What are the effects of living as a Carnal Christian?

Living a life of carnality as a Christian might seem appealing at first—doing whatever you want and still thinking you’re headed to Heaven. But in reality, it’s a slippery slope that can lead to denying Jesus Christ and going to Hell (yeah, not so appealing when you know the end result). But before you get to that point, you’ll go through other things. By the way, I hope you’re not convinced that being a carnal Christian is a good thing. It’s not.

So what are the results of living as a carnal Christian?

1.) Broken Fellowship with God.

This is broken fellowship, not relationship. This doesn’t mean your relationship with God changes. He is still your Father, and you are still His beloved child. That relationship remains intact. However, your fellowship with Him is affected. To understand fellowship, let’s use an example. Imagine you have a close relationship with your parents, but one day, you disobey them – big time. That doesn’t change the fact that they are your parents and you are their child. They still love you just as much as before. However, that disobedience creates a barrier or gap between you. It affects the way you interact with each other. Similarly, when you choose to live in a carnal, self-centered way, there’s a gap between you and God, hindering the closeness and intimacy of your fellowship. And that can affect your prayer life….well, your life in every area.

It’s essential to note that God still loves you and desires a close relationship with you. But the barrier of disobedience affects the fellowship you can experience with Him. The good news is that you can restore that broken fellowship by repenting and turning from those sins. Carnal Christianity is all about continually choosing your own way over God’s, perpetual, ongoing sin and ignoring that conviction in your spirit. Over time, this can even numb your conscience, making it harder to recognize your wrongdoing, or even care that you’re doing wrong.
Remember, the purpose here is not to condemn or make you feel bad. It’s to help you understand the consequences of living a carnal Christian life and encourage you to align your choices with God’s desires and His principles. God’s love and forgiveness are always available to restore that broken fellowship and bring you back into a close relationship with Him.

…speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron… – 1 Timothy 4:2

So what does it mean to sear your conscience?

Imagine a rancher who wants to brand their cattle. They take a branding iron and heat it in the fire until it becomes intensely hot, glowing with heat. Then, with precision and experience, they press that red-hot iron against the cow’s hide. The intense heat burns away the hair and leaves a permanent mark on the skin. But something else happens too. The flesh becomes numb, losing its ability to feel or sense anything in that spot.

This is what can happen in our own lives. When we continually choose to sin without repentance, it’s searing our conscience. Our conscience is that inner voice or check in our spirit that helps us discern right from wrong. It’s like a moral compass, guiding us toward God’s ways. But when we ignore that voice and keep living in sin, our conscience can become numb and unresponsive. We lose the sensitivity to recognize the things of God and that sense of conviction when we’ve done something wrong.

It’s a dangerous path to follow. We can become so accustomed to our sinful choices that we start believing they don’t matter to God. We may continue living a life of sin while ‘playing church.’ This deception can lead us further away from God’s truth.

God has called us to live a holy life. He has set us apart for Himself. Our position, as believers, is meant to be holy and set apart for God’s purposes. However, if we persist in our carnal behavior for too long, it can eventually change our position. We can drift further from God’s plan and lose sight of His calling for our lives.

Be aware of the danger of searing our conscience. Stay sensitive to God’s leading, listening to that inner voice that alerts us when we’ve gone astray. Let’s strive to align our behavior with our position in Christ.

2.) It Will Destroy Our Confidence

And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. – 1 John 3:19-22

If we’re continually choosing our ways over God’s ways, we’re eventually going to lose our confidence that God hears our prayers and that God even loves us. While we’re connected to God, walking in His Word and have that close relationship with Him, our heart is a safe guide. But when we step away from all of that, it’s no longer a safe guide and we open ourselves up to falling for the lies and deception that the devil is constantly throwing out. You know those lies – ‘you’re unworthy and will always be unworthy of God’s love, you’re a failure’ and a million other lies he throws out trying to get you to believe just one.

Because you have torn down any ground that you’ve had to stand firm on the promises and truths of God, you’ve opened yourself up to the schemes of the devil. Because you’ve been feeding on fleshly things instead of spiritual things – you’ll believe what he says. You do not have the ability or power to resist his lies – even if you think you do. If think you do, you’re not being deceived by the devil. You’re deceiving yourself and eventually will be deceived by the devil.

3. ) You Will Lose Your Testimony

When you continually live for yourself and yet claim to be a Christian, people – your peers, your family and friends will see it and and they will not want anything to do with the Jesus you’re talking about. You become a fake. You become a hypocrite. Whether it’s at school, at work, or at home – people will see the lie that you’re living. Your words and your actions do not agree. People will turn you off and turn away. You’re just like them, except they don’t have to go to church. There’s nothing in your life that’s so great and grand that they would want. And that’s a real shame.

