The Nous and Dianoia: Part 1

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
-Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 4:17-24

In light of pursuing Spiritual Knowledge, and knowing God we must have a renewed mind, or nous. The word "mind" comes from the original Greek term nous. It is used 24 times in the entire New Testament. That's a lot considering the New Testament, so it must be something God really wants us to pay attention to and apply to life. I have come to learn in recent days that what is in the Bible, was specially chosen by God for us to see and read. There is a special reason He chose to use these specific scriptures in grand scheme of things. Consider for a moment your life, and you writing a letter to someone do you tell them every single minute detail or do you just include the things you think they need to know, and will benefit from knowing? It it exactly what God did with the Bible.
There is a verse in Proverbs which says, "As a man thinketh, so he does." Our mind, and how we think effects the Christians life, work, service, and so on. When we are born again, everything is new. But like everything else, things don't stay new unless we renew it daily. Before we go any further in understanding the renewing of our mind, lets look at a definition of what the nous specifically is. It is the God given capacity of each person to think (reason); the mind; mental capacity to exercise reflective thinking. For the believer nous in the organ of receiving God's thoughts, through faith.
What our mind really amounts to is what is known as our soul. We are composed of spirit, soul, and body, and the soul stands between the spirit and body. It serves as a medium if you will. All which belongs to our spirit and body is being expressed through the soul.
Watchman Nee observed that the thoughts in many believers today are not very different from that of sinners. This is because many do not renew their mind, daily at that! How can we expect God to use us if we are not constantly renewed in our mind especially. It is through it that we experience new revelations of God himself.
I think what we are missing is understanding. In our key verse of Ephesians verse 18 points out understanding. This comes from the original Greek dianoia, the same root as nous. The difference is the function. Think of it this way, the mind is the organ, and understanding is the function. Our functionings have conditions, sometimes it is poor, sometimes it's inbetween, then other times it's great. So what is the condition presently of your mind and understanding?
Greater still, the heart is the center of man. Before we can even deal with our mind, our hearts must be dealt with first. When we go back to Genesis 3 in the Garden with Eve, and the serpent. It is suggested by some that her fall into sin did not begin when she had partaken of the forbidden fruit, but in her heart with wrong desires. Her heart was already dissatisfied with God and already corrupted. Hence, our minds are evil because our heart is corrupt first.
Out hearts must be humble and teachable before our Almighty God. If our heart is corrected, then our mind can then follow in correction. This is accomplished through the obedience of God's Word, In listening to His Word, and studying His Word. Our listening to others, and reflecting on the Word. To do anything otherwise shows that your heart is lazy, and you are alienated from the life of God!

"O God, I do not know whether the word preached is good or bad, right or wrong. I only ask that you give me a judgement that I may know what is right and what is wrong; thus seeing what you would have me to see." -Watchman Nee