What Kind of Christian? by Major W. Ian Thomas

God is the absolute source of righteousness, but there is also an absolute source of unrighteousness—the devil. All human activity derives from one or the other of these two origins.

That is why the Bible says, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23 KJV). Whatever does not derive from your attitude of total dependence upon God, whatever does not release God's activity through your life, is sin. It is sin because it stems from an attitude of independence that makes you open to any and all of Satan's deceptions in his long history of usurping God's authority.

Every step you take, every attitude you adopt, every decision you make, everything you do and all you hope to be, is either in dependence upon the God who created you as His own dwelling place, or else the byproduct of the demon spirit of this world, "who now works in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2), and who perpetuates his lies through a mindset of self-reliance in fallen humanity.

The Bible calls this attitude of independence a "carnal mind" (Romans 8:7). It is a mind that is set "on the things of the flesh" rather than on "the things of the Spirit" (Romans 8:5). It means exercising the faculties of your personality in ways that are not dependent on the God whose presence alone imparts to you the quality of true humanity that He always intended for you.

It means thinking godlessly. In other words, thinking lightlessly, with a mind still in darkness. You take a step, you make a decision, you conceive your plans, you assume a responsibility, all without relating the situation to God and to His light and to all that He is within you.

This carnal mind can be in the believer just as much as in the unbeliever. Carnal or fleshly Christians have been regenerated by the restoration of the Holy Spirit to their human spirit, but in certain ways they still repudiate the Spirit's legitimate right to reestablish the rule of Christ in their minds, in their emotions, and in their wills. Although they profess Christ as Redeemer, their actions and decisions typically are taken for the sake of their own interests and for who they are in themselves, rather than for God's interests and for who He is. Their minds are still the plaything and the workshop of the devil, for the devil is smart enough and cunning enough that he can always persuade countless numbers of professing Christians to try and be Christians without Christ. They are willing to do anything for Jesus' sake, but they fail to understand that His presence is absolutely imperative to do it, that without Him we are nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing.

To be a carnal Christian is still to claim the right to exercise your own jurisdiction, make your own decisions and plans, and choose your own pathway. But you will be useless to God, and you will make it into heaven only "as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15).

What kind of Christian do you want to be? To choose to be a carnal Christian is to choose spiritual oblivion. But if you decide genuinely that Christ must be everything and have everything in your life, if you say in your heart, "I want nothing less than to be all that for which the blood of God's dear Son was shed," then He is ready to lead you into discoveries that can completely revolutionize your whole humanity for time and eternity.

—From The Indwelling Life of Christ by Major W. Ian Thomas, pp 33-35.