Walk after the Spirit Part 1
“Walk After The Spirit”
…..then you WON’T fulfill the lusts
of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16
Pt. 1
Spiritual growth/victory is achieved by putting ‘first things first’.
We are going to examine this verse and see what it is saying to ‘put first’!
Welcome to a message that will tell you what you have IN and can do IN Christ through His Death, Burial & Resurrection.
The purpose of His Redemptive work was to bring into existence a New Creation that would succeed where Adam failed.
If you are a New Creation, that means you!
Presented by:
Ann Windsor
(notes for Video Class 1 by this title)
Victory over the ‘works of the flesh’ is GUARANTEED by doing one (1) thing…and you CAN DO THIS:
walk after the Spirit.
Let’s begin by looking at Galatians 5:16 in some different versions.
But I say, live by the Spirit, and you will never carry out the desire of the flesh. (Lexam)
Here is my advice. Live your whole life in the Spirit…(Phillips)
But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God). (AMP)
What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit…(Complete Jewish Bible)
Heading: Live in the Freedom that Christ gives you…. ‘let me explain further, live your life as your spiritual nature directs you.’
First things first…..
What is it that this verse in Galatians is telling us to put first?
Walking and living by, in, through, after, according to….the S(s)pirit.
You will notice the upper case and lower case ‘s’ …. there is a reason for this. In short, you are a spirit, and you are to serve God with your spirit, your spirit ‘following’ the Holy Spirit and then your soul and body ‘bringing up the rear’!
If you will live as a spirit, a new creation in Christ, move after the Holy Spirit with your spirit, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit with your spirit, you will start to see the ‘flesh walk’ diminish more and more in your life. You will get up every day with this one (1) goal: to walk ‘after’ the spirit.
Following this verse we have two lists: the works of the flesh and the fruits of the S(s)pirit. The one list we don’t want to do, the other list we do want to do. Yes?
Getting rid of the ‘dirty water’ (the works of the flesh)
Again going back to our key verse: “Walk in (after) the S(s)pirit and you WON’T FULFILL any desires that come upon you to walk in the flesh.
Or
Walk in the Fruits of the Spirit and YOU WON’T FULFILL the works of the flesh.
Would you agree that the ‘works of the flesh’ are like dirty water? Think of a glass full of dirty water.
The dirty water represents the works of the flesh:
sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Galatians 5:19-21
(New Living)
How do we get the dirty water out of the glass?
POUR IN CLEAN WATER!!!!!
In other words…..
Accentuate the S(s)pirit and you WON’T FULFILL the works of the flesh.
It is a scientific and spiritual fact that no two things can occupy the same space.
Your entire life is like a glass that contains something.
Fill your life with THE HOLY SPIRIT…the ‘clean water’ and then there won’t be any room for the works of the flesh, the ‘dirty water’!
The ‘clean water’ that we pour in to ourselves to ‘get rid of’ the ‘dirty water’, is the Water of the Spirit containing the fruits of the S(s)pirit:
…..love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22&23)
I always like to use the illustration of ‘pouring in the clean water to get rid of the dirty water. Most people would just tip the glass over and dump the dirty water out. But that method does not serve the purpose for which I am using the example.
The dirty glass of water represents the soul: mind, will and emotions. They are not recreated, but renewed. Renewal is a process, like refinishing an old piece of furniture.
Slowly, as the paint remover is applied, the old paint loosens and is removed.
God’s Word is the clean water that we are to feed our minds upon after we are born again.
As we ‘pour in the clean water’, the mind will start to change the way it thinks. Spiritual things will begin to dominate the thinking. The ‘dirty water’ (old thoughts that lead to the works of the flesh), go out and are replaced with the thoughts of God.
Water of the Word washes your emotions too, and your will…you will find yourself making the right choices more and more, operating in the right emotions more and more (the fruits of the spirit).
Back to our basic verse, “walk after the Spirit”, pour in the Spirit/Word, choose the Spirit/Word, think the Spirit/Word, and you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh. They will begin to die still born.
Imagine with me that you are:
….walking after the Holy Spirit (I mean this literally)
Picture yourself walking ‘behind’ the Holy Spirit like the people in the Old Covenant followed (walked behind) the Ark. The priest told them to put so much space between them and the Ark, then they could see which way it was turning and be able to make the turn themselves as they followed it.
Walk in the footsteps of Jesus…to do this you have to be following along after Him.
It is like a child following after his father….
The Holy Spirit will go before you and lay out the steps that you are to walk in even in the most precarious situations.
He will go before you and lead you safely through the most difficult temptations and situations of life. Just follow Him to come out on the other side of any maze safely.
Here in America, we had a famous football coach, Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers. He lead them to many Super Bowl championships. With the beginning of every new season, however, Lombardi would walk into the locker room, hold up a football and say:
“Gentlemen, this is a football”
in other words: get down to the BASICS
That was his key to a winning team: mastering the basics.
Just like Coach Lombardi, I want to hold up these basics before you….they must be mastered to live a victorious Christian life:
God is a spirit.
The devil is a spirit.
Man is a spirit.
The Fruit of the Spirit are spirit.
The works of the flesh are spirit.
God the spirit is seen in Ezekiel’s vision in Chapter One of the Book of Ezekiel. It would be good for you to do a fresh reading of this chapter.
If you are of mankind then you are a spirit, made in God’s image, for God is a spirit.
If you born again, what kind of spirit are you?
2 Corinthians 5:17: a new creation in Christ.
“If anyone is in Christ they are a new creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.”
And according to:
Galatians 2:20
WHO IS
this new creation?
“It is no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me.”
THE BASICS
What are you?
A spirit.
If you are born again, what kind of spirit are you?
A new creation.
According to Gal. 2:20, who is that new creation?
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
These three ‘basics’ must be reviewed constantly, rehearsed, thought about their meaning, planning how to live them out in the various circumstances of life. You are leaning the ‘plays’ in the game of life.
When you face a difficulty or temptation, get out the ‘play book’ and rehearse these basics, THEN calculate your move.
You will have positioned your consciousness in God rather than the circumstances and will then move ‘from’ that position of victory in dealing with the situation.
“Serving God with my spirit….”
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son (KJV)
Whom I serve with my [whole] spirit [rendering priestly and spiritual service] (AMP)
whom I serve in my spirit (Complete Jewish Bible)
whom I serve with my spirit (Mounce Interlinear)
spirit: pneuma
Paul discovered, as he came to know himself as a new creation/Christ in me….that to fight his fight and finish his course, he must let his pneuma take the lead in following after the Spirit…..not his soul or body.
He said:
“I serve God WITH MY SPIRIT!”
in other words, ‘Paul the spirit’: served, walked after, lived in the Holy Spirit and he didn’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh!
Know Jesus as your Savior, and then
make this simple fact your new reality:
I serve God with my recreated spirit, first.
Practice this for 30 days.
See what happens.
********************************************
Next:
“Walk after the Spirit, Pt. 2”:
Where do the works of the flesh spring from?
Are they another nature in me?
Do I have two natures warring inside me?
Does my ‘flesh’ have its own nature?
This is a companion series to our previous video class: “Victory over Sin”, Pts. 1-3.
Taken from a phrase by Dr. John G. Lake: “every university needs to have a Chair of Pneumatology,” (the study of the things spiritual).
All of my classes are a product of New Life International
Apostolic Ministry School of Pneumatology
Contact information:
Facebook: Ann Windsor
Email: [email protected]
Blog: [email protected]
If you enjoy these messages, tune in also to my Blogtalk radio program:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/zoeradionetwork