Learning to Walk in the Spirit (NOTES)

Outline

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

Application

NOTES

To live in the Spirit REQUIRES salvation

Romans 8:4

Like Jesus, operating out of the power of the Holy Spirit throughout his earthly ministry, we must also learn to do this.

This will involve learning to quiet our hearts and minds and the many voices that would seek to drown out his leading influence.

We allow TOO many distractions, temporal pleasures into our lives - NO, this is not a legalistic standard of staying away from all things of the world…this is deliberate choice of WHAT TO FOCUS our energy and passions upon.

Ezekiel - a new heart I will put in you.

It is about bringing our live under his control.

Practical steps

Training ourselves to live in CONSTANT daily awareness of AND fellowship in His presence

learning to pray before doing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.

Learning to consult the word before EVERY decision to see what it says about it.

To live in the Spirit is to be sanctified, to commit to the sanctification process.

THIS will involve regular confession of sin, prayer over sin, accountability for sin, deliberate pursuit of growing in the hatred for one’s sin, and a faithful battle in turning away form it.

Being made free from sin and death

Cleansed AND Changed

Practical steps - INVITING others into confessional style relationships.

Discipling others to do so.

To live in the Spirit is it live out of his quickening and power within us.

To walk in the Spirit is to live and maintain a habit of dependence upon him at all times.

To walk in the Spirit is to recognize the Spirit as present and abiding in us. TO BE CONSTANTLY AWARE OF HIS PRESENCE, acting and reacting out of it.

To walk in the Spirit is to come to count on Him as often, as frequently, as and readily as we count upon our lungs to breathe.

To walk in the Spirit is to CONSULT him always.

To walk in the Spirit is to obey the revealed will of God and His commands without question, hesitation, or complaint.

Touch on the blessings and fruit of such a relationship from Galatians 5.

Walking in the Spirit is to change the very things we desire to match His desires.

John 4:14. A lady once came to Mr. Moody and said, “Mr. Moody, I do not like you.” He asked, “Why not?” She said, “Because you are too narrow.” “Narrow! I did not know that I was narrow.” “Yes, you are too narrow. You don't believe in the theatre; you don't believe in cards; you don't believe in dancing.” “How do you know I don't believe in the theatre?” he asked. “Oh,” she said, “I know you don't.” Mr. Moody replied, “I go to the theatre whenever I want to.” “What,” cried the woman, “you go to the theatre whenever you want to?” “Yes, I go to the theatre whenever I want to.” “Oh,” she said, “Mr. Moody, you are a much broader man than I thought you were. I am so glad to hear you say it, that you go to the theatre whenever you want to.” “Yes, I go to the theatre whenever I want to. I don't want to.” Anyone who has really received the Holy Spirit, and in whom the Holy Spirit dwells and is unhindered in His working will not want to. Why is it then that so many professed Christians do go after these worldly amusements? For one of two reasons; either because they have never definitely received the Holy Spirit, or else because the fountain is choked. It is quite possible for a fountain to become choked.

Edwards, Jonathan; Murray, Andrew; Simpson, A. B.; Brengle, Samuel; Torrey, R. A.. 7 Classics on the Holy Spirit: Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit, The Spirit of Christ, Walking in the Spirit, When The Holy Ghost is Come, The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit (pp. 69-70). Kindle Edition.

To walk in the Spirit is to TRUST and have confidence in the Spirit

To walk in the Spirit is to train oneself to be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit, to listen for his voice

To walk in the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit - Romans 8:14.

Foster a heart of humility

Foster a heart of repentance

Spirit leads us into repentance

Starve the flesh

Five Steps Toward Walking by the Spirit

Let me conclude by mentioning five things that I think we must do so that it can be truly said that we are walking by the Spirit.

1. Acknowledge

First, we must acknowledge from our hearts that we are helpless to do good apart from the enablement of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in Romans 7:18, “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.” What did Jesus mean when he said in John 15:5, “Without me you can do nothing”? Of course, we can do something without Jesus: we can sin! But that’s all we can do. So, the first step of walking by the Spirit is: Admit this fact and let it have its devastating effect on our pride. We cannot do anything pleasing to God without the constant enablement of the Spirit.

2. Pray

Second, since it is promised in Ezekiel 36:27 that God will put his Spirit within us and cause us to walk in his statutes, pray that he does it to you by his almighty power. Many of you know the glorious, liberating experience of having an irresistible desire for sin overcome by a new and stronger desire for God and his way. And as you look back, to whom do you attribute that new desire? Where did it come from? It came from the merciful Holy Spirit. Therefore, let us pray like Paul did in 1 Thessalonians 3:12 for that chief fruit of the Spirit: “Now may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men.” And let’s pray like the writer to the Hebrews did in Hebrews 13:21:

And now may the God of peace . . . equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.

If it is God alone who works in us what is pleasing in his sight, then above all, we must pray. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

3. Trust

The third step involved in walking by the Spirit is faith. We must believe that since we have come under the gracious sway of God’s Spirit, “sin will no longer have dominion over us” (Romans 6:14). This confidence is what Paul meant by “reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God” (Romans 6:11). We simply count on it that the Spirit who made us alive when we were dead in sin wills our holiness and has the power to achieve what he wills. You may remember in one of my sermons on prayer I said that one of the things we believers can pray for with undoubting faith that God will do it is our sanctification, which is the same as being led by the Spirit.

The reason we can is that we know that God will cause his children to be led by the Spirit. And the way we know this is because of Romans 8:14, where Paul says you can’t even be a child of God unless you are led by the Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” If you are a child of God, you have a solid and unshakable promise that God will give you victory over those powerful desires of the flesh. One word of caution: do not prejudge the timing of the Holy Spirit’s work. Why he liberates one person overnight but brings another to freedom through months of struggle is a mystery concealed for now from our eyes.

