Topic:
Being Spiritually Minded
Greetings:
Romans
8:5,6: 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. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace.
The first
word I want to tackle is the word spiritually.
For many people are they read this and myself included at one time, I
thought being spiritually minded means to pray more, study more, fast
more..etc. But after looking up the
meaning of the word, light was shed on the meaning and changed my
perspective. The word spiritually in the
Greek is the word “pneuma” meaning The
third person of the Triune – Holy Spirit.
So what the Scripture is saying is to be Spirit-minded is Zoe and
peace. It means to have the mind of
God. Paul spoke to the church at
Philippi and said “Let this mind be in you that is also in Christ Jesus”. Now to be spiritually minded is not a human
experience but it is the complete sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Let me give you some examples of this in
Scripture:
Philippians
2:13: For it is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
John
5:15: I am the vine, ye are the
branches: He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing
Isaiah
26:12: Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for
us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us
2
Corinthians 3:5: Not that we are
sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency
is of God.
This is why
can not boast of anything because it is God working through us because we can
do nothing of ourselves. Any human
attempt to do something without the Holy Spirit produces a ritualistic and
religious list of do’s and don’ts. The
problem with the list is, it is subject to change as the world changes. This is why you must be led by the Holy
Spirit. The Scriptures say the Holy
Spirit will teach you all things and it searches the deep things of God. This is about relationship, not
rituals.
Now there
is a war for control of you and it is between the Spirit of God vs the spirit
of this world. Let me show you:
James
4:4,5: Ye adulterers and adulteresses
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever
therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
2 Timothy
2:4: No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that
he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier
We need to
separate ourselves from the lusts and desires of this world. They have been strategically set to entrap
you by your soul and its desires for provision and protection. You will not know this unless you sacrifice
and subdue the desires of the flesh for the Spirit. Now in 1 John 2:15 the Scripture says to not
love the world nor the things that are in the world. The question we need to ask what are the
things in the world? Well because we
can do nothing of ourselves and if we attempt we will create a religious list
of dos and do nots. So we must allow the
Holy Spirit to come in and teach us the things of the world, let me show you:
1 John
2:27: But the anointing which ye have
received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as
the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is the truth and is no lie,
and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.
So the
Anointing will teach us all things, but why?
That we may abide in Him and when we abide in Him we become spiritually
minded.
Peace and
Grace,
Calvin
Calhoun Jr.
