Bible Question #32 - The Carnal Mind

Welcome to another Wednesday night Bible study. Hope you're having [music] a good week. We're going to be continuing with our Bible quiz series. Okay. So, we are obviously continuing on now with our Bible literacy test. Tonight's Bible study question number 32. Bible question number 32.

Now, in in the quiz, just as a reminder, if you haven't been following along, there's a link on the YouTube channel. If you go over to the posts, you'll see a link there that will get you to the Bible study quiz itself. If you want to download the quiz and you want to follow along, you can do that. On the quiz itself, we're on question number 32 and it's and it asks the question or makes the statement carnal mind.

Now, we're going to begin this one the way we have historically with a bunch of our other ones. We're going to turn over to the location where we find the carnal mind is described in scripture. This is over in Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. And the scripture plainly states, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

" Simple, straightforward statement by the Apostle Paul about the carnal mind. before we try to walk through and as I'm going to try to do with this what I've tried to do with uh the rest of the questions with that are in the Bible study quiz series which is to ask why is this important for us to know what do we need to understand about this uh because it's obviously included in the quiz for a reason.

So before we walk through the details of the specific scripture here itself, we need to slow down and and I think we really need to let the scripture kind of define what the problem here is on its own terms. Romans 8 is often quoted very quickly and explained very simply. Usually it's reduced to a struggle between good impulses and bad impulses or between spiritual effort and human weakness.

But Paul is describing something far more fundamental. He's not diagnosing bad habits specifically. He's identifying a governing authority. This verse can be unsettling if we actually just let it say what it says. Paul does not say the carnal mind is confused. He doesn't say that it's immature.

He doesn't say that it is uh um underdeveloped. He says it's enmity. Now that word denotes hostility, opposition, and resistance. He then makes the statement even stronger. It's not subject to God's law. And more importantly, he says it cannot be. This is where Romans 8 is often misunderstood. The assumption is that the problem lies in what? Behavior, education, or even motivation.

If people just knew better, if they just tried harder, if they were just taught better, obedience would naturally follow. Paul removes that explanation entirely. The issue is not lack of information. The issue is lack of submission. So, we're forced to ask a deeper question. What governs the mind? Why does the mind reason its way from God's authority even when the truth is clear? Why does it justify, rationalize, or reinterpret what God wants instead of just yielding to what God says? Well, scripture consistently points us

beneath the surface, below thought patterns and choices and actions to something even more central than that. The Bible locates governance not first in the mind but in something deeper that directs it. Something scripture calls the heart. So I want to take a look today here at I'm going to get I'm going to do this in three points.

And the first point I want to cover is what the carnal mind is. Let's look at that first. Okay. And we'll we'll get a very clear understanding by the time we get to the end of this that there are that there is a big difference that's going to be contrasted here. We need to see and understand that difference to be able to make correct decisions in our life.

Okay, let's start with that. So obviously here Paul is addressing how a person's thinking is set. Romans 8 does not begin with actions or outcomes. It begins with the mind. Now that matters because it's in scripture the the the uh the mind is not just where thoughts happen. It's where judgments are formed, values get weighed, and decisions get made.

When Paul speaks of the carnal mind, he's not talking about a collection of bad habits. He's not describing an a a specific disposition of thinking or a settled way of approaching life or truth or even authority. In that sense, he says here in verse six, let's look here at verse six. He says, "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

" Now, I want you to see here, we we we see a description, don't we? We see carnally minded. We see spiritually minded. What we need to really dis I think discern here as we look at this is that bo the mind is in both in both. Whether it's carnal or spiritual, the mind doesn't change. It's the condition. It's that thing that describes the difference between how the mind is governed.

Carnalmindedness, spiritualmindedness, the mind doesn't leave. It doesn't evacuate the body. It's controlled. Who's controlling it? Carnal, spiritual. Now, you can see there's this tension between these two ideas. So the carnal way of thinking, Paul says, leads to death. The spirit way of thinking leads to life and peace.

And that tells us immediately that the issue is not about outward conduct. It's first about what governs a person's inner thinking. And at the deepest level, the word translated car carnal here comes from the Greek term s a rx sirs. While it can refer to physical flesh, Paul regularly uses it to describe human life operating on its own terms apart from the influence and authority of God's spirit.

The carnal mind is a mind directed by human reasoning, human priorities, human judgment. That's the standard that governs a carnal mind. That kind of thinking can exist in very moral, disciplined, and religious people. Carnality is not measured by how respectable someone appears. It's measured by who has the final say in their choices.

Paul makes that unmistakably clear in verse 7 because he says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be." That's very strong language and that's deliberate on the apostles part. He does not say the carnal mind struggles with God's law, meaning understanding God's law.

