The whole creation testifies of the ways of the Lord. One fundamental thing that creation reveals is that He is creative! This seems elementary, maybe even foolish to say, but it is obvious that very few Christians really understand this. One of the great tragedies of church history has been the way the fearful and uncreative have so often dominated church leadership and thereby stifled the church's creativity.

 

To this day there are powerful forces in the church that reward mediocrity and conformity and penalize any who deviate from their own overly narrow perceptions of God and His truth. We will never rise above the powerlessness and deadness of what Christianity in general has become if we do not rise up with courage to throw off the yokes of this perverted conformity, which the Lord never put on His people. Neither will we rise above this powerlessness and deadness if we do not come into the unity He has called us to.

 

To be a non-conformist merely for the sake of standing against the pressures of conformity will eventually lead to the deadly trap of lawlessness. Again, there is a ditch on either side of the path of life. As the Lord Jesus declared, "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it" (Matthew 7:14). True creativity is not reactionary; it is not against something—it is for life.

 

Jesus was not a revolutionary because He did what He did in reaction to the Pharisees, but because of who He was. The Pharisees reacted to Jesus the way the legalistically religious will always react to His true creative life when it is revealed in someone. However, lawlessness is just as deadly as legalistic religion. Remember, there is a ditch on either side of the path of life.

 

Because God "the Creator" made man in His image, the true nature of man is also creative. We will never come into the fullness of who we were created to be until and unless we are creative. However, creativity for the sake of creativity will lead to a fall. Man was also created to walk with God, and true creativity that leads to life can only come out of walking with Him. 

 

Though some of the most stifling pressures that inhibit creativity are now found in the church, every art form and style of music can be traced to the church as its birthplace. Presently, many things that are being birthed by the church, are also being driven out of the church by the timid or legalistically religious, and then captured by the enemy and used for his diabolical purposes. This can and must cease.

 

However, the church has still been the seedbed for the greatest creativity the world has ever known. It will become even more creative before the end, because a new breed of leader is going to be given to the church with the ability to understand and shepherd the greatest powers of creativity that are about to be released through the church. The Lord really has saved His best wine for last. This ultimate release of creativity will also bring revelation of the Creator like man has never known.

 

It has been estimated that man only uses about 10 percent of his brain, and the greatest genius probably only uses about 15 percent. What is the other 85 percent used for? It is for perceiving, comprehending, and enjoying God. As regeneration truly works in our lives, our minds will be both renewed and restored. We are assured in Romans 8:11: "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (KJV).

 

 

The Greek word that is translated "quicken" in this verse is zoopoieo, which literally means to "vitalize, make alive, or give life to." If we are already made alive in Christ when we are reborn, what is there to give life to? He is giving life to that part of us that has been dead, a great portion of which is our minds. As I Corinthians 2:14-16 explains,

 

     But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God;

     for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them,

     because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things,

     yet he himself is appraised by no man. For who has known the mind of the LORD,

     that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

 

 

In response to those who have at times been leaders of the church, but obviously had minds that could only understand from the natural perspective, many Christians react to almost any form of thinking or planning. This is a most tragic deception. Christians should be the most intellectually brilliant human beings on the planet! We have not only been given a spiritual perspective that transcends the natural, we have been given the mind of Christ!

 

The Lord is not against us using our minds—He is against us not using them! He wants to awaken the 85 percent of our minds that we are currently not using. As this takes place, Christians will rise to the top in every field of science, art, education, and even government.

 

So, how do we have our minds renewed and awakened? First, we must understand that Paul did not say "I" have the mind of Christ, but "we" have the mind of Christ. The Lord has designed the new creation as a great corporate body. Walking with God now means being a part of His body, the church. The dynamic of true church life will help to both renew and awaken our minds. This is stated in such Scriptures as I John 1:7, "but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." If we are not having fellowship with one another we are not walking in the light.

 

The church is called first to be a family, not an organization. When the organization begins to eclipse relationships, then we are departing from true church life. That is why institutionalized Christianity has always been the greatest threat to the church becoming what it was created to be—a living body with Christ as its head. When true church life is restored the way that it was intended to be, it will awaken us all to far more than we ever dreamed possible in this life. The Lord is going to be revealed in His people, and together they will be a well from which His living water will flow.