Walk By the Spirit
Galatians 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. When we are born again the Spirit of God comes into our lives and He takes over. What seemed to be so "ok" before being born again, is now a big "no no" as we walk by the Spirit. And so goes our life as we continue in the process of sanctification (def) - to impart or impute sacredness. We have many commercial interruptions in this process and we have to weather the storms of what the world hurls at us, but the process continues on. No matter where you are in this process you are learning that it is impossible to handle this new life without the Holy Spirit's direction and the continual filling of the Holy Spirit gives us direction, power, and wisdom in dealing with the distractions that are placed before us in our daily walk.
A.W. Tozer in his sermon entitled How to Be Filled with the Spirit said this. Almost all Christians want to be full of the Spirit. Only a few want to be filled with the Spirit. But how can a Christian know the fullness of the Spirit unless he has known the experience of being filled? It would, however, be useless to tell anyone how to be filled with the Spirit unless he first believes that he can be. No one can hope for something he is not convinced is the will of God for him and within the bounds of scriptual provision. Before the question 'How can I be filled?' has any validity the seeker after God must be sure that the experience of being filled is actually possible. The man who is not sure can have no ground of expectation. Where there is no expectation there can be no faith, and where there is no faith the inquiry is meaningless. For me, I have found that I pray quite a few times during the day to be filled with the Holy Spirit. When I pray that, I am believing for God to fill me, and I believe He does, and the result of that filling draws me into wanting Him to do it more and more because I realize a strength and wisdom to live my life. In Luke 11:13 scriptures says “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!” The Holy Spirit filling us is a gift from God and that gift should not be turned down, but received in the way God gives it. When we are filled with the Spirit there is a freedom that many times we cannot understand or express through words, but that freedom is there. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Since the Lord is Spirit, per the above scripture, why would we not believe in the filling of His Spirit? Human reasoning and the ongoing abuse of such an action has scared off most Christians and we have been led astray from what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, and led down a path into a man-made interaction.
The many examples of those who were filled with the Spirit further show us that we should not be scared of the Holy Spirit, but walk with the Lord in His Spirit. In Acts 6 there were complaints that some widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food, so the twelve summoned the congregation of disciples to take care of this oversight, so they could continue to study and teach the Word of God. The men they chose were men of good reputation, full of the Spirit, and of wisdom. One of those men, Phillip, not only waited on tables, but the Spirit took him out to a road where an Ethiopian Eunuch was reading the Word of God and Phillip led him to Jesus. So Phillip was a table waiter and an evangelist!! Phillip was full of the Spirit no matter what he was doing and that Spirit-filled life was his daily walk with God. Phillip walked by the Spirit, or with the Spirits help.
Sometimes we try to make walking by the Spirit a mysterious thing that is viewed by many in the church as a (can't touch that) issue, and thus throw it "under the bus." Those who do that are actually limiting the power of God in their lives and the power of God in the church. I believe the very thing that causes men and women of the faith to fall into alcoholism is the desire for the Spirit and they don't know it. Paul wrote this in Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. You may laugh at this, but keep in mind we don't lack anything when we are born again, but the shutting off of the work of the Spirit in your life will make you feel like you are lacking and many times drives, even a Christian, to drink to fill the void that only the Holy Spirit can fill.
We must Walk By the Spirit, or we will walk, or get our power from something else, which is wrong at the lowest level of living. The old "just getting enough of God to feel good" is not enough, and leaving the filling by the Spirit of God out of our lives is limiting what God wants to do in our lives. I know from experience that to be filled with the Spirit enables me to live the life God wants me to live and that life will be Walking By The Spirit.
The Pilgrimage Continues....
David Warren