He does not say it finds God's law difficult. He says the carnal mind is not subject to it. The phrase not subject means unwilling to place itself under authority. The issue is not whether God's law is understood. The issue is whether God's law is accepted as binding. Now Paul goes on further and adds, "Nor indeed can be.

" That removes the idea that this problem can be fixed by more information, better arguments, a better understanding of God's law. The carnal mind is not temporarily uncooperative. It's fundamentally unwilling to yield to God's authority. This explains something we see throughout scripture and human history. The core problem has never been that humanity lacked instruction.

Adam and Eve were instructed directly by God. They had no excuse. They couldn't say, "Well, we just didn't understand." God taugh taught them himself personally. Israel wasn't ignorant of God's commandments. He had given them his commandments on tables of stone. The Pharisees were not unfamiliar with scripture.

They had the holy scriptures and had been preserving them for centuries. The issue is always the same. Whether God would be trusted to define what is right or whether human judgment would own that for himself, herself, ourselves. The prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 17 and verse 9. Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 9. makes this condition very clear in blunt terms because Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it?" In the Bible, the heart and mind work together. The verse does not say the heart is emotional or unreliable. It says it's deceitful. It's capable of convincing itself that its own reasoning is sound even when it is resisting what God says we should do. This is why people can be sincere. They can be thoughtful.

They can be even convicted and still be wrong. Sincerity does not correct a thinking process that refuses God's authority to decide. Now, Paul addresses the same tension when he speaks about the law in Romans chapter 7. We're going to go back to Romans now. We're going to be in Romans chapter 7:14. Okay. Romans chapter 7 and verse 14.

Paul says, "For we know that the law is spiritual." Okay, the law is spiritual. Paul says, "And we we know that." But he says, "I am carnal, sold under sin." So he he admits that there's a distinction between God's law and human beings and our carnal nature. So he doesn't criticize the law. He actually affirms its spiritual nature.

It's good. It's right. It's reflective of God's very being. The problem lies elsewhere. A spiritual law cannot be lived out by a mind that remains governed by human judgment. As long as thinking is directed by self-ruule, even good laws become something to disagree with rather than something to submit to. So the carnal mind asks whether God's commands seem reasonable, fair, practical, or even necessary.

God's instruction is filtered through human logic. And of course, then it's going to be adjusted accordingly. That process may sound thoughtful, reasonable, but honestly that's resistance. The issue is that the mind refuses to yield. This also explains why religious activity does not automatically resolve the problem. Isaiah chapter 1.

Let's let's lo notice here briefly Isaiah chapter 1 just the ver just excuse me just verses 13 uh through 15. So Isaiah 1 13-15. Now remember Isaiah was a contemporary of ancient Israel before the fall uh of uh of ancient Israel, the northern 10 tribes to Assyria. And here he writes in ver beginning in verse 13, he says, "Bring no more feudal sacrifices.

Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They are a trouble to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.

Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. God is saying, "Look, you look religious. You're practicing something. It has nothing to do with me. You say that it does, but it does not. And so, the outward forms of religion that you you claim represent just pure heart you have demonstrate not a pure heart.

you've not really yielded your decisionmaking, the authority over your choices to me. And God rejects this kind of worship because it it it exists alongside a refusal to live under God's authority. So, religious practices without submission means worship on human terms might look devoted, but it really remains carnal. Romans chapter 8 verse 8.

Now Romans chapter 8 verse 8 it says so then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Well what do you think that means? There's now we're we're we're we're moving into the crux of the issue here. This is not about occasional failure or human weakness. It's about where a person's thinking is rooted. To be in the flesh is to remain in a condition where human reasoning sets the course.

In that state, pleasing God is not just difficult, it's impossible because the authority structure hasn't changed. I'm the boss of the decisionmaking over right and wrong. This helps explain why discussions about obedience may seem circular. The resistance is not intellectual. The mind isn't operating on its own.

It's operating under the governance of an authority. That authority is me. And thinking itself is pointed away from submission. The carnal mind does not want God's rule. Paul is not condemning people for being flawed because we all are. It isn't a question of making mistakes. It's a question of how you decide what is right and wrong.

He's explaining why something deeper than effort is required. As long as thinking is set on self-ruule, behavior will follow the same pattern. Independence instead of obedience. That's why Romans 8 begins with diagnosing the problem, not identifying the solution. Before anything can really change, the governing disposition of the mind must change. So that's our second point.

Let's move into our second point here which talks about how the carnal mind functions then. So now we know what the carnal mind is. It's that mind ruled by the heart. Selfrule self-governance. Point number two is how does that function? Once we understand what the carnal mind is, then the next step is to recognize how it operates.

