Romans 8:9 (NKJV)

“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”

This may seem self-evident but Paul chooses to spell it out clearly as one of the conditions as well as evidence of a spiritually minded man. Plainly put by NLT, “You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.” This means that we cannot be spiritually minded and we cannot overcome the powers of the sinful nature, if the Spirit of God does not live in us. No wonder Jesus insisted that the disciples waited in Jerusalem for the infilling or outpouring of the Holy Spirit into their lives, before they proceeded to doing anything else.

The presence of the Holy Spirit is the greatest practical evidence that we actually belong to Christ, because the Holy Spirit does not inhabit an ungodly temple. As the NLT puts it, “those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.” We cannot live the spiritual life without the power of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit cannot live in our lives, except we first trust ourselves to Christ to put the old nature to death. They are all connected. A carnally minded man is he who chooses to live in the flesh by refusing to totally submit to the work of Christ by faith, and because of this, he cannot have the presence of Christ to transform him into God’s nature. That’s the eternal unbreakable cycle.

“I have submitted to You, Lord Jesus, and I know that I have Your Spirit, so I am sure that I am Yours. Oh Holy Spirit, come and fully indwell me and conform me daily to the complete image of Christ. Amen.”