Today’s New Covenant nugget is from Romans 8:5 (NKJV)
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.
The Passion Translation says, ”Those who are motivated by the flesh only pursue what benefits themselves. But those who live by the impulses of the Holy Spirit are motivated to pursue spiritual realities.”
The New Covenant life should be a life lived according to the leading of the Holy Spirit… living by the impulses of the Spirit with a ‘Spirit mind-set’. Many believers actually live their lives in the flesh… in other words, they have carnal mindsets. They are ‘in their heads’ all of the time, trying to do the logical thing… the thing that is best for them in their situation. This mindset leaves believers wide open to deceptions, and to missing God. Jesus would have never gone to the cross with that kind of a mindset.
I love the way that The Passion Translation says it, “Those who live by the impulses of the Holy Spirit are motivated to pursue spiritual realities.” Spiritual realities are different from ‘sense-based’, ‘worldly logic’ based realities. Spiritual realities are only received (not achieved,) by FAITH in the One Who is leading… of course I am talking about Jesus, Who leads us through the promptings and impulses of the Holy Spirit. This is a mindset that says, “If the Holy Spirit leads me; and I follow by grace through faith, then all things are going to work out for my good, and for the good of the kingdom of God!”
One mindset is based upon worldly, sense-based logic, and the other on FAITH in Jesus, and in the leading of the Spirit. My wife and I have been totally sold out to living a life according to the leading of the Spirit… a life motivated to pursue spiritual realities, and it has left us blessed, prosperous, healthy, happy and fulfilled. I can testify that living by faith is truly abundant living!
In His amazing Love, Nick
