Daily Bread – June 18, 2021 (The Sixth Day – Genesis 1:24-31) Romans 8:6 – For carnal thinking is death, but spiritual thinking is life and peace. Part 2 ~ Carnal Thinking That which is carnal is not necessarily bad; it is just earthly and temporal (Romans 15:27; 1 Corinthians 9:11, 15:44). However, dependency upon the carnal, or natural thinking of man, almost altogether shuts out the voice of the Holy Spirit, and will most definitely bring those who trust in themselves to ruin (Jeremiah 17:5-8). The natural mind is limited to the laws of nature and cannot easily move into the realms of the miraculous. The natural mind would more eagerly look to a human answer or earthly remedy to supply a need. The natural mind is governed by what it sees, hears, and has physical evidence for; whereas, the spiritual mind believes the Word of God and needs no other proof. The spiritual mind functions in a realm of faith, and depends upon the unseen power of God to supply all we have need of. Those things that are seen are only temporal, and like the glory and ability of men, they pass away; but the things that are unseen and reveled to us by the Word of God will never fail or pass away (2 Corinthians 4:18). Those who trust in the Lord and who wholly trust in what God has said will be blessed with all those things God has promised (Jeremiah 17:7-8; Psalm 1:2-3; Joshua 1:8; Colossians 3:16). Carnal thinking is earthly and confined to what men can accomplish through their own efforts and abilities – the realm of self-reliance, self-preservation, and self-interest. There is nothing but death, fear, and defeat within this realm. Many of God’s children are stuck in this place and are robbed of their joy and peace, as well as stolen from them confidence in God and dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Carnal thinking is a place of condemnation, limitation, strife, and envy with little room for faith and submission to the Holy Spirit in these realms of the carnal where men seek their own interest and rely upon human abilities to accomplish their goals. The carnal mind is the state in which men hold on tightly to themselves to preserve their own well-being, and whose securities are their earthly possessions. The carnal mind and ways of men will altogether shut down those things the Holy Spirit has come to teach us (1 Corinthians 3:1). Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
Daily Bread 6/18/2021
