ANDREW WOMMACK
SPIRIT SOUL AND BODY
Chapter Four
Reality—Carnal or Spiritual?
“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).
Carnal mindedness doesn’t necessarily mean “sinful” mindedness. All sin is carnal, but not all carnality is sin. “Carnal” literally means “of the five senses,” or “sensual.” Carnal mindedness is allowing your mind to be dominated by what you can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. You are carnally minded when your thoughts centre primarily on the physical realm.
Even in the natural, you’ve learned to believe in things you can’t see. Radio and television signals constantly surround you. Microwaves heat your food. Because of germs, you wash your hands, whether they look dirty or not. Although these physical things can’t be seen, you’re still very aware of their presence in your life.
However, there’s also an entire spiritual world—including realities within you—that exists beyond your natural perception. Your brain and five senses can’t perceive it, but your soul can through God’s Word. By faith, you can believe things that can’t physically be seen!
Spiritual mindedness releases the flow of God’s life in you, but carnal mindedness shuts it off. Simply stated, carnal mindedness = death, and spiritual mindedness = life and peace (Rom. 8:6).
“Death” means “anything that’s a result of sin.” This isn’t limited only to the ultimate physical death of your body but includes all of death’s progressive effects as well (i.e., sadness, loneliness, bitterness, illness, anger, poverty, etc.). In this fallen world, being dominated by your natural senses produces death.
But spiritual mindedness produces life and peace! Jesus declared, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). When your thoughts are
dominated by what the Word says, you’re spiritually minded.
It doesn’t matter what your physical circumstances might be—God can keep you in perfect peace! “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Is. 26:3). As your mind stays on Him, your soul agrees with your spirit, and God’s peace is released into your soul and body. Your born-again spirit is always in perfect peace—it’s just a matter of drawing it out!
On the other hand, you won’t experience the peace within when your mind stays fixed on your problems. Peace—an emotion is linked to the way you think! Your lack of peace isn’t because of any circumstance or person; it’s just that you’ve allowed your mind to be dominated by what you can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. You’re busy thinking about the potential damage, considering what the problem has done to others, and hashing through their opinions on the subject. All the while, God’s peace has been present in your spirit, but you haven’t drawn it out. Open that closed valve and let peace flow!
Believers shouldn’t live like lost people who are trapped in their carnal, physical world. “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (Eph. 4:17). In context, “Gentile” was a non-Jew, someone not in covenant relationship with God. In other words, unbelievers don’t use their minds to perceive spiritual truth.
Ephesians 4:18 talks about “having the understanding darkened.” If you don’t renew your mind and use it to study and meditate God’s Word, it’ll automatically gravitate toward what you can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. This darkens your understanding.
Understanding is the application of knowledge. “Knowledge” puts food into your mouth and chews. “Understanding” actually swallows and digests it so that the beneficial nutrients can be released into your body.
The knowledge of God is critical, but must be understood to be useful. Without understanding, you can’t release the life that’s in it.
When a Christian walks like an unbeliever, they get the same results—death. Believers who don’t understand and apply the knowledge of God in their lives gravitate toward carnal mindedness. Without spiritual knowledge and understanding, your mind can’t be renewed, and the life of God in your spirit can’t be released. That’s why understanding this revelation of spirit, soul, and body is the first step toward walking in life and peace!
When a believer’s understanding is darkened, they are “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Eph. 4:18). In other words, the life of God is still there, but they are alienated from it due to ignorance, which refers to the mind. This is where most Christians live their lives—separated from the life of God within, due to their own ignorance of spiritual truth.
In His Word, God declares that by His stripes, you were healed (1 Pet. 2:24). You look at yourself and ask, “Is that can- cerous tumour gone?” Still feeling pain, emotionally drained, and fearful, you continue, “God says I’m healed, but I’m not. It’s still there, so I must not be healed.” By adopting that attitude, you’ve allowed your five senses to dominate you more than God’s Word. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is in you, but you didn’t believe it (Eph. 1:18-20). You let your mind be con- trolled by what it saw in the physical realm more than the spiritual realm. Therefore, even though you have the resurrection life of God in your spirit, it won’t manifest in the physical realm because you’re carnally minded, which equals death.
