"So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to
death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace." Romans
8:6
This morning God kept saying
to me "Spiritually minded versus Carnally minded." I begin to seek
Him, as to what He was trying to tell me. I then began to think on an email I
had gotten from a person who occasionally reads the "Daily Words Of
Encouragement." I had spent some time counseling with this person
regarding a problem they were experiencing. In the course of the e-mails that
went back and forth between us I had spent time explaining to the person that
God wants us to always handle things HIS way, even though our own sinful
natures seek to handle problems the way the world handles them. In the last
e-mail I had from the person, prior to the one I got today, the person fully
agreed. Now a week or so has passed and the person is back to the same old
carnal feelings of how they should handle the problem.
Now, I am not trying to judge
this person, it takes much maturity in the Lord before we "GET IT."
But if God means for us to change in an area we will go from one similar
situation to another until we give up and handle it HIS way. I have been there
and done that.
God wants His kids to be
Spiritually minded in all things. When we are centered in our relationship with
God we handle things the way we have seen Christ handle things, and that is
with an expression of pure love, regardless of the circumstances.
The Carnally minded Christian
sees all things in their life in regards to how it affects them. The Ego, or
pride, sits on the throne of their life. So when the EGO or pride suffers
rejection of some sort, or undeserved hurt of some sort, the carnal minded
person tends to handle that situation by behaving in a manner that doesn't
bring glory to Christ.
Of all the things that bring
us down, I believe PRIDE is the most harmful. That is the same
"spirit" that was on Satan. Satan wanted to be equal with God, and
tried to take over heaven. He was cast out because of PRIDE.
Pride says, "I know more
then you know." Pride says, "I have been a Christian longer then you
have, how dare you try and teach me something." Pride says, "How dare
you do that to me, after all I have done for you."
Now, all of those things may
be true, or they may not be true, but the bottom line is that the Spiritual
nature ignores all of that, keeps it's mouth shut and responds with love,
regardless.
I am a counselor and
encourager by nature. People seek that out in me, people I meet for the first
time will tell me intimate details of their lives. When I came out of secular
counseling and into Christian counseling I would be talking to someone and I
would just chat on and on and on. I would barely let another person get a word
in edgewise as I began to talk about my own experiences. I talk to a lot of
folks who do that same thing. Finally, the Lord told me, "This isn't about
you and what you know or what you can discern. Learn to keep silent, don't give
advice until you are asked for it." I found that when a person needs
Christian counseling, it's important to let them vent, let them talk. You may
be the only person who will listen to them. There will be time to talk later.
When you are counseling with someone bring up your own experiences only when
asked. This is why it's hard for Pastors and Counselors to make
"friends" with people in their ministry. It's not about us, it's
about you!
So, now I try to remember to
let the other person do the majority of the talking. My nickname in High School
was "Chatty Cathie." I have had to, and still do have to, remember to
keep my mouth shut by dying to that irritating bit of my flesh.
In Romans 8:13 we read the
following; "if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if
by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will
live."
In every single situation we
face we have to respond in a Spiritual way and not a Carnal way. I do not care
what the situation is, or how much we think we are right and the other person
is wrong, we must respond in the Spirit and not in the flesh.
When we read of how unfairly
Jesus was treated the Word says "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." Isaiah
53:7
You see SELF says; "I am
the center of my universe everything is about me." People who think that
way are the ones who constantly think that everything someone says that they
don't like is personally directed at them. They also believe that they are
always right and spend a lot of time looking for and finding faults with other
people.
The Spiritual, or God Side,
says "Oh, I am sure they
didn't mean it like that, and even if they did, I give it to you God as a sweet
smelling sacrifice of love." Then the spiritual man never mentions the
offense.
We have to get to the place
where we are willing to picture ourselves at the foot of the "throne of
God" and as we picture ourselves there we also picture ourselves putting
God on that throne and us kneeling there before Him in submission. Then as we
do so God places a supernatural crown of FAVOR on our heads and leaves it
there. He is pleased with us.
But some of you are thinking
"Pastor Cat, you just don't know what this person said, or what this
person did to me, you don't know how they lied to me in my face, you don't know
what they did to my child." This may be hard to take but I have to tell
you what God has told me in similar, hurtful situations, "It doesn't
matter, you still must treat them with love."
You see that is what Jesus
did when we read the following; Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for
they do not know what they are doing." Luke 23:34
There have been many times
when I have been hurt to the point it literally felt as if my heart was
breaking, when the above scripture calmed me and gave me supernatural peace. We
forgive them, because they don't know what they have done. When they
"mess" with you, or me they are bringing down upon themselves the
anger of our Father. So we,
"let it go"
It doesn't matter who is
right and who is wrong. It doesn't matter who gets the last word. It only
matters that we do it His way. Our inner man/woman should be in the process of
being transformed by the direct effect of Christ moving in our lives. If we
find ourselves constantly being Carnally minded, something is not right in our
walk with the Lord.
In most cases it's because we
don't spend enough time alone with Him, reading the Word, praising His name,
asking for HIS advice and then following it.
God will never tell us to
handle a situation in a way that doesn't show love or demonstrate peace. God is
love. His love has a sweetness
about it that pours into everything and everyone he touches.
If you want to truly
experience the POWER of God, try today or the next day, responding to anger,
hate and bitterness in another person with LOVE. When we deny the flesh and
re-act with love God comes on the scene and miracles happen.
Sometimes we have to just walk away, knowing
that "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to
those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
Romans 8:28
If you spend time around someone who is
constantly emotionally abusing you, you are not living a balanced Christian
life. You must be moving away from that situation. When you can't move away,
ask God to move them out of your life. Don't become someone's constant
emotional scapegoat, even if it's someone in your own family. If yours is a situation in which you
are stuck and can't leave, then keep practicing returning love for their abuse.
Don't fight with them, and evidentially the demon talking through them, gives
up. You can smile and walk away. If you are on the phone with them, tell them "Love
you, but I have to go now."
The key to living life as an OVERCOMER is to
always, in each and every case, walk spiritually minded and not carnally
minded.
We never stop growing in our Spirit man as
long as we are on this earth. Each day has it's own set of circumstances. He
sets us on a path of righteousness, and it's up to each of us whether we stay
on that path or give up and walk into the path of carnality that the world
walks upon.
Father, we pray today to only seek your Face.
We pray today to lay down our pride, or ego and just follow you, no matter what
the cost is. Help us to be centered not so much on ourselves, and what people
think about us, but on YOU. We aren't here to make a name for ourselves but to
light the path for others to find YOU! In Your Name, the Name above all names
we pray. Amen and Amen.