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Let me ask you something. Do you walk in the Spirit? Are you living everyday by faith? I think that we would find that none of us are truly doing that. However, many of us don’t even really know what it means to do that.
Last week, we started a series on all of the pillars of Lighthouse Teaching. It’s crucial to look at the core of our brand and explain why we prioritize these values. In the latest post, we talked about crucifying the flesh, which you can read about here! Today, we’re going to discuss the next pillar, which is walking in step with the Spirit.
If you haven’t read last week’s post, I would encourage you to read it. Crucifying the flesh is directly linked with walking in the Spirit and it’s important to have a good understanding of both.
In Relation to the Spirit
Walking in step with the Spirit is one of those church phrases that you don’t really understand. You may know that means to live like God but what does it really mean?
Let’s get started by defining who we are in relation to the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is what’s being referred to in the passage of scripture. The Holy Spirit is part of the trinity with the Father and the son, Jesus. When Jesus left Earth to go to Heaven, He sent his Spirit to be with us. Luckily for us, we got the opportunity to become a temple of the Holy Spirit.
This means that our relationship to the Spirit is not one of merely contact. He’s not just a friend or someone close. But the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. This gives us the ability to not just walk and live in our spirit, but it also gives us the ability to walk in the purity and life that Jesus lived. After all, the Spirit and Jesus are one in the same.
In Relation to the Flesh
Now that we know who we really are in the Spirit, we must understand our relationship with the flesh.
Luckily the flesh is just part of who we are, and it’s not the way that we have to be, stay, or act in. We can act righteously and like the Spirit, but we have to understand who we are in the flesh.
We, in our natural selves, are in the flesh and the flesh is the worst. 1 Corinthians 4:13 tells us that in the flesh, “we have become, and are still, like the scum of the world”. In the flesh, we can do nothing meaningful or worthwhile. We can’t do anything truly good in our flesh. It just doesn’t have that capability.
That is why we needed Jesus. Jesus saved us. Not just in the way that we can receive salvation and go to Heaven, but he also saved us here on Earth. He gave us freedom on Earth. The Lord, in his mercy, gave us freedom from sin and freedom from condemnation. How great is that!
It’s only because of this freedom and from this freedom that we are able to escape our fleshly selves and walk in the Spirit.
The problem comes when we use the freedom that we’ve been given to walk in the flesh (Gal. 5:13). Therefore, we must fight to walk in step with the Spirit and crucify our flesh.
Seated in the Heavenlies
We’ve recognized that we’re perfect in one part of our being and wicked in another. So, how do we bridge a gap? How do we start to live out of our perfect self and ignore the wickedness of our flesh?
I’ve found that walking comes from first recognizing that in ourselves, we can’t do anything good. But Jesus did everything for us in our spirit. Therefore, truly walking in the spirit means that we must first rest in our spiritual status.
Ephesians 2:6 tells us that Jesus “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” That is beyond powerful.
Clearly, outside of Christ Jesus, we are not in the heavenlies. But this verse tells us that “in Christ Jesus”, we are in the heavenly places. How great is that! Even better, the impact doesn’t stop there.
The verse also tells us that we are seated. Not standing, not walking, not running, not fighting, but sitting. How often do we, as Christians, think that we need to earn, fight, or win God’s love or favor? I know that I did all the time, and this verse helped me so much. This verse tells us that we are seated with him. In fact, it’s from the sitting that we are given the strength to walk in the spirit.
Think about if you walked all the time and you never rested. You never sat and you only worked to pursue a status that you never could earn. That is similar to what we do when we try to walk in the Spirit outside of our position in Christ. To walk in the Spirit must begin with resting in our position with Christ.
There is a very powerful book entitled, “Sit Walk Stand” about this very concept. I strongly recommend it and you can find it here if you’re interested!
The Step of the Spirit
It’s evident that we need to first begin with recognizing our spiritual identity and living out of that spiritual identity. However, we can’t walk in step with the Spirit, if we don’t know how it walks, even if are in tune with our spiritual identity.
If you’ve seen our mission page, you can quickly tell that everything comes from the book of Galatians. It only makes sense that we can find out how to walk in step with the spirit from Galatians.
