The late Steve Biko a South African anti-apartheid campaigner and civil rights advocate who is also credited as the Father of Black consciousness was asked to define the term “Black Consciousness” to which he replied:

“It is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression — the blackness of their skin — and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.”

Long before Biko uttered this in his clarion call to black South Africans, Apostle Paul had also spoken of another kind of consciousness in the sixth verse of Romans chapter eight;

‘For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.’ (NKJV)

Here, the Apostle begins to awaken us to a super kind of consciousness whose resultant effect is life and peace if we embrace it. In today’s devotional, we will be taking a cursory look at what it means to be spiritually minded and how this behavioural mode translates into life and peace.

Paul wrote the letter to the church in Rome in the Greek language, and to better understand what he was talking about, it is essential we look at the keywords in their original state. The word interpreted minded is the Greek word “Phronema” which loosely means thoughts and the word interpreted as Spirit is the Greek word “Pneuma” which loosely means breath or wind, this connotes life’s essence.

Now when we begin to take into cognisance that Apostle Paul’s letter was addressed to the believers who reside and attended the church in Rome, and these set of believers have come to accept by faith that life’s essence invariable flows from God through the agency of the Holy Spirit (see John 6: 33 & Job 33:4), one can easily deconstruct Paul statement to mean:

“For to have one’s thoughts full of earthly/five-senses centred thoughts is to engage in a life that will eventually lead to both physical death and eternal separation from God, but to have one’s thought full of the God’s essence i.e. God’s Spirit and its characteristic attributes is to live a life that is full and rich in flavour, gains God’s approval, and guarantees peace here on earth and continuous eternal peace.” [Emphasies Mine]

While Steve Biko’s words was a call for Blacks to break the shackles of limitation that had bound them due to the apartheid regime, Apostle Paul’s call was aimed at the redemption of mankind from the shackles of carnality.

Whilst apartheid is now a thing of the past — at least officially, the reign of carnality still binds a lot of folks which prevents them from enjoying the fullness of life that Spirit-Consciousness confers. Consequently, it’s our responsibility as believers to take full advantage of the life and peace that Spirit-Consciousness confers while leading others to tow the same path.

This is our mandate for this week and the rest of our Godly lives here on earth and I pray for you reading this that you will take full advantage of the supplied grace of God Almighty to champion this cause In Jesus’ Name (Amen).

Have a Fabulous Week!

Nonso Orji

@nonso_orji