Page 87 - Discipleship Ministries Student E-Book

Sin is what hinders the filling of the Holy Spirit, and obedience to God and yielding control of your life to
Him is how the filling of the Spirit is maintained. Ephesians 5:18 commands that we be filled with the
Spirit; however, it is not praying for the filling of the Holy Spirit that accomplishes the filling. Only our
obedience to God's commands allows the Spirit freedom to work within us. Because we are still infected
with sin, it is impossible to be filled with the Spirit all of the time. When we sin, we should immediately
confess it to God and renew our commitment to being Spirit-filled and Spirit-led.

Walking in the Spirit daily

Believers have the indwelling Spirit of Christ, the Comforter who proceeds
from the Father (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit assists believers in prayer (Jude
1:20) and “intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God”
(Romans 8:27). He also leads the believer into righteousness (Galatians
5:16–18) and produces His fruit in those yielded to Him (Galatians 5:22–23).
Believers are to submit to the will of God and walk in the Spirit.

A “walk” in the Bible is often a metaphor for practical daily living. The Christian life is a journey, and we
are to walk it—we are to make consistent forward progress. The biblical norm for all believers is that
they walk in the Spirit: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25, KJV;
cf. Romans 8:14). In other words, the Spirit gave us life in the new birth (John 3:6), and we must
continue to live, day by day, in the Spirit.

Galatians 5:25 tells us as believers to “walk in the Spirit”. Let’s see if we can figure out what that means.

Galatians 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Paul is in full agreement with Jesus that it is by the work of the Holy Spirit that we have been given new
life. “Even when we were dead through trespasses God made us alive together with Christ . . . We are
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5, 10; Colossians 2:13). Just as God once said, “Let
there be light,” and there was light, so he “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Now Paul, in Galatians 5:25, draws an inference from how our new life in Christ began: if it began by the
Spirit, then all our subsequent life ought to be carried out by the Spirit (see Galatians 3:1–5). If it was by
the free and sovereign power of the Spirit that our new spiritual life came into being, then the way that
new life should be lived is by that same free and sovereign power.

Definition: “Walk by the Spirit” means do what you do each day by the Spirit; live your life in all its
details from waking up in the morning until going to sleep at night by the enabling power of the Spirit.

But what does that mean, practically speaking? How do we “walk by the Spirit”?

Let’s observe a few things in the immediate context of Galatians 5 and then bring in some other
Scriptures in order to get a fuller answer to this question. I’ll conclude by describing five things involved
in walking by the Spirit.

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