Walk by the Spirit of God (Galatians 5 continued)
Continuing in our series in Galatians, Live Free or Die, Pastor Phil highlighted a few more truths from Scripture. If we start our walk with the Lord by faith but attempt to mature by our own strength/rule keeping then Jesus is no longer a benefit to us… a scary place to be. Instead we are invited to an approach to life that works; “through love, serve one another and thus the Law is fulfilled”. How? What does this kind of life look like?
We learn how to walk by the Spirit of God -not by flesh-.
Flesh is:
· self-interested
· drives us
· destructive
The promise from God is that one day we will be getting a new body, in the mean-time we walk by the Spirit of God.
Holy Spirit is:
· from God, indeed is God
· fuels the New Creation in me
· protects us
· guides us
· empowers us
In order to walk by the Spirit I need to a. Orient myself toward God (Romans 12.1), b. Orient my life around truth (Rom. 12.2), c. Release control of my life over to God.
And 3 more principles gleaned from Galatians 5:24-26: 1. Recognize sin, 2. Reorient toward God, 3. Resist temptation.
And remember, “the Spirit will not do the walking for us, so orient yourself to God and walk by the Spirit”.