What does it mean to walk by faith and not by sight?  What does it mean to walk by the Spirit?  These are the questions I want to touch on today.  It seems unnecessary that I need to explain why we need to walk by the Spirit, after all, every one of us is in a daily struggle with sin.  That said, I do want you to know that there is no such thing as a Christian who has “arrived”, for whom things just come easily.  Each of us must make a decision in the morning and throughout our days how we are to live and who will lead us.  Will we seek the Lord and His leading in the Spirit or will we again pursue the path of Adam to want to be our own God rather than worshipping Him.  This message is scripture heavy.  My hope is that you will pray through it, and that God would grant you a greater filling of His Spirit to lead you for the glory of His name. 

Galatians 5:16-26 – “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 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 walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

I just want to point out a few quick observations.  We are exhorted to walk, not run.  Implied is that we are being led slowly.  Christianity is not a sprint, but a lifelong race.  Second observation; we are going to constantly be in a state of conflict between what our flesh desires, and what our heart and mind desires.  Our flesh will never choose God, we must be led by the Spirit.  Third observation; what is the grounding for being led by the Spirit?  Our union with Christ in His crucifixion.  Our sin is washed clean by His blood.  If we join with Him by faith in His death, then as He was raised by the Spirit to life – we too will have life by the Spirit – to eternal life, enjoying forever the glory of God.  That isn’t something that happens after death, it begins now, when we first believed.

Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

If you do remember nothing else from this email, memorize that verse.  It is the lynchpin of all of Christianity.  There is no other verse in the Bible that I go to more often in my daily fight for faith.  If you trust in the atoning blood of Christ for your sin, to see and delight in Him as your treasure, you have been given the Spirit of Christ.  Jesus Christ lives in you.  Take a moment to think about the implications of that.  The God of all creation, perfectly good and holy, with all power at his disposal, able to see tomorrow as clearly as today is with you always.  What a salvation!  We are not left alone to trust that Christ covered sin, only to be powerless to pursue joy in fellowship with God in holiness ourselves – God gives us Himself by the Spirit to lead us. 

Paul, the man God used to write much of the New Testament, wrote of His own experience of this to the Church at Rome:

Romans 7:18-8:6 – “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” 

I love that God gives us Paul’s example.  There are no “Super-Christians.”  He was an apostle of God detailing his own struggle with indwelling sin.  He knew that he was not in bondage to sin.  He knew that Christ’s blood had covered his sin.  He knew that though his flesh was perishing due to sin, his inner man was given life by God through the Spirit.  If anything, as you draw closer to God, you will only become more aware of sin in your life, but… Phil 3:13-14 –“forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” 

We strain forward by setting aside our fleshly desires, and pray that God would lead us to Him.  Grant us a greater desire for you God, than for this world.  The world and all that it contains is passing away, but You, God reign forever.  Help us, God, to have a passion for your glory; to live today as we would in your presence.  All this is done not in ourselves, but by your Spirit.  Therefore, give us less of ourselves and more of You.  Give our hearts new desires for You and Your kingdom, satisfy us every morning with your steadfast love.  Renew in us a clean heart, washed by the blood of Christ, and let us live today for Your glory, for Your name.  Grant us eyes to see You in Your Word and manifest Yourself within us.  Let those around us see You in our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and say to themselves Your God is great!  Give us an insatiable desire for You above all things, and pour out your Spirit to us, that we would consider our fleshly desires worthless.  Let us consider whatever gain they might promise as loss compared to Your infinite worth.  You are our savior and master, now and forever. 

So, what does it mean to bring life from death?  It is bringing to life the Spirit of Christ in you, and putting to death everything else.  The Lord’s prayer asks for “daily bread”.  Jesus said that He was the bread of life.  Daily, hourly, we need to set our hearts and minds on Christ.  Colossians 3:1-4 – “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” 

Christians, know that you are loved and prayed for.  Be encouraged that if you have been united with Christ, nothing can separate you from His love.  Today is a new day; this hour is a new hour.  Today is the day of salvation.  Seek the Spirit’s leading, and know that God is faithful, His peace and joy will be with you. 

Grace and Peace,
Adam