As I mentioned previously, the Greek word for the flesh is sarx and if refers to the carnal nature in your body.

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 (KJV)

Thinking carnal thoughts allows the body, or the fleshly nature, to dominate. This results in death, which separates you from God’s life. In other words, things don’t work, It brings death to your prayer life and Word life. The flesh dominates because of wrong thinking, wrong believing, and wrong feelings.

Carnal-minded means thinking that relies on the five senses- what you can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell. Carnal-minded people walk by sight, not by faith. For example, a carnal person may not “feel” healed, and they don’t think they are healed and don’t believe they are healed- so they don’t act healed. Therefore, healing never manifests. This is the same with other things as well- finances, relationships, salvation, peace of mind, etc. We are to believe and act on God’s Word, no matter how things appear. Faith comes first, then feelings follow.

Carnal-minded people do what they “feel” like doing. if they don’t feel like praying, loving, giving, forgiving, fasting, seeking God, or worshiping God, they won’t. When we are born-again, we must begin to renew our minds to the Word of God, or we’ll remain baby Christians- carnal-minded and walking in no real power or victory.

As we renew our minds to God’s Word and act on His Word, we will grow spiritually, and our spirit will rule instead of our flesh. We become spirit-dominated rather than flesh-dominated. As we renew our minds to the Word continually and keep our thoughts focused on God, our thoughts and lives begin to line up with the Word. We become spiritually-minded, which produces God’s life in us, the peace of God, and wholeness in all areas of our lives and being.

By choosing to act on God’s Word, we are training in spiritual things, which brings us to spiritual maturity. When we do this, we’ll get to the point where we habitually and automatically act on the Word instead of wrong thoughts and emotions. The more we say “yes” to God, the more we can say “no” to fleshly thoughts and to our physical senses. We’ll say “no” to sin so we can follow God in faith and please Him. Thus, we go from victory to victory, growing in God, being used by Him to be a blessing wherever we go.