A month or two ago I had experience that shifted me into a different way of thinking. I won't go into details here, but all of the sudden I felt invited to "Walk in the Spirit". It's something that all believers are invited to do and encouraged to do in the scriptures. I'm not unique in that at all, but one of my things is that I tend to overthink, over-analyze, and not just walk or take action. I'm guilty of over-intellectualizing everything, including my relationship with Jesus. I don't claim to have some new revelation. Always be suspicious of those who do claim that. My claim, instead, is that I think I understand what has been obvious and in front of me this whole time.
What does it mean to "Walk in the Spirit"?
When the Scriptures talk about walking in the Spirit, just about every time it means a denial of the flesh or the denial of physical reality. Galatians 5:16 says that if we walk by the spirit we will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Why? Because these two things are locked in opposition with each other. Personally, I have noticed that every single time that I try to walk in the Spirit my flesh almost immediately rebels. 2 Corinthians 5:7 talks about walking by faith and not by sight. The scriptures also use the phrase "abiding in Him" which is very close to "walking in the Spirit", I believe.
I have long said, in friendly company, that there are 2 competing realities. The reality of the flesh is concerned with what we see, taste, hear, smell, etc. It is what non-believers and many fellow believers refer to as "reality". To my mind that reality only makes up 1% of a far greater reality that is God's reality, reality as the LORD himself sees it. HIS reality is the full 100%, the actual reality.
God's reality is a very peculiar reality to those of us who live, breathe, swim, mate, and exist primarily in the 1%. His reality is a place where the first shall be last and the last shall be first, where peace conquers violence, where lions lay down with lambs, where the biggest, most popular Church is rarely the most successful, where enduring abuse and persecution even to death is a privilege, where Holy God makes a way to connect to sinful man by coming Himself in the flesh as a carpenter's son. God's reality makes no sense to us if we are entrenched in the physical reality. I've heard it called the "Upside Down Kingdom" because according to the World's standards it is completely flipped.
There are a million things in the Bible that we pay lip service to on a daily (maybe weekly) basis that our flesh resists in fact. Miracles. Gifts of the Spirit. Resurrection of the dead. Those are big ones that we conveniently brush aside saying "that was for then" instead of a more obvious though painful answer. We struggle with even the simple, basic ones; Jesus' sacrifice was enough, God is good all the time no matter what, God wants what is best for me... I even have a hard time accepting that God likes me and wants to fellowship with me.
To walk in the Spirit is to walk (to live your life) radically believing that what God says is actually so. It is to move beyond the "Yeah, but..." and into only what He has already told us is real. "Why do you worry about what to eat...what to wear..." It is to agree with God what this life is and how it works.
I once heard someone tell me, "Everything is political". On the contrary, "Everything is spiritual".
We live in this delusion that what matters is what I can see, touch, feel (both emotionally and physically). What truly matters is what God says IS, how HE says things actually works and these things are often in direct conflict, hostile conflict on some points, with the way the Flesh works. As Christians we can't do things the way the World does them. James 4:4 comes straight out and calls us adulterers because, "Friendship with the World is emnity with God." When we find ourselves bound up and tied to the things of the World, when we do things the way the World does rather than the way Jesus says then we are choosing whom we are serving.
Now, naturally, the rational mind rebels and says, "Oh, so, what then? Are you advocating locking ourselves away on some mountain top in a convent?" No. Actually in many places the Bible says that's exactly what we are not to do. We are meant to be spiritual creatures in this physical world bringing the light of Jesus. Can we deny, however, that we are being "conformed to the patterns of this world" more than conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ? When we (at large) equivocate on parts of the Bible that others find offensive, when we sell our principles down the river for some sort of gain and salve it with "well, Jesus will forgive me and I'll pick right back up with him again", when we hold up political figures in such high regard that we get more excited about them than we ever have about Jesus, when the Church sees success as church held in a stadium, money flowing in, and franchising, when we spend more time in our "fandoms" than reading that which would edify us most, when we want to affect change in the world and yet don't even know our neighbor's first name or let alone how we can pray for them... And I'm just talking about me in all that.
Walking in the Spirit means seeing everything the way God does, through an eternal perspective. It means not just believing what is already there in our Bibles, but accepting and moving in that. Who are we if we don't actually believe how God says things actually are and actually work? Pretenders, at best, playing at make-believe.