Scripture does not leave this issue in in limbo. It actually deals with it. It shows us patterns, consistent ways of thinking that surface whenever God's authority presses against our human will. These are patterns that can be subtle. They do not announce themselves as rebellion. They don't stand up screaming, "I hate you, God.

I don't want to do anything that you have to say." That's not where they come from. They're they're much more subtle than that. In fact, they frequently present themselves as reason, careful, and even faithful. But scripture reveals them for what they are. Let's look at the first one that I want to talk about.

And I think I have five or six of these. The first one is negotiation. This is the first pattern that we do through human reasoning. Negotiation. When the carnal mind encounters God's instruction, it rarely responds with open defiance. Instead, it begins to negotiate. It asks whether obedience is necessary. Now whether the command applies here, whether the circumstances might allow for some adjustment.

It's not confusion, it's conditional compliance. We see this pattern clearly at the very beginning. So we go back to Genesis chapter 3 and verse one. Genesis 3 verse one. It says, "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" And the woman said something, "What?" This is informative.

We may eat of the fruit of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die." Now notice, it says, "Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that in a day you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Now notice how she responds.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise. She's making judgments. She sees with the eye, right, that the food is good for food. It's pleasant to the eyes. It's desirable to make one wise. She's evaluating on her terms the very fruit God forbade to be eaten.

He encouraged her to negotiate her way through that as God indeed said he began with. And notice what's happening. God's command isn't denied outright. That's not how Satan handled it. He questioned it. He reframed it. He softened it. So the issue is not the wording of the command but whether God's instruction must be accepted without modifying it.

Of course that same pattern repeats whenever obedience feels restrictive. The carnal mind does not say God is wrong. It says can we talk about that? The second pattern evaluation. Rather than receiving God's instruction as authoritative, the carnal mind places it on trial. It weighs commands against human logic and experience and culture and even possible outcomes.

Obedience becomes something that must first pass inspection. Scripture addresses this tendency in Proverbs 3 and verse 5. Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 5. It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." It's the the instruction here is to trust first. Don't put God on trial when you don't understand something.

Trust God with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding. That's the point. Don't lean on your own understanding. So the warning isn't against thinking. It's against placing weight on human judgment as the deciding factor. The carnal mind leans instinctively on its own reasoning. When God's way conflicts with what seems sensible, efficient, or even fair, the command is treated as open to interpretation rather than a binding command.

Okay. The third pattern or a third pattern, selective obedience. The carnal mind naturally chooses what feels agreeable and avoids what feels costly. maybe commands that align with personal values. Well, those are going to be embraced. Scripture exposes this inconsistency over in James 1 22. James chapter 1 and verse 22 where James says but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.

Selfdeception is not accidental. It occurs when hearing replaces doing and agreement replaces obedience. The carnal mind is often content to affirm God's word verbally while not actually doing it practically. So the danger is not ignorance of truth but being comfortable with partial compliance with the truth. Okay.

How about another defining pattern of just of uh well another defining pattern and I'll call this one justification. When confronted the carnal mind explains itself. It appeals to context or intention or pressure or even comparison. Rather than yielding, it defends itself. Scripture consistently contrasts this response with genuine repentance.

Proverbs 28, Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 13. Verse 13 says, "He who covers his sins," this is not talking about covering somebody else's sins. This talking about covering our own sins. "He who covers his sins will not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy." Covering sin often it means covering reasoning, explaining why obedience was unreasonable or or unnecessary.

The carnal mind is skilled at self-defense. Okay, another one closely connected to justification is delay. The carnal mind often agrees in principle but postpones action. Obedience becomes something for later or you know maybe after circumstances change or pass or maybe after knowledge increases or maybe when I'm less uncomfortable.

Scripture warns against this posture in Ecclesiastes 11. Ecclesiastes 11 verse 4. It says, "He who observes the wind will not sow and he who regards the clouds will not reap." You can find yourself looking at the things that tell you you're not you're supposed to be acting right now and just not waiting for perfect conditions is often a way of avoiding obedience altogether.

The carnal mind prefers certainty and control. God often calls for obedience that requires trust rather than assurance. Often times we see in scripture and I think most of us have experienced in life. God wants you to take a leap of faith, trust him and see what happens. But the carnal mind doesn't like that.

It wants to know exactly what the outcome is and it can use that doubt to say let's wait. How about another important pattern? Religious insulation. The carnal mind can surround itself with activity. religious activity, let's say studying or serving other people or biblical discussions. But even in so doing, it can still remain resistant to being fully submissive to God.

