“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
“For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, …
“… so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:1-4)
Journal,
Did you know that God has made a way for us to know Him in a deeply personal way? The apostle describes this deeply personal of knowing as a, ‘walk in the Spirit’.
To simplify things let’s begin with the beginning. A walk in the Spirit begins at the point of our salvation. Our salvation begins the moment the Holy Spirit sprinkles the blood of Jesus on our heart. This happens when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Thus our walk in the Spirit never ceases to identify with the blood of Jesus. It is crucial to understand this aspect of a covenant walk.
And this is where the working of repentance is so important to a believer. The ancients taught that repentance is a form of worship, that in our repentance we are continually adjusting our walk with the Lord to where it should be.
The issue is that no one can walk a Spirit-directed life where sin is not dealt with. This is why believers can experience a ‘grieving’ in their spirit. The grieving is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is a sign that we have a defilement that must be cared for. It is a sign of our call to the Lord’s cleansing work.
John spoke of this, when he said,
“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn 1:6-9)
Humility of Heart
Therefore to walk in the Spirit requires that we be humble of heart, and continually recognize our need for cleansing. The plus side here is that the Holy Spirit affects this cleansing work. This is why the apostle said that no true believer could practice a life of sin. It hurts too much. Whereas a sinner sins by nature, a Christian will find that sin is contrary to his nature. He must have a cleansing.
God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, saying,
“… to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.’” (Isa 66:2)
If you wish to know how to pray a prayer that deals with this aspect of cleansing, read Psalm 139, and then close by praying what David said in verses 23 and 24;
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”
A Walk of Reality
The second issue of walking in the Spirit is to understand that ‘walking in the Spirit’ means to walk in the very reality of the Lord Jesus. It is His life that we are joined to.
Thus walking in the Spirit is a walk of reality. The Holy Spirit takes the things of Jesus and makes them real to us. This is why it is so important to have a heart for truth.
Jesus explains it this way:
“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
“He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” (Joh 16:13-14)
Here is where we simply open our heart and let it be known to the Lord that we want to walk with Him without any preconditions on our part.
Keep in mind that a walk of truth is not about a religion, or a denomination. The Biblical word for ‘truth‘ has to do with the reality of Jesus Christ. Truth speaks of what is behind an appearance. Religion often has to do largely with appearances. Learning to walk with Jesus and you will have a walk of the Spirit.
The point is that …
You Cannot Know God After the Flesh
There is probably no lesson greater to a child of God than that of understanding the spiritual dynamics of the new covenant. It is impossible to know true fellowship with the Lord Jesus on a fleshly level.
Listen to the apostle –
“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.” (2Co 5:16)
This is also where the Bible itself plays an important role in our learning to walk in the Spirit. There is no book on this planet like our Bible. It carries in it the very presence of the Lord. Consider your Bible a garden of delights. Don’t read it like a newspaper. Read it like you are looking into the eyes of God. Seek for Jesus.
David gives insight into this, when he said,
“Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law.” (Psa 119:18)
Notice that in most translations the word ‘Wonderful‘ is in caps. This is because the term ‘Wonderful’ is a code name for God’s Messiah.
The term translated Law in Hebrew, is Torah, which simply means ‘instruction.’ When David said ‘Wonderful things’, you can be sure He was talking about God’s Messiah. David was a man after God’s heart, and the heart of God is His Son. Isaiah later said that God’s Messiah would be called ‘Wonderful Counselor.’
Listen to the prophet Isaiah –
“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isa 9:6)
There is something else that has to be considered. It has to do with …
Giving Up Your Stand Between
The faith we live by does not originate in ourselves. Nor does it originate in any religious setting. The faith we are to live by originates in Jesus Christ Himself, and is energized in us by the Holy Spirit. In this case our faith is joined with the faith that comes out of God Himself. This is what drinking from the fountain does.
A true new covenant spiritual faith walk wraps itself around the Lord speaking into the life of a believer. Thus we hear the Lord say,
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” John 10:27
Here is where I need to make an emphasis that I hope it will eventually sink in. Listen carefully —
Don’t Let Your Religion Stand Between You and the Lord Jesus!
I realize this can be a difficult statement for some. However, the number one sign of spiritual immaturity is where we identify our walk with the Lord with our religion or with a certain movement or with a certain someone.
Hear it from Paul –
“ … for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not mere men?” (1Co 3:3-4) — Now substitute the words Paul and Apollos with Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and you get the message.
So, can we truly know the heart of God? Yes we can. This is what the new covenant is all about.
Simply stated, learn to fix your eyes on Jesus. He is the author and finished of your faith.
Jesus said that eternal life was about knowing Him.
The better acquainted we become with the heart of God, the more we will be like Jesus.
And if you truly want to know what a walk in the Spirit is about, it is a walk of love, about learning to love the way God loves. This is why the apostle said that when we walk in love we actually fulfill the full intent of the Law of Moses. Paul is not talking about a natural love, but a divine love.
It is in the walk of the Spirit that we come to know God’s love is real life.
Now consider what the apostle Paul said about knowing the Lord —
“ … the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” (1Co 2:11-13)
Are you ready for a walk in the Spirit? Let the Lord know it. And remember what I said earlier about Psalm 139. Why not read that Psalm and ask the Lord to speak to your heart.
Here is a song for your inspiration — Open The Eyes of My Heart, Lord.
In Christ always,
Brother Buddy
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