Carnal Christian vs. The Spiritual Christian

Carnal as a word in itself is not bad, it is natural. An example of this from God’s word is when Paul talks about Christians who have benefited from the Jews. Gentiles have taken the Jew’s God as their God and Gentiles went one step further and took Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Paul says in Romans 15:25-27 that the Gentiles have benefited from the Jews spiritually so the Gentiles should minister to the Jews in carnal things. This is why so many real Christians want to help Israel and they pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem.

But what we are looking at is the carnal minded Christian here. Carnal minded Christians struggle with spending time with God because they are caught up in the cares of the world just as Jesus said in Matthew 13:22. Is it because the carnal minded Christian is not really saved? No. Is it because the carnal minded Christian doesn’t love God as much as their saved friend? Not necessarily but it can mean that.

Let’s face it, if you love boating, every free moment you get you are going to want to boat. So how does a spiritually minded person handle his love for boating? I’ll give you a few minutes to think on that.

Does God love the spiritually minded Christian any more than the carnally minded Christian? No, God loves them alike. What is the difference then between the carnally minded Christian and the spiritually minded Christian? Two things:

1. Rewards – 1 Corinthians 3:11-19

2. The spiritually minded person understands the spiritual battle – Ephesians 6:10-20

So what about the people who give and do things for Christians, churches and charities, isn’t that spiritual minded? No. Now God may move on someone’s heart to support a project or a ministry but the goal in their support has to be to glorify God, win souls and help Christians grow. If the giving is based on doing your part for God, showing people you are a good person or to have power in your church through recognition, rewards will be few and far between. That is why people who give anonymously usually want God to get the glory, not themselves.

When you look at the world’s system of doing things you want to compare them to God’s word and God’s way and make a decision, choose you this day whom you will follow. The world’s way is you are born, go to school to learn a trade to work all your life for a period in time to retire and enjoy your end years, hopefully without much sickness or pain. Along the way, the world tells you to get all you can, work hard even if it jeopardizes your family and health. Get what your parents have (even though they worked 30 years to get what they have) you get it now even if you have to go into debt to get all you want. The world says be a good person, follow the golden rule and make time for God if you must and do your duty to go to church. And then – then you die and your life is over and 300 years from today, no body will ever know you were here on this planet. And then you will stand before God on judgement day to give an account. Remember, we are talking about carnal Christians, not lost people. So the carnal Christian will stand before God and give an account as Paul says in  2 Corinthians 5:10.

We will finish here for this post and pick it up next time on the spiritual Christian. Oh, about the example above about the spiritual man and their love for boating? They go first in prayer, take a few Bible tracts with them to pass out and they enjoy the fruit of their labor and share the good news with someone that day.

May you go in the power of the Lord today.

Spiritual vs. Carnal

We are going to start a series: The Spiritual vs. The Carnal

We are made up of spirit, soul and body. The spirit is the spiritual man (mankind) and our body is the carnal (carnal means flesh) and the soul is our mind. Paul tells us to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-18). The capital S on Spirit means the Holy Spirit. If it were a small s it would mean our spirit. Keep in mind our spirit is our praise, prayer, worship, reverence, hope and faith.  But Paul is telling us to walk and live in the Holy Spirit. So how can you be alive in your flesh and walk and live in the Holy Spirit on this planet earth? That is the topic of this study. Some of this may be hard to understand but pray and ask God the Holy Spirit to give you understanding in Jesus’ name.

Our flesh has five senses, taste, touch, hear, smell and sight. These five senses tell the flesh things going on in our life. Example: your stomach growls, you hear your stomach growl and you can feel your stomach growl so you say, I am hungry. Advertisers run all types of ads to appeal to your flesh. Advertisers want you to lust (strongly desire) after their products that you go out and buy their product, even if you have to go into debt to buy their product. Their goal is to get your money. That is not bad, it is business. This is the world’s way. John says in 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of this world.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 shows us there is a difference between a carnal (fleshly) person and a natural person. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” KJV Clearly Paul is talking about the unsaved person, the natural man. So if someone is not saved, they can not understand the things of God until they get saved. (Romans 10:9,10) Once a person believes on (not in) the Lord Jesus Christ and receives him as their Lord and Saviour the Holy Spirit comes to live inside their heart, see Galatians 4:6 and 2 Corinthians 1:22. Why does the Holy Spirit come into our heart and not our mind? Because our mind is our soul and it is the soul that spends eternity in heaven or hell. The heart is the gateway to the soul.

So once you are saved you are no longer “a natural man” you are now a “spiritual man” but many times Christians, those saved, care more about carnal, fleshly, worldly things than they do about spiritual things. That doesn’t mean the Christian is not saved it does mean the Christian is carnal minded as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. You see, we are spiritual beings living in a body and we have a soul, just as Genesis 2:7 says. The difference is those who have rejected the gospel truth, their body goes in the grave, their spirit goes back to the Lord who gave it (see prior posts) and their soul goes to hell and later when death and hell are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14) their soul spends eternity in the lake of fire. For the saved, those who believed and received the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, their body is buried in the grave, their spirit goes back to the Lord who gave it and their soul goes to heaven (Revelation 20:15).