Scripture speaks to this in Matthew 7 26. Matthew 7 verse 26. For Christ is saying, "Everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall.

" You know, that's that's a threat. You know, everything Christ is teaching in parable is is to help us to understand spiritual concepts. If you don't trust in Jesus Christ utterly and build your life around what he says and let him let God be the authority. It says here when trials come mighty is going to be your fall.

Mighty that that the implication of that is eternal failure. We don't want that kind of failure in our life. So finally the carnal mind also can reveal itself through defensiveness towards correction. You know, instruction that affirms what we want to believe, well, that's welcomed. No qu no question at all. Instruction that challenges what we want to believe, that gets dismissed.

Scripture identifies this response also in Proverbs 12:1. Proverbs 12 verse 1. He says, "Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid." You know, you like to think some words were more common or or or you know, we'd use them more today than they've been used.

But here the pages of our Bible, you know, translated many many many many centuries ago. Here it says, "He who hates correction is stupid." Not, that's not ambiguous at all, is it? You know, exactly what's being said there. And of course, it's not being said to insult. It's really being said to wake us up. It's a sober warning.

Resistance to correction is not a personality flaw. It signals that the authority that governs us has been compromised. So taken together these patterns show us something crucial. The carnal mind is consistent. It negotiates. It evaluates. It selects. It justifies. It delays. It insulates. It defends. all to preserve control.

And that is why scripture does not treat this as a minor issue. These patterns explain why knowledge alone does not transform a life. That's why agreement does not produce obedience and why religion can exist without submission. So Paul is preparing preparing us for an unavoidable conclusion. If this is how the carnal mind functions, then something more than effort or intention is required to overcome it.

So my third point then is how the carnal mind is replaced. To this point, Paul has left us with the sobering reality. The carnal mind is not corrected by effort. It's not restrained by knowledge. It's not persuaded by argument. If that's true, the scriptur is clear and the course of scripture is clear that it is. Then the real question is not how to manage this way of thinking but how is it replaced? Romans 8 does not leave us guessing.

Paul moves deliberately from diagnosis to solution. Let's go back to Romans 8 now in verse 9. Romans 8 now verse 9 it says but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. This is not a statement about spiritual maturity or progress or physical or even emotional maturity or progress.

It's a statement about position. Paul does not say believers are less carnal or improving over time. He says they're no longer in the flesh if God's spirit dwells in them. Now that language is categorical. A change has taken place at the level of rulership over the mind. The mind one governing influence has been replaced by another.

This is why scripture never presents the Holy Spirit as a helper. added to human effort. The spirit is presented as a new source of life and direction. Verse 10. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Our sins have killed us. We We earned the death penalty with our sins.

That's eternal death. There's only a salvation available to us through the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of that spirit which can lead to a transformation of our life, redemption from our sins. So our body truly is dead because of our sins. But the spirit is life because of righteousness. Now Paul is not saying the body ceases to act or desire. You're still physical.

You're still human. He says it's no longer governed or no longer governs all the decision-m. So that mortal fleshdirected impulse that once dictated direction no longer has right rightful authority in the decision-making process. So those old patterns of self-directed living have lost their claim to rule, but they haven't vanished.

What has changed is not the presence of desire, but who is in charge. A different governing influence now operates. The spirit introduces a new principle of direction, one that does not argue with God's law or weigh it against human preferences. It recognizes it as right and binding. Now, that distinction matters.

The spirit does not strengthen the carnal mind so it can finally obey. Remember at the beginning we talked about and we saw Paul comparing the carnal mind versus the spiritual mind. The spiritual mind isn't a a better version of the carnal mind. It isn't making the carnal mind spiritually carnally minded or carnally spiritually minded.

It replaces the carnal ruler of the mind. The carnal mind is thinking driven by the heart set on self-ruule. What changes then is the source of control. The believer must now respond to that change by yielding where resistance used to be the order of the day. Obedience does not become automatic, but it becomes possible because the authority that enables obedience is now present.

Paul explains this in verse 12. He says, "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." So notice that Paul says here, the flesh that he's not saying that the that that the flesh does not exist any longer. He says believers no longer allow the flesh to be the ruler. They don't owe it any more allegiance.

So it still may crave, it still may argue for what it wants, it still may pressure to get what it wants, but it no longer has the right to rule. That's a pro a very profound shift. Obedience is no longer an attempt to overcome human nature by force of will. It's a response to a new authority that's already been established through God's spirit.

