In order to experience the abundant life that Jesus promised us (John 10:10), we need to walk in the Spirit. When we walk in the Spirit, we will live a supernatural life full of the presence of God.
There are two forces at work within each Christian – the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh is the part of us that tends toward sin. The flesh is called the old man. The flesh is who we are in the natural state apart from God.
The Spirit is the Holy Spirit inside of us who made us new when we were born again. This is the new man. This is the part of us that longs for God, seeks to follow him, and empowers us to obey his word.
The flesh and the Spirit are contrary to each other (Galatians 5:16-18). There is an internal war going on within each of us. The flesh wants to do one thing, and the Spirit wants to do the other thing. The flesh wants to obey Satan, and the Spirit wants us to obey God.
God wants us to live and walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. When we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
The fleshly Christian is immature. He is a spiritual baby. He needs the milk of the word so that he can grow into maturity and become a spiritual person.
Paul speaks to fleshly Christians in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. He rebukes them for their sinful behavior, and then he tells them that they are walking as mere men.
God has not called us to walk as mere men. He wants us to live and walk above the ways of the world, and not in the flesh like everyone else. We are to live in the Spirit, according to God. We are to be supernatural people.
When we live in the flesh, we live in our own strength, apart from God’s presence and power. We live as mere human beings. Living in the flesh is living according to human reasoning, natural abilities, and natural resources. This kind of life is limited.
Living in the Spirit means living an abundant life. It means following God and doing things in God’s power. When we live in the Spirit, supernatural things will happen in our lives. There will be divine appointments. God will connect us to people and situations that will work something powerful in our lives. Miracles will happen. Our lives will take on a higher meaning.
God knows everything about everyone and everything. When we walk in the Spirit, we tap into God’s infinite wisdom. This will cause us to be led beyond our own human limitations.
God can do anything. Nothing is impossible for him. When we walk in the Spirit, things that are impossible for us will become possible because God is working in our lives.
Walking in the flesh means living in human limitation. Walking in the Spirit means living life in the power of God.
When we walk in the Spirit, we become a heavenly nation of people living and walking on the earth.
“By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days… through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.” (Hebrews 11:29-35).
Amazing things happened in the Old Testament. But now we are living in the time of the New Testament. We have the Holy Spirit inside us. There are even greater possibilities for us.
Jesus shows us how to live and walk in the Spirit. Jesus lived in the Spirit. He did whatever he saw his Father do (John 5:19). He was constantly in tune with his Father. Everything Jesus said and did started in heaven, and when he spoke or moved he brought heaven into the earth.
We are commanded to walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6).
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12)
It’s possible for Christians to do the same things Jesus did, and to do even greater things than what he did. These things will happen when we walk in the Spirit, hearing from God and following his leading.
The Bible says that if we hear God’s voice, we should not harden our hearts. We need to obey God and do what he says. When we obey God, we will enter into his rest.
When we hear the word of God, it is as though a door is opened. When we obey God’s word, we go through this door. Then we enter into God’s rest. When we enter into God’s rest, we stop doing whatever we want to do, and we do the works that God has prepared for us to do from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:7-10).
To walk in the Spirit means to live a normal Christian life. May God help us to grow into spiritual maturity so that this life becomes normal for us.
Lincoln House Churches 