WALKING IN THE SPIRIT
Gal5:16 down
Roman8
Walking is a process
and not an event. Clearly there are events, moments in time, when God
empowers us in a special way. But the normative Christian life is predominantly
a process, a walk. And the Spirit’s influence in our lives is typically not an
overwhelming, overpowering presence but a more subtle influence. If we get
an overpowering experience—Score! Icing on the cake! Christmas morning! It’s an
additive, but not essential, blessing.
The normative
Christian life is not an overpowering event but is daily seeking to do those
things that increase the Spirit’s influence and decrease the hindrances to that
influence. So how, exactly, does the Holy Spirit exert control and influence
over our lives, and what is our role in the process? Perhaps the most helpful
passage in Scripture for answering these questions is this one in Paul’s letter
to the Ephesians:
"Be very careful ... how you
live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because
the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s
will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be
filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual
songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks
to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Ephesians
5:15-20)
One is compelled to
ask, “What does getting drunk on wine have to do with being filled with
the Spirit?” Well, obviously they are opposite alternatives, but they must
share some base of similarity, or else why couple them together? The link
between them, or the similarity they share, is in the idea of influence.
They are both foreign entities that, when internalized, influence our behavior.
In fact, this is
not the only time Scripture places them side by side. In the coming of the Holy
Spirit, it was suspected that the Spirit-filled believers “had too much wine”
(Acts 2:13), because of the similarity of influence.
Of course, there
are many important differences between alcohol and the Holy Spirit. Alcohol’s
influence leads to greater enslavement, while the Spirit gives great freedom.
Alcohol eclipses our personality, while the Spirit reanimates it. And Satan
uses alcohol to control us as God controls us through the Spirit. Still,
alcohol provides an example of a foreign influence (albeit a bad one) that can
affect our will and behavior.
As demonstrated
by alcohol, control is always a question of degrees. There are things we can do
that hinder the Spirit’s influence and things we can do to increase
sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading. This is at the heart of walking in
step—or being filled—with the Spirit.
(The word
“filled” means filled like a sail, not filled like a cup. When we think about
the sail metaphor, we rightly think about adjusting ourselves to catch the
existing wind of the Spirit. When we think about filling a cup, we wrongly
think about increasing the amount of the Spirit like pouring in more of a drink.)
So, what constitutes
the Spirit-filled life? What leads to the Spirit having maximum influence over
our lives? This is not comprehensive, but what follow are the primary vehicles
affecting the Spirit’s influence upon our thoughts, heart, will, and emotions.
1. LORDSHIP
How does one become
more drunk? One consumes more alcohol. In the case of the Holy Spirit, we
have all of Him that we will ever have. So the major determinant of the
Spirit’s influence is how much of us we let Him consume, meaning how much of
our lives we allow Him to control.
The question we
must ask ourselves is this: Do we desire to live for Christ in every area of
our life (dating, vocation, relationships, and so on)? We sometimes call this a
“lordship” decision.
It is often when
we relinquish these areas, like a drain coming unclogged, that we experience a
special empowerment, or increased influence of the Lord.
This frequently
happens during revival. While the new degree of influence can create a
powerful experience, equilibrium soon follows, and the Spirit’s influence
becomes normative as we continue to stay yielded to the Lord’s direction.
Again, following Paul’s alcohol analogy, for a consistent drinker or smoker,
alcohol and nicotine in the bloodstream at some point normalizes, sans elation.
Lordship is
a declaration to follow Christ wherever He leads, to whatever end. This
commitment, like any commitment, initiates an ongoing process. Over time we’ll
discover deeper roots of sin and uncover areas disconnected from His control. In
submitting these areas to Christ, we continue in, and affirm, His lordship and
our commitment to live under it.
2. CONFESSION
Throughout the day,
week, and year there are times when we make choices to sin. Sin is seizure of
control. We take control of the direction of our life and steer it toward
our sinful wants and desires. Confession cleanses and removes the
barrier of sin, and it places the control of our life back under the Spirit’s
subtle but determining influence.
3. RELIANCE (UNCEASING PRAYER)
Throughout each day we
experience neediness, weakness, and lack in the form of anxiety, loneliness,
insecurity, trials, unholy desires, negative feelings, and so on. All of us
have a natural inclination to meet these needs through reliance on something.
Watch cigarette
smokers. Every time they sense a need in their life, they light up. If they
feel lonely, they light up. If they feel scared or nervous, they light up. If
they need confidence, they light up. And while we might not smoke, we can
find ourselves doing the same thing with food, lust, shopping, music, coffee,
or any number of other things.
Choosing
throughout the day to turn to the Lord for wisdom, patience, empowerment,
companionship, security, confidence, and every other need is called humble reliance.
As the smoker is aided by nicotine’s influence, so the believer can experience
the Spirit’s influence.
Instead of
turning to whatever it is we turn to, we connect with God: “Oh Lord, I’m
nervous. Will You please strengthen me?” “Oh Lord, will You please give me
wisdom?” All day long, like smoking a pack of cigarettes, we turn to the Lord.
This is the idea of reliance and it is vital to experiencing the Spirit’s
influence.
(I apologize for
all the drinking and smoking analogies, but the Scripture is the foundation for
them, and they are helpful in understanding influence.)
4. RENEWING OUR MINDS
The Spirit’s influence
is always refreshed, directed, and supported by prayer and time in the
Scriptures. Through both of these He leads and renews our thinking.
5. PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING
If you’ve ever been to
a college party or bar, you’ll get this concept rather easily. It’s the idea of
atmosphere: the room is dark; the music is pulsing; clothes and conversation
are sexually suggestive; and alcohol sands down inhibitions.
An atmosphere has
been created that’s conducive to sin. Though no one forces you to drink, lust,
or gossip, they don’t have to. Just bask in the music and the glow of the lava
lamp long enough, and you want to.
Going back to our
Spirit-filled passage (Ephesians 5:19-20) again, notice what it says: “Speak to
one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your
heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The description
Paul gave is of an environment conducive to the empowering influence of the
Holy Spirit. As we worship, give thanks, praise God, and sing, our hearts
become like that party, only in a very good way. An environment is created where
the Lord can freely reign, a channel for Him to affect our thoughts,
actions, and emotions.
6. COMMUNITY
Last, it is in
community with other Christians that we experience a dynamic of the
Spirit-filled life that we can never experience alone, because we encounter the
indwelling Spirit through the lives of others, and through them we are
energized, empowered, and directed.
SUMMARY
Participating in these
activities daily constitutes walking in step with the Spirit, or walking in the
Spirit. The degree to which we participate is the degree to which the Spirit
has influence upon us. Whether the Spirit’s influence is a slow IV drip or a
flowing river depends on our participation in the spiritual life.
Christianity
was first called "the Way." It is not surprising, then, that the Bible instructs believers to "walk" a certain way. Even
today we hear others ask us about "our journey." Walking the journey
means to live as disciples of Jesus, following Him on "the Way" that
leads to abundant and eternal life. We are able to do this as we are baptized
into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit and are sanctified — increasingly
formed into the life of Jesus through the power of His Holy Spirit. The Apostle
Paul spoke to this "walk" of faith in Galatians: "But I say,
walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify desires of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16);
and "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).
To
understand this passage and the meaning for our lives today, we must isolate
the context, ex posit the meaning, and apply the mind of God in the passage.
Let's begin with the context.
The Context to the Command to Walk in the Spirit
To
walk in the Spirit is to walk in new life in Jesus Christ. It is to walk away from the old life of bondage to any
idea, person, system, or idea of salvation by religious ritual. As we will see,
God’s signs and symbols were never meant to save, only to point to salvation by
grace through God’s provision of a Messiah. The larger context for these
commands involves a challenge to Christian living among believers in Galatia,
a Roman Province populated by Gauls (dispersed peoples in Asia Minor who came
from the area of modern France and Belgium).
What
was the problem? It was a familiar issue in the New Testament. Consider the
opening of chapter five: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which
Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of
bondage" (Galatians 5:1). Galatians converts to Christianity came from Jewish as well as Gentile
backgrounds. This was true is other provinces of the Roman Empire where
Christianity was spreading. Why?
The
Apostle Paul presents an obvious strategy in the Books of Acts of using local
synagogues to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus, both Jewish and
Gentile "God-fears" who attended the Sabbath Day services would
hear the proclamation of Jesus of Nazareth as fully man and fully God, living
the life we could never live and dying the death that should have been ours, to
liberate us from the bondage of sin. This gift of forgiveness of sins and the
inheritance of the Kingdom of God, including eternal life and a new heaven and
a new earth to come, was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
One
of those prophecies came from Jeremiah: "For this is the covenant that I
will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will
put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be
their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33).
