Walking in the Spirit

Voyle A. Glover

“The Holy Spirit dwelling in us is one thing; I think this is clearly taught in Scripture. And the Holy Spirit upon us for service is another thing.... I believe today, that though Christian men and women have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, yet He is not dwelling within them in power. In other words, God has a great many sons and daughters without power.”

- D.L. Moody

Walk in the Spirit and ye will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Gal. 5:16

You move with the grace of a big cat, fluid in your walk, your steps deliberate, elegant and radiating power. When you speak, it is with eloquence and your words captivate your audience. Seldom will any person who sees or hear you once, forget you. More, you exhibit a knowledge, wrapped carefully in wit and charm, that is wielded with a wisdom seldom excelled by others. Your presence is felt in a room. Attention is not something you must work to get--it is yours to command.

Would you, as such a person, be complete? Would you be content to be such a person? If you could have a “make-over” from which you would emerge with such traits and abilities, would you accept it? And would that make you successful? If you are a preacher, would that be the perfect addition for you to be the preacher you ought to be and want to be?

May I suggest an answer?

Doubtful. Highly unlikely.

I would suggest that there is a greater need in your life than any or all of those exhibited by the fictionalized individual in the first paragraph. I would suggest that even if you were so perfect a man or woman as above described, yet you would be lacking. Moreover, there would many who, though not as eloquent, would be far more effective in their speech than you. Many would have greater impact on people than yourself. And many would, though unnoticed by the crowd, make a far greater impact on those around them than you would.

You see, even if you were so perfect, the question that begs an answer is: Do you walk in the Spirit? Or put another way: Do you walk with God?

Even if you were such a person and you did not have a walk with God, but only a relationship, then you as an individual could be the greatest speaker on the face of the earth and your speaking would be worthless. Indeed, your words would be for naught, excepting for those words and truths expressing the love and grace of God. Your “presence” would be nothing. Your influence would be nothing. Your wisdom would be as worthless as a dirty old rag. Your knowledge would be nothing. Your life endeavors would be nothing.

You disagree?

Well, consider the words of Christ in John 15:5 “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

Does “nothing” mean NOTHING?

Of course Jesus did not mean there was not a thing you could do. I can murder...without and apart from Jesus. I can do a host of ungodly things without Him. And I can do a myriad of things that are not to the level of heinous or even ungodly, quite without Jesus.

But, I cannot bear fruit without Christ. I cannot be a fruitful Christian bearing the kind of fruit God has in mind for me to bear, if I do not abide in Christ. Neither can you.

Do you walk with God? As a Christian, do you walk daily “in the Spirit?” How would you characterize your Christian walk? Is it a spiritual one? Or is it a walk that is carnal? Do your appetites control you? Does your “wants” and “desires” control you?

Christians waver between spirituality and carnality for most of their life, with a small handful achieving a walk that is consistently spiritual. But those who don’t achieve a consistent spiritual walk do fulfill, on a consistent basis, the unspoken, inherent truth of the verse in Galatians 5:16. That verse says that if one walks in the Spirit, one will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The inherent, unspoken truth in that is that if one does not walk in the Spirit, one will fulfill the lust of the flesh. And so it is.

Christians walk carnally, pleasing their flesh, some moderately, some laviously, some unbridled, and some with a measure of restraint, while many struggle openly and obviously with their flesh, dominated at times, weak, helpless and overpowered by its demands and needs. They go about seeking to please God in their life with supreme efforts at doing good and fail.

As Christians we oft hear messages about living for God, about being obedient to God, about doing the “right thing,” about following rules and standards of conduct. Such messages are good reminders for us. We need to hear about our duty. The Bible admonishes us about things we are to DO. The book of James clearly tells us that we are to DO, not just profess. Thus, we strive to conduct ourselves upright in a Christ-like manner. We associate with other like-minded Christians which help us maintain a lifestyle that is consistent with our beliefs, with our profession of faith. We avoid social scenes that will place temptations before us or which will harm the image we now have of a “good person,” or a “godly person.” We do not want to be considered, any more, a “wicked person,” or an “immoral person.” In short, we do, as the Scriptures say: “Put away the old man and put on the new man.”

But inside, there is a raging, snarling lion.

Sin dominates some Christians such that they awaken with a lust to satisfy the flesh that does not diminish throughout the day. Some want liquor on awakening. Some want a cigarette. Some want a sleeping pill. Some want drugs. Some want sex. And others are so depressed they simply want to go back to sleep. Christians stumble through their days struggling against the flesh, losing, winning, losing, falling, getting up, falling again, despairing and weeping, wanting deliverance, not understanding the battle, and never realizing the battle is already won.

