Carnality and its connection to death

Carnality is when believers of Christ are still slaves of and are controlled by the desires of the flesh and its desires. When we are subject to the ways and the demands of the old unrenewed and untransformed man we are carnally minded. 

Carnality limits believers from reaching their desired potential of Christlikeness because the desires of the flesh overpower the desire to be like Christ.

There is in carnality, a grip of the flesh where it literally takes control of a believer and they can not do the things of God. 

What does it mean to be carnally minded?

To be carnally minded is to be sensual, that is to be controlled and ruled by your senses. The activities of a carnal person are coordinated by the impulses of their senses. A carnal man is ruled by factors other than the Spirit of God. 

Anything that rules and influences a believer that is not from the Holy Spirit is carnality. The ultimate sign of carnality is uncontrolled lust such as desires and appetites.  

Sex is good and was given as a gift for married people. But if you can not wait for marriage as it was intended, then you are controlled by your desires and you are a carnal believer. 

Wealth is also good, but if you can’t follow through with the Spirit of God and its laws. Then you will find yourself using other means to get wealth, like making demonic contracts to get wealth. The moment your desires are beyond your control then you are living in carnality.

These carnal lusts differ for different people. For some, it’s anger, sex, money, food, movies, anything that you can not control.

Categories of Carnality that dominate believers.

1. The lust of the eyes

This is when what you see takes control of you, and you NEED to have it. If you were blind you wouldn’t have that lust. The desire for nice cars, bags, houses because you saw someone with it is a form of carnality that affects us as millennial Christian ladies.

Lust of the eyes is backed by greed where one is basically unable to control themselves. A practical example of this is

•  Impulsive buying even when you had not planned for it, don’t need it, or can not even afford it
• Going after every attractive person you meet even if you are married because your eyes have been captivated by the beauty

2. The lust of the flesh

This is when whatever your body wants you to have to get it. Regardless of whether it is even possible or if you need it. The desires and lusts of your body dominate you and you become like a hopeless slave to your fleshly desires. Practical examples are:

• Binge eating anything that looks good even when you are not hungry but simply are unable to control yourself. Whatever food your body wants to eat you eat it. Most of us millennial ladies are overweight because we can’t control ourselves when it comes to food.
• Lust of the flesh for us millennial ladies can go as far as sexual appetites, and the need to always satisfy them. Of course we are human, we are built to feel sexual desires. But when we go on random hook up sites like Tinder for one night stands because we have sexual desires, then we are controlled by our flesh.

3. Pride 

In life, people go through many different things which may leave them in respectable positions. This often results in a prideful nature. You end up seeing yourself as exceptional because of the comments that you have received throughout your life. Practical examples are

• After working very hard to be successful, people start idolizing you. You start seeing yourself as great from the accolades you have received from people and you end up thinking that you don’t need God since you have earned all these things by yourself.
• It’s difficult to acknowledge God in the face of good things. We tend to think that, “I did this myself and MAYBE God helped me. But remember ladies, every good and perfect gift comes from God.

Pride is what made Lucifer rebel from God, thinking that he was more than he really was.

When you believe that you can exist outside of God, it’s pride, when you refuse to acknowledge the impact that Christ has done on your success then it’s pride.

Effects of Carnality on the believer’s life.

1. Carnality robs the believer from experiencing the freedom provided by the death and blood of Jesus

Most of us know this victory theoretically but experientially we are yet to know it if we are living in carnality. Most believers’ flesh controls them, and don’t have freedom.

When Jesus died on the cross we received freedom. But we are still slaves to sin. When we are enslaved by our carnal desires, the devil still controls us. In that case, we are yet to experience the true victory that Jesus won for us.

Most believers and us millennials specifically so, are stuck at this level in their faith. They have received Christ as their Savior but they can’t seem to get past this to really be free.

Galatians 5: 19 characterizes the works of the flesh that one can not seem to be able to break free from because the desire of the flesh is greater than the desire to be Christlike.

Most believers love Jesus and believe all that He did but are still oppressed by demons. Still controlled by lust and are still helpless against demons’ grip over their lives.

The fact that something has been settled in Christ doesn’t mean that it will automatically manifest in your life. There have to be ways and laws to be able to receive all the things that we received through salvation, some element of transformation that we need 

WILLPOWER IS NOT FREEDOM

Victory over the flesh is not willpower to resist evil. Willpower is just a natural contribution from a man to keep himself holy.

These 2 are different, willpower VS victory from the flesh. Willpower is from self and victory is the transformative power of the holy spirit.

With willpower, you still want to do it but make yourself not to but a victory from the flesh you don’t have the urges anymore. When you still have the urge you are still a slave, you are not free. There is just a need for a good opportunity to make yourself fall and fail to maintain that willpower.

2. Carnality limits and stifles sustained spiritual growth in the life of the believer.

Faking purity on the outside when there isn’t real transformation from within can only go for so long. There comes a time when it will all fall apart and you will be exposed for who you really are. Time will reveal all fakeness. 

Carnality makes people be on fire for a time but always go back to their sin after a while. They have seasons of revival but it is not sustained. They somehow always find a way to backslide and go back to struggling.

