Walking in the Holy Spirit

Do you want to live with real peace, contentment and joy in life? Do you want to have the power to overcome temptation or persevere through adversity? For more messages from Charles Stanley.

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Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week.. Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

One of the most neglected subjects in the Bible is the work of the Holy Spirit and the Life of
the Believer. You would think that as important as that subject is, that more people will be talking about it.
More people will be referring to the Holy Spirit.
But there are millions of people who sit in church week after week after week, year after year, never hear a single sermon dedicated to the Holy Spirit in his work in our life.
When it’s so crystal clear from the scripture that you cannot live a godly life, You cannot serve the lord adequately unless you understand how he works in your life.
And you certainly cannot understand the truth of god’s word apart from the Holy Spirit.
One of his primary responsibilities is to interpret the word of god for us properly.
And yet, sometimes you think, well, whose fault is that?
Is it the people who sit in the piers or is it the men who stand in the pulpit?
And I think primarily It is the man who stand in the pulpit.
And the truth is not anyone who preaches the gospel, apart from the Holy Spirit, and the anointing of the spirit and then doomen of god’s power upon his or her life doesn’t make any of us who it is.
Apart from the Holy Spirit, it’s not gonna be nearly as effective.
It’s not gonna have the fruit that that work would have where the spirit of god, the one upon whom the speaker was depending to get the job done.
It’s his responsibility. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
And for a lot of people, it’s just sort of an One of those subjects, they just say, well, I’ll talk about Jesus and god, and I don’t know who this holy spirit is because I used to read the Bible and it talked about the Holy Ghost.
Well, I can remember growing up naturally.
We only had the King James version, and they and it was translated holy ghost instead of holy spirit.
And I remember thinking as a kid, I’m not that ghost business.
I’m not sure how how I handled that because, uh, I didn’t understand that.
And so and then, of course, some people think, well, The Holy Spirit’s all about tongues.
You have to speak in tongues. And so they just turned it disregarded.
The truth is, and I wanna say it again, you cannot interpret
the word of god properly. You cannot live a godly life, and you cannot serve god adequately apart from the power of the spirit of god working in your life.
So what I wanna talk about in this message is walking by the Holy Spirit.
And I want you to turn, if you will, to Galatians chapter 5.
And I want us just look at a couple of verses here because, um, there’s so much that we could talk about.
But I wanna put it all in one message because I want you to get the full impact of how important the Holy Spirit is in your life as a believer.
And if you’ll notice in the 5th chapter of Galatians, here’s what he says.
In verse 16, But I say walk by the spirit,
and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Now what are the desires of the flesh?
We’re talking about those desires
that find their source within that
part of us that has a desire to live outside the will of god.
In other words, when Paul speaks of the flesh, he’s not talking about flesh and blood, he’s talking about part of something within us.
That is when a person is saved, the spirit of god comes into your life to dwell.
And so we’re transformed. We have brand new creatures in Christ.
But that does not remove that propensity, that tendency at times that desires to do something outside the will of god to sin against god.
And so when a person is living in the flesh, they are expressing that inner desire to do something go somewhere, have some attitude that is not godly.
We all have to deal with it every single day of our life.
And so when he says here, I said to you walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.
Then if you look in the 25th verse of the same chapter, uh, Paul says again, if we live by the spirit that is controlled by him, dominated by him, the Holy Spirit, Let us also walk by the spirit.
That is if he is really in control of our life, let us walk by the holy spirit.
Now where we have to start is we have to start in, first of all, answering the question, well, who is he?
And somebody says,
well, I don’t know who is.
I know who Jesus is. I know who god is. I don’t know who the Holy Spirit is.
Oh, I’ve heard that he’s a person of
the Trinity. Well, let’s start where the Bible start.
That is in the first book of the Bible, in the first chapter of the Bible, in the second verse of the Bible, you find the Holy Spirit hovering over this earth.
That is not totally complete. And then you find in the 26 verse, god says, let us make man in our image.
Well, who in the world is us? Well, there’s the Holy Spirit in that second verse.
Us is also the lord Jesus Christ because if you notice in if you notice in colossians, for example, when Paul is talking about Jesus and, uh, who he is and Our response toward him.
He says for by him where all things created both in
the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him, which simply says this.
That this whole creation is involved with god, the father, god, the son, god, the holy spirit, all three persons of the trinity.
So also you’ll find throughout the scripture that the Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit.
And in Zechariah, for example, that 4th chapter, The scripture says, not by might,
no by power, but by my spirit says the lord.
That is that’s the way we’re to live. And that’s the way we’re to serve him independence upon him.
