Devo 49: Walking in the Spirit

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

I Corinthians 1:27-29

The wisdom of God is foolishness to the world (I Cor. 1:27). Wisdom is a Man dying on a cross for the sins of all humanity. This is wisdom. It seems so ridiculous to the natural mind, and men throughout history have turned their backs on God, because of the seeming foolishness of this display of wisdom. God’s ways are so much higher than our ways (Is. 55:8-9).

By our nature, we cannot fathom the ways of God. Our natural minds are at complete enmity with Him (Rom. 8:7, I Cor. 2:14, Gal. 5:17). We must be transformed by the renewing of our mind, which is a continual process (Rom. 12:1-2). Therefore, we are commanded to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16). When we walk in the spirit, we subject our minds to the ways of the spirit instead of the ways of the flesh (I Cor. 2). In I Corinthians 2, Paul speaks of “what no eye has seen and no ear has heard;” The ways of God are unfathomable; yet those things are revealed to us through the spirit, who searches the deep things of God. When we walk in the spirit, we come under the wisdom of God.

This “mind of the spirit” in I Cor. 2 is the mind that reveals to us the mysteries of God—even the ultimate mystery of Jesus’ death on the Cross. As we walk in the spirit, we are subjecting ourselves to the leadership of God, which is the same leadership that led Jesus to the cross.

What does it look like to live a life by the Spirit? It looks like what Jesus said in Mark 8, “Whoever loves His life will lose it, and whoever loses His life will find it.” Subjecting ourselves to the Lord’s leadership means following Him to the death—daily.

The first aspect of living a life by the Spirit is obeying His commands. If we love Him, we will obey His commands (Jn. 15:10). This entails obeying the commands written in His Word as well as following His leadership in the daily guidance of our lives as we abide in the Spirit. We must walk as Jesus walked and do what we see the Father doing (Jn. 5:19).

Another aspect of living by the spirit is prayer. In Ephesians 6, Paul says to: 1.) Take up the full armor of God, and 2.) Pray always with all prayer and supplications in the Spirit. I believe that praying in the Spirit has to do with more than praying in tongues, but I believe that is a part of it. However, there are more ways to pray in the Spirit than only praying in tongues. Jude 20 also says to “build yourselves up in your most Holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit…” Jude instructed the church to do this to guard against immorality.

Likewise, Jesus told His disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Lk. 22:40). He also instructed us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray, “Lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Lk. 11:4, Mt 6:13).

Of course prayer not only helps us walk in the spirit, but it also helps us obey His commands. We are instructed to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17).

The fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22ff only come when we walk in the Spirit. We cannot have the fruits of the Spirit without actually walking in the Spirit, and we must continually walk in the Spirit so that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16, 22ff).

Jesus walked out this example perfectly. He was tempted in every way; yet He did not sin (Heb. 4:15). As a priest ministering before the Lord, He made a way for us to approach the throne of grace (Heb 4:16). As a man walking on earth, He perfectly walked out a life by the Spirit as an example for us to follow.

When tempted by Satan in the desert, He used Scripture to fight (Mt. 4, Mk. 1). When tempted to leave His calling of dying on the cross in the garden of Gethsemane, He prayed to the point of bloodshed (Lk. 22:44). The writer of Hebrews corrected his readers because they had not yet resisted sin to the point of bloodshed (Heb 12:4).

Jesus prayed in the hour of temptation and made a decision to follow the will of the Father no matter the cost. He even knew what the cost was and still decided to follow. He asks nothing less from us. He said for us to “take up our cross and follow Him” (Mt. 10, 16; Mark 8, 10; Lk 9).

Even though it is so explicitly stated, it does not make it easy. This is not an easy thing to do; yet when we look at what the God of all creation did for us, it gives us strength. We then realize that there is no greater love than this, and it fuels us to give everything to Him (Jn. 15:13).

When we are faced with temptation, we have to realize that Jesus was tempted even as we are and He has given us the tools to stand against the evil one (Eph. 6, etc.) Not only that, but the Holy Spirit lives in us, and He has come to teach us and guide us into all truth (Jn. 14:26, 16:13).

I pray that this strengthens you and gives you tools to fight. Pray for me as well. We are all faced with temptation and we all struggle to come under the leadership of True Wisdom.

“Lord, I ask that you would strengthen us with might in our inner man. Teach us how to walk in the Spirit. Arm us with the armor of God. Teach us how to pray and war in the Spirit—whatever that entails, I ask for an impartation of praying in the spirit as everyone reads this, God. I ask for grace to be released. Release the fire of your presence. I ask for a divine strengthening in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Grace and Peace to you in the Name of Jesus.

Amanda
 
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