The believer will really love Jesus and want to walk with him but somehow the pull that the flesh has over their lives always wins and takes over their lives. 

The devil knows when you are truly delivered from a thing or when it is just willpower, but there will always be a time when the flesh always takes over. They seem to be going in circles, going one step forward 2 steps back.

3. Carnality opens demonic doors and gives the devil legal rights over our lives

When you continually engage in sin, you give the devil a legal right to torment you with demonic attacks.

Demons operate on legal rights. When there is an open door, usually carnality opens doors, demons begin to torment you as they desire.

When you live in sin, the devil looks at you and sees something that is His therefore he has a right to own you and use you. But when you are blameless the devil looks at you and can not attack you.

4. Carnality can make the believer lose his salvation through idolatry and rebellion.

Once saved is always saved is not true. The bible clearly says that if we continue sinning deliberately after having received the knowledge of Jesus and have been saved, there no longer remains a sacrifice.

Carnality makes believers continue to sin after salvation and continued sin may result in losing your salvation. 

5. Carnality stops the believer from being the light to the world that we are instructed to be

As believers, Jesus said to let our light shine before men, so they can see our good works and praise the Father in heaven.

But if we continue living carnally there is no light to shine. No example is shown by our lifestyle. It robs you of the opportunity of becoming a true lampstand to the world. 

When you are living in sin and exhibiting earthly behaviors then there is no good example to show the world. You appear to be one of them.

As believers, we must have a life of Christlikeness so that the world uses our life as a template of holiness and what life must be. Your life must be spiritual yardsticks of what true love is, true victory is, true holiness and righteousness is but when living in sin you are limited

Keys that will transition you from Carnality to be Spiritually minded

1. Death to the flesh 

Dying to the flesh is rising to a spiritual state where your spirit, body, and soul can effortlessly withstand the pleasures, lusts, and cravings of the flesh.

God requires different sacrifices from different people. God gives different instructions for different sacrifices to different people which are specific to them. According to what God is calling them to do.

Some people have been told to give up and sacrifice watching TV which is in line which the spirit demands from them. Some people have been told to sacrifice the relationship they thought was the one. 

God works with us differently on account of the scope of your walk with God; he can give you a set of rules that do not apply to others. It may not be a burden to others but to some yes. 

Walking with the Holy Spirit gives the benefit of hearing and receiving personified instructions from the Holy Spirit. If the demands of the Holy Spirit are too heavy for you then carnality is still running you.

God’s will over yours. Regardless of what you want, not my will but your will be done. Anything that you can not give God, is an idol. It must die.

2. Walk in the Spirit 

This is the ultimate antidote to Carnality. When you walk in the Spirit, you are able to discern the voice of God clearly, then you will be able to conquer the flesh.

What it means to walk in the Spirit?

*Depending on the Holy Spirit for grace and power in your life

God is able to supply you with grace to overcome anger, sexual immorality, and every other fleshly desire from deep inside. Not as a result of willpower but because he has given you the strength. He has given you deliverance from the urges of the flesh.

*Living under the authority of the word of God

Making the word of God the ultimate basis for your judgments, decisions, and choices

Allowing the word to rule your thinking, your talking, your actions. Let the word rule your thinking.

How to overcome Carnality as believers

1. Get Deliverance 

If it is a demon that causes you to engage in sin and be unable to resist the urges of sin, deliverance is the best way to get freedom. For as long as one is bound by a demon there can be no true freedom to being like Christ. 

Demons control and influence the behavior of people. So when you experience overwhelming urges of lust, gluttony, anger and so forth you might want to get delivered. 

2. Read the bible to see the truth of what God expects from you

Meditating on the word of God for complete transformation will ensure that we know what God’s heart is on the issue. When we spend time in the word we can discern how Jesus acted to know what we are expected to do. 

You can only know that what you are doing is wrong if you know what is right. So the bible is the single most source of absolute truth for us as believers. Therefore knowing what it says will help us step out of carnality and live the spiritual life that God intended for us

3. Fasting and praying 

This is, I would say, one of the most important ways that will help believers to deal with carnality. When we fast we train our body to submit. We go on for certain periods without food as a way to humble ourselves, deny ourselves and seek more of God.

Fasting trains our body that it doesn’t always get what it wants. It purifies our spirit as well as our bodies from all toxins caused by careless eating, careless things we subject ourselves to all the time. 

A time for fasting is a time to spend more time with God, to be able to hear his voice more clearly.

4. Challenge yourself to Give away all the clothes and stuff that you don’t need and keep only what you need 

This helps us to assess the extent of how our flesh controls us. When we take inventory of our belongings, we can see how we are shopaholics who buy too many things that they don’t need to use. Take stock of the stuff that you have used recently, especially shoes and clothes, and give away the ones you haven’t used. Because you most likely don’t need that stuff anyway.

5. Meal planning, make a grocery list don’t buy food that you don’t want only because you saw it

This helps to buy recklessly the food that you don’t need. It also helps to eat well and be healthy. Not cooking too much food that ends up in the trash. Or stuff that gets worse without being used.