Now when you think about the Holy Spirit, somebody says, well, is
he some force. Is that some biblical force? No. He’s a person.
And I wanna show you in a few moments.
If you turn to look, if you will, in John chapter 14, And you’ll find that the qualities of a person, for example, that can think, that can reason, that has emotion, that can will, that can make choices, and so forth, Look if you will, in this, uh, 14th chapter and the 16th verse, when somebody says, well, I don’t believe in the trinity.
Well, how do
you answer this question? John 14 16, I, Jesus speaking, will ask the father, and he will give you another helper and that he may be with you forever.
That is the spirit of truth. There’s all the turnage at right then. There’s 2 verses.
In the 26th verse, look at that.
But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance, all that I’ve said to you.
So both of these verses give you the father son, the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the trinity.
Somebody says, well, do y’all believe in 3 gods? No. There are three persons of eternity.
There is one godhead, one god, 3 persons. The father does his work. The son does his work.
The spirit does his work. And the work of the Holy Spirit is a vital part in every single believer’s life.
And it’s tragic that people can go to church and listen to sermons year after year after year.
And never understand the work of the spirit and wonder why they feel in their Christian life, why things don’t work out, why god doesn’t answer their prayer, why they feel so weak, why they’re so tempted, why they yield, and on and on and on it goes.
And there is a very specific reason for that.
Because when you look to see the work of the Holy Spirit and who he is and that he’s a person of eternity and that god has called him, and send him into your life and my life for some very, very specific purposes.
So we’re talking about someone whom the father has sent into your life and my life because we could not be nor could we become nor could we ever accomplish what he has in mind apart from the Holy Spirit.
Now if I were to ask you, what is the Holy Spirit, uh, who he is that is?
What is he what does he mean to you?
And for many people, they’d have to say, well, uh, I I know it’s in the Bible because I read the holy spirit.
Well, is he a person? Yes. He is.
The Holy Spirit is as much a person as Jesus because the scripture, if you’ll notice, calls him he, and the Holy Spirit whom And when you look at the work he does and what he does in your life and my life, he has to be a person.
So the Holy Spirit is a vital part of every single believer’s life.
So I want us to look for just a moment.
I’m gonna take you through some of these verses just to sort of get you oriented here.
I wanna start with this 14th chapter of John, and we just mentioned a couple of them here.
And I want you to see what the Holy Spirit does in our life.
And the helper here in the Greek is paragletas, which means one who walks beside us, one who is and he calls him here our helper, It is the same word translated comfort us.
So both of which mean that we have someone with us who helps us, who comforts us, along with some other things here.
You’ll notice in verse 26, he says, but the help of the holy spirit, whom, not it, which, but whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things.
That is the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of
the believer is that he teaches as
the truth. Unless the spirit of god interprets the truth for us, it won’t be correct.
They’re all kind of theologists and kind of ideas and
all kind of religions out there, believe all kind of stuff because it’s man made religion, man made theology, apart from the work of
the spirit of god when there are no contradictions in this book. Now listen.
He says not only will
he teach us all these things, But secondly, he will bring to your remembrance all that I teach you
and all that I meant for you to understand. That is he is also our reminder,
for example, Let’s say somebody says, well, I’d like to witness to somebody.
Am I I’m afraid I’ll forget the verses.
Remember this, you have the Holy Spirit to remind you One of his responsibilities is to remind us of the things we need to remember.
And primarily, of course, that is the word of god.
Then if you will look in the 15th chapter and look in the 26th verse of this 15th chapter of John, he says again, When the helper, that is the Holy Spirit comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the spirit of truth.
He’s often in the scripture called the Spirit of truth. Who proceeds from the father, he will testify about me.
That is the work of the Holy Spirit is to is to testify about
who Jesus is. What he does in his place in our life.
Watch this. The Holy Spirit never talks about himself. It’s always about Jesus. That is part of his responsibility.
Then if when you look at the 16th chapter and the 8th verse, here’s another work of the Holy Spirit.
You think, for example, that you got saved because you chose to be saved. Well, that’s true to some degree.
But, uh, first of all, What got you realizing that you needed to be saved? You got under conviction.
Verse 8 of 16th chapter. When he, the Holy Spirit, when he comes, he will convict the world.
Listen concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment, and concerning sin because they do not believe in me.
Concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you no longer see me and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.
I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
And so, but when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.
He convicts us of our sins. He is our teacher, and he guides us into all truth.
And verse 14 says he will glorify me.
That is the spirit of god is continually pointing us to Jesus and helping us to see who he is, how he fits into our life, and why we so desperately need him.
And so when you look at all these verses and then you come to Romans chapter 8.
