The Flesh, Or Self-Principle~In The Mind

It is found in the mind. It makes use of our intellect and our reason in order to overpower opposition and bring things our way, to argue and to substantiate our own position.

And therefore, before you and I can ever get into the true realm of heavenly things, we have got to have a “circumcised” intellect, reason, mind.

Is that not exactly what the Lord was saying to Nicodemus? 

Here is this teacher of Israel, coming to argue, to discuss, and the Lord says, “It is no use.

You may have been circumcised in the flesh as a good Jew, but what you need is to have your intellect circumcised”.

Except a man be born anew, he cannot SEE…

You have got it all in the mind, all as an intellectual apprehension.

If I have spoken of earthly things, and you do not understand them, where will you be if I begin to talk to you about heavenly things?

Out of your depth altogether!

Devout son of Abraham though you may be, you need to experience a radical severance between your natural mind and the things of Heaven.

That is the trouble with many people. It is their head that is in the way all the time - the one thing that is obstructing their progress is their own head!

Their stubborn-mindedness, or their clever-mindedness; their intellectual superiority, or their argumentative disposition: you meet it all the time...there is no way through.

If you try to take them on that line you are simply beating your own head against a wall.

The Lord Jesus never attempted such an approach in trying to win souls. He simply said: “You must be born from above”.

~T. Austin Sparks~