FOR TO BE CARNALLY MINDED IS DEATH

        By A. W. Tozer

        For to be carnally minded is death: but to be spiritually minded is life and peace: . . . But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.   ---Romans 8:6. 9

             One of the most telling blows which the enemy ever struck at the life of the Church was to create in her a groundless fear of the Holy Spirit!  He has been and is so widely misunderstood, that the very mention of  His Name in some circles is enough to frighten many people into resistance.

             Perhaps we may help by examining that fire which is the symbol of the Spirit's Person and Presence.

             The Holy Spirit is first of all a moral flame.  It is not an accident of language that He is called the HOLY Spirit, for whatever else the word holy may mean, it does undoubtedly carry with it the idea of moral purity. And the  Spirit, being God, must be absolutely and infinitely pure!

            It  follows  then  that  whoever would be filled and indwelt by the Spirit should first judge his life for any hidden iniquities; he should courageously expel from his heart everything which is out of accord with the character of God as revealed by the Holy Scriptures.

             At the base of all true Christian experience must lie a sound and sane morality.  No joys are valid, no delights legitimate where sin is allowed to live in life or conduct.  No transgression of pure righteousness dare excuse itself on the ground of superior religious experience.

             "Be ye holy" is a serious commandment from the Lord of the whole earth. The true Christian ideal is not to be happy, but to be
holy. The holy heart alone can be the habitation of the Holy Spirit!

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        Yours in Christ,
        Paul N. F.