So look at chapter 8 for a moment, and I want you to notice, a few verses here that are also so very important because, um, enrollment chapter 8, Paul describes in a few verses here a great deal.
He says, for example, beginning in, uh, verse 11.
But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells where in you.
Every single believer has the Holy Spirit indwelling in. So watch this. Every single believer has a person
of the turn to indwelling in our spirit,
we listen, we talk about being filled with the spirit.
A person is filled with
the holy spirit when they are living in obedience to him and following him and walking in his ways.
And so he says the spirit indwells us.
Look, if you will, in the 14th verse, for all who are being led by the spirit of god, These are the sons of god.
He not only guides us, but he the scripture says he leads us and indwells us.
And in verse 15, for you’ve not received a spirit of slave relating to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, uh, by Father.
That is He is the one who gives us assurance of our relationship to the father.
That is the Holy Spirit Testifies to every believer. You are you are one of god’s children.
You have been adopted into the kingdom. And so we come to buy that through the Holy Spirit.
And then he says in verse 16, The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we’re the children of god that is bears witness.
And and for example, somebody says
to you, Well, do you save? You say I’m sure I’m saved. Why why are you so sure?
Well, you could give him
a lot of reasons, but the real truth is the Holy Spirit bears witness gives you assurance.
Reminds you that you trusted Christ as your savior. Reminds you the promises of god.
Therefore, you can, with assurance, say Yes. I know that I’m saved.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit that does that.
Then, of course, for example, if you turn to the 12th chapter, uh, 1st Corinthians.
Uh, all the scriptures here about the gifts, the gift of prophecy, the gift of, uh, exhortation and giving and service and mercy, and administration and all the rest, where does all that come from?
Well, the scripture says in verse 4, uh, 1st Corinthians chapter 12.
Now these are the varieties of gifts but the same spirit.
It is the same spirit of god that gives these gifts.
And you’ll notice in verse 7, but to each one that is to each believer, is given a manifestation of the spirit for the common good.
And for verse 8, for the one who’s given the word of wisdom through the spirit, to know that the word of knowledge are caught in the same spirit.
And so it’s very evident what’s happening here.
Then if you will turn back to acts chapter 1 for a moment, And you’ll recall when talking about all the works of the Holy Spirit, you recall that, uh, Jesus had taken his disciples for 3 years.
Taught them all the things that he felt they needed to know. He performed miracles. He raised the dead.
He healed bodies of all kind of diseases. He taught them all kind of truth.
And then he said them at the end of 3 years after they had been so shocked by the crucifixion and in a state of total disarray by understanding what’s going on, Now the resurrection has come.
Remember what
he said to them. He said, now look, you sit down in the city of Jerusalem.
Sit down in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. That is
you you’re not ready, for example, And in the, uh, 24th chapter of, uh, Luke, he gives us that part of of the great commission.
And then he says, uh, of course, in Matthew, gives us a great commission, and then also in Mark, but in acts look what he says now in verse, 7.
He said to them, it is not for you to know the times of the seasons, which the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power.
When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all due dear and Samaria and that the other most parts of the earth.
So what was he saying? He’s saying simply this.
Even though you’ve seen all this, Even though you’ve heard all this, even though you’ve witnessed all the things that I’ve done, you are still not ready to do
the work that I’ve called you
to do. Until the spirit of god indwells you.
Now in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon, uh, god’s servants and and and depart and come, At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended to this earth to indwell all believers so
that from that point on, every single person who is a child of god is entwel
by a person of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit.
And so when somebody says to me, well, I’m just a nobody, I get all excited when they tell me that because I can’t wait to tell
them who they are. So, look, you trusted Jesus Christ. You just say, yeah. Then you’re a child of god.
You’re indwelt by the Holy Spirit, a person in the Trend.
I just go right down the line and by the time I finish, they change their whole attitude.
Listen, you can’t be a nobody and be saved by Jesus. You can’t be a nobody and be dropped by
the Holy Spirit. You can’t be
a nobody with hap having one in you to teach you, remind you, strengthen.
Go right down the list of all the things that we’ve talked about.
And the reason I read that list is because I want you to see There it is in black and white in the word of god.
This is who he is, and this
is what he’s doing in the life of his followers.
And so he intends for us to walk. By his spirit.
Now there are a lot of people, for example, uh, who say, well, now, uh, I think I I try to do the best I can. I think about Sunday school teachers, uh, who take their Sunday school lesson book or maybe the Bible and, uh, they read the lesson, and they get
to get it down pretty good. And they go to Sun School class, they teach the lesson.
Who’s the teacher? The Holy Spirit.
