The Flesh in Conflict with The Spirit

The Flesh in Conflict with The Spirit                   11-9-14         Kelly Durant

Romans 8:5-10 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.6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

2. There are some new high tech toy devices out that can monitor your heartbeat, body activity and temperature all day long. That would be a cool Christmas gift, right?  They seem good for those that need to monitor their health, especially for those that have issues. I was thinking about this, brainwaves have already been read and images printed of thoughts so how amazing it would be in the future if there was a monitor that could take a record of when a person was thinking thoughts of the flesh, or thoughts of the spirit. What would your monitor read throughout the day? What do you think, do, and say all day long that you may not be aware of? Are you more “in the flesh” or “in the spirit”?

We must dig deeper as to what it means to live carnally minded or spiritually minded. To be spiritually minded means to have peace and be full of love with no appetites to sin just because God’s spirit is with you! (Romans 8:10). It means you will not be living with conflict in your head over your personal desires or issues with other people, but rather you live in the spirit praying over everything having the assurance God is in control handling everything! You feel good, you love everyone, and God’s love flows through you like a fountain. But people that are not fountains are drains! People in the flesh are like a dark energy sucking the joy, spirit, and life out of you just by their actions, words, and intentions.

The people that live only for the flesh, or in the flesh, live restless and without peace.  They are as the living dead even though they are still in their body and they are tortured with pride, appearances, lust, envy, addictions, frustrations and anger. Let’s examine further what is in the mind of a carnal person and then contrast that to the life of a spiritual person.

3. Sometimes we forget how mentally tortured others can be! Can you feel or read people’s thoughts, and pick up on subliminal body language which reveals attitudes? Does this awareness of people seem evident to you? What I will mention here doesn’t happen so often in our Corps, as not so many new unconverted people come in to visit, but typically there is a reaction from a carnal person when visiting a church that I, and any observer, can observe.

When the carnally minded man steps into the church he automatically gets uncomfortable and on the defensive because he notices that he is not glowing with happiness from the Holy Spirit as the other people.  His carnal mind is in the dark to notice that it is a wonderful day and that it is a great to be with others who praise the Lord; that it is a special time to give and receive love exchanging words of encouragement with others, thanking God to be alive worshiping Him in appreciation. Instead in his mind is full of frustrations, self-centered emotions and animosities due to his carnal-ness, which is programmed to function only around his pride, jealousy, anger, and envy. He/she is basically like an animal or beast that only seeks to gain something. He/she is unaware how oblivious his/her emotions and intentions are to discerning Spirit filled Christians around him/her.

His suspicious eyes scan over the Christian people and when he sees a brother whom he perceives by appearances imagines that he has a good situation, a better house, or car than his, he already just doesn’t like that brother or sister and may even say that he just doesn’t like them. He may look at the women and get frustrated thinking none of them are the kind he likes since he likes to party but they all appear too spiritual and holy for him.  He isn’t touched by the music or preaching either because that is just taking up his time interfering with him being able to mingle and talk to others about the business deals he would like to do with the people.  Do you get the picture of what is in the head of those with carnal mindsets? I know I and most of us often forget that not everyone has good intentions. Christians can often be naïve forgetting how others in the flesh are.

4. It really is a case study to observe the unsaved carnally minded person surrounded by holy loving Christians! You subliminally perceive the confusion on their face as they try to rationally comprehend how a Christian could come week after week to church just for God and not for a personal gain; not for something monetary for himself. What is his conclusion? That the church people are really crazy, ignorant, and manipulated fools! The carnal mind finds no explanation for those who find pleasure in just simple worship of God, Bible study, and fellowship with one another!

For the spiritual person, fellowship, prayer, Bible study, worship, and a Biblical message recharges their spirit battery and energizes their faith! They get empowered and full of the spirit! But for the carnal person visiting these spiritual things just burns their fuses in their carnal minds and perplexes their spirit! They are in shock at what they observe, and they fear getting asked to participate in something since they don’t understand how it works or how to control it. Only those living in God’s spirit get energized by the things of God and only by becoming loving in living in His spirit will one ever have peace and please Him!

