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The
Carnal Life and the Eternal Life - by Design
The Carnal life, or flesh life
means to live according to your physical pleasures.
This does not mean doing without your daily essential needs of food, water,
shelter and clothing, but your desires beyond the essentials. The carnal, or
flesh life, is the kind that drains your spirit in the long run, although it
seems to be able to pick you up, empower you, enable you for a half and hour or
so. The carnal life is Very Short lived.
An example of the
carnal life is -
Grabbing a drink, like a beer, or vodka,
or Grabbing a
candy bar, or cookie,
or Grabbing a
magazine to look at the pictures of the people on them
or
Grabbing your credit card to buy something that you think will make you
important, happy, pretty, desired, esteemed, a winner, …
Grabbing a drug, relationship, sexual impurity, career, …
Anything physical
that you are emotionally dependent upon is leading a carnal, or fleshly life.
God refers to these things as idols, for they are something you fix
your mind's eye on and won't let go. You keep telling yourself over
and over again, "This will bring me happiness." The fact is, it
doesn't, won't and can't. If you have to keep repeating that thought, that means
it still hasn’t done what you want from it, and you are following a false
hope.
God warns you and me not to
lead a life like this for several reasons:
- We were not made or designed to live like this.
God made you, and He knows what is best for you.
- We will be hurt temporarily, and permanently if
we live this way, and He does not want us hurt. God loves you enough to want
you safe from harm.
- We were built with a hole, an emptiness
or vacuum in us which only God can satisfy. Anything, besides God, that you
put into that hole will make you more unhappy. If we keep on trying to, you
and I will be deceived and will despair and lose hope. For example, if
you have a 12 volt appliance, and you put it in a 2 volt outlet, it will not
function properly. If fact, because it is not made for that outlet voltage,
the motor will soon burn out. The same thing happens if you plug yourself into
anything but God. So, go ahead, plug your self into God. Plug into the Real
Electricity, the Light of the World, and you will be running on His Full
Supernatural Energy!!
- God is passionate for your affection. God
wants your attention at all times. God does not need you, but God does want
you. God Loves You enough to want to be the center of your attention and to
have your focus from the center of your being. God does not want to be your
idol, either, instead, He wants a relationship with you. This relationship
must be based on Who He is, and who you are right now, as you are. No hiding,
no tricks, just pure honesty and intimacy. God knows you, loves
you and wants to dwell inside of you!!
I pray that out of His glorious
riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Eph 3:16,17
God tells you and me:
 | You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the
commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by
going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Num 15:39 (God tells us to
remember His commands, His Words, Your relationship with Him and to not follow
the lusts of your carnal life. God wants you to talk to Him, seek His Word,
think about it, remember it, and apply it to your emotions, thoughts, words
and actions.) |
| Your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution! I have
seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, O
Jerusalem! How long will you be unclean?" Jer 13:27 (Unclean means to
have wrongs, or sin, on your soul, and God cannot tolerate sin. -Yet God calls
to you to come to Him so He can and will make you clean. So if the Son sets
you free, you will be free indeed. Jn 8:36 God alone can free you from that
uncleanness, from sin, and the habits, or slavery or bondage to it.) |
| How I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away
from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will
loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable
practices. Ez 6:9 (God is Very sad whenever you turn away from Him for delight
or pleasure in something that is wrong. For when you do, you are showing your
lack of trust, and faith in knowing that the Lord is Good. Taste and see that
the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Ps 34:8 God
tells you and me that you and I will loathe, or hate ourselves for the evil,
sin, wrongs you and I have done. If you hate yourself, will you come back to
the Lord? Or will you think that He hates you too? --- God does and will not
hate you, but He will continue to ask you to come to Him to make you His. If
you choose to not come to God, then He will not force His love upon you. He
wants you to love Him freely on your own choice.) |
Those who live according to their
physical desires and not living according to the Word of God, by the power of
the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ.
