How do we daily “Walk in the Spirit”?
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© June 14, 2020
Scripture Reading: Galatians 5:16–25
What if you were financially able to give an exceptional down payment for an early inheritance for each of your maturing children – to bless them and give them opportunity to become more successful in life? Would you hope that each of your children accepted and accessed your offer?
What if you created a special account in their name and yours and deposited the considerable amount of the early inheritance in their unique account and made them aware of its existence.
What if you checked from time to time, to see how they were using their account… especially when you could see that some of them might be having a difficult time making “ends meet?”
What if you found that some had not even checked on what was in their account, or even if they had checked, there was hardly anything drawn out?
What if several kept crying out to you for help to supply them with “things” they wanted, but they hadn’t accessed what you had already given?
Did those children not access their account because what they wanted was not consistent with your values?
What if Godly values combined with the blessing of their new bank account proved to be a far greater asset indeed?
God’s Down-Payment Gift of the Holy Spirit
God has given us everything we need Spiritually through His Divine Power, if we are His Child (2 Peter 1:3-9).
2 Peter 1:3
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Do we draw on the abundant life of His Spirit? Do we walk daily through the empowerment of His Spirit? Or, are we satisfied to live and only “survive” in the shadows of Spiritual hope with little Spiritual reality?
Walking Daily in the Spirit is not a mystic dream, but it is God’s desire for each of His Children. The Holy Spirit is God’s Down Payment to His Children, guaranteeing us His Spiritual provisions now and a marvelous Eternal Inheritance!
Ephesians 1:13–14
13 … Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
When Jesus spoke about the Coming Holy Spirit He used two Key Comparisons:
New Birth and Living Water
What did Jesus mean when He told Nicodemus that one needed to “be born again” or they could not see the Kingdom of God?
What did Jesus mean when He told the woman at the well that He could give her “Living Water” which would be a Spring of Life welling up to Eternal Life?
Jesus was revealing to the world that He would send to His Children the Holy Spirit (at Pentecost, after He had died for their sins and rose again).
The Holy Spirit is He who Transforms us to be God’s Children through New Birth (John 1:12; 3:5-8) and The Holy Spirit is the “Living Water” welling up within us into Eternal Life. (John 7:37–39)
What was The Holy Spirit’s work before Pentecost? In the Old Testament?
Throughout the history of the world God gave His good Spirit to be with, instruct and guide His people.
Nehemiah 9:19–20
19 You in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.
As time went by many of the Children of Israel were not found to truly honor God
· They forgot their God and began clinging to the deceptive and immoral gods of the heathen nations around them.
· They grumbled, complained, rebelled and sinned against God, time and time again.
· This eventually brought on them severe discipline because of their sins. (2 Chron. 33:1-9; 34:24-25, etc.)
· After some thousand years of up and down rebellion, God finally allowed His temple and their cities to be destroyed for the second time in A.D. 70, and the unrepentant sinning nation was condemned to be disbursed to the ends of the earth for the next 2,000 years.
Even in the New Testament, Prior to Pentecost, how did God’s Holy Spirit interact with His People?
John 14:16–17 (Jesus, to His disciples before Pentecost)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
Why Did God Need to Wait to Send His Holy Spirit to Earth until Christ Came?
Before Christ the Messiah’s coming, God endowed His Chosen People with His Spirit’s power to accomplish His purposes, but it wasn’t until after Christ’s coming that God sent His Spirit at Pentecost to indwell all of His Children to empower their lives; to instruct, guide, counsel and comfort them.
Why Does God want us to interact with His Holy Spirit Today?
· The Holy Spirit Convicts us of Sin, Righteousness, Judgment and Declares to us Things to Come
John 16:7–11, 13c
7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
13c … He will declare to you the things that are to come.
· The Holy Spirit was sent by God to give His Children New Birth
John 3:3
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:5–8, 16, 18
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
…16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
…18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
“Living Water”: see also John 4:1-26 – “the woman at the well”
John 7:38–39
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive (at Pentecost), for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
· The Work of God’s Holy Spirit illumines dynamics of New Life: Spiritual Perception, Conviction, Discernment, Knowledge and Guidance
o The Holy Spirit was sent by God to be our Spiritual Teacher, Comforter, Helper and Counselor
John 14:26
26 But the Helper (Comforter, Advocate), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Galatians 5:16–25
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 1:3–4
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Everyone in the Whole Earth is Indebted to the Holy Spirit, whose Power has enabled the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be Spread by The Church to Every Part of the Globe (Acts 2:2-11)
Acts 1:8
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
We must be “Born by the Spirit of God”
Romans 5:12
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
Romans 8:5–11
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those, who are in the flesh, cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
John 3:6–8
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Romans 8:1–2
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, after his convicting message, Peter responded to those asking what they should do:
Acts 2:37–38
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
· Becoming Children of God
1 Peter 1:3
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
John 1:12
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…
1 John 5:1
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
Luke 11:13
13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
1 John 5:13
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
Romans 8:16–17
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
We are “Born Again” through:
· Repentance by acknowledging and turning away from our sins.
