Walking In The Spirit

Galatians 5:16-18

In the collegiate Basketball championships, in the final four, there was one player who just seemed to not make mistakes. Baskets were made almost as if he couldn’t miss. He made steals and for a long period of the game, he made almost all the scores for his team, even though he was double teamed. What was amazing was that he had not been a spectacular player during the season, but during the playoffs, had two such games.

The announcers referred to him as being in the zone. Many professional players seem to almost live in the zone, piling up huge scores game after game. Their play seems almost effortless. Other players seldom or never experience that sensation and work much harder with little or no results.

When in the zone, one is even more focused, but he is relaxed about the details, trusting his muscles to do their job so he can concentrate on making good decisions. As long as one is focused on dribbling, he will never be successful in getting around a defender. As long as he is focused on details of making a shot he will not be able to consistently elude his guards.

Walking in the Spirit is very much the same as being in the zone. The focus changes from not making a mistake to attaining the goal. You learn to trust the Holy Spirit to guide in doing what is right rather than worrying about sin. As a result sin becomes much less of a problem, and Christian living is much easier. Far too often all the energy is spent not sinning, rather than accomplishing the work of God. More teaching is devoted to not sinning than to serving God.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” (Galatians 5:16-18)

The focus of many teachers on not committing sin demonstrated their lack of spiritual walk. Paul says that when we walk in the Spirit we will not be going into sin. Speaking from personal experience, I can vouch for this. When I am not walking in the Spirit, I am tempted by things that I never even noticed when I was walking in the Spirit. Just as focusing on the things you might do wrong will destroy your effectiveness at basketball, focusing on possible temptations will prevent spiritual success.

In Romans 6-8, Paul talks of how easily sin can get control, and describes why victory is available in Romans 8:2-4. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Victory over sin is not attaine by my not sinning, but by trusting God to make me Righteous. My flesh can never gain victory by not doing sin. Alcoholics Anonymous tells their people that they will always be alcoholics and at risk of going back. I Corinthians tells us that we used to be like that, but Christ has made us different and we are not any longer.

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

We’re not just a sinner who stopped sinning, we’re a new creation. II Corinthians 5:17-18 describes this. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.” Romans 6: 11 tells us to recognize that those things really mean nothing to us, and focus on the things of God. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is explained further in Romans 8.

“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Romans 8:5-9)

Walking in the Spirit is a matter of having a mental attitude in which Christ is the center of our thoughts . When this is true, our actions will automatically be what they should be. Jesus said it is what is in the heart that defiles a man. “And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” (Mark 7:20-23)

When the mental attitude, the heart, is right, these things won’t be there to come out, and won’t cause a problem. Like staying in the zone, walking in the Spirit is easier to talk about than to do. It is possible to attain however, and we can learn to spend most of our time there.