How much would my life change if I actually walked in that perspective? The eternal nature of my children...the fact that they are literally a gift from God...that they aren't here to test my patience and tolerance...that God specifically made them, fashioned them in specific ways, and specifically chose to give them to my wife and I...that I am charged with their protection and loving development by a great and mighty God who has a plan for them...That He trusts me with all that?
How much would your life change if you held in your mind the fact that you were specifically placed in this time, in this space, in the lives of specific people, including that one person you find annoying to be around...that those people are people that God deeply loves and wants to love through you...that each of them are a soul that is going to end up one place or the other...that they all, especially the annoying one, are struggling on a constant basis, are battling something and your prayers for them could change everything if you actually had a prayer time...that, just like your children, they were uniquely made by God?
See, I don't want to think that way either. My spirit does, but my flesh just wants to get done with my day with minimum contact, minimum engagement so I can finish my day without having been disturbed, without having been rejected, without having been emotionally bothered or vulnerable so I can play my video games and watch The Office with my wife and go to bed. I'll have gained nothing and risked nothing. Status quo really works for me.
If we are honest, however, that isn't what any part of the Bible calls us to. In fact it calls us to exactly the opposite. Jesus Christ has spoken into our lives. Yes, Jesus has to do the work in us we can't do it ourselves. It's all Him....up to a point. And that point is called obedience. As we know Jesus healed a lot of people during His time on earth, but I'm always interested in those times where there was an obedience component. He healed a lame man and commanded him to take up his mat and walk. Sure, Jesus could have healed him and the man could have just laid there...like me...healed but not accepting the reality of what just happened. The taking up the mat and walking is literally walking in the reality of what Jesus has done. The obedience is crucial and it is our choice.
For the past week or so I've been trying to Walk in the Spirit, to see everything from that spiritual perspective. If you've ever seen a video of a newborn horse or deer wobbling around trying to walk, falling down, visibly panting from the effort of trying even once...yeah, I'm much worse than that. Normally I would beat myself up for failing as often as I am, but the Lord keeps reminding me that I've been doing things in the Flesh and after the Flesh for about 39 years. It's almost all I know. I'm going to fall, I'm going to fail, I'm going to end up crumpled on the floor panting like a marathon runner even though I only just tried to spend 10 minutes praying. I know Jesus is right there with some Gatorade and encouragement, like He always is. It's up to me to accept it, naturally, but it's worth it.
Pax,
W
What does it mean to "Walk in the Spirit"?
When the Scriptures talk about walking in the Spirit, just about every time it means a denial of the flesh or the denial of physical reality. Galatians 5:16 says that if we walk by the spirit we will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Why? Because these two things are locked in opposition with each other. Personally, I have noticed that every single time that I try to walk in the Spirit my flesh almost immediately rebels. 2 Corinthians 5:7 talks about walking by faith and not by sight. The scriptures also use the phrase "abiding in Him" which is very close to "walking in the Spirit", I believe.
I have long said, in friendly company, that there are 2 competing realities. The reality of the flesh is concerned with what we see, taste, hear, smell, etc. It is what non-believers and many fellow believers refer to as "reality". To my mind that reality only makes up 1% of a far greater reality that is God's reality, reality as the LORD himself sees it. HIS reality is the full 100%, the actual reality.
God's reality is a very peculiar reality to those of us who live, breathe, swim, mate, and exist primarily in the 1%. His reality is a place where the first shall be last and the last shall be first, where peace conquers violence, where lions lay down with lambs, where the biggest, most popular Church is rarely the most successful, where enduring abuse and persecution even to death is a privilege, where Holy God makes a way to connect to sinful man by coming Himself in the flesh as a carpenter's son. God's reality makes no sense to us if we are entrenched in the physical reality. I've heard it called the "Upside Down Kingdom" because according to the World's standards it is completely flipped.
There are a million things in the Bible that we pay lip service to on a daily (maybe weekly) basis that our flesh resists in fact. Miracles. Gifts of the Spirit. Resurrection of the dead. Those are big ones that we conveniently brush aside saying "that was for then" instead of a more obvious though painful answer. We struggle with even the simple, basic ones; Jesus' sacrifice was enough, God is good all the time no matter what, God wants what is best for me... I even have a hard time accepting that God likes me and wants to fellowship with me.