· Receiving, when we call out to God by faith, accepting Jesus death on the Cross, and His Blood, as the payment God has provided as a gift for the payment, and Jesus as Lord of our life.
· Regeneration (New Birth) then happens when, after believing in Christ, the Holy Spirit transforms our Spirit to be changed and become a Child of God.
Titus 3:5–6
5 He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
Learning to Hear and Discern God’s Voice - the Promptings of the Holy Spirit
How Do I Know When It Is God’s Voice?
· Is it True to God’s Word, the Bible?
· Is it True to Who the Scripture says that God Is?
Growing Perception of the Spirit’s Voice though Consistent Use as we Spiritually Mature
Hebrews 5:14
14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
God’s “Still Small Voice”
Elijah (1 Kings 18-19; 19:12)
~ Fire falling from God on Elijah’s sacrifice on Mt. Carmel proving who He IS.
~ The prophets of Baal destroyed.
~ The rain returning after three years drought.
~ Jezebel incensed and threatens Elijah’s life.
~ Elijah runs for his life.
~ God protects Elijah and brings him to Mt. Horeb, “the mount of God” – the same mountain where Moses experienced “the burning bush.”
~ Elijah declares that he was the only one left in Israel who was honoring God (God countered that He had 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to or kissed Baal, 1 Kings 19:18; Rom. 11:4)
~ God reveals Himself to Elijah:
“The Lord passed by”
o A great wind tore the mountain and broke in pieces the rocks before Him, but the Lord was not in the wind.
o There was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
o There was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
o Then there was a still, small, voice – a whisper, and the Lord was in that “thin silent voice.”
We often use the expression “still, small, voice,” from this excerpt in Elijah’s life, as an understanding of how God yet speaks to the human heart. It is interesting in Hebrew it can be translated as “thin silent voice” – an inaudible perception and understanding of the heart and mind from God saying, “This is the way, walk in it.”
The Guidance of the Holy Spirit is through many means:
· Guidance through the Scripture
· Guidance through Prayer
· Guidance through God’s nudging and promptings
· Guidance through providential or adversarial circumstances
· Guidance through advice and/or wise counsel
We should listen for the “still, small voice” of God’s Spirit
1. Listening through the Pages of Scripture
2 Peter 1:20–21
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 119:105
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
The Holy Spirit uses God’s Word to Speak to the hearts of Humankind
John 16:13–14
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
2. Listening through Prayer
Romans 8:26–28
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Acts 13:2–3
2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
3. Listening through being “led” by His Spirit – “God promptings”
Romans 8:14
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Galatians 5:18
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Acts 8:29 (Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch)
29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”
Acts 9:17 (Cautious Ananias - Acts 9:13-14)
17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 10:19–20 (Peter goes Cornelius the “gentile”)
19 And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”
Romans 8:28
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
4. Circumstances positive or adversarial can be used by God to guide us.
James 4:7
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Galatians 5:16
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
2 Corinthians 12:7–10
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 4:8–9
8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed….
5. We choose to resist and die to the “shouts” and demands of the flesh
Romans 8:13
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
6. Ask, Seek and Knock
Luke 11:9–13
9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
James 4:8
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Luke 15:20 (the Prodigal Son)
20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
7. Godly Counsel/Advice and Fellowship
Build into your Spiritual life and the lives of those around you, those things and associations which draw us close to God and we release those things which lure us away from God
· We fellowship with like-minded believers
Hebrews 10:25
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
· We worship, praise and pray to our Lord and Savior, individually and unitedly
Ephesians 5:19–21
19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
· We want to strengthen God’s Word into our lives and seek to build that which points us to the Lord and deepen our spiritual walk. We seek to avoid those things which produce gossip, divisions and disputes.
2 Timothy 2:15–16
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness…
· We encourage others to “walk in the Spirit”, showing through our lives and doctrine how to avoid pitfalls of fleshly depravity and delusions of the law
Hebrews 10:24
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works….
· We bear the “fruit of the Spirit”
Galatians 5:22–23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Conclusion
God’s Down-Payment Gift of the Holy Spirit is given to be our life’s blessing
If we are a Child of God, God has given us every Spiritual thing we need for life and Godliness (2 Peter 1:3-9) through His Divine Power in the Holy Spirit. Do we draw on the abundant life of His Spirit? Do we walk daily through the empowerment of His Spirit? Or, are we satisfied to live and survive in the shadows of Spiritual hope with little Spiritual reality?
Walking Daily in the Spirit is not a mystic dream, but it is God’s desire for each of His Children. The Holy Spirit is God’s Down Payment to His Children, guaranteeing us His Spiritual provisions now and a marvelous Eternal Inheritance!
· Guidance through the Scripture
· Guidance through Prayer
· Guidance through God’s nudging and promptings
· Guidance through advice or wise counsel
· Guidance through providential or adversarial circumstances
· Guidance while ASKing, SEEKing, and KNOCKing
· Guidance toward our Eternal Life
Galatians 5:16–25
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.