Acting vs Walking

 Acting vs Walking

Sept 18, 2025

Ephesians 3:14-19

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell inyour hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

What does it mean to be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit? Let us listen to what Watchman Nee has to say about the difference between acting like a Christian and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Too many of us are caught acting as Christians. The life of many Christians today is largely a pretense. They live a “spiritual” life, talk a “spiritual” language, adopt “spiritual” attitudes, but they are doing the whole thing themselves. It is the effort involved that should reveal tothem that something is wrong. They force themselves to refrain from doing this, from saying that, from eating the other—and how hard they find it all! …

“Our life is the life of Christ, mediated in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit Himself, and the law of that life is spontaneous. The moment we see that fact, we shall end our struggling and cast away our pretense. Nothing is so hurtful to the life of a Christian as acting; nothing so blessedas when our outward efforts cease and our attitudes become natural—when our words, our prayers, our very life all become a spontaneous and unforced expression of the life within. Have we discovered how good the Lord is? Then in us He is as good as that! Is His power great? Then in us it is no less great! Praise God, His life is as mighty as ever, and in the lives of those who dare to believe the Word of God, the divine life will be manifest in a power not one whit less mighty than was manifest of old.”

Sit, Walk, Stand,  by Watchman Nee, pp. 18-19

When we look at the life of someone like Charlie Kirk, we can see this difference illustrated. When someone is acting like a Christian, eventually his true nature will leek through. Even a good actor has “out takes” that they have to cut from the movie to create the illusion that he is acting perfectly. But when someone is kind and open to discussion, day in and day out, even in the face of a hostile crowd, you can see the power of the Holy Spirit at work. The Spirit is able to do through us what we are unable to do ourselves. So let us be like Charlie, that is to be like Jesus, and let the power of the Holy Spirit work through us to love our neighbors even when they are being mean and hateful.