The Journey: Part 12 - What is it to walk by faith and in the Spirit?

Start here at the Introduction: The Journey Begins

The Journey: Part 12 - What is it to walk by faith and in the Spirit?

In the very first verses of the book of Romans, Paul mentions the following,

Rom.1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Through the next few chapters of Romans, we are provided great detail about our justification and spiritual sanctification. Essentially, Paul tells us what happens in the spiritual realm, the operations of God on our spirit, far out of reach from our workings and control. This salvation we receive is the "from faith" part. All we can do is trust that through the cross of Christ and through the operation of God, we are saved to the uttermost.

With our salvation settled through the gospel of the cross, the rest of our walk here on this earth, according to the verse above, is to be walked by that very same trust in God, the part of the verse that says, "to faith". From faith to faith. There is progression in this phrase. From faith for salvation, to that same faith exercised in our daily walk.

So, now, I want to ask the question that we ALL do, somewhere in our walk as believers. How does one walk by faith? REALLY! How does one walk by faith? As a new believer this is such a foreign concept to the mind? Up till this point one simply walked as one pleased. One satisfied one's will, one walked after the motions of the flesh. 

I’m going to park this question for a moment. How does one walk by faith? Let's just let it hang there till we deal with another statement of Paul that will help to provide a clue to the answer. Let’s read another verse from Corinthians,

1Cor.12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

MOST believers get hooked up by the beginning of this verse and probably one of the most contentious issues in Christendom today, being baptism, that they completely miss the last part. Let me explain. At salvation we are all baptised into one body by the Holy Spirit. It’s a spiritual baptism where the Holy Spirit places us into the Body of Christ. This is a once-off and instantaneous event at the moment of salvation. Thereafter, the verse ends by saying that we are all made to DRINK into one Spirit.

The statement of Paul that I want to draw your attention to is, "we are made to drink into one Spirit". What does this mean? What do we drink? What has this got to do with walking by faith?

Well, I’m glad you asked, as this is going to answer the first question that we briefly parked above. Let me explain with one additional verse of information,

Eph.5: 18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

What did Paul say here? "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess". When do you get drunk with wine? Simple. You drink a lot of it, —right. Paul continues by saying, "but be filled with the Spirit". How do you get filled with the spirit? You take in a lot of it. —How? Well, the rest of the verse tells us to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns, making melody in our hearts. He continues with instructions like giving thanks for all things unto God. In Colossians Paul provides similar advice saying, 

Col.3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

I’ll conclude with this observation and the answer to our questions above.

If you contrast, or compare the verses about walking by faith, about being filled with the Spirit, about speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns, about letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing others, and about being thankful, they all have one thing in common, and that is the written Word of God. There is only one way for us to be filled with the Spirit, and that is to have excess in the Word of God. To be filled with the Word. To hear it, read it, sing it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, pray it, do it. 

Friends, it is as simple as this! To walk by faith, to be filled with the Spirit, to walk by the Spirit, are all phrases that simply instruct you to fill your entire being with the written Word of God. The more Word you have inside you, the more Spirit you have inside you. Is not the written Word of God the very Spirit of God?

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The modern Christian today gets so carried away by the emotions and the hype of things. They go looking for the Spirit of God in the music. They wave their hands and get all carried away trying to find the Spirit of God by the church alter and through the dancing and the atmosphere. God is not in these things. God is not in emotions that you stir up. God is not found at the alter in front of the church platform. God is not in the music and the hype. No. God is found in His Word. Magnify the Word and you magnify God. God's Spirit is found in those psalms and hymns based on his Word. God's Spirit is found in your thanksgiving for the things He has done. God's Spirit is found in teaching and admonition by the Word. When your activities and your thoughts are focused on God’s written Word, then you are walking by faith and walking in the Spirit, then you are drinking of that one Spirit and being filled with all the fulness of God.

Amen.