Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
We would say to an unsaved person, ‘Be born again,’ but to a believer, we would say, ‘Be renewed in your mind.’
The most important thing that a Christian can do is to renew his mind and that’s not a onetime event, it’s a lifetime process. Renewing the mind is essential if there must be progress and success in the life of a Christian. If you choose not to renew your mind with the word of God, you have chosen to remain the same way on the same level that you are today for the rest of your life.
Nothing changes until you renew your mind with the word of God.
Verse 5 of Romans 8 says, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”
The flesh is a mindset that goes against the word of God. Anything that contradicts the word of God is flesh. Anything that does not agree with the word of God is flesh. It is a mindset; it is a way of thinking.
…for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh….it’s a mindset.
The Spirit is also a mindset; it is a way of thinking that lines up with the word of God. Basically, what this means is that if you are operating in the spirit, it is because you have a mindset to do so. If you are walking in the flesh, you have the mindset to do so.
Verse 6 …to be carnally minded is death….
A carnal mind is a flesh mind. It is a mindset that contradicts the word of God. You can be a born again Christian and still be carnal. There is such a thing that is called a carnal Christian. He is born again but has failed to renew his mind with the word of God and so he is still thinking in line with the world against the word of God. He is still carrying a mindset that disagrees with God. So, you can be born again and still be carnal and..to be carnally minded is death… if you don’t change your thinking, if your mindset is out of line with the word of God, if you are not reading the word, if you are not exchanging your thoughts and ideas with God’s thoughts and ideas, then you have chosen carnality and when you are carnal in your thinking, then you have chosen death.
Death in this case is not ceasing to breath, it is being cut off from the Father and separating from His provisions.
In Luke 15, the Father of the prodigal son said, “This son was dead…” What did he mean?
He was dead because of bad thinking. If you don’t renew your mind, coming to church becomes just a sheer waste of time. When you enter into this carnal zone, you begin like the prodigal son to make frivolous demands that centre around the “Give me, give me” attitude. All you will care about is what you can get from God.
Isn’t it amazing that what God gives to some of us we take directly to the world and squander it instead of using it to the glory of God? What has God given you that you have taken to the world? It is so sad because some, He gave singing talent and they take it to the world and the world gets more out of what God gave to us than God.
In verse 17 …and when he came to himself…. He had a thought. It was not a great miracle anointing that came out of heaven. He had a thought, he changed his mind, and he came to his right mind.
Verse 18 .. I will rise and go to my father and I will say to him, ‘Father, I’m no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thine hired servants.’
…for this my son was dead… He didn’t say, ‘My son has stopped breathing,’ because he was separated from the father and the provisions of the father.
Wrong thinking caused him to be separated from the father. It caused him to be dead. Right thinking brought him back into the presence of the father. It was nothing massively spiritual; it was a thought that changed his life. It was right thinking.
Could it be that we have a lot of saved Christians coming to church DEAD?!We have people coming to church every Sunday as zombies. They are born again but have been separated from the provisions of the Father because of wrong thinking.
If you don’t renew your mind, wrong thinking will put you in a place where you can never get a hold of the Father and the Father’s provisions. You pray and get no answer. You expect a promotion and it does not come exactly in good time .Things will never seem to be going right.
What’s going on? You begin to wonder. Wrong thinking separates you from the Father. Yes, you can be a Christian and be dead or separated from the Father. What a shame to be a Christian and never be able to be in contact with our Father.
So, whatever has to change in your thinking, change it so that you can be restored to your Father and be alive instead of being dead or separated from the Father. What causes us to be dead or separated from the father? It is wrong thinking. It is thinking that doesn’t line up with the word of God and we have got to correct that.
culled from http://christiancommunitychurcharklow.hdpm.org
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