DeSilva. I have also learned a great deal about Spirit-led transformational theology from the sermons of Bill Johnson at Bethel Church. It is to all of these individuals I owe a debt of gratitude.

I would like to thank Amber Grady-Fuller for providing excellent editorial assistance for this book. Amber was perfect for this project because she is a professional editor and she also has a deep awareness of spiritual matters and the spiritual world. She is definitely a God lover, longing for his nearness. She knows when a writing has achieved the purposes of God and I am honored to receive her guidance. I hope we continue to collaborate together to manifest kingdom principles on the earth today.

I would also like to thank Andrea Hill, my counseling associate. Andrea provided additional editorial help and analysis of content with her keen eye for every grammatical error I am prone to make. Also, many of the principles and insights offered in this writing Andrea and I have learned together as ministry partners, so it was good to have her make sure I said it well. Her sweet devotion to God was a necessary backdrop to what is offered here. May we continue to be dynamic healers in the kingdom of our God.

I thank my parents, Harold and Norma Steward, who provided me with childhood experiences that proved to be fertile soil for what I was to later discover as an adult.

I am very grateful to my wife, Carole, for being the perfect woman for me to grow and advance in life in a way that I can’t imagine doing without her. Thank you for knowing my true self long before it was ever manifested, and for challenging me to live beyond my perceived limitations.

See now, I know you are a beautiful woman.

I am very proud of my three sons, Andrew, Ryan, and Daniel. I have been so blessed to be your father and to watch you grow all of these years into the fine men that you are. I will never tire at observing your accomplishments and exploits. The sky is the limit for you, because of who you are and what you possess.

I am so in love with the Spirit of Christ that I am often led to shout or laugh or dance or sing. At other times I just sit quietly, immersing myself in the Lord’s formidable dimensions, the formless majesty of his lovely presence, and I am altered again and again. Without my Jesus I never would have made it through the soul’s dark night to see the early light of dawn breaking through into a new day. Thank you my Lord, for everything, I praise you.

Introduction

Most of us are acutely aware that we live in a world at war. But the war is not over power, land or money, or even good and evil. It is something even more basic. The war is over truth, and the battlefield is the mind of every person.

Bill Johnson

The ideas contained in this book have helped me overcome issues with anger and addictions. I have also been able to quell the intensity of a mood disorder that has lasted for decades. I now live my life with more vitality and purpose. One of my family members, who has suffered from severe psychotic mental illness, has been completely released from this mental prison in part because of the principles contained in this book. I hope you are benefitted in similar ways.

The Apostle Paul wrote that we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2) We have Christ’s very mind. These words are offered in the present tense because it is already a reality; it is currently true for those who have placed their hearts in the capable hands of the Lord.

This statement is hard to believe, let alone put into practice. For many of us it is more theoretical than practical, more hypothetical than real. Yet if we did believe it and appropriate it, the world would be different. The Spirit of Christ would be represented with such momentum that many of the world’s ills would simply vanish.

Whether we believe this statement or not, there is still a process to manifesting it. Paul offers elsewhere that we are to be renewed in the spirit of the mind (Eph. 4) and transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom.12). The truth is that we already have the mind of Christ, it is a present tense reality inside of us, and we are being renewed as our minds meld with Christ’s mind.

I have a significant number of Christian friends. I also have a considerable amount of friends and acquaintances who would categorize themselves as humanists, i.e. agnostics and atheists. Something that concerns me is that I don’t see a lot of difference in these two groups when personal growth is considered. Those of us in God’s church do not appear any more advanced than all of the other inhabitants on the planet.

You would think we would. We have all the tools; we have a tremendous endowment in Christ. He died for us so that we may have a new life. We are a new creation. Even more, we have been regenerated; a spiritual cylinder has been deposited inside of us. We have been given the Spirit as a promise of a full life. This Spirit is truth, he teaches us all things, and leads us into the truth. (John 14 and 15) If this is so then why are we not much different than anyone else? This puzzles me.

I believe our starting position is faulty. We tend to begin with the negative rather than the positive, from the position of stubborn sin and non-holiness rather than completeness and fullness in Christ. We have this mind set of lack and deficiency, as if there is something we are to do or achieve, and then we will eventually arrive at the better place.

As believers in Jesus we already have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 1) We have everything we need. We have it all. We have everything in heaven and on earth at our disposal to do anything our belief in Christ and the will of the Father will lead us to do.

We aren’t just sinners saved by grace; we’re enlightened beings with a God ordained spiritual disposition and an incredible destiny that is able to blow the socks off any earthbound limitation anyone could conceive of. We are more the cultural iconoclasts than we may realize. We are truly amazing, in him.

We have the mind of Christ. We also have the Spirit to help us arrive at full knowledge of everything we have already been given and to culminate the massive transformation project God intended all along. We have everything we need.

We have True Mind. Divine intelligence, the God-mind, is ours, tucked away conveniently inside our physical container. When we believe this we will progress in the very way God intended.

INNER LEGACY

The young man gingerly sauntered toward the door, lifted his travel bag from the floor, and strapped it over his back. At long last he was prepared to leave. He turned to his family and friends, bid them farewell, and walked out the door into a wide open future. The journey had begun. This man knew where he was headed, or at least he had a destination point, yet he was not certain what form the path would take. If there was danger he did not know what this would be, and he hoped beyond hope that he would be fit for the task to traverse any obstacle that presented itself before him. He apparently had everything he needed for this pilgrimage. Lord knows he gathered every-thing he concluded was essential for this trip, and perhaps more than was necessary. He felt prepared, and eager, with an excitement for what lie ahead. And then there was that satchel his grandfather gave him.

