Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! … Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Phil 4:4-6).
There are two ways for humans to live. One is to live always rejoicing, and the other is to live with worries and anxiety over their needs and health. Joy comes from the presence of God, but worries come from themselves. When you try to live by your own ideas, you come to have worries and fear because you know you are not as able, smart, strong or good as you want to be—not enough for what you really wish to get. It is only when you look at your almighty God who is more than enough that his supernatural peace begins to surround you.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (v. 7).
The “understanding” we have is what comes from our flesh, and is always based on our physical reality, but the “peace of God” comes from God and is of the reality of a different dimension. If you want to live rejoicing with this peace, you will need to listen to him constantly through your spirit, and live according to the spiritual reality in which God lives.
The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:6).
The soul of a human, as created by God, resides between the body and the spirit facing both the physical reality and the spiritual reality. But the soul (flesh) of a spiritually dead person has lost fellowship with the spirit and is left only in contact with the physical reality through the body. As a result, every activity (the mind) of the soul is dead, not spiritually empowered, and it causes all kinds of problems in life.
Abram, to whom God had already promised to give a child and make him into a great nation, once said:
O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" … "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir (Gen 15:2-3)."
Abram, seeing that he had not been given a child yet and was getting older and older, constantly worried about his heir, and wanted to have some kind of security as to what to do with his possessions. None of his ideas, as seen in these words, was based on the promise, or the spiritual reality that God had presented to him. They all came from Abram’s own flesh, and were his own plans and ideas, which were only based on the physical reality he was facing. If he had carried out any of those ideas, what would have happened to God’s promise? The mind of flesh is hostile to God: it hinders the fulfillment of his word.
So God took Abram out of his tent (the reality he was live in), and told him to look up at the heavens (spiritual reality), and count (consider) the stars. It took some time for him to count them—to come out of the physical reality, and go into the spiritual reality. Then, God spoke to him:
So shall your offspring be (v. 6).
For the fist time, he believed—received the spiritual reality presented to him according to God’s idea and plan. This spiritual reality, the Bible calls “wisdom.”
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding (Pro 3:5).
She (wisdom) is a tree of life to those who embrace her; Those who lay hold of her will be blessed (v. 18).