4. Act

The fourth step in walking by the Spirit after you have acknowledged your helplessness without him, prayed for his enablement, and trusted in his deliverance is to act the way you know is right. Notice: this is not step number one. If this were step number one, all our actions would be works of the flesh, not fruit of the Spirit. Only after we have appealed for the Spirit’s enablement and thrown ourselves confidently on his promise and power to work in us, do we now work with all our might. Only when we act with that spiritual preparation, will we be able to say with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:10:

By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.

Or in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (see also Romans 15:18, 19). A person who has acknowledged his helplessness, prayed for God’s enablement to do right, and yielded himself confidently to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit has this astonishing incentive to do righteousness, namely, the confidence that, whatever righteous act he does, it is God almighty who is at work in him giving him the will and the power to do it. It is a sign of hasty prejudice when a person says, “Well, if the Spirit is sovereign and I can’t do any good without his enablement, then I may as well just sit here and do nothing.”

“The great problem in contemporary Christian living is not learning the right things to do but how to do the right things. ”

There are two things wrong with that statement: it is self-contradictory, and it is unbiblical. It is a contradiction to say, “I’ll just sit here and do nothing.” If you choose to sit in your chair while the house burns down, you have chosen to do something, just as much as the person who chooses to get up and save himself and others. Why should you think the one choice any more inconsistent with the sovereignty of God than the other? And such a statement is also unbiblical because Philippians 2:12 and 13 says,

Beloved, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling [get out of the chair, the house is on fire!] because [not “in spite of” but “because”] God is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

It is a great incentive, not discouragement, that all our effort to do what is right is the work of almighty God within us. At least for myself, I am greatly encouraged when the going gets rough that any effort I make to do right is a sign of God’s grace at work in me. “Let him who serves serve in the strength which God supplies, that in everything God may get the glory” (1 Peter 4:11). To God be the glory!

5. Thank

The final step in walking by the Spirit is to thank God for any virtue attained or any good deed performed. If without the Spirit we can do no right, then we must not only ask his enablement for it but also thank him whenever we do it. Just one example from 2 Corinthians 8:16. Paul says, “Thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus.” Titus loved the Corinthians. Where did that come from? God put it in his heart. It was a fruit of the Spirit. So what does Paul do? He thanks God. And Titus should, too. Thanks be to God who puts love in our hearts!

“If we live by the Spirit, then let us also walk by the Spirit.” Let us acknowledge from our heart that we are unable to please God without the Spirit’s constant enablement. Let us pray for that enablement. Let us trust confidently in the Spirit’s power and promise to give that enablement. Then let us do what we know is right. And having done it, let us turn and say with all the saints, “Not I, but the Spirit of Christ within me.” Thanks be to God! To him be glory forever and ever! Amen.

What does it mean to walk in the Spirit?

Question A “walk” in the Bible is often a metaphor for practical daily living. The Christian life is a journey, and we are to walk it—we are to make consistent forward progress. The biblical norm for all believers is that they walk in the Spirit: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25, KJV; cf. Romans 8:14). In other words, the Spirit gave us life in the new birth (John 3:6), and we must continue to live, day by day, in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit means that we yield to His control, we follow His lead, and we allow Him to exert His influence over us. To walk in the Spirit is the opposite of resisting Him or grieving Him (Ephesians 4:30). Galatians 5 examines the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer. The context is freedom from the Law of Moses (Galatians 5:1). Those who walk in the Spirit “eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope” (verse 5) and are free from the Law (verse 18). Also, those who walk in the Spirit “will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (verse 16). The flesh—our fallen nature under the power of sin—is in direct conflict with the Spirit (verse 17). When the flesh is in charge, the results are obvious (verses 19–21). But when the Spirit is in control, He produces godly qualities within us, apart from the strictures of the Law (verses 22–23). Believers “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (verse 24), and now we walk in the Spirit (verse 25). Those who walk in the Spirit are united with Him and are the bearers of the fruit the Spirit produces. Thus, those who walk in the Spirit walk in love—they live in love for God and for their fellow man. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in joy—they exhibit gladness in what God has done, is doing, and will do. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in peace—their lives are not defined by worry or anxiety (Philippians 4:6). Those who walk in the Spirit walk in patience—they are known for having a “long fuse” and do not lose their temper. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in kindness—they show tender concern for the needs of others. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in goodness—their actions reflect virtue and holiness. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in faithfulness—they are steadfast in their trust of God and His Word. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in gentleness—their lives are characterized by humility, grace, and thankfulness to God. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in self-control—they display moderation, constraint, and the ability to say “no” to the flesh. Those who walk in the Spirit rely on the Holy Spirit to guide them in thought, word, and deed (Romans 6:11–14). They show forth daily, moment-by-moment holiness, just as Jesus did when, “full of the Holy Spirit, [He] left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness” to be tempted (Luke 4:1). To walk in the Spirit is to be filled with the Spirit, and some results of the Spirit’s filling are thankfulness, singing, and joy (Ephesians 5:18–20; Colossians 3:16). Those who walk in the Spirit follow the Spirit’s lead. They “let the word of Christ dwell in [them] richly” (Colossians 3:16, ESV), and the Spirit uses the Word of God “for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Their whole way of life is lived according to the rule of the gospel, as the Spirit moves them toward obedience. When we walk in the Spirit, we find that the sinful appetites of the flesh have no more dominion over us. Answer Believers have the indwelling Spirit of Christ, the Comforter who proceeds from the Father (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit assists believers in prayer (Jude 1:20) and “intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Romans 8:27). He also leads the believer into righteousness (Galatians 5:16–18) and produces His fruit in those yielded to Him (Galatians 5:22–23). Believers are to submit to the will of God and walk in the Spirit. 📷