But this promise was not only for Jewish believers. God's promise of a New
Covenant extended to the Gentiles. So, we read in Isaiah, “It is too small a
thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back
those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6).
So,
the Bible foretold of a worldwide covenant of God's grace. Through Abraham, God
made a series of promises that make up a larger singular Covenant. In Genesis 12:2-3
we read God's promise to this father of many nation: "I will bless you . .
. so that you will be a blessing . . . and in you shall all the families of the
earth be blessed." This is repeated: "And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice"
(22:18; See, also, Genesis 18:18).
There
were some called Judaisms
who were "Jewish Christians who sought to induce Gentiles to observe
Jewish religious customs"[1] requiring Old Covenant signs to be
followed at the risk of exclusion from the new Christian community:
"Unless you are circumcised … you cannot be saved" (Acts 15:1).
We must remember that the Old Testaments signs of circumcision and Passover,
along with the many Leviticus laws, were not agents of salvation in themselves.
They
were powerful sacraments, outer forms for interior realities, that pointed to
God's salvation by grace alone. The problem of these Judaisms in Galatia was
not merely returning to an old system, but holding on to a wrongheaded concept
of salvation by works. God never granted salvation through man's works in
religious ritual, although He gave the Ancient Church of Israel those signs. He
gave them as a guide to Jesus the Messiah. So, too, the sacraments work today.
The Pauline
command to "Walk in the Spirit" is given in the context of
"walking in a bad idea of salvation by religious works."
5 Ways You Can
Walk in the Spirit
So, Paul called
believers to walk away from the old ideas about salvation that were embedded in
rabbinical Judaism of the first century as well as in Gentile pagan religions.
Believers must walk a new way: in the Spirit. But what does that mean?
Jesus said,
"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will
find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Luke 11:9).
J.J. Packer in his classic work on the subject, Keep in Step with the
Spirit, reminds us that the beginning of a walk with God through the power
and presence of the Holy Spirit begins with God's first step to us in prayer.
Packer tells us that of those who ask for God's Spirit "Many have been
staggered at the wealth of God's answer in experience to this request."
To walk in the
Spirit is to:
1. Walk away from sin. Sin is disobedience to the revealed will of God. Walk
away from sin by having the sin nature cleansed by pure righteous life of
Jesus. When you receive Him, He gets your sins and you get His life. Walk,
therefore, to the cross and leave your sins with Christ Jesus, by faith, today.
2. Walk away from any
other supposed "way" to God. The context in Galatia can be ours, too. Walk away from any idea that
you can please God or satisfy God's righteous requirements and His punishment
for sin by doing something yourself. You can't. It is cosmically impossible.
But what God has required, God has provided through His Son, Jesus our Lord. Walk
away from the bad idea of salvation by works, by ritual, or by any action or
idea or person other than the Lord Jesus.
3. Walk towards the
truth of God's Word. To walk in
the Spirit is to walk in the Word. God the Holy Spirit breathed out the very
Word of God. The Bible says that this, then, became flesh in the person of
Jesus our Lord. Walk in His Word today and every day. Walk in His Word through
this website and others like it that seek to keep you grounded in God's Word.
Seek His Word and you will find Him. He will fill you as you breath in that
sacred Word that He breathed out.
4. Walk towards the
light of the love of Jesus.
Jesus said that He is the light of the world. To walk in the Spirit is to be
following Jesus, for the Spirit speaks of Christ Jesus. The Spirit magnifies
the name of Jesus. And the light of Christ is His all-pervasive grace and love.
5. Walk in prayer and
total dependence upon the Lord.
Seek Christ and His life in daily prayer, in public prayer, and in meditation
on God's Word. You, too, will be "staggered" by God's response to
those who seek Him with all of their heart, soul, and mind.
To do these things
is to walk in the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that Enoch walked with God. One
day Enoch kept walking. He walked right into heave (Genesis 5:21-24).
To walk in the
Spirit will be to spend and be spent in the glorious life of following the Lord
Jesus Christ. This walk will ultimately pass through either the portal of death
or the Second Coming. And you will step, in the Spirit, into the very presence
of God.