2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, (5) casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
The fourth part of man we will discuss is how our mind influences our will. In all instances, our spirit, our conscience and our body, through our minds influence the decisions we make, for each part of man make their desires known through the thoughts they generate in our minds. And so we see a spiritual truth from the passages of scripture that we have discussed thus far, which is that our minds are the gateway to our wills. In other words our will listens to the reasoning of our minds in order to make the decision on what course of action to take. Because of this truth the condition of the mind becomes very important in determining how believers walk in this life. So what do I mean when I talk about the condition of our minds? As we have already stated, all believers come into the kingdom of God with carnal mindsets. And so their natural thinking will always magnify the desires of their bodies of sin and suppress the desires of their spirits and conscience, thus ensuring that the will of the believer will always be inclined to walk in sin. So how do Christians overcome carnal thinking while their spirits are still weak and have not yet developed the fruit of self control? As already stated we do so by the power of God. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul speaks about the ability that believers have in bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. In context Paul was speaking about the authority that ministers of the gospel have in addressing disobedience in the church. Nevertheless the same power that the Lord makes available to His ministers in bringing the thinking of the saints into line is also made available to each saint to be able to bring their own thoughts into line with His word. And so as an act of our wills, by faith we use God’s power to dictate to our minds how they are to think.
Romans 8:5-6 “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. (6) For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
The above quoted passage of scripture confirms the truth to us that as an act of our wills we can dictate to our minds to focus their thoughts in a certain direction, for in this passage the apostle Paul tells us that carnal believers set their minds on fleshly matters while spiritual believers set their minds on spiritual matters. The other spiritual truth we see in this passage is that our lifestyles are dictated by the way we think. The reason for that is because the carnal mind influences the will of the believer to live carnally, while the spiritual mind influences the will of the believer to live spiritually. The practice of focusing our thoughts takes discipline however, for until the believer’s mind is renewed to being spiritual in its thinking it will always default to carnal thinking. And so sadly because many believers are not diligent in this area, they continue to allow their minds to remain carnal throughout their Christian walk. Believers that choose to become more spiritually minded however, will experience the thoughts of their spirits becoming more dominant in influencing the decisions they make, thus causing them to walk in more and more righteousness and less and less sin. This is one of the main reasons why the Lord admonishes His saints to renew their minds, for the carnal mind will always influence the will of the believer to walk in sin, while the spiritual mind will always influence the will of the believer to walk in righteousness. Nevertheless even though our minds play an important role in influencing the decisions we make, it remains an act of our will as to which direction we take in life.
The above diagram is an illustration of how the various parts of man impact on the will of man. We can see from this diagram that the mind, the conscience, the spirit and the body all assert their influence on the decisions that men make as an act of their will. We can also see from this diagram that the mind is the filter through which the conscience, spirit and body of the believer try to exert influence on our wills. And so we can see why the condition of the mind is so important, because if the mind is more disposed toward the spirit and conscience, i.e. spiritual, then it will allow those parts of man to have the stronger influence on the decisions of their will. If however the mind is more disposed toward the body, i.e. carnal, then it will allow that part of man to have the stronger influence on the decisions of their will.
Michael E.B. Maher
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