Walk By The Spirit

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

Why should we walk in the flesh? Paul says quite plainly a couple of verses later:

19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

This post isn't blood moon hyperventilation, because when you see something like "...you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:42) or the inverse "...will not inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9) the speaker is talking about your salvation, and that's important. You should immediately think 'This Is Stuff To Pay Attention To.' I enjoy and even have fun with discussions like "Pretrib or posttrib" and "who were the sons of God in Genesis", because regardless of what you come up with, it has no bearing on your salvation. Walking by the Spirit IS your salvation.

Walking by the spirit doesn't mean obeying the Mossaic law, Romans 8:1-2 tells us we are free from the law through Jesus Christ. Tomes are written about walking by the Spirit, so to oversimplify a much studied concept into a form this tired old brain can understand, to walk by the spirit is to follow Jesus. We have reached Christ by faith and by that faith He asks that we walk with him until we hear Him say "Well done good and faithful servant". But how do we do this? Here's 7 steps to follow; 

1. Live by the Spirit. (Romans 8:4) It's not trying to do the right thing, it's knowing that if we continue in our faith in Jesus and follow His teaching we will do the right thing. That whole 'by their fruits you shall know them' thing - the fruits of our salvation is doing what God wants us to do

2. Set your mind on the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5) How do you overcome the desires of the flesh? The simple way is to replace them. Just as the easiest way to get the air out of a glass is to replace the air with water, so rather than trying to quit or erase sinful desires, refill your mind with things of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23  

3. Kill off the deeds of the flesh with the Spirit. (Romans 8:13) Basicly this is saying no to sin, however we can't just say no to sin, we as mere people aren't powerful enough. We must say no by the Spirit which involves replacing the desire to sin with the desire to serve God.

4. Be Led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14) The Holy Spirit leads us broadly (always) and specifically (sometimes). He leads us through his written word, the bible which was revealed to the prophets by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21). The Holy Spirit leads us by His timetable and by His desires, not ours so we may end up far afield of where we wanted to go. The bible shows many examples of God's Holy Spirit leading men to a place or to perform an action they never would have expected. Our role is to give a hearty aye-aye Sir! and follow where the Holy Spirit leads.

5. Know the Father by the Spirit. (Romans 8:15-17) Without the Holy Spirit we would never realize the boundless freedom we've been given nor our identity as God's adopted children. God has freely given us the Holy Spirit which leads us out of the slavery to sin and brings us to God as his children. The Holy Spirit helps us communicate with God, and gives us the realization that God truly is our father.

6. Hope in the Spirit (Romans 8:22-25) Paul says that because we have the Spirit, not despite it, that we groan in suffering in this world knowing that our redemption takes us to a far better place. With this eager hope in redemption the Spirit reminds us that God has great wonderful plans for us and in contrast this world is dark and sinfull, fallen into depravity.

7. Pray in the Spirit (Romans 8:26-28) When we come to prayer we are weak, often we don't know what to pray for in a situation. We know how to pray, we just don't know what to say. The Spirit joins us and helps us when we are struggling to articulate what is in our hearts. The Spirit searches out hearts and learns what we we are supposed to pray even if we don't consciously realize it ourself. The end result is that are prayers are prayed in accordance to the will of God because the Holy Spirit is moving us to pray and guiding our prayers as we commune with The Father.