For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 KJV
It is all about the control centre. For all things created, there is a place where control is based, where instructions for operations usually proceed out of, which then directs its actions. If the control centre were to fail and not function as it should, then we do not get the full view of what the product was designed for. You don't call a TV what it is simply because it has shiny surfaces, but because it functions as one. The car is called what it is because it functions as one. The human body also functions as such because it has been endowed with all it needs to optimally operate. Just as it is in the physical, so is it in the spiritual.
You cannot produce anything contrary to your control point. My life's output is a reflection of my life's daily focus. Whatever flows out of me is the natural progression of what I have spent time storing up in me. And there are only two extremes. You either take one or the other. You cannot do both at the same time, as the mind of man was not built to be able juggle these two conflicting interests. I have to submit to one and reject the other.
Both have eternal consequences. There are no temporary fixes, but only eternal realities. At a time, all of us were carnally minded, as a result of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. We lost the divine connection and had to settle for the one other option available which was death. This is the part that is hard to take: all of man is dead outside of Christ. We may claim to be alive and at our best, or simply living the best version of ourselves, but the truth is that without Christ, we are simply living, not truly alive. True life is found in Christ, and all who are under his control and influence are the ones who are truly alive.
See the focus on the mind: the place from where thoughts usually take place, and where decisions to do good or evil come to expression. God always uses the mind as the fertile ground for all he wants to do, as we see in Abraham, where God put a picture of abundant blessings in his mind, so he could pursue after the things that would make the picture a reality. It is still the same picture today: my mind is the place God wants to influence, and as I allow him work in and out of my mind, he can influence my life's action, direction and impact.
Whoever is then able to control the things that impact the mind is then the determinant of the eternal reality of that life. Death and Life/Peace are the two options available and all flesh have the power to choose. Once the choice has been made, the eternal consequences of that choice will begin to operate. Not even making a choice is itself a choice. What would it be for you? What would it be for me? His time of favour is here.
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