15th Sunday After Pentecost 2019- Walk In The Spirit

From the epistles readings for today we read:

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” [Galatians 5:25]

We all live in the flesh, There is nothing sinful about that. It is what makes us human. We hunger, we thirst, we have sexual desires, we have a desire with in us to worship, etc. it is how God made us. What is sinful is when we walk in the flesh. By that I mean it becomes a sin when we allow our flesh to take control of our lives. When that happens, we could find that we have allowed a whole host of good and natural desires to become sinful and unnatural desires in our lives:

“Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” [Galatians 5:19-21]

We as Christians will all struggle with the desires of the flesh until we get to heaven. But we can bring these desires under the Holy Spirit’s influence.

“Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16).

Notice that the apostle Paul doesn’t say we won’t have the desires of the flesh when we walk in the Spirit, but that we won’t carry out the lusts, the unnatural, sinful desires of the flesh.

Walking in the Spirit is similar to being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Walking implies that the Spirit is going somewhere.-here’s a destination.

He always goes to the same place, to that which brings God glory. In contrast, the flesh is always moving to that which will please itself.

Walking is continuous.

Like the filling of the Holy Spirit, our walk in the Spirit is ongoing, so we must maintain our dedication. To walk is to continue taking one step after another.

A third aspect of walking includes dependency.

The key to walking in the Spirit is to look to Him in faith to give us the ability through the graces God gives us to do what we know we can’t do on our own. The moment we try to do it on our own, we reject the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our source to true power and victory.

Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in time of need. [Hebrews 4:16]