Lord, I must distinguish between common sense and Spirit sense. The natural man lives by common sense, which means doing the expedient thing. But I must live by Spirit sense, which means doing the holy thing. 

When I first became a Christian, I found a lot of variance between the expedient thing and the holy thing. I found myself stretching the truth (for the Lord’s sake), telling social lies (not to hurt anyone’s feelings), and doing other things that made common sense, but the Spirit within me was grieved. Gradually I came to see that the Spirit was not interested in saving my skin or making me attractive to others; He was interested in making me attractive to God the Father. 

That meant the old mind-set had to go. The conniving, wheedling, and looking for an advantage had to give way to thinking spiritually, that is, thinking heavenly, what heaven desires of and demands of its citizens. That meant a crisis of will, for God does not make us mature men and women against our wills. As in all crises with God, a death took place and a new life of resurrection began in the power of the Holy Spirit. His thoughts then became paramount and, to a certain extent, automatic. His life became the natural life, and Spirit-thinking became the new common sense. 

Augustine is reported to have said, “Love God and do as you please.” The mature Christian will not have to ask. What shall I do? or, What shall I say? He does the commonsense thing. Only major decisions now need to be crisis decisions; the others are simply the result of a flowing relationship with Him who makes the best sense of all, eternal sense. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5, KJV). With His right mind in me, His right behavior will necessarily follow.   

“Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:23–24).