Pillars (12)

Holy Spirit led

What we need to understand is that receiving the Holy Spirit is separate from receiving Salvation.

Acts 2:37–38 ESV

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

First to walk by the Spirit you must be saved. You must repent for the forgiveness of your sins and be baptized or immersed into faith. We use water baptism as a symbol Essentially it means to be fully given into. When you are water baptised we immerse the entire body as a symbol of giving your entire self to God.

Then You will receive the Holy Spirit. You can’t be saved without receiving the Holy Spirit. However, if you want to deepen your relationship and have a more meaningful relationship with God you have to be in the Holy Spirit. Why? Well this is our verse this morning

Galatians 5:16 ESV

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The rest of the verse goes onto state that the flesh battles against the Spirit and the Spirit battles against the flesh. They are opposite each other. The main idea of this verse is to inform the reader that through the power of Holy Spirit we have the ability to deny the flesh. How?

John 16:13 ESV

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into truth.

If you remember last week we discussed where Jesus said he is the way and the TRUTH. So the Holy Spirit will help us navigate our relationship with Jesus.

In essence like a good mother.

Galatians 5:24–25 (ESV)

24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

This phrase I highlighted in very important. The reason is because in the Greek this is one word which means

to hold onto or conform to

It gives this image of becoming one. Or looking so much like God that we loose our own identity. Becoming the Identity of the one who we see.

Ephesians 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

In high school I wanted to be one of the cool kids. So I positioned myself to be like them. I dressed liked them, walked and talked like them, listened to the same music, drove the same cars, dated the same girls. Who I am now, in the image of Chirst, and who I was then in the image of cool kids are completely different.

To be instep with the Spirit is to embrace that which the Spirit embraces. In high school you could tell me who I was going to become. Who God made me to be, but I didn’t care because I was immersed into becoming who I wasn’t.

If you go back into the garden that is the image of the life God made for us. Apart from sin and the influence of sin on and in our lives. When Adam and Eve bit into the fruit they rejected who God made them to be and started to define themselves apart from God.

When we look at sin in our life it’s like looking at my high school pictures. For generations people recieved Satan’s image of man we are living our false self

But to live by the Spirit means that we are submitting to the Spirit’s empowerment to set aside the things of flesh and to become who God truly made us.

To be GuidedContinually means to embrace our truest form.

It means to deny temporal desires no matter how much you yern for them and to embrace you godly DNA

We were never meant for lying, stealing, cheating, fornicating, drinking

There is a much higher calling than that

1 Corinthians 7:17 (ESV)

17 Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.

Paul is talking to the church about those who are circumsized and those who aren’t. There was a fight brewing between those who were and those who weren’t, but Paul states that each should stay as they are which is where the assigned to comes into play. Because Jewish believers couldn’t uncircumsize themselves. and Christian believers didn’t have to circumsize themselves. But this is true in your current situation that in whatever God has given you authority over in your life rule over it bearing the image of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.