Angling Toward Encounter- Presence & Intimacy

Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

(Matthew 6, The Message)

To have found God, to have experienced him in the intimacy of our being, to have lived even for one hour in the fire of his Trinity and the bliss of his Unity clearly makes us say: 'Now I understand. You are enough for me.'

The God Who Comes by Carlos Carretto

Let me stand next to your fire.

Jimi Hendrix

Being With God

I was speaking with a friend of mine recently. This woman was talking about her feelings of inferiority. She just didn’t like herself when she compared herself to others. I asked her if she knew what the Lord said about her. She said she did because he had in the past spoken tender words to her about how much he loved her, calling her beautiful, as well as using other terms of endearment. She felt a little better remembering these words God had for her.

I asked her if she had a picture that went along with these words. She said she did not, and had never considered having scenes with her and God in it together. I invited her to close her eyes, which she did. I then prayed to God, requesting that he give her a picture of him and her that would reveal intimacy between them in the context of loving presence. I waited for about a half a minute and then asked her what she saw.

She opened her eyes, looked at me and then away, and was noticeably embarrassed. I asked her to explain, but I suddenly realized that this was like asking her to share a bedroom encounter between her and her husband. She said that what she saw was very intimate and revealing, as God expressed his deep love for her like a great lover.

God is a lover, a stormy and passionate one at that. And yes, he wants to give us visions of intimacy just like he did with my friend. He longs for us to join him in intimate union and spiritual intercourse as he consummates his love with us.

Take me with you; come, let’s run! The king has brought me into his bedroom.

Song of Songs 1:4, New Living Translation

A Soul’s Desiring

There is no greater pursuit or sublime joy than to be with God and the context for this encounter is his presence. This is the ultimate desire of the soul. In the 42nd Psalm of the Hebrew Bible we read these comforting words:

As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you. O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

(Ps. 42:1-2)

Our greatest heart desiring is for God, and this yearning is compared to the panting of a thirsty deer for the water brooks. Our longing for God is as primal and instinctual as an animal’s desire for physical nourishment. It is built into us.

In the last few years I have read this Psalm again and observed its context, even though I had read it many times before without realizing the extent of this writer's plight. It's funny how God's living word does that. The word meets us as we are ready, and at any moment prior to our awakening we may look and not see. And then, at the right moment, something is opened up to us as we became available to it.

The writer of this Psalm was suffering in deep anguish. This suffering is something that I had not considered before. He laments that his tears were his food day and night. He wrote that his bones suffered mortal agony as his foes taunted him unmercifully. People around him asked in mocking jest where his God was, as if his belief in God should have helped him avoid this version of pain he was experiencing.

The psalmist then recalls how his life used to be. He was once a part of a multitude that led a procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and thanksgiving in festive throng. This is not the case as he sat down to write. No, he is alone. No one is with him as he has become isolated, or more accurately been cast off as if he had no value. He cried out to God because he felt as if he had been forgotten by the Lord. He confessed that his soul was downcast and disturbed within him because of this dreadful experience.

This man asked his soul why it is depressed and forlorn. He spoke directly to his soul. He knew he had an authority over his soul so he directed it to hope in God. He made the decision to praise God in spite of the circumstances. He pulled himself out of his misery for a moment, declaring to God: I will remember you!

We might assume that the above quote about the deer panting for the water brooks was written in the context of a loving and pleasant relationship with God. Now we find it certainly is not. The psalmist was encountering troubling times, he was in great anguish, and the people around him made matters worse by ridiculing him. He experienced abject aloneness without feeling any hint of God's nearness.

Yet this man still panted and yearned for the same God whom he felt in that moment had deserted him. It is in this context that he commanded his soul to consider the Lord who did not register in his senses at that moment. He was driven to God with longing and desiring because there was nothing else that could deliver him from the awful circumstances he found himself in. And his hope was in God, not that his circumstances would be different, as if what was happening would change so he would feel better.

In one short line following the above quote about panting for the Lord, the psalmist asked a question. It is one of the most astounding questions in all of Scripture. It has become a very important question for me and I use it often to provoke a depth of intimacy with God. It is this:

When can I go and meet with God?

(Psalms 42:2)

I love that question. The psalmist was panting for the Lord because he did not sense God’s closeness. In the context of his longing, and the considerable anguish of his heart, he asked a simple question. And looking over the long life of this particular writer, David, the young man who would become king, we know that there was more trouble, but he also had moments of intimacy with the God of his soul because he knew how to get there. He became known as the man who sought after God’s heart.

The above question was a key question for him, because it drove him to find the answer that was always there, even when he didn’t feel it. The dreadful circumstances of his life blurred the truth of God’s involvement with him yet his yearning drove him beyond the situation, beyond himself, and beyond his pain, to the God who was always present.

This is an excellent testimonial for finding God in difficult times, during the seasons when he seems to have discarded us. In these moments, the soul's longing is a force to be reckoned with because it can be directed to consider the Lord in ways that nothing else can.

The example we see here is that when a crisis of faith enters our lives, it is the honest and courageous follower of God who unabashedly explores his or her condition, admitting the truth of its grinding effects, and then sets his or her sights on the God who is always there. The soul’s panting has guided us to the God who is always a help.

Enveloped by a Cloud

There is another picture I hold dear in my heart as a vision of what intimacy with God really is. It is a short statement about Joshua and the tent of meeting.

Moses pitched a tent outside the camp some distance away from the people. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to this tent of meeting. When Moses went out to the tent all the people rose and stood at the entrance of their tents, watching Moses as he entered the tent of meeting. While Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance while the Lord spoke with him. When the people of God saw the pillar of cloud