Lasciviousness = controlled by what you feel. “Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Eph. 4:19). There’s a godly type of feeling. You don’t just deny that your senses exist. However, most people have gone beyond simply receiving sensory input to being dominated by them. They’ve left what God intended feelings to be and entered into lasciviousness—where feelings run their lives.
Feelings should be the caboose not the engine. They were designed to follow what you think, not lead the way. When you let the caboose act like the engine in your life, you’ll find your- self either going nowhere or heading straight for a train wreck! For a believer, this should not be!
The Spiritual Approach
“But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:20-24).
Renew your mind to the Word, and put on the new man! Ephesians 4:24 plainly reveals that your born-again spirit—the new man—was created after God in righteousness and true holiness. You need to recognise and acknowledge your true self in God’s mirror. Right now in your spirit, you are righteous and holy!
At times, you might think, I’m getting holier, but in reality, you’re just referring to your actions in the physical realm. The degree of holiness you live outwardly may vary, but the nature of your born-again spirit is righteousness and true holiness.
That’s why you must worship Him in spirit and truth! “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Your spirit is the part of you that completely changed. Old things passed away. All things be- came new. You cannot approach God unless you come to Him through the righteousness and true holiness of who you are in the spirit.
You aren’t worthy to come into His presence based on the righteousness and holiness of your thoughts and actions. Even at your best, you still fall short of doing everything you should. Even when you’ve been seeking the Lord wholeheartedly, you still have negative and impure thoughts in your mind. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never measure up to God’s perfection through your own efforts in the physical, emotional, and mental realms.
How then does God in His holiness fellowship with you if even at your best, you still fall short of His standards? He communes with you Spirit to spirit! You became a brand-new creature who is now righteous and holy. In your born-again spirit, you’re as pure as Christ is because His righteousness has been given to you. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us…righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30). Jesus Himself literally became your righteousness!
It’s inaccurate for a New Testament believer to confess “All of my righteousness is as filthy rags!” (Is. 64:6). You either have to be talking about your own self-righteousness, which you aren’t supposed to approach Him with anyway, or be totally ignorant of the fact that you’ve been made righteous in your spirit with Christ’s righteousness. Calling Jesus’ righteousness—which you received at salvation—a filthy rag is an affront against God and His Word!
Isaiah 64:6 (filthy rags) was valid in the Old Testament be- cause no one was born again; they didn’t have new spirits. Regardless of how good they lived in their physical and soulish realms, they still sinned and came short of the glory of God. All of us have (Rom. 3:23). But now that you’re born again, one- third of your being is completely righteous.
Unlike your spirit, your body and soul are in process. Until you’re with Jesus in glory, they don’t “arrive”—they just leave and head in that direction. Your physical, emotional, and mental realms will always need improvement, but your spirit is complete.
Since God is a Spirit, He looks at you Spirit to spirit (John 4:24). This is why you must worship Him in spirit and truth. You must come before Him in your spirit because it’s the only part of you that’s been created in righteousness and true holiness. God can only accept you based on who you are in your born-again spirit. That’s why the new birth is so essential!
Anyone who hasn’t received the Lord but tries to approach Him based on who they are in their actions and thoughts will always fall short of His glory (Rom. 3:23). Even if they’ve made significant personal improvements, God cannot lower Himself to their level. There’s no way they can approach, communicate, or fellowship with God because of their unholy nature. Man’s performance simply cannot accomplish what only the new birth can do—change his spiritual nature!
When you were born again, your old spirit died, was instantly removed, and replaced (Rom. 6). You became a brand-new creature with a recreated, elevated spirit. God literally sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart crying, “Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6, Rom. 8:9). Your spirit and His Spirit intermarried, merged, and became one to create a totally new person. That’s why God’s mirror reflects you as righteous, holy, and pure. The makeup of your born-again spirit is identical to Jesus Himself!
Fix your gaze on God’s mirror! Let your spirit’s reflected image dominate your thoughts. As who you are in Christ grows stronger in your heart, carnal “reality” must give way to spiritual reality. That’s when you’ll experience life and peace!
