Galatians 5:16-18 "Walk by the Spirit"

welcome to steadfast hope i'm steve lawson joined by kent steinbach we have a great devotion planned for you today we're going to look at a verse and then kent and i are going to talk about it together if you want to be getting your bible we are in galatians 5 and verse 16. the title of this devotion is walk by the spirit and let me read the verse and it'll become very apparent why we are calling it this the apostle paul writes but i say and that's pretty emphatic but i say walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh kent this tells us that at any moment in our christian life we are walking in the power of one of two entities our agents we're either walking in the power of the holy spirit or walking in the power of our own flesh and it's it's either or and paul is saying to the believers in these galatian churches but he says to us every moment of every day we must be making the conscious attempt focus to be walking by the spirit now this word walk is a is what we call a metaphor it's a picture it's an analogy of the christian life this walk began when we took that step of faith and entered through the narrow gate onto the narrow path that started at the moment of our new birth and it will continue until the day we die or the lord returns whichever comes first and walk implies that there's effort required on our part we don't just sit we don't just stand no we walk it also implies progress that we need to be advancing in this walk towards maturity and greater christ-likeness it also pictures that that there will be different elements different seasons different if you will weather conditions sometimes the sun's out sometimes it's stormy but we're to be always walking by the spirit now this word walk is in the present tense and so it really could be translated be always walking it's in the imperative mood which means we are commanded to walk by the spirit if you're not walking by the spirit you are living in sin you are living in disobedience to this and other passages of scripture it also underscores that this is our responsibility and can't we've talked about this just because god is sovereign and he is does not negate our human responsibility to make choices of obedience to his word and this is one of those commandments and he says that we are to walk by the spirit and what that means is as we put one foot in front of the other as we live our christian life and sometimes that means going uphill against the wind with many difficulties placed in front of us that we must do so by the power of the holy spirit and without the power of the holy spirit we would not be able to advance in our christian walk and in a sense the we without the holy spirit we're almost like a paraplegic i mean we just can't walk but with the power of the holy spirit we can walk and we can even run the race that is set before us and so this underscores how dependent we are for the spirit's power to be being released in us and the second half of this verse can't he says and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh that tells us that the holy spirit is greater than our flesh and the way we overcome fleshly desires is by walking by the spirit and he says let me read this again walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh that very clearly implies that the spirit is greater that there is this warfare going on inside of us kent the next verse makes that clear he says the flesh sets his desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh these are in opposition to one another that's going on inside of us kent that this spiritual battle to pursue holiness or to to walk according to the flesh and that's why we have to be so intentional about this the next verse verse 18 says if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law what that means is we are the spirit always leads us into personal holiness and into godliness the holy spirit leads us into love and joy and peace in fact in a couple of verses verse 22 he says the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace etc so the big idea from this kent and we're going to talk about it is how much we need the holy spirit's power in order for us to walk advance and grow in our christian life and as you're watching us as kent will ask me some questions i want you to be mindful of how necessary the holy spirit is every moment every second of your christian life to live in a god-honoring way so kent i got to toss the ball over to you well steve this is a lot this is this is good stuff isn't it yeah this is i need this this is where the rover meets the road yeah it's what i need so i guess the simple question is and you've said this but just to put it a different way yeah that a true born-again christian yeah can live their life not in the spirit or in the flesh what what what do you mean what do you what does paul mean by that yeah and i'm gonna give a simple answer when we were converted to christ before we were converted to christ our flesh was the dominant force in our life and the holy spirit had no place in our life when we were converted there was a change of masters and the holy spirit and the lord jesus christ became the dominant force in our life the dominant power in our life the dominant ruling master of our life but the flesh continues to live in us to be in us and we can still walk according to the flesh or there wouldn't be this prohibition here so we have a new governing power in our life no christian will walk according to the flesh for the rest of their life that person does not exist that's the so-called carnal christian that you could pray a prayer say you're a christian for the rest of your life just live according to the flesh no you're not a christian you're an unbeliever however a christian can at different times different seasons become entrapped and succumb to fleshly desires fleshly responses of fleshly impulses and that is why paul is saying this that you need to check that immediately and you need to consciously be empowered by the spirit and the way that happens of course is to let the word of christ richly dwell within you and to be one who is worshiping the lord and living in obedience in every area of your christian life so i'm sorry for the longer answer ken your question was so good it's just hard to no that's that's that's a great answer so we've you've said this we've talked about but just to be clear steve this is a great verse for me and a lot of us are saying i want to walk by the spirit yeah and my wife is thinking yeah i wish kent would walk anyway but so just give us right here closing thoughts and you mentioned it i want to walk by the spirit what do i need to do to walk more by the spirit it begins with the word of god the word of god must be in our minds in our heart and governing our will it really begins and almost ends with the word of god it is the rudder of the ship it is the wind in our sails um it it is what god designed has designed for us to grow in godliness john 17 17 sanctify them by your word your word is truth that's the primary agent there are other things we could add so it's not just we get up in the morning and say by golly i'm gonna walk by the spirit today that's not the way it works no that's not the way it works we have to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness we have to discipline ourselves to to work out in the word of god and for us to keep short accounts with the lord and to be confessing our sin as we become aware of where we have fallen short of the glory of god so much more i wish we could say but this will get you started down this path of giving careful thought of walking by the spirit may the lord do this may he do this in your life blessings to you in christ you

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Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021