Who’s the equiper, the holy spirit? Who gives interpretation of the word of god the holy spirit? Listen.
It is the power of the holy spirit within you.
That’s why he told them, you’re not ready until the spirit
of god has come upon you.
And then it is the authority of the spirit, the power of the spirit, the unction of the spirit that teaches through a Sunday school teacher, through a pastor, through an evangelist, sings through a musician, you name it.
God intends for all of us to do our work in his power, in his energy, in his strength, and by his authority.
What is done apart from the Holy Spirit is flesh. Its man’s own human effort.
We can never carry out spiritual work.
God’s work in the flesh in our own energy apart from the Holy Spirit.
That is one of the primary reasons he sent the Holy Spirit.
You may be a pastor, you think will now study and I pray.
And And god gives me a message, and I’ll just get up and kill it.
And you ignore the Holy Spirit? You’re not relying upon him for wisdom. You’re not relying upon him for courage.
You’re not relying upon him for inspiration. You’re not relying upon him for motivation.
You’re not relying upon him for interpretation. You’re not relying upon him for power.
Not relying upon him for authority, you cannot do what god has called you to do the way he intends for you to do it apart from
the Holy Spirit. That’s who he is. That’s why he came. There’s no substitute for
the Holy Spirit. You can’t put enough PhDs, PhDs, RFDs, any other kind of deeds.
Behind anybody’s name and make them adequate to do
the work god’s called them to do.
You cannot do it. And so I remember one of the most significant times in my life.
I’d only been in seminary, uh, a year, and I was in, you know, my 2nd year, and
I had a place over the corner prayed and and the living room and, uh, in our very small apartment.
And so I was praying one night, and the lord just spoke to my heart crystal clear.
I’ll never forget it. Whatever you accomplish in life, you will have to accomplish on your needs in prayer, not by education, but not by talent, not by gifts, by all by calling
out to me, crying out
to me, it has to be on your knees. And god knew that that meant for me total dependence upon
the Holy Spirit. Because you see, when you and I pray and write, he’s involved. Because one of listen, one
of his responsibilities is enrollment, chapter 826, when he says the Holy Spirit prays for us and through us, indices for
us because we don’t even know how
to pray sometime. Haven’t you been on your knees and crying out to god for somebody?
You didn’t know what to ask. You just knew they were in trouble. You didn’t know what to say.
You just said, god, help them. Lord, I’m just trusting your work and their life.
The spirit of god takes your prayer and interprets it, listen, personally, perfectly before the father because he knows our heart personal maternity knows all things about all time situations and circumstances.
And so when I look at what he does and the awesome power available to us, I think have foolish for us to try to do anything apart from the spirit of god.
Now that’s who he is. That’s what he does. And the
issue now is What does it mean to walk by the spirit?
How how do we walk by the spirit? Well,
I wanna put a definition up on the screen here. And I want you to
write it down because every single one of us needs to understand this.
Listen, to walk in the spirit or by the spirit, the way you wanna call it, is to live moment by moment.
Now not today and maybe tomorrow, moment by moment, what, Independency upon him, sensitive to his voice in our life and in obedience to him.
Those three words, dependency, sensitive to him, and obedience.
So if I’m walking in the spirit, You’ll notice that I’m not doing that on Monday and then on Thursday next and and
maybe next on Sunday. But how often?
Come on, tell me how often, moment by moment,
that is every day of her life as a believer,
I am to walk aware of the spirit of god in our life.
You say, well, now how can we do that? How how’s that possible? Well, I wanna talk about that. But,
What it’s really saying is I’m to live a god in life.
You can go to church every Sunday. You can pray a
little bit every once in a while. You can give it a little money.
You can read the Bible once in a while. That’s not
the Christian life. The Christian life is living submissive to the Holy Spirit who entwells you for the purpose the primary purpose of Jesus Christ living his life in and through us.
That’s why he came. He came to do in send through us and for us, which you and I could never do ourselves.
And so to walk, listen, to walk by the spirit is to walk moment by moment, Look, depending upon him, sensitive to his voice in our life.
And as a result of that, what’s gonna happen, we’re gonna live a godly life.
We we’re gonna live
a life of obedience. So I hope you wrote that down. That’s what walking by
the spirit. That’s that’s the Christian life.
Because would you not agree that if a person goes to church and listens to sermons, even takes notes, goes to work the next day and just curses somebody out.
Well, you left because you probably don’t know a
few folks like that. That’s not that’s not Christian living.
Now I didn’t say they weren’t saved, but it’s not Christian living.
Because the Christian life is in life in whom the Holy Spirit is dwelling and through whom the Holy Spirit is expressing the life of Jesus.
