WALKING IN THE SPIRIT #3 ROSS SMITH
Hebrews 3:14 For we have become fellows with Christ (the Messiah) and share in all He has for us,
I would like to leave it at that but the verse continues to go further. It says “IF ONLY”, and I don’t want to leave it there, because so often we use the expression “IF ONLY” to mean if only it were so.
Hebrews 3:14 For we have become fellows with Christ (the Messiah) and share in all He has for us, IF ONLY we hold our first newborn confidence and original assured expectation [in virtue of which we are believers] firm and unshaken to the end.
The credentials are firmly established in Hebrews 3v14. Do you remember what it was like when we first came to Christ? That glow and that glory of knowing Him as Lord and Master; that ambition to be like Jesus; that love that seemed to pervade every aspect and every fibre of our being. That’s our first assured expectation.
WHERE THERE IS NO EXPECTATION, THERE CAN BE NO FAITH, and where there is no faith, the pursuit or inquiry is meaningless. We need to have a goal. We need to have an ambition but we need to know securely what our goal is couched in.
Spiritless evangelism is as deadly as heresy. We must be careful that that which we do both to and for the Lord is done in the Spirit. If we don’t have that direction, that guidance and control of the Holy Spirit, we would be much like the children of Israel wandering the desert without the cloud in the daytime or the pillar of fire at night. We would wander aimlessly. But we must have that same direction, that same control.
Then, after we have been convinced that it is possible to live and walk in the Spirit, [Is anybody in any doubt this morning that it is possible?] I think we have that absolute assurance from the Word of God and by the Spirit that it is possible to walk and live in the Spirit, but then we have to have an ambition to do so.
It is not sufficient for us to give mental assent to the possibility of living and walking in the Spirit like those spiritual giants of the Word of God did so long ago. I don’t think that we need to be like those quasi-Christians, people who claim to have the abilities to live and walk in the Spirit, but so often you only have to listen to their conversation and it betrays the fact that they don’t live in that realm, they don’t live in that exalted position in God that is available to us because we share in all He has for us.
But we should aim to do and to have that which will confirm our claim – those things that will reinforce our position as sons of God and indeed the ultimate of it is to bring glory to God through our Christ likeness. It is not for our own exaltation that we live and walk in the Spirit, it is for the glory of God.
What stops us? When I look at the situation, I find that we have indeed adequate scriptural principle to base our premise on.
Secondly, I find that there is significant promised potential for those who will adhere to the directions of the Word of God.
But then thirdly and sadly, I find that we lack the actual personal demonstration. It is a situation that we cannot back away from, because when we refer to the Word of God, we are confronted on every page of the demand that we should walk and we should live in the Spirit. We have looked at, at length in days gone past, the thrust of Joel 2v28.
Joel 2:28 And afterward I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
That means you and me. The thing that limits God in pouring out His Spirit upon us is our ability to handle it. We are not yet prepared, sadly, to be the vessels and instruments that God an flow through in the manner He desires.
If we go back two verses to
Joel 2:26b And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you. And My people shall never be put to shame.
In Mark 16, we know very clearly the thrust of verses 17-20.
Mark 16:17 And these attesting signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages;
Mark 16:18 They will pick up serpents; and [even] if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will get well.
And it goes on to express a whole compendium of things that will attend those who are sincere and who will live and walk in the Spirit. They are not something that should be strange to us as God’s people. They should be an attendant phenomena of our every day walk. We who are believers, these signs shall follow.
Again however, we are not too much different to those who were in the era when Mark wrote his epistle. If you go back into the middle of the chapter [v11] you will find that Jesus has just risen from the dead, and He appeared to Mary and she returned and told them and it says “and they did not believe her”. Two men were walking down the road and Jesus appeared to them and they hurried back to town and told what had happened, and in Mark 16 the book tells us “and they did not believe them either”. [v13]
And then He appeared to the eleven
Mark 16:14 Afterward He appeared to the Eleven [apostles themselves] as they reclined at table; and He reproved and reproached them for their unbelief (their lack of faith) and their hardness of heart, because they had refused to believe those who had seen Him and looked at Him attentively after He had risen [from death].
