Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8:5-11 NIV
Before we chose to give our lives to Jesus, our old selves were imprisoned by the ways of the world. Without even being aware of our actions, we lived by the desires of our eyes according to the flesh. Sadly, many Christians continue to live the old way because they’ve never been shown what it means to put on the mind of Christ after accepting Him. A transaction occurs within this process and along with it, a transformation arises and is walked out the remaining days of our lives. Through understanding and defining the Carnal Mind and the Spiritual Mind, may new eyes and minds be unveiled to the fullness of life that God has always intended for His people. Amidst all the chaos in the world and throughout our lives, we can live with perfect peace by never forgetting we belong to Him—and welcoming His transformation to take place within us.
Carnal-minded thinking is where the enemy wants us to stay. He does this by making our eyes see the “things” of the world. This mind will never please the Lord. We think that we are not bad people and that what we do is good each day. Well in the scope of things—good or bad—if we are thinking carnally then we are not thinking in the manner God intended for us. Carnal thinking is physical. It’s our desires that we have each day. It creates chaos and turmoil and we are never at peace because we never arrive and are always in need of more. We work harder and for longer hours, buy the newest things on the market, keep up with the neighbors and so on. We are also planning the next vacation, buying the latest car, and planning for our future retirement. In all of this, have we left room for God to work?
Is there peace in any of this? The answer in short is no—because there is nothing but red flags and danger in this way of thinking. It’s a lot of activity but no real fulfillment because the enemy has us right where he wants us. We are not reliant on God at all but completely upon ourselves and in this we are worn out and exhausted. Sometimes we even experience premature sickness and even death. The enemy will continue to put forth desires and pressures into our sight to sway us from our real purposes, and these physical representations of what we think life should be are the same ailments that are killing us physically and spiritually. Carnal thinking is from our own selfish motives and desires. We are never fulfilled, therefore we strive for more because our relationship with God is not right. Just like when our bodies break down because of a missing vitamin or mineral, the effects show in our physical well-being. When we think carnally, we become deficient in knowing who God is and wants for our lives. We are essentially spiritually dead.
God is not physical, He is Spiritual. When we accept Jesus Christ the Savior of the world, our spirits and minds become enlightened. The carnal ways we have acquired throughout life are instantaneously broken because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. He shed His blood to take away our carnal thinking, or sins. He became the New Covenant of Life to give us life. He redeemed us so that we can be made right with God. Because of the corruption of the world, our only way to get to the Father is through His Son. In this, we now have a new mind that is like the Father. This mind is the spiritual mind. We are spiritual beings just like God. We are just passing through this life. There is a whole eternity waiting on the other side for those who have chosen to put off their carnal ways of thinking and put on their new creation. Living according to the Spirit mind, we become more like Christ by presenting Him as a physical image of who He is through us. In this we now have the power to demonstrate to the world through the testimony of Jesus’ life on the cross and our own personal story. We also have the power of the Holy Spirit in us to guide us and convict us of any sin that the enemy is trying to use against us to have us fall back. God will reveal carnal ways of thinking to our hearts. He will nudge our hearts. We can then go directly to Him for forgiveness because He is gracious and full of mercy. He loves us so much that He has crafted a whole plan for us and our salvation to be able to pass through this life and meet Him in eternity.
When the mind is no longer set on the things of the world but set on things of the Spirit, our desires and purposes change. Our thoughts begin to turn to the ways of God. This happens because through Jesus we receive the Holy Spirit and when we understand this, the Spirit of God not only takes residence within us but is actively at work through us. We become more spiritually aware of the heart of God operating within us, and our thought patterns change to reflect the heart of God. This is what it means in baptism to die to self and come alive as a new creation in Christ. We are no longer looking at life through the lens of what our 8am-5pm looks like and what we are working towards, but we are co-laboring now with God. The reward is that He gives us favor. In this favor we are taken care of because we are not doing it all alone. He is filling us up as we pour out. This is not a ticket to quit our jobs and not prepare for our future, but this is a blessing in disguise to not focus on what we physically see but to be led by the Holy Spirit within through faith that God has all the details already figured out. We just need to learn to know Him through His word and through prayer. He will be our director. He will establish our paths. Through obedience we continue to take steps and He will enable us and set us on our designated course. Being spirit minded brings about a peace in knowing that we will never arrive alone. Learning to live spirit minded reveals the heart of God, and our perspective begins to change. If we want to experience fruit, real fruit in our lives, we must expose the carnal mind and begin to operate in the spiritual reality God has destined for us.
A great story in the Bible is in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verses 8-11. Everything that Solomon is talking about in this passage of scripture is physical with human examples. He is finding no purpose under the sun. Everything seems to repeat itself again and again with each new day. There is no sense of direction or well-being. In fact, it seems to be a story of hopelessness because there is no purpose.
The carnal way of thinking never changes and often repeats itself. Only God can satisfy us, and through His Son we can be made whole and new with a defined purpose in mind. Through our new mind, our Spirit mind, we no longer lack any missing elements. In our new relationship with God, we can begin to move forward, becoming sons and daughters—citizens of heaven. Our new work is now kingdom work on earth, and it is the “new truth” that has been suppressed by the enemy all along. God made a way for us through Jesus to be able to sustain life on earth. He made it possible for us to be successful because when we choose to be transformed into the image of Him, we set our minds, thoughts, and desires on Him, our higher Spiritual Reality. It is a new mindset, cultivated out of our choice to change from the rebellious sinful ways of the world to being raised to life with Christ.
We can do this by:
- Reading scripture because it is God breathed.
- Asking the Holy Spirit to show us and fill our new minds with scripture.
- Asking the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to help us in all of our misunderstanding and to reveal a clear path that will sustain and satisfy us.
- Practicing living out our new identity each day by knowing that we are never alone. He will never leave or forsake us because our Father’s Spirit is in us.
May God bless you and give you peace on this new journey, and may God enlighten the eyes of your mind to live according to the Spirit.