So that comes to the whole question here of being filled with
the spirit. What does it mean
to be filled with the spirit? To be filled with
the spirit means that I’m totally submitted to him, that he has his way in my life.
Moment by moment, it’s his way, not my way. Now here is a big point.
I want you to get this. How do we walk by the spirit?
That is we know he’s indwelling us.
We know that he is doing all these things in teaching and guiding and leading and and empowering and convicting and enabling and all these things.
Well, so what’s my responsibility?
It comes down to this.
And that is if I’m gonna live moment by moment in the power of
the Holy Spirit, I must listen.
I must be sensitive. Listen. To the initial promptings of the spirit.
Now what do I mean by that? Simply this.
Now let’s take, for example, let’s say you’re a Christian and, uh, all of a sudden, you see something that gets your eye or gets your attention, and you know as soon as you see that, uh, you look that way, whatever it might be, something inside us says, don’t go that way.
Don’t head in
that direction. Who is that? That’s the Holy Spirit.
Or have you ever been driving and you going some some particular direction.
And all of a sudden, you get this strong feeling. Take a right right here. Oh, where did
that come from? Well, there’s nobody in
the car but you. That’s the spirit
of god warning of what’s about to happen, which was a wreck. And you ought to want you to
turn right. Listen, the spirit of god within you speaks to your spirit that is with strong implications and strong inclinations The spirit of god arouses us to think and to think his way.
The spirit of god is an active person in our spirit, giving guidance and direction how we to live because he
said, why did he come to guide us, to lead us, and to empower us and to reveal to us and to impart truth and the truth of god’s word to us.
And so when I think about this whole idea, of of him prompting us in the way he prompts us.
He does so by strong inclinations.
Now somebody says, well, suppose I don’t suppose he prompts me and I just keep going.
Well, what would you call that? Let me
ask you this. If you’re a
twelve year old boy, you said to
your twelve year old son, take
the trash out now. He says, I’ll take it out, but I but I got something else to do right now.
I’ll take it out later. What would you call that? That’s just pure disobedience.
In other words, that’s disobedience. And here’s the way many people live, and you don’t realize this.
If the spirit of god prompts you to do something.
Obedience is that you do it when he says do it.
Rebellion is when you do it when you wanna do it, or you don’t do it at all.
And any way you cut it is disobedience.
In other words, if the spirit
of god prompts you to do something and you don’t do it, give me any other word that best describes what you did than disobedience.
A rebellion. It’s not doing what god says do. That’s what it is.
And it’s rebellion against god. So when he prompts us to do something, how does he do that?
He speaks to our conscience and to the the spirit within us. Now watch this.
The spirit of god’s never gonna tell you not to do the right thing.
It it’s always the right thing at the right time and the right way.
Listen, the Holy Spirit is not the no obligation to explain to me why.
Well, why should I turn right here?
Uh, why why shouldn’t I turn because there’s some things you and I can’t see. We can’t foresee.
He’s protecting us in it. Listen. It is foolish not to live moment by moment.
By the Holy Spirit because he’s there for our benefit. Listen, by the way, god doesn’t need any of us.
He doesn’t. He can get his work done without any
of us, but he loves us enough to seal us as a child of god in one of his works.
Is to seal us under the day of redemption. He says that in 1st in ephesians chapter 1 verse 13.
He the spirit of god seals us. Now watch this.
That means when you trusted him as your savior, the Holy Spirit came into your life to dwell, and not only does he come to dwell, but he seals you as a child of god.
That is you are forever a child of god.
And as I say to my friends who do not believe that, and I’m sorry they don’t believe it.
Here’s what he says. In him, you also having listened to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed You were sealed in him that is in Christ with the Holy Spirit of Promise.
Now what’s the promise? Here’s the promise. Who has given us a pledge.
Now listen, if I if I promise you something and I pledge that to you, you expect me to fulfill it.
But when god gives you a pledge and he seals you, he gives you a promise.
He has awesome power to do anything and everything. He’ll keep his So here’s what he says.
He seals us in Christ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance. That is The
Holy Spirit comes into your life and my life.
In his presence in your life, watch this, is god’s seal in your life, saying to you, I promise you forever and ever and ever, you are one of my children.
You may sin and I’ll have to chastise you for it. Forever, you are one of my children.
Now, if the spirit of god is the one who seals us, and seals us with then, who’s gonna break the seal?
Now, for people who
do not believe that they are saved forever, they saved today and missed tomorrow, Let me just say something.
If you understood the work of
the Holy Spirit, you would not believe that. I’ll tell you why. You claim to be
a Christian. I don’t question that. And, uh, you read your Bible and pray,
and you may sing and cry, play in orchestras or, uh, teach sunders to listen
to all those things. And, um, you just lose your temper.
