Live By The Spirit (2)

Gal 5:16-26

Live by the Spirit… & you won’t gratify the sinful nature. (Gal 5:16-24)

Live by the Spirit… the key to Christian life of power & fruit of the Spirit.

Live by the Spirit is only command in this text… all that follows are statements of fact.

Verb tense implies continuous action, habitual life style, & progress.

Why don’t we see more Christians with power & love of Spirit in their lives?

Without the presence of the Spirit within, it is impossible to live by the Spirit. (1Cor 2:14)

Often, only half the Gospel is preached… repentance, & forgiveness of sins… many aren’t taught to ask for gift of H Spirit (Acts 2:38), & yield to life by Spirit. As a result, they never grasped, or understood, or believed that God was in them… & never lived life by the power of Spirit. Those Christians live their lives by means of their self-effort & external rules of home & church… doing good, trying hard, etc., but all their self-effort leads to failure & frustration. 

If you are a Christian, you have the H Spirit in you. (Acts 2:38; Rm 8:9) Indwelling Spirit of God is the distinction that separates Christianity from all other religions. 

Live by the Spirit… God is in you, now live by means of indwelling Spirit.

Only way to freedom from sin nature is thru the empowering of the Spirit. (Acts 1:8; Rm 8:9; Eph 4:22-24; Col 3:1-17)

Works of the flesh versus Fruit of the Spirit. (Gal 5:17-23)

Flesh is unredeemed human nature… our fallen mind, will, & emotions. Flesh (sinful nature) has been crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20; Rm 6:6), & life you live is by the Spirit.

The H Spirit & your flesh (sin nature) are at war within you. (v. 17-18)

Believer still has old nature & won’t get rid of it in this temporal life. (1Jn 1:8)

Our flesh was crucified that we should no longer be slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness. (Rm 6:6,11,16-17,22)

Our flesh wars against the H Spirit… lust of eyes & flesh, & pride of life. (1Jn 2:15-16)

“Things like”… list of works of flesh is representative, not complete. (v.19-21)

Flesh tempts you to sin & seeks to get you to function in your natural abilities & effort.

Paul struggled with his flesh. (Rm 7:15,19,22-23) Did he not try hard enough?

If you have indwelling H Spirit, it will war against sexual immorality, witchcraft, & less obvious selfish ambitions, hatred, jealously, etc.

Spirit wages war by causing lack of peace, joy, love, etc… to tell you that you are walking in the flesh… not walking by the Spirit.

When you walk by means of the Spirit… God is your life. He is everything.

If God is your life… all external temporal things can be taken away & you can still experience peace that passes understanding. (There may be sorrow, heartache, hurt, but not desperate reaction when “life” is threatened.)

If life for you is what you have, & if something threatens what you have, you’ll fear loss of “life” & react in jealously, anger, envy, strife, etc.

What is life for you?”

You can’t live in sin & be a Christian… may fall into sin, but you’ll get out. (Rm 6:1-2)

Prodigal son may get into a pig pen, but he won’t settle down there. (Lk 15:11-32)

The Fruit of the Spirit is love (v.22)… all the other fruits stem from love (agape).

Saved by grace thru faith & walking in the Spirit produces fruit of the Spirit… love.

The world will know you are Christian by your love. (Jn 13:35)

If we live by the Spirit… let us also learn to walk by the Spirit. (Gal 5:25-26)

We must realize that everything we are working to achieve… God has already done.

We often fail because we don’t believe God has finished the work. (Rm 8:3-4)

You’re the temple of God (2Cor 6:16), God lives in you… live by means of that new life.

What produces holiness? Do good works result in peace, patience, joy, etc.?

Live by the Spirit… it is the only means by which we can walk in holiness. 

What must we do to learn to walk by the Spirit?

Just as we learn to physically walk by trial & error, so we must learn to walk by the Spirit by doing it… by trial & error.

Start each day by determining to trust the Spirit to produce fruit in your life.

Yield yourself to Spirit’s control, & every day pray, “I can’t live today in a way that pleases You. I yield myself to you to live Christ’s life in & thru me today.”

Don’t become conceited (v.26), remember, apart from Jesus you can do nothing (Jn 15:4), & that your old nature cannot produce Fruit of the Spirit. (Rm 7:18)

Are you living by means of the Spirit? Best way to know if you are is to look inside. Is the characteristic of your life, even in very difficult circumstances, God’s abiding peace & joy? 

If predominately anxious, fearful, angry, or jealous, you are not living by the Spirit.

Learning to walk in the Spirit involves desire to hear, readiness to obey God’s Word, & sensitivity (learned by doing) to discern between your feelings & God’s prompting.

Set your mind on what the Spirit desires. (Rm 8:5-9) What is your mind set?

Only by means of H Spirit is it possible for you to live the will of God, to please Him, & to learn to walk on the narrow path to eternal life. 

Each day, ask Heavenly Father to fill you with the H Spirit. (Eph 5:18; Lk 11:13)

Your daily seeking & yielding to H Spirit is indispensable for fruitful life of faith.

                                                                                                                                              06-20-10