He finishes the chapter by saying
Mark 16:17 And these attesting signs will accompany those who believe…
In other words, these signs shall follow the people of God who live and walk and dwell in the realm of the Spirit.
But before we can have the fullness, we must have the emptiness.
John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease. [He must grow more prominent; I must grow less so.]
One of the difficulties that we face today is that we are not prepared to decrease. It is contrary to human nature, for the natural is always concerned… in fact he is consumed much of the time regarding his own welfare, his own comfort, his own gain, his own approval and position. But those who would live and walk in the dimensions of the Spirit must adopt the same position and posture of the men of Bible times; that is we are going to exhibit the same characteristics and the same abilities.
Abraham is listed throughout the Scripture as a giant in God]
Genesis 18:27 Abraham answered, Behold now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord.
Now in this particular instance, it is where Abraham is interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah. He stood before God and he said,
God, will You destroy the city if there are fifty righteous people there?
The Lord listened to Abraham and said,
‘No, if I can find fifty righteous people, I will save that city”.
Abraham thought, Maybe I’ve overdone it a bit.
“Father, if there are forty-five righteous men there, will you preserve those towns?”
Father said “Abraham I’ll do it”.
Abraham goes on Father, what about forty people, thirty people, twenty people, ten people? And Father says, “If you can find ten righteous people in that city, I will preserve that place” and Abraham at that stage recognized how inferior he was in the light of the majesty of his God. Here, he prevails on behalf of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sadly, they couldn’t find ten righteous people there.
I wonder today if there is a man like Abraham in the this city who will stand in the gap for them. That places a great deal of responsibility on you and I this morning to learn to walk and to live in the Spirit. Even though Abraham was a spiritual giant, he recognised how insignificant he was in the fullness and the magnificence and the majesty of his God and yet he would dare to prevail. This is the man speaking of whom it was said that he believed and adhered to and trusted in and relied on God and it was accredited to and reckoned and placed to his account as righteousness, as conformity to God’s will in thought and purpose and action. That’s walking in the Spirit. When we can conform to God’s will in thought, purpose and action, we will indeed be able to walk and live in the Spirit. That was Galatians 3v6.
Galatians 3:6 Thus Abraham believed in and adhered to and trusted in and relied on God, and it was reckoned and placed to his account and credited as righteousness (as conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action).
Other giants in spiritual matters had the same opinion of themselves, not an opinion that demeaned or devalued them, but they recognized their insignificance in the light of the majesty of God. They saw themselves as mere worms when they saw themselves in the light of their God. John the Baptist says in
Mark 1:7 And he preached, saying, After me, He Who is stronger (more powerful and more valiant) than I, the strap of Whose sandals I am not worthy or fit to stoop down and unloose.
It wasn’t because John thought he was such a rat, or useless or unimportant. He recognized that One was coming that was so sovereign, so divine, so majestic that he wasn’t even worthy to undo his shoes. But this is the man that Jesus brought testimony of. What recommendation could be given to a man who had such a concept of himself? It’s comforting for me to note the context in which John made this statement because John was intended to baptize Jesus Christ in water. Here he was given the commission that he should be the baptizer of the Lord Himself, but Jesus says of John in
Luke 7:28 I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; but he that is inferior [to the other citizens] in the kingdom of God is greater [in incomparable privilege] than he.
God looks upon us and sees our importance but we must look upon ourselves and not see the insignificance but see the glory of God that can be evidenced through us if we will walk in the Spirit.
If I come to look at a man that is one of my heroes, the Apostle Paul, he also understood the necessity for deliverance from self if he was going to live and walk in the Spirit. Now we might say, I wouldn’t have thought that Paul would have had any problem with that. He says in
1 Corinthians 15:9 For I am the least [worthy] of the apostles, who am not fit or deserving to be called an apostle, because I once wronged and pursued and molested the church of God [oppressing it with cruelty and violence].