I mean, you just have it out with somebody. Just let them have it.
They did you wrong. According to what you believe, you suddenly broke the seal.
You’ve lost your promise. And you are lost and on your way to separation to god.
Oh, well, now what I said wouldn’t really allow that bad. Mhmm. Wait a minute now.
Sin is sin and disobedience is disobedience.
The promise, the pledge of holy god is that once he seals you as one of his children, you are forever a child of god.
You say, well, I’m not nobody’s perfect. Nobody’s talking about perfection. We’re talking about being obedient to god.
And what I want you to say is this. God seal is god seal. It is my seal.
You can’t you can’t break somebody else’s seal.
You are sealed forever, and the spirit of god has equipped you. To live a godly life.
And we do that by moment by moment doing what, getting our focus right on him.
Now I wanted to say that all that because it’s so very important for people who genuinely wanna do what’s right, they think this safe today and lost tomorrow.
You know what?
When I was growing up in that kind of a church, I was afraid every day that, uh, I probably did something that was wrong and maybe I forgot about it and I die and go to hell.
That’s what they And the day I learned the truth of what god said in his word, I wanted to shout right in the middle of a class in a Greek class because I understood for the first time that I was forever a child of god.
God judges sin. He chastises the sinner.
He punishes the unbeliever, but for the child of god, the seal is there forever.
And it’s the work of the spirit because it’s his promise now.
With that in mind, we think about there is gonna be conflict. We got 3 enemies.
Everyone, you wake up with 3 enemies.
The world, the flesh, and the devil, the world system in which we live.
Look at it. What a mess it’s in.
The devil, for example, and the flesh that tendency within you that wants to do wrong at times in your life, it’s there.
It’s gonna be there until you die. And so we have 3 enemies. So so how how do
we handle these 3 enemies? Well, Paul talks about resisting the devil, for example, He talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit.
And so here’s what happens. When that tendency comes to think in the wrong direction, Watch this now.
Somebody says,
I can’t help myself. Let me tell
you something. The devil can’t make a single child of god do anything. He cannot make you.
He will lead you. He will guide you and tice you tempt you, but he can’t make you.
So To walk in the spirit means moment by moment, what? Moment by moment, we are doing what?
We’re listening to the Holy Spirit. He’s our guide.
But somebody says, you mean to tell me that I can live without sinning?
How long can I live without sinning? Can you
live 5 minutes without sending, amen? 4 people can.
Now let’s just think about what’s the truth?
For about 4 of you said you could live 5 you know what?
If I ask you, if you could live 10 minutes without sending, there wouldn’t be 10 people stand up.
Do you mean to tell me you sent every 5 minutes? That’s what you said.
You you said, uh, 5 minutes. What about one minute?
You can live a lot longer than that without sinning.
You know why? Because you have god living within you, guiding you, leading you.
And if you will listen. If you will yield to the promptings of the Holy Spirit of God, He’s always gonna lead you to do the right thing.
I’m not saying you always will. But I’m simply saying we have the spirit of god.
That’s that’s what walking by the spirit is about.
It’s setting our mind in a direction because we’re at war, and we’re always gonna be being attacked by your friends, by what you see, what you read, what you hear, all the things that are going on, the devil’s there,
to mislead us and to misdirect us and to cause us to rebel against god.
But because we have the Holy Spirit living within us, and we do, well,
I do understand that we have a conflict. Now the issue is this. What do I
do about the Holy Spirit? So turn back, if you will, to, uh, Romans chapter 8.
And I want us to look in some earlier verses in Romans chapter 8.
And I want you to notice, uh, what he says in this passage.
Let’s begin in Verse 5. Now watch this very important.
For those who are living according to the flesh, that is
they’re living by those desires that they have within them that are not of god.
And those desires can be one of the many things.
So for those who are living according to the flesh, Watch this set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who are living according to the spirit, they set their mind on things of the spirit.
Now watch this. Every single one of us sets our mind. Now listen carefully to what I’m saying.
We all have a mindset. That’s some people get up every morning with the mindset.
I’m I’m gonna do my best today.
Somebody else sets up on the mindset I’m gonna do as little as I can today.
Somebody says, I’m gonna I’m gonna reach the top if I have to step on them and mash them.
In other words, everybody has
a mindset of some sort. He says now those who are living according to the flesh, that is that internal feeling I wanna act outside the will of god, they’re gonna live with the flesh.
Those who, by the spirit, gonna live with the spirit. Now watch this verse 6.
