What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?

So, if we want to do better at disciplining ourselves, how do we do that? Our end goal is to walk in the Spirit. This devotion looks at what walking in the Spirit entails.

Nuggets

Walking is the term used to describe how we live our lives.
Disciples have this Spirit within us.
When we walk in the Spirit, we follow God instead of human nature.

I wrote the previous devotion and then started on another one to follow it up. But I was really struggling with it.

So, for the first time in the almost-year that have been doing this, I just scrapped it. (Well, it is still in a file, but I just stopped). I figured I wasn’t going the way God wanted me to go.

What I really wanted was to follow up the what-does-self-discipline-mean devotion with a well-how-do-we-do-it devotion.

God said, “Well, Chick, you can’t do self-discipline without Me.”

We discipline ourselves when we walk in the Spirit. So, let’s run with this for the next few devotions.

To read devotions in the Walk in the Spirit series, click the appropriate button below.

What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?

Let's Put It into Context

“All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body” (Jas. 3: 2 CEV)

Unfortunately, we continue to sin after we admit our sins, believe Jesus to be our Savior and Redeemer and confess God as our Sovereign Lord. James had it right. “All of us do many wrong things …” (Jas. 3: 2 emphasis added).

It is a control thing. Carpenter noted that “man is not a machine to be regulated only by external influences. He has reason, will, conscience, love; in a word, a spiritual nature … Law alone will not succeed unless there is a response from within. Self-restraint will not be sufficient. What is needed is the creation of an inward power of good; a self-acting principle that shall love and will and strive after what is highest and best, and from the innermost citadel of the spirit rule every thought, word, act.”

Resource

Luckily, God gives us access to the Spirit upon conversion. “Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn. 3: 6 CSB). That is our Sovereign God coming to dwell within us by placing His Holy Spirit within us.

Paul gave us instruction on walking. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph. 5: 8 HCSB).

Usually, Paul called it walking in the Spirit. But what does all that mean and, more importantly, how do we do that?

As We Go Walking

“I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5: 16 CSB)

Walking is the term used to describe how we live our lives. For example, Enoch was described as “walking in close fellowship with God …” (Gen. 5: 24 NLT). It specifically means that we are to live following God’s laws and commands (Gibbon).

Resources

The person doing the walking will be a disciple. We are spiritually alive where, if we are not a disciple, we would be spiritually dead.

Can’t walk. No need — or desire — to walk if we are dead.

Huntington noted, though, that it isn’t just walking. It is walking in the right way. It is walking with “… purpose, strength, and circumspection ….” He warned us it isn’t going to be easy.

Resource

That is important. We know that Jesus warned that some thinking they have their ticket punched for heaven won’t be admitted (Mt. 7: 21). We have to figure out how to walk in the right way — in the Spirit.

In the Spirit

But it is more than just not walking in the flesh anymore. It is not walking under the law, also.

The first-century Jews were all about following God’s laws. Paul was trying to get them to realize Jesus was more about relationship than religion.

Disciples have this Spirit within us. “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (Rom. 8: 14 NLT). We are to listen to the Spirit, not our human nature.

Venn suggested that, when we walk in the Spirit, the fear of the Lord should kick in. That is, our love and reverence of God should increase.

Resource

To read a related devotion, click the button below.

Desires of the Flesh

“… and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5: 16 CSB)

The flesh is our human nature. It is considered naturally corrupt because it pursues what is pleasing, not necessarily what God commands. It is the root of sin and evil.

When we walk in the Spirit, we follow God instead of human nature. We look to satisfy Him, not ourselves.

Manton made a good point. We will not be able to totally suppress human nature. Disciples strive to not obey their nature over God’s commands, especially willfully.

Resource

How do we fulfill those human desires? Well, it goes back to one of the verses we used when we talked about temptations. “These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (Jas. 1: 15 NLT).

To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.

It is a progression. When we act on the desires of the temptations (or that time between conception and commission), we sin. Once we sin, it is easier to sin again. Pretty soon, we are living for Satan, not God.

That takes us to the second way we fulfill those desires. “Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires” (Rom. 6: 12 NLT). We go whole hog for God.

Making the Connections

All disciples have both a spiritual nature and a human nature. Those natures are not going to be reconciled until we get to heaven and get our new bodies (I Cor. 15: 51).

How Do We Apply This?

Since we have both human and spiritual natures after conversion, we have to consciously decide which one we are following.

Gibbons nailed it. In order to make our decisions, we have to know ourselves.

What are our weaknesses that Satan is going to latch onto?
What happens when we have an epic fail?
What raises its ugly head most often?

We need to utilize the Holy Spirit’s guidance and instruction better. We need to depend more on Him.

To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.

When we think about our walk (or life), that spiritual nature has to be evident. We can’t confess God as Sovereign Lord and then not follow His commandments.

That is going to be a continual choice. Satan is going to try to get us to choose unwisely. I like what Manton said: “Grace is not a sluggish, idle quality, but is always working and warring on the opposite principle.”

Think about what that war is. It is the spiritual warfare we were talking about back when we walked through Ephesians. The great thing is that we have the armor to protect us in that warfare.

To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.

To read devotions in the Armor of God series, click the appropriate button below.

Oh, yeah. It is not going to be a walk in the park. Satan is going to do everything in his power to get us to follow our human nature.

But remember what we said in Does God Tempt Us? “There is indeed a tempter. The evil spirit has no power at all over any of us, except what we concede to him” (Arnot).

Resource

Remember, too, that we said we grow through these trials and temptations. So, we shouldn’t get totally discouraged when they pop up.

Huntington reminded us that we don’t have seats on the bullet train. It is a walk — a step-by-step process of figuring everything out.

Our goal is heaven and to have God say this about us:

“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who [walked] in the law of the Lord.
Blessed are they that [kept) his testimonies, and that [sought] him with the whole heart.
They also [did] no iniquity: they [walked] in his ways” (Ps. 119: 1-3 KJV).

Walk with Him. Keep His testimonies. Seek Him with all of our hearts. Don’t sin.

You know, that is our marching orders as well as our goal. Good luck marching today!

Father God. We want to walk with the Spirit. We want to live the lives that honor You. This will be hard with Satan attacking us to turns us from Your ways. Help us to disciple ourselves so that we can remain strong in You. Amen.

What do you think?

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