Put To Death The Carnal Mind

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. Romans 8:6‭-‬7 

After witnessing something earlier this week, I sat in my room and asked the Holy Spirit, “what is the root cause of habitual sins that human beings struggle with from time to time? What’s the root of our struggle?” The Holy Spirit said, “Angie, it’s the carnal mind, and the carnal mind must be put to death.” His response blew my mind. After researching and processing the scripture for a bit, I arrived at this conclusion:

The carnal mind is at the root of many of the struggles that human beings are faced with. The lust, negative thought, sexual sins, lying, murder—you name it! The carnal mind must be destroyed, or else it will continue to rebel against God. It cannot be amended or rendered less offensive in its nature. It is ever sinning, and sin will always be enmity, and enmity, wherever it has power, will invariably show itself in acts of rebellion against God. The flesh is incurably bad. “It is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be.” It never can be any better! You cannot make it better! It is no use trying to improve it. You may train it by the most approved methods, you could try mourning over it; treat it with encouragement or severity; its nature will always, always be the same! The only thing that can be done is to destroy it and receive instead the divine nature of Christ. We have to be crucified so we can be made new.

I asked the Holy Spirit, “How can we destroy the carnal mind?” He responded by saying, “First of all, a man in his own strength cannot destroy the carnal mind. There’s nothing that man can do to destroy it. Man must have a relationship with Christ, and subject himself to grace and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.” That’s the remedy! Relationship with Christ, submission to grace and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

Carnal-mindedness needs to be put to death. Unless it is put to death there will always be enmity between man and God. The effect that sin has on us will be no more when Jesus comes back, but right now man does not have to be a slave to sin. Jesus defeated the power of sin when He died on the cross. Sin has no power over us! Do you believe that?

God can destroy the fleshly, carnal mind, and give the crucified believer a new mind and heart. He can give man a mind that is set on things of the Spirit. He can free man from walking according to the desires of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind. Let us put off our carnal mindset and develop a mind that is founded and focused on Jesus Christ.