Most Christians view the struggle against sin as a contest of will power. They feel they must exert their will power against the flesh. And so they must. Most Christians feel that if they fail, it is because they “gave in” or “gave up,” or were too weak to resist temptation. And that is true. But, the underlying rationale behind their thinking is false. Their reasoning is shallow, not complete. You see, it is a paradox of sorts. It is the will of the Christian that decides to sin or not. But, hear this statement: The will power of the Christian is no match for his or her flesh. You will lose most of the time.

The Bible says: “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” - 1 John 2:6. But the Christian says: “I can’t walk as Christ walked. After all, He was God. And yes, I know I should not do this sin. However, the urge is so powerful, my appetite for it is so enormous, that after awhile, I cannot ignore the flesh. It’s cry is too fierce, too loud, too demanding. It occupies my every waking thought. It drives me. I am too weak to resist and so I give in.”

That is the cry of far, far too many Christians, today. It doesn’t have to be that way. There is a simple, yet tremendously effective weapon that can be used against the flesh.

MOST CHRISTIANS NEVER USE IT.

Quite simply, in a word, it is Faith. Yes, simple faith.

“Well,” you say, “I have faith! I trust God. I beg God all the time for help. I pray. I read my Bible. I believe God helps us.”

No doubt many Christians would identify with that statement. But, nevertheless, they lack faith. Real faith. I can prove it. Biblically. Logically. And, factually. Follow with me as I reason with you on this matter. If you’ll read carefully along with me, I’m confident I will prove my point when I’m done, perhaps before. You need to read each of these verses. These contain some foundational truths that are essential to the message here.

The Bible and logic tell me the following:

(1) God loves me: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” - John 3:16; “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” - 1 John 4:11.

(2) I am a child of God, born of His Spirit, by faith: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” - Rom 8:16; “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” - Gal 3:26

(3) When I became His child, my spirit became one with His Spirit and my body became His temple, or abode: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” - 1 Cor 3:16

(4) God’s purpose for my life is to glorify God and to do that, I must be fruitful: “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” - John 15:8; “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;” - Col 1:10

(5) I cannot bear fruit without abiding in Christ: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” - John 15:4

(6) I cannot abide in Christ without loving Him and obeying His commands: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” - John 14:15; “ Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.” - John 14: 23-24

(7) I cannot love God and be obedient to his commands and walk in the flesh: “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” - 1 John 1:6; “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” - 1 Cor 3:3; “4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” - Rom 8:5

(8) I cannot walk in the Spirit without faith: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” - Gal 5:25; “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)” - 2 Cor 5:7; “16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” - Gal 5: 16-17; “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.” - Gal 3:11

(9) Just as with salvation, God must give me the faith I have: “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” - Rom 4:5; “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” - 1 Tim 1:14; “1. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” - Rom 5:1-2; “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” - Rom 12:3; “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;” - 2 Cor 4:13;

(10) I cannot please God without faith: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” - Heb 11:6; “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)” - Heb 10:23; “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” - Heb 10:38; “6. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7.For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” - James 1:7

(11) I must know God’s Word in order to have the faith I need: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” - Rom 10:17; “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.” - 1 Tim 4:6

(12) God expects to use me and will strengthen me to that end (even through my temptations): “2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, 3. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” - James 1:2-3; “10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11. Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;” - Col 1:10-11

Now, that’s the simple Biblical logic of this matter of walking in the Spirit. Cut it any way you want and it all comes back to one thing: Faith.

Follow me with logic for a moment. First of all, is God greater than man or less than man? Oh, greater you say? Well, are we in a war or not? We are? Ah, yes indeed. It is a spiritual war. And are there weapons in this war? Are you fit for this war? Can you, with your own strength, fight in this war? No? Well then, what kind of General do you think God is? You say He’s greater than man? Greater than a human general?

Well if you concede He’s greater than a human general, don’t you suppose God would equip His soldiers for the war? Would God expect you to enter the fray and not give you whatever training, whatever weapons and whatever needs you might have to be successful in that war? Sound pretty reasonable to you?

So we must concede that God has equipped us for the battle. Well, if He’s given us the equipment, how come we’re so often on the run, put to shame by the devil and our flesh? Why are we ineffective in our witness? Why don’t we see more results in our walk? Why don’t you see a stronger will power against the sin that doth so easily beset you?

We cross our fingers and hope for the best. Why?

Can I make a suggestion? It’s back to the lack of faith.

You see, most of us give intellectual assent to the Bible, to its truths and to the knowledge and wisdom therein. BUT WE HAVE GREAT DIFFICULTY APPLYING THOSE TRUTHS, AND IN SIMPLE FAITH, BELIEVING THEY ARE FOR US.