4.) It Will Diminish Your Authority

The promises of God are always conditional. You have to qualify. In one way or another, you have to qualify. To be saved, you had to qualify. What does Romans 10:9 says? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” You have to believe and confess. That’s how you qualify.

In the same manner, you have to qualify for the authority that Christ has given us. And if you are living according to the world, for yourself, your sinful nature – you don’t qualify.

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. – James 4:7

If you’re a carnal Christian, you’re not submitting to God or His ways. You’re not resisting the devil. You’re accepting him. You’re friends with him. You can’t accept all the lies of the devil and live the way he wants you to one moment, and the next try to tell him to leave you alone. It won’t happen. To have authority over the devil, we must first have authority over ourselves.

5.) It Opens The Door To The Enemy

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. – Peter 5:8-9

The NLT says, “Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.”

Satan is always looking for someone to attack. He’s always looking for someone who has given him a foothold or an open door in their life. He’s looking for someone living a life where they say they belong to God, yet live like the world. That is a foothold, an open door. The NLT says be strong in your faith. You can’t be strong in your faith when you don’t have any. And you don’t have any when you’re continually living like the world.

6.) Turning Away From God

I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News. – Galatians 1:6 NLT

So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? – Galatians 4:9 NLT

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. – Matthew 7:21-23

Have you ever gone to steep river bank or creek bank? Maybe you’ve tried to slowly get down to the bottom where the water meets the land. And have you’ve ever been so careful with your footsteps, but it didn’t matter because the river bank was so slippery that you slipped into the water? That’s exactly what happens to us when we decide to live a carnal life instead of s spiritual one.

The continual decision to follow your own selfish desires, your own human sinful nature, the culture of the world, instead of God’s Word, His Spirit, and His will eventually leads you to rejecting God all together.

Why wouldn’t it? If you’re doing these things, you’re already rejecting what He wants you to do on a continual basis. You’re spending only one day in church for a few hours and everything that you know and believe about God, you’re basically rejecting in your daily life. You’re in continual broken fellowship with God, you’ve lost your confidence that He hears you or loves you, you have no testimony and no authority, you’ve open the door to the enemy and then he snatches you up by convincing you that you don’t need this Jesus that you once passionately believed in.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons… – 1 Timothy 4:1

That term “giving heed” means a slow turning. It’s so slow that you don’t even realize it. It’s like traveling in an airplane from New York to Los Angeles and getting off your route by a few inches. By the time you get to where you’re supposed to be going, you’re off by miles – and you didn’t even realize it. I’ve actually heard it said that instead of being in New York, you’re in Washington D.C. That’s over 200 miles!

You better believe that a deceiving or seducing spirit is behind anything and anyone that is telling you that God doesn’t love you or you don’t need Jesus. In fact, I’d dare to say that in some way or form, there’s one behind any idea that is contrary to the Word of God.

To allow the things of the world to completely dominate your life leads to self-extinction. It’s comparable to spiritual suicide. Let me tell you of a better way though. We’ve looked at carnal Christianity, and saw where it leads, but what about Spiritual Christianity?

For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? – 1 Corinthians 3:3

If we’re carnal, then we’re simply mere men according to 1 Corinthians 3:3. So if you are spiritual, that would make you no mere man. You’re more than a mere man. Spiritual Christians are no mere men. Spiritual Christians are the mighty men of faith

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. 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. – Romans 8:5-9

What does it say about Spiritual Christians?

• They set their mind on the things of the Spirit
• Spiritually minded is life and peace.
• Spiritually minded is working with God.
• Spiritual Christians are subject to the laws of God.
• Spiritual Christians please God.

The effects of a spiritual Christian are the exact opposite of carnal Christians:

1.) Enjoy Fellowship With The Father
2.) Confidence In Him – Your Faith Works – Your Prayer Are Answered
3.) You Have A Testimony
4.) You Have Authority Over The Devil
5.) You Close the Door To The Enemy
6.) Eternal Fellowship With God In Heaven

Spiritual Christians change things in this world and those changes last forever. They have an eternal purpose and fulfill it. The Lord leads them and they enjoy the benefit of seeing great and mighty things. The results of being a spiritual Christian are so long and detailed that it would take page after page to tell you. In fact, the Bible is filled with those pages. The Word talks about men that the world was not worthy of. These are spiritual Christians. This is what we have been called to by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Put down the ways of the world, those lies of the devil, and choose a better path. Choose the way of the mighty men and women of faith. Choose the way that you’re called to live by the Creator of the Universe. And live as no mere man. Stay with the Word and the Spirit.