For the mind set on the flesh is death. Death to the things of god.
The mind set on the spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on watch this carefully.
Because the mindset on the flesh is hostile toward god.
Do you get that? Hostled toward god.
When you and I set our minds on doing things that we know are not right. Here’s what he says.
He says, your attitude at that moment is hostility toward God. Oh, no. Wait a minute. I love god. No.
He says, if you choose deliberately to sin against god, you’re acting hostile toward god.
Because the will of god for your life is life of righteousness
and obedience. So he says, then he says, for the spirit set on the flesh, his death but this mindset on the spirit is life in peace because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward god for it does not subject itself to the
law of god, for it is not even able to do so.
And those who are living in the flesh cannot please god.
So that being the case, it makes me want to know, okay. If that’s
the case, how do I live according to the spirit? And so We have a battle.
Now watch this carefully. Every single one
of us has 2 battles every time we come to some temptation.
First of all, there’s a battle in the mind. Secondly, there’s the
battle in our behavior. If you don’t win the battle in
the mind, you’re gonna lose the battle in your behavior because what the mind thinks governs, everything, governs what you see, what you hear, how you speak, walk, handled, you name it.
The 1st battle in temptation is the battle in the mind. So I have
to have a mindset. I choose to obey god. I choose not to walk that way.
I choose not to look at that. I choose Not to
give to that. I choose I choose not to withhold that. That is we have
a mindset. And so there’s a battle that’s going on.
And we win that battle as a result of doing what, yielding to and responding to the initial prompting of the spirit.
Now if the spirit of god says, don’t go that direction and you just keep traveling, don’t go that direction.
Don’t go that direction.
Don’t go that direction. You you still travel.
What you’re doing is you’re listen to this word, you’re acting hostile toward god who loves you and who has the best plan available for you and you’re heading in the wrong direction.
Because you have chosen to do so. It’s disobedience. It’s rebellion.
It’s hostility toward a loving god who came to
this earth and laid down his life in order that you might be saved.
It’s hostility toward god. You can name it. You can camouflage it.
You can paint it. You can use any kind of vocabulary you want to. It’s hostility.
That’s what god says. I didn’t say it. So you have to decide.
Am I
gonna walk by the spirit of the flesh?
If I want god’s best, I’m gonna have
a mindset. And first, Peter, listen to what he says.
He says in this first chapter in 13th verse, therefore, prepare your minds for action keep sober in spirit. Listen.
Prepare your minds for action. And in colossians, uh, the 3rd chapter, Listen to what he says.
It’s the same it’s the same sort of thing. Here’s what
he says. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things which are above.
Have a mind set on things that are good, righteous, and holy.
He says, uh, where Christ is seated at the father’s right hand, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
We have a mindset. For example, you say, well, how do I do that?
Well, tomorrow, let’s just take tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning, before you get out of
bed, you wake up. You set your mind on the things of god. Today, father.
He’s the first one you ought to talk to, anyway.
Father, I want you to guide me today and lead me.
I wanna listen to you, speak to my heart, make me sensitive to what’s going on around me and the people I meet and so forth.
That is that you’ll develop your own little message of setting your mind. So what happens?
You’re starting the day out with a mindset.
You’ve set the direction for your life, and it’s the Holy Spirit who is going to awaken you to remind you of that because you know what?
You’re gonna think about that tomorrow morning. You said, how do you know I am?
Because I’m gonna pray you, get so upset. If you don’t, you will.
To to have a mindset, because, listen, there are people who wake up with a mindset of adultery.
They have people who wake up with a mindset of stealing.
They wake up with a mindset of lying of what they what they intend to do that day.
There are people who wake up with all kind of mindsets.
Set your mind, he says, on the things above where Jesus is sitting at the father’s right hand.
Because we can set our mind, and the Holy Spirit will enable us
to do it. It’s his will that we do it.
And that’s why the word of god is so very, very precious to us. Why?
Because this is the way we think.
You don’t listen. You don’t read and meditate on the word of god. Know what you’re gonna do?
Listen, you sit at home, watch TV, program after program after program after all the kind of propaganda and all the things that are absolutely nothing to do with things that a spiritual And then you go to bed and you think, well, I’m gonna wake up and talk about Jesus.
I doubt it. You know why? Because you just programmed your mind. You know what? You did?
You fed that part of you that’s ungodly.
You fed that part of you with all the stuff that goes on.
Why would anybody wanna watch stuff that instigates, stirs them up and arouses things within them that are totally ungodly because there’s something in them they want to feed.
And what he’s saying is, starve it to death.
Set your mind on the things of god, on the things that are on high.
The things that the the things that match who you are. You’re a follower of Jesus.