Scripture consistently describes this change as a as a death and a replacement, not a tweak to what's already ruling. Ezekiel 36:26 is a reminder of what God always intended to happen. Ezekiel 36 Sorry. Ezekiel 36:26. It says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

God does not profen uh God does not promise to soften our hearts of stone. He promises to remove it. The heart that resists God's authority is exchanged for one capable of responding to it. That capacity does not come from human resolve. It comes from God's action, what God does in us. Now, Paul echoes that reality when he speaks about how obedience becomes possible.

Back to Romans, chapter 8, we're going to go up earlier now in chapter 8 to verse 4. Verse four says that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. This verse is often misunderstood. Paul does not say that the law is fulfilled for us so that it no longer matters.

He says it is fulfilled in us when we walk according to the spirit. So the spirit does not set aside God's law. It orients the mind with God's law. What the carnal mind resisted the spirit enabled mind now agrees with wants to do. This is why Paul later describes a transforming of thinking itself in chapter 12.

This transformation is not possible unless we have the spirit of God. Romans 12:es 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

How do we have our minds renewed? Well, the answer is through the Holy Spirit that is given to us. So, the renewal that's being referred to here means a new pattern of thought that's formed by a different authority. The renewed mind does not begin by asking whether obedience seems reasonable or necessary. It begins by trusting God, believing that God's instruction is right, even when our understanding may not be there yet.

Scripture also makes clear that this replacement is ongoing and it's not automatic. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16. Galatians chapter 5 verse 16. Paul says, "I say then walk in the spirit." You know, walking isn't standing still, is it? Stand still. I'll give you my spirit and all the transformation is going to happen.

Paul says, "No." He says, "Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the f flesh." So if you're walking in the spirit, you're leaving behind that flesh, that fleshly body, the desires of the flesh. You're being deliberate and purposeful about obeying that new authority you've given over yourself, over your mind.

That that authority will be making the decisions about what's right and wrong, not your physical desires. Walking in the spirit means choosing daily which voice governs our responses. The difference now is that obedience is possible not because the flesh has been improved. Our heart has somehow changed by itself or by our efforts but because its authority has been broken.

That also explains why repentance changes behavior after conversion. Repentance is no longer about managing guilt. It's about orienting our life around God's way over in 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1 verse 7 verse 7 says but if we walk that deliberate purposeful moving forward if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin.

Walking in the light is not being perfect. It is submission to the process of becoming perfect. When we get misaligned with that, the solution is not self-defense or justification, but turning real repentance. The spirit does not drive us away from God when we fail. It's drawing us back under God's rule. So Paul summarizes the entire process with one simple statement back in Romans chapter 8. Let's notice now verse 14.

Romans 8:14. He says, "For as many as are led in our walk, led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God." Being led implies direction, authority, and trust. Sons do not negotiate their identity. They accept it. The carnal mind resists being led because it insists on control. The spirit-led mind learns to yield because it trusts the one leading.

This brings us full circle. The solution to the carnal mind is not suppression. It's not education. It's not personal effort. It's a change in control. So where the flesh once ruled, the st the spirit now must rule. Where the flesh once decided, where the heart once decided what the mind should choose, now we let God do that.

As we close out this Bible study, we return to where we began. Paul's contrast helps us to see the mind's problem clearly in verse 6 of Romans chapter 8. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Paul is not contrasting having a mind with not having a mind. He contrasts two ways the mind is governed. The mind continues to think.

It continues to reason. It continues to weigh outcomes and to decide what to do. What changes is who has the right to rule it. To be carnally minded is to think from a posture of self rule. To allow human judgment, human desire, human reasoning to have the final say. That way of thinking leads to death.

Not because thought itself is wrong. I'm not saying that necessarily. But because the carnal mind resists God's authority, the carnal mind wants wants what the carnal mind wants. It's driven by our personal desires, our wants, our needs. It's not driven by what God says is right and wrong. So God is not authority. Then to be spiritually minded is not to stop thinking or feel.

It's to think under God's authority. The spiritually minded person still experiences pressure and desire and internal conflict, but those things are no longer allowed to overrule what God has said. This brings responsibility into sharp focus. God through his spirit establishes rightful rule, but we must respond to that rule.

Scripture repeatedly calls us to walk, to set the mind, to put on and to put off. Those are not automatic processes. They're actions that we take because we've yielded to God's rule and submitted to it. They're choices that we make in response to the authority that we now accept over us. So the question Romans 8 ultimately forces us to ask is not whether we believe God's word, but whether we allow it to govern our thinking when obedience is hard.

When negotiation happens, the flesh is still exerting influence. Where justification appears, the old self is still fighting. Where submission occurs, the spirit is leading. So the mind has not been removed. The struggle has not been deleted but the authority has changed and life and peace follow.

Not because our thinking stops, but because thinking now yields to the right authority.

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