To walk in the Spirit is to walk (to live your life) radically believing that what God says is actually so. It is to move beyond the "Yeah, but..." and into only what He has already told us is real. "Why do you worry about what to eat...what to wear..." It is to agree with God what this life is and how it works.
I once heard someone tell me, "Everything is political". On the contrary, "Everything is spiritual".
We live in this delusion that what matters is what I can see, touch, feel (both emotionally and physically). What truly matters is what God says IS, how HE says things actually works and these things are often in direct conflict, hostile conflict on some points, with the way the Flesh works. As Christians we can't do things the way the World does them. James 4:4 comes straight out and calls us adulterers because, "Friendship with the World is emnity with God." When we find ourselves bound up and tied to the things of the World, when we do things the way the World does rather than the way Jesus says then we are choosing whom we are serving.
Now, naturally, the rational mind rebels and says, "Oh, so, what then? Are you advocating locking ourselves away on some mountain top in a convent?" No. Actually in many places the Bible says that's exactly what we are not to do. We are meant to be spiritual creatures in this physical world bringing the light of Jesus. Can we deny, however, that we are being "conformed to the patterns of this world" more than conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ? When we (at large) equivocate on parts of the Bible that others find offensive, when we sell our principles down the river for some sort of gain and salve it with "well, Jesus will forgive me and I'll pick right back up with him again", when we hold up political figures in such high regard that we get more excited about them than we ever have about Jesus, when the Church sees success as church held in a stadium, money flowing in, and franchising, when we spend more time in our "fandoms" than reading that which would edify us most, when we want to affect change in the world and yet don't even know our neighbor's first name or let alone how we can pray for them... And I'm just talking about me in all that.
Walking in the Spirit means seeing everything the way God does, through an eternal perspective. It means not just believing what is already there in our Bibles, but accepting and moving in that. Who are we if we don't actually believe how God says things actually are and actually work? Pretenders, at best, playing at make-believe.
How much would my life change if I actually walked in that perspective? The eternal nature of my children...the fact that they are literally a gift from God...that they aren't here to test my patience and tolerance...that God specifically made them, fashioned them in specific ways, and specifically chose to give them to my wife and I...that I am charged with their protection and loving development by a great and mighty God who has a plan for them...That He trusts me with all that?
How much would your life change if you held in your mind the fact that you were specifically placed in this time, in this space, in the lives of specific people, including that one person you find annoying to be around...that those people are people that God deeply loves and wants to love through you...that each of them are a soul that is going to end up one place or the other...that they all, especially the annoying one, are struggling on a constant basis, are battling something and your prayers for them could change everything if you actually had a prayer time...that, just like your children, they were uniquely made by God?
See, I don't want to think that way either. My spirit does, but my flesh just wants to get done with my day with minimum contact, minimum engagement so I can finish my day without having been disturbed, without having been rejected, without having been emotionally bothered or vulnerable so I can play my video games and watch The Office with my wife and go to bed. I'll have gained nothing and risked nothing. Status quo really works for me.
If we are honest, however, that isn't what any part of the Bible calls us to. In fact it calls us to exactly the opposite. Jesus Christ has spoken into our lives. Yes, Jesus has to do the work in us we can't do it ourselves. It's all Him....up to a point. And that point is called obedience. As we know Jesus healed a lot of people during His time on earth, but I'm always interested in those times where there was an obedience component. He healed a lame man and commanded him to take up his mat and walk. Sure, Jesus could have healed him and the man could have just laid there...like me...healed but not accepting the reality of what just happened. The taking up the mat and walking is literally walking in the reality of what Jesus has done. The obedience is crucial and it is our choice.
For the past week or so I've been trying to Walk in the Spirit, to see everything from that spiritual perspective. If you've ever seen a video of a newborn horse or deer wobbling around trying to walk, falling down, visibly panting from the effort of trying even once...yeah, I'm much worse than that. Normally I would beat myself up for failing as often as I am, but the Lord keeps reminding me that I've been doing things in the Flesh and after the Flesh for about 39 years. It's almost all I know. I'm going to fall, I'm going to fail, I'm going to end up crumpled on the floor panting like a marathon runner even though I only just tried to spend 10 minutes praying. I know Jesus is right there with some Gatorade and encouragement, like He always is. It's up to me to accept it, naturally, but it's worth it.
Pax,
W
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