Let’s see what the book of Galatians tells us.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. ” (Gal. 5:22-25)
This verse shows us a very powerful truth. It shows us those who have crucified the flesh, and have the Spirit in their hearts, will portray the fruits of the Spirit.
Do you portray the fruits of the Spirit in your life? Or do you portray the fruits of the flesh like we mentioned last week? Typically, it’s rare to see people walk in those fruits and portray the good fruit, but we all can. It’s actually the way that were all called to walk.
Evidently, the “step” of the Spirit, that we are all called to walk in, is that of portraying the fruits of the Spirit. As we are told to keep in step with the Spirit, we should all aspire to portray the fruits of the Spirit.
Portraying the Fruits of the Spirit
Portraying the fruits can be a really difficult thing to do. Not because it’s so difficult to live that way, but because there is a common misconception about Christian living.
We often believe that we have to really work to live Christian lives, and constantly struggle and constantly fail. Perfect, Christian living is seemingly impossible and even truly living out those fruits is seen as impossible. Luckily, that way of thinking is biblically wrong.
Galatians 5:1 tells us that it is “for freedom Christ has set us free.” It’s not to live in sin. It’s not to stay in imperfection for the rest of our lives. But it is for freedom, and it’s that freedom that gives us the opportunity to walk in step of the Spirit.
The way to portray those fruits comes down to a few simple things.
- Crucifying the Flesh
- Planting the seed of the Spirit
- Serving one another in love
Crucifying the Flesh
Although this was the topic in our last discussion, it has relevance here too. This is because in order to see the fruits of the Spirit portrayed in our life, we must first cut the roots that the flesh has. In other words, the flesh must die, so that the Spirit can live. So, denying ourselves the pleasures and ways of the flesh is the first step.
This step not only ends the way of the old man but allows room for the new man to be shown. We also stop ourselves from attempting to do good works on our own.
Although it’s possible to do good works, we can’t do them on our own. Striving for good works in our flesh is practically the same thing as doing the things of the flesh. When we crucify the flesh with its passions and desires, we stop ourselves from striving in our flesh.
Planting the Seed of the Spirit
The next step in walking in step with the Spirit and portraying the fruits is to plant the seed of the Spirit in your heart. To crucify the flesh is to kill the root of the flesh in your life. Likewise, to plant the seed of the Spirit is to begin to walk in the Spirit.
Galatians 6:7-8 tells us about a very powerful truth on this topic. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
This verse shows us that the law of seedtime and harvest applies to this topic. It shows us that from sowing a seed to the seed, we will reap eternal life. Consequently, if we sow to the Spirit, we will reap the fruits of the Spirit.
We can sow to the Spirit by placing the Lord and the desires of his heart over our own. The common ways that we do this are by reading scripture, mediating on it, and placing it in our own hearts. This allows the actual word of God to be inside our hearts and change our lives.
Serving One Another in Love
We know this is the next reasonable step because of one verse.
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
The one way that we are told to act, in opposition to acting in the flesh, is to serve one another through love. Clearly, that must be our next step.
Love is a popular topic in the Christian world, and that is for good reason. That same chapter tells us that the whole law is fulfilled in one word, that is, loving your neighbor as yourself. It’s critical to walking in the Spirit.
That is why this is another pillar of Lighthouse Teaching and will be the topic of discussion for next week’s post. The important thing to remember though is that to walk in the Spirit is to serve in love.
Why is this a Pillar?
As a pillar of Lighthouse Teaching, we hold this value and practice as a very important part of our mission. It is one of the most important practices we can walk in as Christians, and without this step, we can never be the light of the world.
Ephesians 2:10 tells us that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
If want to be a light in the world, we must do what we were created to do, and that is to do the good works.
Final Thoughts
As the light of the world, we must hold ourselves to certain standards, values, and pillars that show the world how great our God is. One of those pillars is to walk in step with the Spirit. Without doing this step, we lose influence and can easily fall into the same patterns of the world.
The way to do that is by portraying the fruits of the Spirit in your life and walking in good works. Anyone can do that, and we were actually called to do that! As the workmanship of Christ, we were created for good works that God prepared for us to walk in. Let us all fulfill that calling!
Finally, I would encourage everyone to read through the book of Galatians. All of our core values can be found in Galatians, and the book is a great teaching in how to live our lives in the way we were called.
Come back next week to hear all about serving one another in love!
