Spiritually Minded Romans 8:6 – For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
When most people hear the words carnal mindedness, they may think of things of the lustful nature, but the dictionary definition of carnal is as thus:
Pertaining to or characterized by the flesh or the body, its passions and appetites…not spiritual, merely human, temporal, worldly.
So being carnal minded would be any thinking categorized by human knowledge, the five senses, or temporal things (things that we see with our eyes). As believers we are not to be carnal minded. Allowing oneself to be affected by what you hear, taste, see, smell and feel would be having a carnal mentality: Being afraid when you hear a bad report from the doctor, being worried after not seeing change in your financial situation after you have been praying for prosperity in your finances, or getting fearful when feeling a pain in your body when you have proclaimed healing. Those would be carnal minded actions. When you think the way the world thinks, that leads to death. Your spirit man cannot produce health, wealth, and life in Christ if your mind is focused on carnal thinking.
Likewise, when you are spiritually minded – thinking that is focused on what God’s word says – that produces life: hearing a bad report from a doctor and not being affected by the news, not seeing a change in your finances and still being encouraged, feeling pain in your body when you’re believing for healing and knowing in spite of the pain, you’re healed. That kind of thinking produces life. Being spiritually minded is not something that happens overnight. Your spirit man is well equipped to be focused on spiritual thinking; however, you have to feed your spirit the Word of God and you have to train your soul (mind) to not go along with the body, but to go along with the spirit -the Word of God. Your body wants to react to what it sees, tastes, hears, smells, and feels because it was made to interact with this physical world, but God did not mean for our bodies to dominate. We are spirit beings and were created to be dominated by the spirit. So, are you dominated by carnal thinking or spiritual thinking?
Regina Hill