After telling us not to conform to the pattern of this world but instead be transformed by the renewing of our minds, Paul wrote, “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (emphasis added). Until I’m thus transformed, I won’t even know what God’s will is.

The mortal mind’s mental and emotional angst, the ego struggles, sense of ownership, self-righteousness, protectionism, definitions of success and happiness begin to reshape, even dissipate, and what seemed for so long to be so well defined, real, solid, and true in the material world no longer stands as substantial. It is this initial 180 degree

“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” is a command (Rom. 12:2 KJV). Somehow I had not perceived transforming my mind as an active, continuing process. Nevertheless, that is what God wants: we are to “be renewed in the spirit of [our] mind” (Eph. 4:23 KJV). God had begun a process of transformation; I could only cooperate.

Christians are set apart from the unbelieving world in that we have freely received the gift of the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ. The Holy Spirit’s presence connects our minds to God’s way of thinking. Our mind is now being renewed to think more and more like Jesus. The renewing of the mind is what transforms us so that we may discover what