Walking in and after the Holy Spirit

Walking in and after the Holy Spirit takes both faith and commitment, but I wonder how many people today are really “walking in and after the Spirit?” In (Rom. 6:11-13) the Apostle Paul outlines for us 3 keys that will help us walk closer to God. 1) Recognize ourselves dead to sin. In (Chp. 7) Paul relates the old life that we had before Christ, to that of a bad marriage, wherein the husband dies and frees the wife to be married to another. This new marriage is the new relationship we now have in Christ, with in whom we now live. 2) Obey him from the heart . In order to obey Christ properly, the believer must dethrone the old master, and let the new master reign. Like a wife in a new marriage, she must obey the new authority in her life, and forsake the old. She must now learn to practice the will and way of her new husband, obeying him from the heart. 3) Submit and yield yourself to him. There can be no fruit without intimacy. Walking with and after a new husband takes yielding. Just as the new wife must yield her all to the will and way of her new husband, so must we yield all to God’s Spirit. For it’s through intimacy with the Holy Spirit that we too will begin to bear the fruits of righteousness!

As the Bible tells us

As the Bible tells us, when someone gets saved they receive from God His indwelling Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit has been placed within us to comfort us, guide us, and abide with us forever. So a good question would be, “how then does He communicate with us?” Does He talk to us audibly? Well, the answer is both yes and no. Since God is Spirit, His voice does not speak to us as man speaks, but rather he impresses upon our hearts and minds spiritually His voice at different times. 1) He speaks to us through His Word. As we read God’s Word, it’s not uncommon to hear the voice of God instruct us. When we come to church and sit under the preaching and teaching of His Word, the Spirit speaks. Although it’s not as man speaks, it’s heard just as clear. 2) He speaks to us in prayer. Prayer is communication with God. God speaks in a still small voice, and many times He reveals to us His will in ways that although we don’t hear Him audibly, we just know. 3) He speaks as we yield ourselves to Him. His voice can be heard as a command to witness to someone, or to serve, or to give, or to just do. The Spirit desires our obedience, but we grieve (offend) Him when we sin, and we quench Him (put out the fire) by telling Him “No,” when commanded. If we want to here His voice, we must yield ourselves to listen for His voice.

Walk in the Spirit

As I have been studying the subject of walking in the Spirit, I find that in the Word of God, the Holy Spirit systematically lays out for each of us how God expects each of us to walk after salvation. It’s interesting to note that although there are many verses on Christian behavior, there is basically only 10 general commands on how to walk in the Spirit. And even just as interesting is the fact that they are listed in a chronological way through the N.T. As steps to follow. 1) Walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). 2) Walk after the Spirit (Rom. 8:1,4). 3) Walk honestly (Rom. 13:3-4). 4) Walk by faith (2 Cor. 5:7). 5) Walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16). 6) Walk in good works (Eph. 2:10). 7) Walk worthy (Eph. 4:1) 8) Walk in love (Eph. 5:2) 9) Walk as children of the light (Eph. 5:8). 10) Walk circumspectly (Eph. 5:15). Some additional verses that I didn’t list, but are contained in principle in the above ten would be, (Col. 4:5) walk in wisdom, (2 John 1:6) walk after his commandments, (3rd John 1:6) walk in truth. The Holy Spirit in the above scriptures, has instructed each of us to not only walk after Christ, but to also walk as Christ walked. As we begin to walk in the Spirit the Bible adds additional light as we progress along the way. I wonder how many of us truly understand the manifold wisdom that is available to us as we Walk in the Spirit.