What Is the Mind-Set of the Spirit?

How can we grow to think more like God?

Romans 8:5 states, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” This begs the question, what is the mind-set of the Spirit?

The answer is given in verses 6-10: “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. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

The thought continues throughout the chapter.

Entering the Kingdom is at stake

Why is it important for us to know the mind-set of the Spirit? Christ says in John 3:5-6, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

The battle of the flesh versus the Spirit is very important, and we decide the outcome. Our entry into the Kingdom of God is at stake. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50). Will we, through our actions, choose the losing side?

The origin of the carnal mind

The carnal mind has its origins back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve took of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the carnal human mind was born. The carnal mind is all about the self. They took something they had no right to take. They took for themselves the decision about what they would consider right and wrong.

And when you have two or three—or 7 billion—people choosing what is right and what is wrong, the truth becomes foggy, because every person will look at things differently. Selfish motives come into play. The carnal mind is selfishness.

We have all given into temptation and sinned. We all have absorbed Satan’s attitudes and approach that is opposite of God’s nature. Through God’s calling and our answer to that call by turning and changing to live according to the way He dictates as right, we will receive the Holy Spirit. We are to develop more and more of the mind of Christ by overcoming.

The carnal mind is what we must fight against. We have to surrender our will to God’s will. If we let Him decide what is right and wrong, then there will be no more fog or confusion about what we should do. This is where the Spirit of God comes into play. If His Spirit is working in us, we can yield our will to Him and overcome our human nature and the carnal mind.

We have to choose to follow God. It’s our choice. It’s a decision we have to make. And we have to stick to that decision no matter what. We can’t be wishy-washy. We have to live our convictions with consistency. Nothing should be able to change our minds from following what we know is true. Our convictions need to be nonnegotiable. If we are not rock solid in our convictions, we open ourselves up to Satan and his devices of deception.

Doing right in the right way

Christianity is all about doing the right thing in the right way. It’s more than just doing right. That is certainly part of it, but it also involves the motives and attitudes behind our actions. That is the mind-set of the Spirit.

What are our desires behind the things we do? Where is our focus? Do we desire to point others to God through our actions? Or do I want people to look at “me”? Are our motives about the self? Or do we strive to be a servant to the living God?

As an example, why do many people smoke or get tattoos or body piercings? Too many do it to look cool. They want other people to notice. The focus is on the self. A Christian is supposed to be modest and humble. We should not want to draw attention to ourselves. Instead, we should desire to draw attention to God.

Winning the war

There is a war going on in each of us. There is a struggle between doing what God says and what we desire. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy, sinning and causing pain and sorrow to come upon ourselves from our own mistakes.

We have to surrender totally to God. We have to dedicate our lives to serving Him. When we do that, Christ will live in us uncontested, and we shall have inner peace. For an abundant life, for eternal life, God must be at the very center of our lives.

Johnathan Armstrong attends the Little Rock, Arkansas, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, and is a graduate student working on his doctorate in physics.

For more about living according to the Spirit, see:

• What Is Repentance?
• How Do You Know You Have the Holy Spirit?
• How Does Jesus Christ Live in Us?