Focus: Walking In The Spirit

Text: Gal.5:16

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."

Lord Tennyson said a long time ago, "O for a man to arise in me That the man I am may cease to be."

This is the desire of every man's heart. We long for the authentic versions of ourselves - the man as God created him to be, the man who is in touch and in tune with the Spirit. We were created to function as Spirit-filled, Spirit-energized and Spirit-galvanized individuals. But since the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden, man has been in a moral and spiritual mess. He is morally a wreck and spiritually out of touch with God. He is a contradiction of his original self.

When man fell he lost touch with the Spirit, but in Christ Jesus the Spirit is fully back to the believer, and as believers in Christ we are born of the Spirit and bred by Him.

Jesus Christ, in His earthly existence and mission, was born of the Spirit, lived by the Spirit, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, full of the Holy Ghost, led by the Spirit, and operated in the power of the Spirit. Indeed God gave Him the Spirit without measure.

No man becomes the original version of himself in this world without the Spirit. It is not possible. Real life is Spirit-generated. The original man was a product of the breath of God. God inhaled His spirit into the man. The Spirit of God in man differentiates him from the rest of creation. Jude made mention of those who are "sensual, having not the Spirit." The word 'sensual' refers to a soulish person or one who is devoid of the Spirit. In 1Cor.2:14, the word 'sensual' is translated as 'natural' - that is, what a man is, minus the Spirit. The Spirit of God in the believer exposes him to the reality and power of God. He has "tasted the heavenly gift… shared in the Holy Spirit… tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age" (Heb.6:4,5). The believer is in sync, and walks in step with the Spirit.

How sweet it is when the believer is walking in the Spirit! For when he does, he will not be fulfilling the lust of the flesh. The believer in Christ who walks in the Spirit is a terror to the devil. All the devil wants is to get the believer in Christ to settle in the flesh.

Paul says, "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom.8:4). The believer in Christ has chosen a path. He walks in the way of the Spirit. He walk down the path of the Spirit. The whole course of his life is charted and characterized by the Spirit. He is constantly in touch with heaven while living on earth. He is Spirit-propelled and Spirit-directed.

Paul says, "If we LIVE in the Spirit, let us also WALK in the Spirit" (Gal.5:25). The believer's whole life is Spirit-ordered. He moves by the dictates of the Spirit. He inclines his ears to hearing the Spirit's voice and doing His bidding. He lives by the Spirit and walks in His ways.

Paul says, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so WALK ye in him" (Col.2:6). John says, "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to WALK, even as he WALKED" (1Jh.2:6). The Spirit enables us to walk in Christ and also to walk as Christ walked while He was here on earth.

Walking in the Spirit implies walking in the truth. John says, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children WALK in truth" (3Jh.1:4). The Lord Jesus Christ calls the Holy Spirit, "the Spirit of truth." He guides us in the path of truth. He guides us away from the path of error, deceit, and self-deception.

John says, "And this is love, that we WALK after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should WALK in it" (2Jh.1:6). Walking in the Spirit means being obedient to Christ's commandments concerning love. Jesus Christ has instructed us to love one another as He has loved us, and the Spirit empowers us to live a life of love.

'Walking' covers the whole of our earthly existence. It is living by the Spirit intentionally and habitually for as long as we are alive on planet earth. We let the Spirit run our lives and guide our steps - including our decisions, actions and attitudes.

By walking in the Spirit we realize our true humanity. We do not become spirits, but real human beings. By walking in the Spirit we actualize our original and true selves. The 'self' we seem to have lost at the cross, we rediscover by the way of the Spirit. Hence the need to walk in the Spirit.

Let us walk in the light, in the love, and in the wisdom, of God! The best of lives is life by the Spirit. By being Spirit-filled we are enabled to walk in step with the Spirit. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter