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The carnal mind is enmity (hostility) with God.
Rm 8:7
We know from the letter to the Hebrews that without faith it is impossible to please God. But Romans tells us that those that are in the flesh cannot please God either. The flesh deeds are anger, lust, hatred, envy, jealousy, greed, and fear and we must mortify those deeds according to Colossians chapter three. Those deeds have thoughts associated with them. We can entertain in our mind thoughts of anger, thoughts of lust, thoughts of hatred, jealousy, envy, greed, fear, and lying. Those thoughts are what St. Paul calls a carnal mind. If we have a spirit of fear, for example, when we begin to fear we begin to entertain fearful thoughts. That mind is enmity with God; that mind puts us in the flesh; that mind leads us to act out fleshly deeds, and if we are in the flesh we cannot please God. There are three battlegrounds concerning the flesh. There is a spirit of the flesh. There are actions of the flesh. There are thoughts of the flesh. When we are presented with a situation that causes the spirit of the flesh to rise up, we will begin to entertain thoughts of the flesh and then we will start to act out what we are experiencing in the flesh in the spirit and in the mind. So to have a mind which is pleasing to God, we need to be delivered from the spirits associated with the flesh. Unless we are delivered, we will invariably go to thoughts that we have become conditioned to think and then to act out on those prompting of the flesh and of the mind. Once we have been delivered we still have a mind which is programed to think according to the flesh that when a situation arises makes us habitually go there. If we do, we can still act out what we are thinking and produce deeds of the flesh. Philippians four tells us to think about what is pure, lovely, honorable, and praiseworthy. The scriptures give us those things which we must learn to embrace. That is how we come to know the will of God. Many people who are born again fall in love with the word of God. When we are born again our sin has been dealt with by Christ on the cross. Sin for the born again Christian is not the issue. The flesh is. So we must learn the will of God. That is the beginning but that is only the beginning. We must begin to act in faith. We must call those things that are not as though they were. We must confess the truth of scripture to begin to do battle with the flesh. “I crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. I walk in the Spirit and will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. I mortify the deeds of the flesh.” As we do we begin to change the way we are programmed. Next we must ask God for deliverance. Unless and until we are delivered, we will not overcome. Once delivered, we must make it a conscious decision not to think carnal thoughts and to respond to situations that prompt that response. Finally if we live in the Spirit we must walk in the Spirit. As we do our lives become pleasing to God and we become a sign to the world of the love of God. Amen |