God says He is our sufficiency. “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;” - 2 Cor 3:5.

God says He is so sufficient that He will supply ALL our needs. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” - Phil 4:19. Somehow we never read that to mean “will power” or “faith” or “strength” or “character” but always choose it to apply to the material, i.e., “money to pay a bill,” “food,” “a car,” etc. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” - 2 Cor 9:8

(Query: Is living for God a “good work?” Is manifesting His love a “good work?”) God says He will work in us so we can do His work. Somehow we don’t want to believe that. God says we are to be fruitful. We choose to believe our sins are greater than His grace and thus prevent us from being fruitful. God says He will give us grace to help in time of need. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” - Heb 4:16.

But, we choose to think that if we come to His throne, there is no grace for us. We think we have to be perfect to come there, forgetting that we have a perfect right to come to God through the blood of Christ. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,” - Heb 10:19. We say, “Nay, not me. I have sin in my life and God cannot hear me.” We forget poor, faithless Peter, who, in a state of sin, unbelief, cried out (otherwise known as a prayer) to Jesus (to God) as he sank into the depths of the murky waters. He who’d just walked on water in faith now sunk into those same waters in unbelief.. And didn’t Jesus immediately answer Peter’s prayer? You bet! Why? Mercy. Love. A realization of our weakness. An understanding that Peter’s sin was not a willful rejection of Jesus’ power but simply a manifestation of the flesh prevailing. Even so, God loves repentance. God loves a contrite heart and will not reject that. God sees the tears and will hear your prayer. He bids you come with your sin and ask for relief, for grace. And you have already had a sacrifice made for your sin and can enter right into the holy of holies, right at the foot of the Throne of Grace.

God says His grace is sufficient. God says He has chosen the weak things of the world (you do qualify, don’t you?). God says He is able to do the impossible. God says we can do ALL things through Christ. God says He does best when we are weak.

Again, we will give intellectual assent to all of that. But we somehow can’t walk through our front door with full and complete expectation of those things. We say we believe God is “all sufficient,” but we don’t expect God to give us the will power, the character, the power, the desire or whatever it is we need to be strong and to win the victory over the flesh. We say we believe that God gives us grace to help, but we don’t expect God to give us the power to overcome our sin. We make our sin greater than God’s grace. We make our weakness greater than God. We make our wickedness too great for God to handle.

We’re amazing.

When was the last time you went out your door to go to work and before you hit the door, you got on your knees and asked God to strengthen you for the day, to give you your needs for the day, and then went out fully expecting God to enable you to live for Him that day and to glorify Him that day? I cannot believe that if we trust God for a thing that He would fail us. I do believe that we can mouth the words easy enough. I do believe that we can posture ourselves such that we may even deceive ourselves and others into believing that we trust God. But we don’t. I do believe that a Christian can do many things that make him or her to appear to trust God, but is, instead a supreme self-effort that is one day destined to fail. But I do not believe it is possible to trust God and for God to fail that person.

No Christian on the face of this earth is capable of living holy before the Lord God...unless he or she walks by faith. You must believe that God is able to enable you to live for Him. You must believe that if He gave an order for you to obey, He will absolutely have committed Himself to provide you with the power, the purpose, the desire and whatever else you need to obey that command. Thus, if God said to be holy, to live holy and to be fruitful, then all that remains for the Christian is to believe it.

If the book of James teaches anything, it teaches us that unless and until we reach out and grab the task God has set before us, or unless we reach out and perform the task commanded, our faith is dead. “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. 19. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” - James 2:17-20. If all we have is knowledge, we are not wise. We are not faithful. And we are not obedient. And if those things be true, then we are NOT walking in the Spirit.

And if that be true, the we ARE walking in the flesh. And if we are walking in the flesh, we ARE fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.

And everywhere, Christians strive with the flesh, winning, losing, rising, falling, weeping, hoping, waiting, all seeking to live the “victorious” Christian life, only to see it dangle just beyond their grasp. Just when it seems close, they reach for it and suddenly it is once more far away, jerked away by the ropes of sin. And too quickly, we yelp that “the devil made me do it” in order to have an excuse. And while it is true that Satan and his demon horde lurk amongst us and stalk us, it is not true that all our fleshly failings belong to them. The Bible says: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

And everywhere, such Christians have acknowledged the truth of all the Scriptures quoted herein, and have acknowledged the veracity of what has been said here, but have failed to reach out and by faith, live the life that Christ has already given: His Life. His Strength. His Power. Not ours.

As it is written: “Not by power or might, but by my Spirit saith the Lord.” And again, it is not with our vision, our determination, our ability to see and know the road ahead that we walk. It is a walk of faith. “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)” - 2 Cor 5:7.

