But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the
flesh.
if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Sometimes a strange thing happens when people get "spiritual."
It's as if their spiritual experience puts such a strain on them that they
split in two. The upper half of their personality begins to float free and soar
heavenward – this part of them is just burning with zeal for God.
- They come to fellowship with glory in their souls.
- They have the most marvelous insights into the truth of the Word.
- They have faith for healings, miracles, casting out of demons.
- They have a tremendous confidence in the testimony that pours forth from
their own mouth.
- When they pray it's almost poetry.
- They have an insatiable appetite for "spiritual books",
especially the really heavy books that get into the deep truths.
- They are strongly attracted to people who are spiritually as
"advanced" as they are and generally prefer to fellowship where they
don't have to wait around and listen to those who are spiritually slow.
- They like to be part of a prayer group, or a community, or a camp, where
the restraints are off and you can "really worship."
But while all this spiritual excellence is going on, the lower half of the
personality of these same people is sinking like a lump of lead in the Nile
River.
While the upper half is floating heavenward, the lower half is sinking
into the very things that Paul describes in Galatians as works of the flesh.
Who would ever guess that these ultra-spiritual people, who speak such
marvelous words, who know such marvelous truths of God, pray such magnificent
prayers, have lives which are thinking, imagining, speaking, and sometimes
living in "fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery,
enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy,
drunkenness, carousing, and the like"?
The higher the upper half soars into spiritual stratosphere, the lower the
under half sinks into the works of the flesh.
At bible studies and prayer meetings they're radiant, but at home they
make the people who live with them taste a lot more Hell than Heaven.
Then one day, perhaps after months or years of living this split life, the
upper half of their personality suddenly begins to falter. Like a wounded bird
it flutters and falls and plunges down into the depths to rejoin its other
half.
This is the story of Cain who appeared to be a spiritual man until the day
his spiritual half fell and he slew his brother.
This is the story of King Saul, Judas, and countless others down to this
day.
When Paul warns against the works of the flesh, he's talking to people
inside the Body, warning that you can profess faith in Jesus Christ even while
your down-to-earth life, your day-by-day life, your home life, produces nothing
but bad fruit.
Walk by the Spirit! When
Paul says walk, he means just that! The life you actually live when you move
around on those two feet.
If we live in the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit.
- Let's translate our spiritual life - our communion with Jesus Christ -
into a life actually lived in this body.
- Let's take the atmosphere of Heaven our Lord breathes into us as we
worship before His throne, and turn it into love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
self-control,
not just at prayer meetings, but at home,
and in our driving,
and in our daily work,
and in our day to day dealings.
There can be little doubt in the minds of those who have their eyes open
in the slightest degree that the Lord Jesus is pouring out the Holy Spirit upon
us – here as He is doing in many places these days.
What else is it that draws us together?
What else is it that causes us to swallow our racial pride, our
institutional loyalties, or our anti-institutional bias, and come together, but
the knowledge that God's Son is breathing life upon us as we gather r in His
name?
Jesus Christ is breathing on us as He breathed on the apostles of old.
- He is causing that mighty rushing wind to be heard and felt.
- He is anointing His saints with tongues of fire, giving them a door of
utterance to proclaim the wonderful works of God.
- He is giving us power to stand against the kingdom of darkness.
- He is giving us authority to minister the life of God to others.
But this power of the Holy Spirit never splits us into halves – one
half floating toward Heaven and the other sinking toward Hell.
The power of the Spirit of God is given to us to enable us to walk this
earth as Jesus walked.
Whoever says they abide in him ought themselves also so to walk even as He
walked.
Walk by the Spirit means three things:
1. We let the Spirit lead us in
our ordinary life
- Not in exotic adventures you'll be able to write a book about and have
everybody trying to imitate in the “fellowship farthest out.”
- Not in some spiritual balloon ride far above the maddening crowd.
You're not floating in the Spirit, you're walking
in the Spirit!
As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
And in this age of grace, the only place the Spirit leads us is on this
God-created earth. Through hardships, calamities, watchings,
fastings.
Not above them – through them!
"I had such a wonderful time with the Lord last night I couldn't go
to work this morning."
"I was so uplifted by the things of the Spirit I forgot to pay my
light bill."
"Sorry about these peanut butter crackers for supper, but I was so
deep in prayer I didn't have time to put the roast in the oven."
If you're walking by the Spirit of God,
- you'll get to work,
- you'll pay your light bill,
- you'll have a decent supper for your family.
2. By the Spirit we put to death
the works of the flesh.
You don't just "reckon" these works of the flesh dead and then
go right on doing them. By the life-giving power of the Spirit you destroy
these things of death.
Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires.
If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
This doesn't mean you quit eating and stop making love to your wife or
husband. It means that fornication, impurity, licentiousness, strife, jealousy,
anger, are put to death,
Stop thinking of yourself as some kind of special case;
.. as if you're the only person in the world with twisted thoughts, and a
weird imagination, and a vile temper. That's part of the sin-warped human
nature we all share.
But now, by the power of the Spirit, we reject these things even as our
Lord did. We die to them.
We crucify them.
The first thing the Spirit did with our Lord was to drive Him out into the
wilderness to be tempted – so that He could crucify the flesh with its passions
and desires.
Crucify the flesh!
Put off the old nature!
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity,
passion, evil desire, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, slander, foul talk.
Deny yourself.
This is not just for St. Francis of Assissi or
Catherine of Sienna – this is for you and me!
One of the primary reasons why the Spirit of God is being poured out on us
today is so that by His power we can destroy the works of the flesh in our own
lives.
3. By the Spirit we bear the fruits of
righteousness in ordinary life – even as our Lord did.
He didn't wait to forgive until He got back to Heaven, or until He was
carried away in a state of ecstasy. He forgave when the weight of His body was
pulling on the nails in His hands, when every breath He drew was torture, and
the people who put Him there were right in front of Him, sneering and goading.
Our Lord manifested love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, when
the pressure was on, when even His closest disciples were letting Him down.
There was always time for a troubled widow, or a leper, or a prostitute, or a
tax collector, or a dying thief.
And now we have His Spirit brooding over us, stirring within us, so that
we can be that way too.
- If speaking in tongues will help us bear the fruits of the Spirit in
ordinary life, then may we all speak in tongues – seriously, may we all speak
in tongues.
- If prophesying will help us to bear the fruits of the Spirit in ordinary
life, then may we all prophesy.
But if tongues and prophesy are going on in your upper half, while your
lower half is loveless, joyless, restless, impatient, unkind, then it's very
doubtful whether your inspiration is the Holy Spirit. The best thing you can do
is flee to the Cross of Jesus and cry for help.
"Lord, help me to conform my daily life to your will! Take control of
my heart and mind as I walk through my house, as I pass through the door of the
place where I work! Lord, help me!"
If Jesus heard the thief on the cross, He'll hear you.
Is there one of us who doesn't need to flee to the Cross? Is there one of
us who doesn't need to cry for mercy and help to make our salvation real in our
daily life?
May God help us all to draw near to His Son and be healed. May our split
lives be joined together, not in Hell but at the foot of that Cross, this day.
May we open our hearts now and receive help to walk by the Spirit here on
this earth until the trumpet blows.