CHAPTER THREE
Renew, Acknowledge & Experience
Paul prayed for his friend “that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus” (Philem. 1:6). “Communicate” means to “release” or “transfer.” For instance, I’m communicating, releasing, transferring to you what God has spoken and made a reality in my life. “Effectual” means it begins to “work” or “produce.” How does your faith work and produce? “By the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”
Old Testament principles don’t necessarily apply to New Testament faith. That’s why concepts like “getting more faith,” “receiving a new anointing,” “getting more of God,” and “receiving a double portion” don’t work. Out of ignorance, people say, “Elisha had a double portion of Elijah’s anointing. Tonight is double-portion night! Come up here and we’ll pray for you to receive twice as much anointing.” Elijah didn’t have the fullness of God. He only had a small part. Therefore, Elisha could have twice as much as Elijah. However, John 1:16 reveals, “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” Under the New Covenant, we have all received (past tense) His fullness!
As a believer, God gave you everything when you were born again. Old things passed away, and all things became new. In your spirit, you received the same measure of faith, the same power, the same wisdom, and the same ability as every other Christian. Our spirits are all identical to the Lord Jesus Christ in every way. Your spirit isn’t in the process of growing and maturing because it’s already complete; you’ve already got everything!
The rest of your Christian life is learning how to manifest in the physical realm what’s already in your born-again spirit. The way your faith becomes effective, productive, operative is by acknowledging every good thing in you (your spirit) in Christ. Since you can only acknowledge things that already exist, you can’t acknowledge something that’s not a reality. Therefore, in order for your faith to work, you must recognize, believe, and acknowledge the good things in you in Christ!
I didn’t see any manifestation of power, victory, joy—anything—until I started renewing my mind and discovering what God had put inside me. As I began acknowledging what He had already done, His presence and power started manifesting in my life. The lives of the people I ministered to began to change. Acknowledging the good things in me in Christ caused my faith to work and produced supernatural results!
Most Christians believe God can do anything but experience very little. Now that they’ve been born again, they know they have access to the Lord. They believe that God can release His power in answer to prayer, but whether something comes to pass or not depends on their performance (i.e., being holy, speaking right, studying the Word, tithing, avoiding strife, etc.). This view short-circuits God’s power because their focus is on what they need to do instead of what Christ has already done. It’s not His power these Christians doubt but rather His willingness to use it on their behalf. They think God’s power is out there somewhere, and they must do things in order to obtain it!
The truth is, when you were born again, God put His power, anointing, victory, joy, peace—everything—in you in abundance. The only reason they aren’t manifest in your soul and body is your unrenewed mind. It’s not that God didn’t give it but that you’re still looking at the physical realm instead of His spiritual mirror.
One-third of your salvation is already complete! Right now, your spirit is as saved, sanctified, holy, and empowered as it will ever be throughout all eternity. Someday you’ll receive a new body and a new soul to match up with your new spirit. Until then, it’s your soul and body that are in the process of change, not your spirit. At the Second Coming of Christ, or when you die and go to Him, the change in your soul will be instantly completed. Then when the Lord returns, your spirit and soul will be reunited with your glorified body. At that time, all three will be perfect. But until then, the Christian life is renewing your mind and acknowledging the perfection already in your spirit so that your soul and physical body can experience the benefits of salvation!
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:1-2).
Don’t be conformed to this world! “Conformed” means “to be poured into the mold of!” In life, you will encounter pressures—from the world, from the devil, from unbelievers, and from circumstances. Although you can’t avoid being melted, you can choose which mold you’ll be poured into. When pressure comes, will you become bitter or better? As fiery trials arise, will you stand victorious or give in to defeat? The choice is yours, but you will be changed!
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind! “Transformed” in the Greek is the same word we derive “metamorphosis” from. It’s the picture of a little worm spinning a cocoon and then coming out as a butterfly. The way you transform, change, metamorphose from being bitter, hurtful, sick, and defeated into the loving, healed, healthy, and victorious person that God created you to be is through renewing your mind. Your spirit is already changed, and your body is basically your soul’s caboose. Whatever you think in your soul, your body will just go along for the ride. Therefore, it’s your mind, your thoughts, your attitudes that determine whether you experience victory and the life of God in your spirit or the defeat and death of the fallen natural realm. Renewing your mind to the Word facilitates your transformation!
God’s Word tells you what is spiritually true. It gives you the new values and attitudes you should conform yourself to. As you continually look into the Lord’s spiritual mirror, you’ll begin to see and experience yourself for who you really are!
ANDREW WOMMACK
SPIRIT, SOUL & BODY.