Paul recognized that He was not deserving of being called an apostle. Why? Because of his natural instincts, but then in other places, he says “God called me from the womb”, that’s what makes the difference. God has placed His hand and His seal upon you and His Spirit within you that you might live and walk in the Spirit. But before God can totally direct and control our lives, we have to be emptied out of ourselves, not only of our superiority but also of our insecurities. So often God can’t work with a man because he thinks he can do it all on his own, he can help God out. This is where we get into church areas where there is all the emotional stimulus and all the rhubarb. God has not only got to get rid of those superior attitudes, he has to work on the other end of the scale too, where men and women think “God can’t do a thing with me”, or “I am such a hopeless useless individual, God could never use me”. He must rid us of our superiorities and our insecurities. Both of these characteristics are evidences of our lack of trust in God.
Remember what was said of Abraham. He relied on, he trusted in and it was accounted to him as right standing with God. But it is this emptying out of self that brings that painful disappointment and that despair of self to which those who have succeeded in God will testify, that occurs before they were able to break through into the Spirit. There has to be that total deliverance from all those ambitions which are interfering with God’s purposes.
By the way, we don’t do it to earn God’s favour, He has already given us that, it’s called GRACE. And so we can’t earn it. Some say, I’ll do penance, I’ll crawl over broken glass. No, you can’t earn God’s favour like this, but the process of emptying is intended to break up the fallow ground. It empties out all those aspects of self. It detaches our hearts from all those things which are earthly, all those interests which are carnal, and it focuses our attention acutely upon the person of Christ Jesus.
As I thought about walking in the Spirit, because of the agility of my mind, I could begin to imagine all the wonderful things that could take place, but then I stopped for a moment, and thought “No matter how high my expectations are of God working through us, when God does finally move into the field of our spiritual awareness, we will be totally astonished by His power and ability to overwhelm our mind and to fascinate the soul of every individual. We cannot contemplate… He says in the Word that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think….So if we live and walk in the Spirit, I know that the dimension will be astonishing.
When Paul wrote to the Galatians in
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion];
I wish I could say that, in a way that there was no egotism, no shades of grey, no limitations to God being able to move in and totally control and direct my life Paul could say
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
What a magnificent statement Paul has made here, he says that the life that he now lives in the flesh, he lives by the faith of the Son of God who loved him and gave Himself for him. That is how we have to live, by faith. You heard me say earlier this morning that where there is no expectation, there can be no faith. If we don’t expect to walk in the Spirit, if we don’t expect to live in the dimensions of the Spirit, if we don’t expect to attain to that spiritual excellence, then there can be no fulfilment of it. God will honour your faith, God will honour your trust and your expectations, the leaning of your personality on him, even though we are frail. Paul says “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” That’s the way he succeeded.
2 Corinthians 4:11 For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death.
Are you prepared for that? I’ve got to be prepared to do whatever is necessary knowing that I can glorify God in life and I can glorify God in death, if I live and walk in the Spirit.
It goes on to say “that the life of Jesus also MAY BE EVIDENCED through our flesh which is liable to death. We have talked about this for generations. The church has based its whole premise on the fact that Jesus Christ should be made manifest in the flesh but we forgot the fact that we were always to be delivered unto death.
I want to look at scriptural examples of those men who demonstrated the ability to live and walk in the Spirit, and we need to be able to confirm our ability to emulate them. Maybe at a later date, we can explore the means by which we walk and live in the Spirit.
As I contemplated it, I looked and I thought that Jesus was the greatest example of one who walked and lived in the Spirit, but if I use Him, many are going to object and I say, I can’t use Him as a pattern and example. Jesus was different. He lived in a different era, He didn’t face the difficulties that I face, His environment was not as hostile as the current environment.
The dictionary defines DIFFICULTIES as a condition or a situation characterized by danger, distress or annoyance. So often the difficulties that I face are annoying ones. I said before, if there weren’t any other people in the world, I could be perfect. It’s always those other people that make me mess us. Difficulties are those situations that encourage danger, distress or annoyance, but we cannot cop out and say “Jesus was different”.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.
