Walking in the Spirit

With all that's been going on in recent circles, I'd like to address something of the utmost importance for every Christian: walking in the Spirit. If there's any key factor in our walks with the Lord, it's this. Too often we all get caught up in the small details - obedience, is this a sin/is that a sin, rules, condemnation, all the natural things our fallen state gravitates to. If we learn to walk in the Spirit, everything else goes away. I'll be taking a look at Romans chapter 8, and some other verses as they come to me. Hopefully this comes out pretty organized, it's a lot to tackle and I'm sort of doing it on the fly!

So what Spirit are we talking about here? The Holy Spirit of course. Now before I get into how to walk in the Spirit, do you know that you're born again? Jesus gives us valuable insight in John chapter 3:

[3] Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
[4] Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
[5] Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
[6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
[7] Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
[8] The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

What is the role of the Holy Spirit? Quickly, John 14:

[15] If ye love me, keep my commandments.
[16] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
[17] Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
[18] I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
[19] Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
[20] At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
[21] He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Teacher. He reveals Jesus Christ to us on a personal level. Assures us of our faith. He opens our eyes to the Truth so that we may see it plainly. He manifests the love of God in our hearts.

If you're not sure that you're truly born again, stop reading this and pray. :) Do you have conviction of sin? A desire to learn about the Lord and read the Bible? Do you display the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-24)? We all stumble and fall from time to time, but when you fall do you get back up? Does your walk get stronger as time goes on? If you show signs of these things, you're most likely born again of the Spirit. With that being established, let's move on!

With being born again comes a desire to obey the Lord and please Him, to mortify the deeds of the flesh and live for Him. That's an excellent way to be, but it can play tricks on us. Human nature causes us to try and earn love. To get rewarded for doing good, and to get down on ourselves for not measuring up. We have to remember a very important verse from Isaiah 64:

[6] But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

There is nothing we can do to please the Lord. Nothing at all! If you're getting worried, you shouldn't be. This is where Jesus Christ comes in. Romans 8:1-17:

[1] There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
[2] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
[3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
[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.
[6] For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
[7] Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
[8] So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
[9] But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
[10] And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
[11] But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
[12] Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
[13] For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
[14] For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
[15] For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
[16] The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
[17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Some of the most important verses we can read here. First verse:

[1] There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

There is no reason to feel condemned! No feelings of guilt for not living up to expectations. If we have faith in Jesus and are born of the Spirit, we are free of these feelings.

[2] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
[3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
[4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Some heavy stuff here! What's it saying? Life in the Spirit through Jesus frees us from the law of sin and death. Jesus defeated sin and death at the cross. God no longer sees our iniquities and shortcomings, He sees the righteousness of Christ in us.

[9] But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
[10] And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
[11] But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

If we are truly born again, the Spirit of God lives inside us. We are a temple to the Holy Spirit.

1 Cor. 6:19-20
[19] What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
[20] For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Back to Romans 8:
[15] For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
[16] The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
[17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Any time we feel fear we can know it is not of the Lord. We don't worship Him in fear, we worship Him in love. We are adopted sons and daughters, and He loves us! We are joint-heirs with Christ, through His righteousness. Very important to keep reminding ourselves of this!

So how do we walk in the Spirit? It's really quite simple. Once we are truly born again, we're already doing it. If we have the Spirit of God in us, the righteousness of Christ acts as a cloak for our sins, and the Father sees them no more. We are freed from bondage, have no reason to fear, and are loved as the Lord loves His Son. Now, we are definitely not to take advantage of this and sin at will, and I may get more into that in a future blog or two, we'll see. For now, I hope this has been encouraging and I hope you can take something good away from it. Thanks for reading!

How does one love God?

I just had the idea to write about this the other night. How does one love God? I feel it's a good prelude to the blog I'm going to write soon about the Sabbath.

Some people I've talked to would answer this question rather easily. They would basically say to just love Him, like our normal human emotions would love a wife, family, friends, etc. While I definitely agree with this, loving God does go deeper! Loving the Lord also must be about obedience, and having faith evidenced by works and bearing good fruit. (I also believe that this is also the case for salvation, I smell another blog coming!) Let's take a look.

Matthew 22:36-40
[36] Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
[37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
[38] This is the first and great commandment.
[39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[40] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Now, people (including my own father) like to distort this teaching that Jesus gives us. "Oh Jesus told us to love God and our neighbor, nothing else matters now! New covenant, yea!" They conveniently leave out verse 40. Following the two great commandments that Jesus gives would automatically cause one to fulfill all of the other commandments! If you loved God and your neighbor, would you kill, commit adultery, steal, covet, worship idols, and the like? Makes sense right?

So, what I'm getting at is that obedience is how a Christian shows his love for God. There are many conditional statements that Jesus gives us, and that other books in the Bible illustrate about loving God, even pertaining to our salvation. Now I'm not saying we're saved on works, we're saved by grace alone through Christ, but if we have no works that show evidence of our faith, it is dead.

James 2:14-26
[14] What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
[15] If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
[16] And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
[17] 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: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew 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?
[21] Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
[22] Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
[23] And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
[24] Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
[25] Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
[26] For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

So, a Christian that "loves God" and doesn't show it outwardly in the slightest doesn't really have a leg to stand on.

Hebrews 5:9, speaking of Christ:
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Pretty self explanatory. Next, let's dive into 1 John, which very nicely illustrates what I'm saying here. From the second chapter:

[3] And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
[4] He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
[5] But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

Simple: If you keep God's commandments, it shows that you love Him, and that loving God is perfected through that obedience. If you don't keep His word, you're lying to yourself and you don't truly love God. It's an eye opener!

Chapter 3 elaborates further, under The test of belief in my KJV:
[18] My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
[19] And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
[20] For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
[21] Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
[22] And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
[23] And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
[24] And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

So here we learn a few things. Loving the word comes by deed (works) and truth. That's how we know we are of the truth. Also, if our heart (conscience) doesn't condemn us, we know God is pleased with us. If there's something tugging at you, chances are He wants you to do some soul searching! We also learn here that God's giving us our desires through prayer is conditional based upon obedience! Did you know that? God's not going to answer our prayers if we're breaking commandments and living outside His will! Scary but true! Ah, but if we keep His commandments, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will abide in us.

John 14:15-21
[15] If ye love me, keep my commandments.
[16] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
[17] Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
[18] I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
[19] Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
[20] At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
[21] He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

I can't stress all the red stuff enough! Loving God is conditional upon us obeying Him! Jesus himself said it. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them!" are those that love Him!

1 John 5:2-3
[2] By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
[3] For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

I hope nobody gets "legalism" or "lordship salvation" out of this post. I'm not saying we have to obey the law in order to love God and be saved. We all slip up and sin, it's in our nature. Thing is, we have to get up and stay in the fight! We have to want to love God and obey His commandments! God gives us the grace to obey His word, we have to walk closely with Him. Throughout our lives we will experience more and more freedom from sin as time goes on. That's the beauty of being sanctified in Christ!

Ok, I think I'm going to wrap this semi-spontaneous study up. I feel that I've drummed enough into you and that you understand what the Bible is saying on how to truly love God. If you already knew this, excellent! If you didn't, I hope these passages in Scripture have changed your heart. Either way, please get this message out, because I don't think it's a popular one with the American church!