Col. 3:1-4, Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Rom. 8: 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
Whatever our mind is set on, our emotions will reflect, and will be the place where faith stands. As I’ve said before, every human being lives by faith. They either live believing in earth’s report, or they live believing in the heaven’s report (The Spirit’s report). All of us manifest what our minds are set on, and our minds are set on what we seek. The Christian life is lived by faith, not just in the moment for a particular situation, but as a way of life in every situation and temptation. If as the priority of your life you are seeking the things above, as Colossians phrases it, then your mind will be set on heavenly things, and then when temptation hits, or trials come you’ll be able to stand firm in faith. If there is clutter though, in your minds, instead of spiritual clarity, it will be very difficult to stand in holy faith because of all the junk swirling around in your mind that represent the report of the flesh. That passage in Romans chapter 8 tells us that living by the flesh is cultivated by setting your minds on the things of the flesh; but if we live by the Spirit, which is the life of Holy faith, it will be because we are continually renewing our minds in the things of the Spirit. As a matter fact, verse 7 in Romans 8 says that if we are setting our minds on the things of the flesh we will not subject ourselves to the things of God because we are not even able to do so. I have found in my own walk that if I’m constantly feeding my mind with the stuff of this world, and the news this world is constantly feeding us, then I have a hard time standing firm in faith when the warfare picks up. Pay close attention to what those first four verses in Colossians 3 says; in light of the fact that our new life, our true self, is hidden with Christ in God, and that life in Christ, who is our life wants to manifest through us, it is imperative that our minds are set on the things above, not on the things of the earth, because what we seek (pursue, or cultivate) is what we will think; and what we think is what we will believe; and of course what we believe is what we will manifest in our emotions and in our lives.