One of the chief areas from which deep insecurities spring is our brain, which, despite our salvation, remains carnal. We call it the carnal mind. This brain will decay with the rest of our bodies when we die.
It will decay with all its carnal memories of profanity and unclean thoughts, with all its memories of hurt and pain...never to be remembered again.
All of us have the same battles with the carnal mind. Some battle evil thoughts; some battle pride. With many it is habitual worrying. The carnal mind is there; it doesn't just go away because we receive forgiveness for our past sins.
We are admonished by the Scriptures not to give into that mind, but to strive to be spiritually minded. All of us know what a constant battle it takes.
Philippians 2:5 teaches, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." The mind of our Lord Jesus was set on one thing: obeying His Father and suffering death on the cross. He could have had some difficulty with His fleshly mind as He wrestled with it in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The mind of the flesh did not want to suffer the pains of the cross, but the mind of Christ won as He said, "Not My will, but Thine be done."
The carnal mind will recall evil jokes at the most inauspicious occasions and gladly retain all memories of sin and of pain. It is that with which we struggle when the beauty of the opposite sex challenges our desire to be spiritual.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians about living the crucified life: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
Christians do not believe, as some religions do, in physically abusing and mutilating the flesh. Therefore, it must then be in the mind where our battle takes place.
The carnal mind is the one part which refuses to cooperate and refuses to receive. It is the part that was in rebellion for so many years; it is the part that enjoys the thoughts of sin and its pleasure.
We attend church and enjoy Bible studies. We gather with the saints to worship. But the carnal brain refuses to bow. As the little child put it when the teacher made him stand in the corner, "I may be standing on the outside, but I'm sitting on the inside."
Could this be the reason so many sincere believers fall by the wayside and return to sin as a pig to the mud? Could this be Satan's playground?
Notice that Paul begins Galatians 2:20 with a beautiful fact: I was there when Jesus died. I died with Him, and He now lives in me.
What part of me does He live in? If He is living in my brain, my carnal thoughts, then it is terribly embarrassing. If He is living somewhere else in me, good! I need to know that.
It makes me feel terribly insecure to think He is dwelling in my brain and thinking my thoughts. Jesus is not in my brain. Notice the Apostle makes it very clear that Jesus is not in my soulish nature (my brain).
But, wherever He is living, He is living in me by faith. Now this has to help me, comfort me, and strengthen my security in Him.
My faith must work apart, far apart, from my soulish nature. It works in and flows out of my heart, my spirit nature, the inner man; and from this source, my faith operates.
Romans 10:9 speaks about my mouth confessing, but it is with the heart that I believe. Paul said to the jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:32).
The jailer did receive. He confessed, and it all felt so good, especially while Paul was with him.
So many would like to maintain their "glorious" days of soulish delight. We soon learn, however, that faith does not function by feeling. We discover what Paul was talking about in Romans 8—the battle with the flesh; that carnal, fleshly mind.
Volumes have been written on the book of Romans. Study it over and over again. Know its great truth, but be ready until the day you die to deal with your own flesh, with the brain as its agent, seeking ever to discourage you.
You can overcome the carnal mind. You have within you the Mind of Christ!
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Roy H. Hicks was a successful minister of the Gospel who gave his life to pastoring and pioneering churches throughout the United States.
He served the Lord in various foreign fields, having made missionary journeys to South America, the Orient, Australia, and New Zealand.
