Walking by the Spirit
Walking by the Spirit
Galatians 5:16
Walk by the Spirit and you will never fulfill the desires of the flesh.
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Walking by the Spirit
Walk by the Spirit and you will never fulfill the desires of the flesh.
I say, all of you walk by [the] Spirit and you will not bring to maturity the desires of the flesh – Galatians 5:16
Walking is a term used to describe how we generally manage our lives. Prior to being saved we walked according to the age of this world, which is a malignantly evil period. We had a lifestyle that was controlled by the futility of the mind.
in which once all of you walked according to the age of this world, according to the head of the authority of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of the disobedience – Ephesians 2:2
Therefore, I say and testify in the Lord, you are to no longer walk according to also the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds, Ephesians 4:17
Now we are God’s children and are to walk in the light. This is a lifestyle that rejects the works of the flesh and seeks to fulfil the desires of the Spirit so that we are fellowshipping with God.
If perhaps we should say that we are having fellowship with Him and we are walking in the darkness, we are lying and are not doing the truth. – 1 John 1:6
But if perhaps we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son keeps on cleaning us from all sin. – 1 John 1:7
We have a walk that is through faith, not through sight. This means we base our lifestyle upon the promise that God has given to us.
For we walk through faith, not through sight, 2 Corinthians 5:7
God […]
For indeed if one comes proclaiming a different Jesus whom we did not proclaim, or you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different gospel that you have not accepted – 2 Corinthians 11:4
Experiencing the Holy Spirit is a logical response from us as we identify and seek to fulfill the desires He gives us to live out who we are in Christ. This type of relationship is new, that is, it did not exist between God and humans prior to the creation of the Church. It requires us to pay attention to our desires and understand where they come from and their outcomes so we can discern what is God’s way, and stop being manipulated by our flesh and Satan.
The Spirit of the Truth Who the world does not have the ability to receive because it cannot watch Him, nor experientially know Him, but you experientially know Him because He abides alongside you and will be in you – John 14:17
Unfortunately, there are many today that teach contrary to this, trying to make our relationship with the Holy Spirit an emotional experience that is not based upon the truth. Remember, truth is not relative. There is only one truth, and it is not based upon how we feel or is changed because we don’t like it. As we read through Scripture, we see God interacting with people in ways that sometimes we would like to experience. He spoke with them, showed them signs, performed incredible miracles, raised the dead, healed the sick, and so many other direct, visible manifestations of who He is. However, this is not the type of relationship we have with God today, ours is […]
Now that we understand that the Holy Spirit communicates His desires to us through the desires we get to do what is right and obey God’s desirous will in our lives, we can start to follow those desires and be led by Him.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God – Romans 8:14
As part of our salvation, our bounds have been marked off to the placement of sons. This means we are in a special place of privilege that is not under governor or tutors – not under law. Being a son has nothing to do with the sex of a person, this is referring to a position of maturity.
having marked off our bounds to the placement of sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself according to the good pleasure of His desirous will – Ephesians 1:5
Now I say, up until as long a time as the heir is an inarticulate babbler, he differs nothing from a slave, being lord of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the placement by the Father – Galatians 4:1-2
As sons we are then led by the Holy Spirit, not by law.
And since you are led by the Spirit you are not under law – Galatians 5:18
The righteous live out from faith, not by law. Law is not out from faith. Living out the life we have in Christ is not done by pseudo obeying the Ten Commandments, it is done by walking in faith.
for God’s righteousness is revealed in it out from faith into faith. Just as it is written, the […]
Since we are living by the Spirit, we should also step by the Spirit, Galatians 5:25
Stepping by the Spirit is when we are carefully paying attention to how we are governing our lives. As we learn new truth from the Scripture, applying them to our lives correctly takes practice. We need to pay closer attention to what we are doing and constantly remind ourselves of the truth and allow our actions to align to it. Those who are more mature in their spiritual lives have the experiential knowledge of how important it is to follow Scripture accurately, especially when under an attack from one of our spiritual enemies. You do not get sloppy when putting up a defense against Satan, the sin nature, or the world system. If you do, you will lose.
In Galatians 5:16 we are instructed that when we walk1 by the Spirit we will in no way fulfill the desires of the flesh, after dealing with the works of the flesh and the fruit belonging to the Spirit, Paul comes back to governing our lives by the Spirit, but points out that there are time when we need to not only look at the big picture (walking), but also smaller details (each step).
As we press on toward the mark, let us who are mature minded step according to the high calling of God. We are now part of the new creation (the Christ). We have been crucified with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life before God. Therefore we are no longer slaves to the sin nature to obey its passions and desires. As we step according to this truth peace – an unruffled mind – and mercy – […]