You see, Jesus set the pattern. He lived and walked in the Spirit. That ability that Jesus had to live and walk in the Spirit was not something that was given to Him, by the way, as a talent or a gift or a skill whereby He just moved in to this dimension in an unlearned adeptness, but it was concomitant with His relationship with Father, it depended upon His relationship with His Father. It says Jesus LEARNED obedience. How? By what he suffered, Jesus was tempted in every way that we are and yet He didn’t fall, even once.
We’re familiar with the thrust of 1 Corinthians 2v15 where it describes the spiritual man, but Jesus demonstrated this in such a way that it is so relevant to us today if we want to live and walk in the Spirit. There is a remarkable thing which attracted my attention when i was exploring this regarding Jesus.
Luke 6:7 And the scribes and the Pharisees kept watching Jesus to see whether He would [actually] heal on the Sabbath, in order that they might get [some ground for] accusation against Him.
Luke 6:8 But He was aware all along of their thoughts, and He said to the man with the withered hand, Come and stand here in the midst. And he arose and stood there.
Luke 6:9 Then Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful and right on the Sabbath to do good [so that someone derives advantage from it] or to do evil, to save a life [and make a soul safe] or to destroy it?
Luke 6:10 Then He glanced around at them all and said to the man, Stretch out your hand! And he did so, and his hand was fully restored like the other one.
It says that the Pharisees were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. Now they were hard pressed but they were looking for a reason and they were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath and now the part that really intrigued me, because it said earlier when we read in Hebrews 3v14, we share in all he has for us. The scribes and Pharisees are scrutinizing His every move, He’s under the microscope.
It says, But Jesus knew what they were thinking.
Luke 6:8 But He was aware all along of their thoughts
I thought that is just so beautiful. Jesus didn’t have to be on His guard because He lived and walked in the Spirit anyhow, and He knew what they were thinking and what they were about. When we go back to 1 Corinthians 2v15, it tells us, that’s how the spiritual man lives.
Jesus knows that they are looking for some opportunity to accuse Him, and He said to the man with the withered hand.
Luke 6:8 and He said to the man with the withered hand, Come and stand here in the midst. And he arose and stood there.
So he comes up, and Jesus turns around to His would be accusers and says “Righto gentlemen, is it legal for me to do good or not on the Sabbath day”? All these pious gentlemen, wearing their little beanies, because that was the proper thing to do in church, but they didn’t have an answer. Jesus said, Stretch out your hand. And that man walked out of that place healed. Do you know why? Because Jesus lived and walked in the Spirit, He knew what those guys were thinking and He disarmed them with one simple statement when He said to the man “Stretch out your hand”. The Bible says he was COMPLETELY RESTORED.
That was not an isolated instance. When you live and walk in the Spirit, you just don’t deal with singular activities. This is a pattern.
Mark 16:17 And these attesting signs will accompany those who believe …
Matthew 12:25 And knowing their thoughts, He said to them, Any kingdom that is divided against itself is being brought to desolation and laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will last or continue to stand.
They were accusing Him of casting out demons by Beelzebub. Jesus knew what they were thinking. Isn’t it marvellous to have such wisdom to be able to refute the machinations of men’s minds by telling them where they are at – not to embarrass them? That’s not our function, our function, when we live and walk in the Spirit is to convict them, we do so by the Spirit of God.
Can I quickly look at an Old Testament example? I think it is important that we go back and see indeed that it is possible from cover to cover to live in this realm. There was a man, called Elisha. He was quite an obscure character, except that he lived and walked in the Spirit to such a degree that the Bible enumerates his exploits. A man came to Elisha one day – a very important man named Naaman, the captain of the Syrian army. We’ve only got to look at the newspapers today to see the significance of the Syrian army. They are men of war. The Syrian empire is still very, very aggressive. Naaman came to Elisha because he needed to be healed. He was afflicted with leprosy. Elisha told him how to be free. Firstly he had to swallow his pride before dipping in the river. But when He came back in 2 Kings 5, and this is something that we need to learn too, Naaman was grateful.
I am appalled at the lack of gratitude that the people of God evidence and demonstrate. Both to one another and to our God.
oOo
Ross Smith 