Our life is a representative of the lord Jesus Christ. Listen, we owe him our life. He died for us.
He gave us the gift of salvation and eternal life. We owe him everything.
How can we involve ourselves and allow ourselves to head in directions that we know is not right?
The spirit of god prompts us do not go that, do not do that, do not think that don’t let let look at that.
We do it anyway. Remember this, any way you cut it, it is rebellion, it is disobedience, and it’s hostility to a god.
You wanna live a godly life.
Have a mindset that is godly. So that when somebody crosses you, your mindset is, I’ll
get you back. Your mind says, thank
you very much, Lars. Forgive them for that. I’m just gonna overlook that. I won’t pay attention
to that. In other words, godly people don’t live like the ungodly.
And when listen. When we are walking in the spirit, there is an absolute definite difference in our life.
Your friends may
not understand it. They think, well, you just think you’re something. No. We don’t think we’re anything.
We know that we’re children of god.
That’s who we are. And we know that we are inadequate within ourselves to do anything that hasn’t real value.
We trust the Holy Spirit. We depend upon him. We rely upon him. We’re sensitive to him. We acknowledge him.
We obey him. Why? Because we’ve learned that’s the best way
to live It’s the only way to live with real peace and happiness and joy and contentment in your life,
and it’s the way god intends for us to live because he came
to live through us that kind of life.
That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. That’s who he is. And I
would simply say this to you. Why why did David say he love to meditate upon god’s word.
Because you see, he had a mindset, and we see
in his life when he when he turned away from that mindset, what kind of trouble
he got into? You and I have the Holy Spirit.
We have the Holy Spirit in a way that he didn’t even understand. Could not have understood at
that time. You are indwelt by a person of the trinity, almighty god, the Holy Spirit, who is here to enable us, equip us, manage us, guide us, lead us to do anything and everything that it is his will for us to do and to accomplish in life.
You say, well, I’m just
a homemaker. There’s no such thing as just a homemaker.
You happen to have one of the biggest jobs I know of.
If anybody needs the Holy Spirit in their life, it is a mother.
Look what you have to do.
You have to take care of the children, plus you have to take care of your husband sometime put up with him.
But in other
words, you you have an
you have an awesome job. Educating at children and keeping home. All the 100100 of tasks that
you have, the Holy Spirit is just as listen. He’s just as available ready and desirous to help you
to be a godly mother as he
is to help in the pastor, preach a godly servant.
That’s who he is. So here’s the choice you have.
You can set your mind on the things of god and trust this indwelling person of
the Holy Spirit. Who has promised to guide you, lead you, enable you, equip you, give you a thought, and all
the other things we’ve mentioned. Here you
have the Holy Spirit living within you, ready to live through you.
The very life of Jesus Christ, which means that your attitude and your actions I go on the be godly.
It’s a choice we make.
He said, what do I have to do to get all that done?
Just surrender? Just yield? Just tell him, okay. God, I give up my way I want your way.
What does he do?
He takes over. Now is it not true that’s what you want your children to do?
You want them to trust you. And obey you. Why? Because you know what’s best for them.
And you and you give your life for them. He’s already given his life for us.
To walk in the spirit is to do what?
Is to depend upon him totally.
To rely upon him, to be sensitive to what he’s saying to us.
And to obey him. That is life at its very, very,
very best, and it’s available to every single person. Who wants god’s best.
Father, how grateful we are
for your awesome love for us.
And to think that you’ve done so
much in preparation, for our daily life that we can wake up with you, live with you, and go to bed with you every night with perfect assurance, that we have your favor.
Knowing that
you forgive us when we’re weak and knowing that our heart’s desire is moment by moment,
to walk by your spirit. That is my prayer, father, for every person who hears this message.
Let there be some radical changing going on in people’s attitudes.
Radical changing about sin that they’ve put up with and thought to god that you paid no attention.
Do it. And radical right doing because they want your best.
I pray the holy spirit,
seal this message, executed in every life, aroused the conviction so that all that you desire for us, we’ll have the wonderful privilege of enjoying in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
And we give an invitation for people to express their decision.
1 of which, for example, is to trust Jesus Christ as our personal savior.
And you do that by asking him to forgive you of
his sin. Not not not that well, lord forgive him my sins, but you come to the realization you’ve sinned against god.
You’re part of what put in at the cross, he died on the cross, shed his blood.
Listen, page your sin debt in full for your eternal life. Makes it possible for you to
be a child of god. And the moment you do that, then everything else we’ve talked about can be a reality in your life.
Until you give yourself to
him in salvation by faith. None of this other works, but it’s yours as a choice.