And even the faith we have is of God. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” - Gal 2:20. Paul said “yet not I, but Christ.” He understood from whence his life now came. And he understood that it was God’s faith given to Paul that enabled Paul to live the spiritual life.

Logic alone says our God would not give us His Spirit and then abandon us, hoping we’d somehow learn to walk, learn to live and learn to obey, without giving us everything we could possibly need to live, to walk, to obey and to glorify Him. It is not logical that God would fail to equip His soldiers. It is not logical that God would leave us to our own puny, frail will power in order to achieve victory in our Christian walk. But that’s what we do, many of us. Too long and too often, Christians have walked, depending on themselves, expecting that they should somehow have this great power of will and character, never expectantly and unconditionally realizing that it was a “done deal,” that Christ conquered the flesh on the cross and that they are dead with Christ, yet risen also with Him in newness of life.

Factually, there is not an honest Christian alive who will deny that he or she is inadequate for the expectations of Christ. None of us can do it. The facts are that although we have striven mightily against sin, again and again we have failed. That’s a fact and you know it. You have failed and failed and failed and failed. Your flesh has overpowered you in many areas of your life, again and again. Your temper, your appetite, your tongue...your flesh, has betrayed you. That’s a fact that’s undeniable.

But it need not be so. Not if you take God at His Word. Not if you get up in the morning and EXPECT God to do what He’s already promised to do, i.e., to perform His work in you, to perfect that good work He’s begun in you, to give you grace to help in time of need, and to give you the weapons you need to fight the good fight. Christian, you absolutely must learn to walk by faith, else you’re doomed to failure. You will walk the weak, ineffectual walk of tens of thousands of other Christians all your life, ignoring His grace, seeing it from afar, paying intellectual homage to God’s grace, but never reaching out with a mind and heart of faith and grasping it.

You absolutely must learn the lesson of abiding in Christ, else you will fail and fail and fail. You must learn to expect God to use you. You must learn to expect God to bless you. You must expect God to bless others through you. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” - 2 Cor 9:8. Do you believe that? Really? (By the way. How much grace do you need? Think about what is available to you. Is ALL enough?)

It all boils down to this: The Bible tells us that as we received Christ, so ought we to walk in Him. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:” - Col 2:6. Question: How did you receive Christ? By faith, you say? Paul asked the Galatians the following rhetorical question: “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3. Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” - Gal 3:2-3

It is by faith you were saved and began a walk with God in newness of life. How then must you walk (or abide) in Him? Same way. By faith. As you could not save yourself by your flesh’s conformity to the law, to good deeds, even so you cannot make your walk before God perfect by the flesh. You must walk by faith. You must take God at His Word and believe He will do what He promised He will do. It means commitment. It means abandonment. It means offering yourself to God as a living sacrifice that God says is acceptable to Him.

Walking with God means that you believe that as a child of God, He will supply all your needs, that your body belongs to Him and therefore, He will train it to obey, He will empower it to obey, He will teach it to obey, and He will bring it to perfection, to a place where you can consistently glorify Him. “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” - Phil 1:6

Recognize your weakness and then rejoice. Paul did. “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” - 2 Cor 12:9. The big difference between the carnal Christian and the spiritual Christian is that the one has a life of striving and failing, the other, a life of striving and achieving. The difference is that one, in simple faith, depends on God to empower him or her for the task, while the other depends on a surge of will power, or chance, or some kind of vague, undefined “Hope I’m up to it” kind of “faith” that is no faith.

If you will, in simple faith, give yourself to God and then expect Him to help you and believe that He has given you all you need to walk victoriously, then it will be even as your faith has decreed. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” - Rom 12:1. Notice that your body is considered by God to be “holy” and, best of all, “ACCEPTABLE UNTO GOD.” Thus, isn’t it reasonable that you present yourself to God? After all, you belong to Him. You were bought with a price. “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” - 1 Cor 6:20.

So what about it? Are you tired of losing? Weary of the flesh always winning? There is a way to win. Regularly. Consistently.

It takes faith in what God has already promised. It takes understanding and wisdom. It takes an expectant faith that waits patiently for God to perform, never wavering, not doubting, and never making one’s sins and weakness greater than God’s grace.

Remember this: “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:” - Rom 5:20

God’s grace abounds towards you, that is, God has sent His grace, in abundance, IN YOUR DIRECTION, and is able to subdue your worst sin.

Even the sin of a weak faith.

Will you believe just that?

Now, will you just believe God can increase your faith?

And now believe Him for more.

Much more.

Consider this article: Growing Faith

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