Walk by the Spirit

 Walk by the Spirit

February 1, 2025

Romans 8:3-4

3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offeringfor sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16, 25

16 ButI say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

…

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

The fourth step in Watchman Nee’s plan for living “The Normal Christian Life” is walking in the Spirit.  So what does it mean to walk by the Spirit? I will break it down into four steps: 1) Seeing, 2) Hearing, 3) Stepping  out, and 4) Keep walking.

First of all is seeing. You must have a vision of where you are going or you’re just wandering around aimlessly. 

Proverbs 29:18 (NASB95)

Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.

We are talking about walking in the Spirit, so this is not talking about your natural eyes, but your spiritual eyes. You need to have a vision of the plan and purpose for your life so that you know which direction to go. Also, keeping a distant goal in sight allows you to walk in a straight line. When I was young, my father taught me to pick out a fence post a half mile away and drive straight for it in order to plow a straight furrow. Anytime you take your eye off of the goal, you tend to drift and wander, so you need to have a vision and keep it in sight to walk in the Spirit.

Secondly, you need to hear. By this I am referring to hearing the voice of God.

John 10:27

27 Mysheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

Now in the matter of walking in the Spirit, the first principle of hearing God is being willing to obey. When the sheep hear His voice they follow Him. In fact, the Greek word for obedience in Romans 1:5 is hupakoe, which literally means “to hear under”. So in scripture, hearing and obeying are integrally tied together. So when you commit to obey the voice of God and you begin to walk in the Spirit, you will hear the voice of the Spirit telling you “this it the way, walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)

The Third step is to take a step of faith. As the saying goes, “A journey of a hundred miles starts with a single step.” You cannot walk in the Spirit without taking that first step. Now when I was a young Christian, I associated this with the gifts of the Spirit. We would say that if the Lord gives your a word to speak, then you need to have the courage to step out and give it. Now this is all well and good, but as I have been considering how to walk in the Spirit for over fifty years, the fruit of the Spirit has taken on more significance. This leads us to the forth step.

The forth step involves endurance.

Hebrews 12:1b

… let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set beforeus,

It is when we keep walking, running the race that is set before us, that we see the fruit of the Spirit manifested in our lives. And note that the word here is singular. When the Holy Spirit coming into your lives and we begin to follow Him and walk in His ways, His character manifests as fruit in our lives. Now it appears in multiple forms; love, joy, peace, etc. but it is the fruit of the one Holy Spirit. There is only one savior that died for our sins and only one Spirit that raised Him from the dead, and us with Him.

Therefore, receive the vision for your life so you know which way to go. Listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit so you know exactly what to do. Then step out and do it. And then keep doing it as long as the day is called today until the Lord calls you home so you may finish the race and claim the prize.