“WALKING IN THE SPIRIT” 9.19.12
Romans 8: 1-17
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus*....For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath
made me free from the law of sin and death. * ...That the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Vs. 1a, 2 and 4
To walk with Christ, we must live by 2 Corinthians 5: 7. “For we walk
by faith, not by sight.” How can one walk “in the Spirit” if his walk is
not of faith. No one sees the Spirit. He does not speak in audible tones.
Feelings are fleeting and completely unreliable. Our other senses, of
touch, taste and smell, irrelevant. Following Christ, imperfectly, we
learn to walk by faith in His Word. We become adept with experience,
since we do not follow human wisdom and reason. We must rely on
our faith in the Lord God and His grace, as revealed in His Word.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him...” (Hebrews 11: 6a)
What then does it mean to walk “in the Spirit?”) When one is born
again by exercising faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and believing he has
delivered us from the kingdom of this world into His eternal kingdom,
he is given Spiritual life. Until that time we had only the dimension of
the flesh, living with a vague sense of unease that something was mis-
sing and were without God or hope in this world. We were not seeking
a relationship with our creator, but thankfully he is always seeking a
relationship with His creation and is full of mercy, grace and pardon.
In Galatians 5: 15-20, we are instructed to be filled with the Spirit.
(vs. 18 "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with
the Spirit." Without Christ, we had no hope. Knowing there must be
more, we looked for it in "all the wrong places" and wrong ways.
It is clear we were not yet filled with the Spirit of God. Since we are
instructed in Scripture to be filled with the Spirit, we must ask for the
filling with the command in mind and pray as in I John 5:14-15.
To me born again is a once for all experience; being filled with the
Spirit is a daily thing. (Be ye being filled with the Spirit)
"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any
thing according to His will he heareth us, and if we know that he
hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
that we desired of him." 1 John 5: 14-15 kjv
The Lord God will answer in the affirmative the prayer of a believer
who prays according to the knowledge of His will and asks in faith.
The knowledge comes from a commitment to Scripture, our guide.
We are instructed to walk in the Spirit in Galatians 5: 18 and 25.
Walking in the Spirit, put simply, is following Jesus Christ, living as
He lived on the earth and doing so with the expectation, hope that he
is mindful of us, as unworthy as we are. It is also conducted with the
awareness of the presence of the Spirit of God within. "For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." Romans
8: 14 So, if one is not filled with the Spirit, he is not led by the Spirit
and is not a son. This is critical...
The basic principal of walking “in the Spirit” may be simple, but wor-
king it out in life is anything but. God’s Word, the Bible, is essential in
this endeavor. Our assurance in this matter comes from facts asserted
in the Word of God, Holy Scripture. To know the "Word of God," is
to know Jesus Christ as a "personal" Savior. "The Word was made flesh
and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth." This was written by the Apostle John, pertaining
pertaining to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ personifies
the "Word of God," and cannot be separated from that Word...
*Scofield Study Bible indicates last 10 words in Romans 8:1 to be inter-
polated, therefore we have quoted only the first part of the verse, and
quoted all of verse 2 and 4. Verse 4 contains the omitted part in full.
donporter,sr 9.19.12, edited 11.25.14, 3.25.17
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