BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED
“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6 NKJV)
While it may not be possible to have a trouble-free voyage across the ocean of life, however, it is possible to have a peace-full voyage despite the raging storms of life.
Peace does not necessarily mean an absence of storm, but calmness and tranquility amid storm. The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated this when He slept in the sinking boat amid a great storm (Matt. 8:24).
Jesus would have slept all through the voyage despite the tempest if not that He was woken up by his fearful and fretful disciples travelling with Him. This kind of supernatural peace is available to all believers in Christ(John 16:33).
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27 NKJV).
Every born-again believer has received a supernatural peace from Christ. This is the peace of God which surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7).
If you are a believer, God’s kind of peace resides in your born-again spirit. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit which He produces in your heart (Gal. 5:22). Therefore, like Jesus Christ, you also can experience tranquility of mind during a great storm.
Therefore, the Scripture commands, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.” (Col. 3:15 NKJV).
If you allow it, the peace of God can reign in your heart while you are going through a storm in life.
Why then are many believers today not experiencing, enjoying and manifesting the peace of God in their minds and emotions?
It is simply because they are not spiritually minded!
While it is true that as a born-again believer you already have God’s kind of peace in your born-again spirit, yet you may remain restless, stressful, fearful or fretful all throughout your life-time if you are not spiritually minded.
The Scripture states, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Rom. 8:6 NKJV).
Being born again does not automatically result in experiencing supernatural peace amid storm; it is being spiritually minded or setting your mind on the Spirit (God’s Word) that guarantees a life of peace despite the storm.
Sadly, many believers today are not spiritually minded but carnally minded, thereby not experiencing or manifesting the peace of God in their born-again spirits.
What does it mean to be spiritually minded?
First, it implies being God-conscious.
You are spiritually minded when you focus or fix your mind on God and not on yourself or your situation.
Being spiritually minded is letting God’s words preoccupy your mind. It is setting your thoughts and affections on God. It is meditating on God’s love, kindness, goodness, power and miracles amid your storm.
Isaiah 26:
3 You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. (NKJV).
Romans 8:
6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (RSV).
When your mind is set, stayed or fixed on God, you will experience and manifest God’s kind of peace despite your circumstances, challenges or trials.
Second, it is letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.
You are spiritually minded when you are living by the word or teaching of Christ. Being spiritually minded implies being Word-minded. It is letting the word or teaching of Christ saturate, dominate, control, govern, direct and guide your thoughts, words, emotions and actions.
When you mind the words of Christ, you are spiritually minded, for Christ’s words are spirit and life (John 6:63). It is minding the words of Christ that guarantees peace amid any storm in life.
The Scripture admonishes you to “Let the word [spoken by] Christ (the Messiah) have its home [in your hearts and minds] and dwell in you in [all its] richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom [in spiritual things, and as you sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with [His] grace in your hearts.” (Col. 3:16 AMP).
Third, it is to be filled, influenced, controlled, guided or led by the Holy Spirit.
You are spiritually minded when you let the Holy Spirit guide, direct, govern, rule, dominate or control your thoughts, words and conduct. Being spiritually minded is simply living and walking by the Holy Spirit.
The Scripture admonishes, “If we are living by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us be guided.” (Gal. 5:25 BBE).
When you yield to the Holy Spirit to guide and govern your life, you will experience and manifest the peace of God which surpasses all understanding amid your storm in life.
Supernatural peace is the fruit of the Holy Spirit which His presence produces in the believer’s heart.
The Scripture states, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, a quiet mind, kind acts, well-doing, faith, Gentle behaviour, control over desires: against such there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22-23 BBE).
It is not having the Holy Spirit that guarantees peace amid the storm, but letting the Holy Spirit have, guide and govern you.
If you let the Holy Spirit govern your mind, you will experience and manifest God’s peace despite your circumstances, challenges or trials in life.
Romans 8:
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. (NLT).
Sadly, many born-again believers who have the Holy Spirit indwelling their hearts are not experiencing and manifesting the peace of God in their minds because they would not allow the Holy Spirit to control their minds.
Fourth, it is walking by faith and not by sight.
Being spiritually minded implies refusing to be controlled, dominated, influenced, ruled or governed by your five natural senses – what you can see, hear, feel, taste or touch (2 Cor. 5:7).
Being spiritually minded is not denying physical realities but refusing to submit to them or allow them to dominate, rule or control you.
You are spiritually minded when you choose to be influenced, dominated or controlled by spiritual realities (the truths of God’s Word) rather than by physical realities (what you can see, hear, smell, taste, feel or touch in the natural).
Although the presence of the Holy Spirit in your born-again spirit produces and makes available to you the peace of God, yet you may never get to experience, enjoy and manifest it in your mind, emotions and body if you allow your physical realities to influence, dominate and control you.
The Lord Jesus was able to sleep well in the sinking boat despite the tempest because He was not dominated by His physical realities – things that were happening in the physical realm.
On the other hand, His disciples were restless, fearful and fretful because they were dominated by their physical realities – the things they could see, hear or feel in the natural.
Similarly, despite being surrounded by the aggressive Syrian army with horses and chariots, yet Elisha was not restless, fearful or fretful like his servant with him because he was spiritually minded; he could see beyond the natural.
Until Elisha’s servant’s spiritual eyes were opened so that he also could see beyond the natural he remained restless, fearful and fretful (2 Kings 6:15-17).
Until your spiritual eyes are opened to see who you are now in Christ and what you now have in and through Jesus Christ, you will remain restless, fearful and fretful in the face of every challenge or opposition in life.
Lastly, it is to be heavenly minded.
Being spiritually minded is setting your mind on things above, and not on things on the earth (Col. 3:2).
On the eve of His trial and crucifixion, the Lord Jesus Christ disclosed to His disciples the secret of experiencing peace or tranquility amid any storm in life.
John 14:
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
4 “And where I go you know, and the way you know.”(NKJV).
Beloved, when you are heavenly minded, you will not lose your peace even in the face or death, for you know that to die is gain and to be absent from the body is to be present with your Lord (Phil. 1:21, 2 Cor. 5:8).
The early apostles did not lose their peace and joy despite their severe tribulation and persecution because their minds were fixed on the glory and rewards awaiting them in heaven.
Apostle Paul aptly attests to this truth.
2 Corinthians 4:
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (NKJV).
If you also set your mind on the eternal rewards awaiting you in heaven, you will not lose heart or become worried, anxious, restless, fearful, or fretful during any storm, trial or tribulation in life.
Colossians 3:
1 If then you have a new life with Christ, give your attention to the things of heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
2 Keep your mind on the higher things, not on the things of earth. (BBE).
Be spiritually minded!
Prayer: My Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me Your own kind of peace in my born-again spirit. My Dear Holy Spirit, teach and help me to always be spiritually minded so that I may always enjoy and manifest this supernatural peace in my mind, emotions and body, in Jesus’ name. Amen.