But what this study is about is the saved Christian living a carnal life or a spiritual life. You see, a carnal minded Christian is one who gets caught up in the cares of this world just as Jesus said in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:18-23 and look at verses 21,22 you notice the cares of this world. Jesus later explained the parable to his disciples in Matthew 13:37-43. As Paul says, if you are going to live in the flesh, you can’t please God, see Romans 8:7-13. In our next post we will compare the carnal life with the spiritual life. May the power of God work through you my friends.

What Is Your Soul Part 2?

What Is Your Soul Part 2

By: Heaven’s Record (c)

We discovered our soul’s attributes are our imaginations, our conscience, our memory, our affections and our reasoning. We know this is our natural man as Paul talks about. Here’s why:

1.) Our Carnal (body/flesh) Man: 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 ” And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as babes in Christ (vs.1) Then verse 2 tells them they need the milk or easy parts of God’s word and then verse 3 says, “For ye are yet carnal; whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not yet carnal, and walk as men?” Comparing these verses to Galatians 5:17-21 the attributes Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians are attributes of the flesh as stated in Galatians 5. The carnal man is affected by the five senses; sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing.

2.) Our Spiritual Man: The spirit of man is our praise, prayer, worship, hope and faith, it is the natural man, it needs to be quickened (made alive, born-again). See 1 Corinthians 2:1 “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,”   Clearly our spiritual man is our prayer, worship, praise, reverence and hope. How can you receive the things of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, if you can not discern or judge who the right God is? You can’t you are still in a natural man state. I could list 30 scriptures showing our spirit is our spiritual part and as Ecclesiastes 3:21, the spirit of man goes back to God.

3.) Our Soul: Our imagination, conscience, memory, affections and reasoning, all attributes of our mind, our soul. 1Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know (means to know we reason) them because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath know the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

How do we know it is the soul that is redeemed by the blood Jesus shed on the cross? Leviticus 17:11, it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Deut. 4:9, Keep your soul diligently. Psalm 16:10 speaking of Jesus, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell” compare to Acts 2:25-27 and remember the rich man and Lazarus? The rich man, in hell, lifted up his eyes and saw Lazarus in paradise.

Psalm 34:22 The Lord redeemed the soul of his servants.

Psalm 49:15 God will redeem my soul.

It is the soul that goes to heaven or hell. The soul is your mind, your thoughts. Now imagine going to hell for eternity and remembering all those times someone tried to tell you the truth and you rejected them? For the saved, they will remember good things and the lost will remember they rejected Jesus Christ. What will you do with Jesus?

How To Get Saved

Plan of Salvation

Eternal Life Through the Blood Of JESUS CHRIST Is A Free Gift. You Need to be Saved!

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10)

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

There is a penalty for sin–Eternal Death

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23)

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)
Jesus Christ is God’s Provision for Your Sinful Condition

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)

You Can Be Saved–Right Now!!!

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10)

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13)

Please Be Saved Now

Pray and ask the Lord, “Lord Jesus, be merciful to me a sinner, and save me. I now, with a repentant heart, receive you as my personal Saviour”.

If you just received Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, let us know.

What Is Your Soul?

What is Your Soul?

Spirit, Soul and Body Part 2

 

In our last post we looked at the spirit, soul and body of mankind.  We saw in Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, ” Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”  We also learned  the blood makes atonement (payment) for the soul as stated in Leviticus 17:1.  So the question is, When someone gets born again as John 3:3,7 says, ” Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” when someone gets born again, what is born again? What is saved?

 

The body is not saved for every body dies and goes back to the dust of the earth as Ecclesiastes 12:7 states. Man’s spirit goes back to God and it is the soul that spends eternity in heaven or hell. To explain this clearer, when someone gets born again, saved, their spirit is quickened, made alive, born again. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is quick (alive) and powerful (can produce great effects), and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder (dividing into parts to separate) of soul and spirit, (notice soul and spirit) and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

 

Now we have to ask, what about the soul? Hebrews 4:12 says the word of God divides into parts our soul and spirit. What does that mean? When you understand your spirit is your worship, your praise, your prayer life, your faith and your hope you understand you pray to, worship, praise, have faith in and hope shows you are spiritual.  There are many people stuck in religion that don’t know who the god is they pray to. But when God Almighty quickens your spirit and you get born again, saved, you now know who your God is and that he is the Almighty God of all gods. That’s when you understand who you worship, praise, pray to, have hope in and and faith in. Some deliberately pray to Satan or Mary or Buddha and some to the living God of all Gods, the Almighty God.

 

Your soul is separated, like Hebrews 4:12 says because your soul is your imagination, conscience, memory, affections and your reasoning. Before you get saved, your affections and reasoning are on things of the world, lusts, desires of the world. When you get saved, your affections are turned towards God. You want to please the Lord. You try reasoning things in this world with what saith the Lord.

 

When you look at what the soul is, imaginations, conscience, memory, affections and reasoning you notice these are all attributes of your mind. So we can conclude your soul is your mind. The gateway to your spirit is your will but the gateway to your soul is your heart and your thoughts.

 

In our next post we will put this all together.