As mentioned in verse 6; the unconverted unspiritual carnally minded people are living in death and to them feeling dead is normal! The outlandish unsaved carnally minded crowd have always been very public making a ruckus to try to awaken a feeling of some kind in their bodies with the hope they could get rid of that empty and dead feeling with stimulations. Many articles have labeled the music industry and Hollywood as “cultures of death” since drugs, alcohol, suicide, and early deaths seem to be the norm.  How sad it is to note that people are preprogramed for self-destruction and death without God in their lives! Without God we are dead spiritually and this invokes a premature physical death!

5. Every generation seems to have a portion of rebellious youth that have always craved excitement, and had an appetite for death and destruction! This excessiveness may even be from being possessed by a demon or from the influence of demons and from bad friends, or the media.  It reminds me of these verses where a youth had a demon and his parents felt helpless. Mark 9:21-23 And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. 22 And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. 23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Jesus freed him from the demons! Today suicide tendencies are on the rise and this is from people wanting their dead feeling to stop and they wish to feel something, even if it is pain! Only Jesus can stop self-destruction!

We know zombies have been popular in the media. They are meaningless ugly fictional carnivores, mass invasions of the dead, and what a waste of time! Well even from the trash of Hollywood a few good things can be found, this actually portrays an excellent analogy to the condition of people in the world today, insatiable, destructive, carnal, and worthy of being terminated! But despite how horrific people are, God still gives them a chance to have a new spirit! So if Jesus had the patience to be crucified in order to save ‘whosoever’, how much more we all need patience with those who have not come to live in God’s spirit!

There is a mass crowd of humanity that all they want to do is consume and feed their passions and lusts, never getting satisfied, and never feeling remorse for all the people they harm never caring about their destructiveness. They are dead in the spirit and the fruit of all of what they do is destructive. They live at war with those that are living in the spirit. Those of us who know God and are spiritual try to warn them, stop them, and save them at all cost, but they must choose it.

6. After having to face the reality that we live in a society surrounded by a vast majority that are carnally minded, how should we respond? Change begins with you, you can choose to include Jesus in every thought, in every action, and in everything living in the Spirit! Verse 10 makes it clear, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”.

So how do you know if you have God’s spirit in you? After receiving Jesus I know most of you pray and have asked the Holy Spirit to be in you but you must repeat that prayer often, maybe daily! We need renewing! Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (washing and renewing means repeating the process) You and I have to get renewed minute by minute and we have to practice seeing through the eyes of holiness. If we could just learn to practice 1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”, we would have Jesus spirit guiding us in all matters to respond correctly to all situations.

7. At any moment the enemy can temp anyone of us with some random divisive accusatory thought.  For example, you may see your brother or sister in church and the enemy may lie to you, ‘Oh, they act like a saint in church, but I bet they are a devil in their home’! So remember the verse in James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. This formula really does work, just resist the temptation to dwell on things you perceive to be negative taking you to a dead end since the things of death are depressing.

If the devil can’t get you to get dirty fighting with the world’s carnal people because you are too busy loving and helping them, then he tempts you to fight with the saints! The flesh and the Spirit are at war all day long!

Don’t you want to see everyone in the world saved by Jesus, blessed and happy? Only you can make the connection with God and have a new glorious fulfilled lifestyle living in the Spirit. You and I can reach this holiness purity by living in the Spirit of God, in wholesomeness and love, working at it daily, dying daily to our sinful nature, filling our hearts and minds with God’s word!

8. Ever since I have tried this life in the spirit, I can personally testify it is the best way to live! I would not trade this life of being blessed with love and peace, life and hope, of being dead to the rule of sin for nothing! Sure, the devil tries to trick me as he does you at times to imagine that sin is delicious, but since I (and you) already have had a taste of that before we know it is not true, and we reject it!

Jesus transforming spirit transformed our lives, we already have learned that sin and carnality is a mental torture and a life of death! A life of death means you feel guilty and ashamed, even suicidal, always fearing the future judgment and condemnation of deserved reattribution for your wrong! So let the light in and the darkness will flee! We please God by cultivating our spirit with His and escape death. Life and death cannot occupy the same time and space! Seek the Spirit of God and unexplained emotions will confirm in your spirit that with Jesus all things will conduct you into His life of love and righteousness! Rom 8: 10 ‘And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.’ This is life!