Are We Walking in the Holy Spirit? (1 of 4)
Don’t we love being spiritual people?
Don’t we love thinking that God will help us have the things we need and want?
Don’t we love saying that we are going to heaven?
It’s nice to think so highly of ourselves, I suppose.
IF IT’S ALL TRUE!
Let’s each of us consider for a few moments what our lives are really like.
Let’s not just think of what we “believe”, but rather those things that we KNOW!
Were we ONCE closer to God than we are now?
Did we USED TO pray more often and with a more tender heart?
Has God MOVED AWAY from us?
Have we LOST our joy?
Do we ARGUE a lot?
The scripture tells us that when we find ourselves this way, we have become CARNAL. We are living “in the flesh”.
We still believe the right things. We still love God. We are still Christians (if we used to be).
Some of us think this kind of life is “normal”. That we have two “natures” (not a scriptural idea). Some of us have been taught that we will always sin and always suffer the consequences of sin. Are these things true?
As usual, the answer is MAYBE!
Maybe “Yes” in the sense that “in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing… (RO. 7:18)
Maybe “No” in the sense that you should “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:16)
Walking in the Flesh:
What is it like to be carnal? To be led by the flesh?
-Keep doing the same sins… Always saying you’re sorry. (Ro. 7:14) For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. -You do the things you disapprove of… Adultery, perversions, hating people, being angry all the time, always causing arguments, breaking up friends, envy (jealousy), murder, drunkenness… (Gal. 5:19-21 has a list.)
-The things you want to do, well, you are not doing them…
You want to be loving and kind, honest and respected, calm and patient. You want to be so good at something that you can be humble about it (and let others “blow your horn” for you)… (Gal. 5:22-23 has a list.)
-You hate what you are.
Romans 7:14-15 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
What can I do? I want to be good, but I don’t know HOW… (Ro. 7:18)
-When I try to be good, I mess it up! (Ro.7:19)
Romans 7:20-24 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
(Note: today we call this “living in sin”)
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
(V.24) Wretched = constantly having trials, miserable
(v.24) WHO shall deliver me? You need a Deliverer!!
Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Jesus tells him what his problem is… He has been thinking about the wonderful things in God’s law, but he has been doing something else (sin)!
-Is it possible to think about the things of the Spirit, and then DO them? Of course it is!!
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Walk = to live and behave (in the sense of “a lifestyle”)
What does this “in Christ Jesus” mean? To be one of His!
-If you surrender to Jesus and let Him rule your life as your Messiah, He will give you His Holy Spirit!
John 7:37-39 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
John 3:6-8 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.
You must be born again of the Holy Spirit?
HOW does someone get “born of the Holy Spirit?
John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Believe = to trust someone, to have confidence in them.
Will you give your life to Jesus as your king?
Will you let Him direct you and defend you?
Will you let Jesus adopt you as His own child?
If you do, Jesus will be your wonderful Lord, your precious friend and your mighty God!