If you live like this, be aware, you
are not living in a relationship with the Living God.
| For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful
desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping
from those who live in error. 2Pet 2:18 |
| For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of
his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the
Father but from the world. 1John 2:16 |
| Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women
exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also
abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one
another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in
themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Rom 1:26,27 |
| For when we were controlled by the sinful nature,(Or the flesh) the sinful
passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore
fruit for death. Rom 7:5 |
| The mind of sinful man (Or mind set on the flesh) is death, but the mind
controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind (Or the mind set
on the flesh) is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it
do so. Rom 8:6,7 |
| I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable. 1Cor
15:50 (Therefore, be born of the Spirit, so you may inherit the kingdom of
God. John 3:5-7) |
| The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature (Or his
flesh, from the flesh) will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the
Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Gal 6:8 |
Fix
your eyes on God -
| But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD ; in you I take refuge-do
not give me over to death. Ps 141:8 |
| Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Prov
4:25
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is
seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2Cor 4:18 |
| Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Who
for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:2 |
The person who lives without a
relationship with the Living God does not multiply, but dies, and is no more:
(like the caterpillar)
| Wicked men are overthrown and are no more, but the house
of the righteous stands firm. Ps 12:7 |
| A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though
you look for them, they will not be found. Ps 37:10 |
| The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the
name of the wicked will rot. Prov 10:7 |
| The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to
cut off the memory of them from the earth. Ps 34:16 |
To cross from death to life, means to
experience the Chrysalis, the Cross - to Accept the Death Jesus experienced for
you, and for you to Experience the Death of your fleshly desires.
| My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my
portion forever. Ps 73:26 |
| My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my
flesh cry out for the living God. Ps 84:2 |
Chrysalis - What the Change is All
About.
The Christian life is not all happiness,
but it is joyful. When you suffer as a Christian, there is a factual, sustaining
Hope that produces a Joy that knows no bounds, or end. It is sustained by Jesus
Christ and the Holy Spirit, because God Himself dwells richly within you,
enabling you to go through trials,
| Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Col 3:15 |
| But we have this treasure in jars of clay to
show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard
pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry
around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be
revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to
death for Jesus' sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body. So
then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written:
"I believed; therefore I have spoken." Therefore we do not lose
heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed
day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an
eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is
seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen
is eternal. 2Cor 4:7-13, 16-18; Psalm 116:10 |
| Yet, O LORD , you are our Father. We are the
clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isa 64:8 |
| Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering,
as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you
participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when
his glory is revealed. 1Peter 4:12-13 |
| I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove
from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ez 36:26 |
| So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that
you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order
that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful
nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies,
so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we
have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the
Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. Rom 7:4-6 |
| But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near
through the blood of Christ. For through him we both have access to the
Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens,
but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, Eph
2:13-19 |
| For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12 |
| Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity
so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death –
that is, the devil – Heb 2:14 |
Christians have Life, and are God's
Children -
| In flesh and spirit they are His. And why one? Because He was seeking
godly offspring. Mal2:15 |
| Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. John 3:6
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this
bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world." Jn 6:51 |
| Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the
mouth of the LORD . Deut 8:3; Matt 4:4; Luke 4:4 |
| The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have
spoken to you are Spirit and they are Life. Jn 6:63 |
| The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature (Or his
flesh, from the flesh) will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the
Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Gal 6:8 |
| Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave
the right to become children of God – children born not of natural
descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. John
1:12,13 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's
children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and
coheirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we
may also share in his glory. Rom 8:16,17 |
| How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does
not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children
of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that
when he appears,[ 3:2 Or when it is made known] we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is. 1John 3:1,2 |
| You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one
who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1John 4:4 |
| This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and
carrying out his commands. 1John 5:2 |
What a Christian Is To Do - By the Power
of God through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
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Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your
earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed,
which is idolatry. Col 3:5 |
| Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about
how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Rom 13:14 |
| It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual
immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in
a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who
do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or
take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have
already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to
live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject
man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. 1Thess 4:3-8 |
| Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the
same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a
result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires,
but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past
doing what pagans choose to do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness,
orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do
not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse
on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the
living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to
those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in
regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. The end
of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled
so that you can pray. 1Peter 4:1-7 |
| So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as
Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the
faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no
one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends
on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on
Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and
you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and
authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful
nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the
circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised
with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful
nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having
canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that
stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having
disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross. Since you died with Christ to the basic
principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you
submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"?
These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human
commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom,
with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh
treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual
indulgence. Col 2:6-15; 20-23 |
The kind of Life a Christian has - ( a butterfly)
| The mind of sinful man (Or mind set on the flesh) is death, but the mind
controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind (Or the mind set
on the flesh) is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it
do so. Rom 8:6,7 |
| For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of
God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh –
Phil 3:3 |
You Christian, who is a butterfly, are
not to look down on non-Christians, the caterpillar.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you
used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the
kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All
of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful
nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature
objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in
mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is
by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us
with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming
ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his
kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so
that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to
do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2:1-10
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