DAY 12 - We live in a world that focuses on the flesh. You see it and sense it all around you. So in order to live above the world and the flesh we must develop a spiritual mind. Consider our text today, Romans 12:5-8 (NKJV). "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

If you are living according to the flesh it is because your mind is set upon the things of the flesh (self, lust, ambition). If this is the case, you are spiritually dead. You are an enemy of God. You cannot please God. It is as simple as that. What is the remedy? Again, just as simple. When your mind is consciously and deliberately set upon the things of the Spirit, you will be spiritually alive. You will be friend of God. You will please God in all you say and do. So we must give attention to the development of a spiritual mind. William Barclay said, "There is the life that is dominated by the Spirit of God. As a man lives in the air, he lives in Christ, never separated from Him. As he breathes in the air, and the air fills him, so Christ fills him. He has no mind of his own; Christ is his mind. He has no desires of his own; the will of Christ is his only law. He is Spirit-controlled, Christ-controlled, God-focused." I like the encouragement Paul gives us in this matter. "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you" (v. 9). God has empowered us to develop a spiritual mind. Begin today to do just that!