Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh

The more I study God’s word, the more I am impressed by the truth in his word, just like many Christians I am sure. Then why don’t we walk more in his light? Why do so many Christians let this world draw them away from the fullness of his light?

The flesh, the flesh, the flesh.

I have heard Christians say it is easy to walk the walk. Yes, it is easy to say it, but sometimes difficult to do it in ourselves.

The Word of God shows us how to walk in victory over this world’s darkness.

Galatians 5:16 says, “...walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

It is possible to walk in Jesus’ light: 1 John 5:4 says “for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

“Overcometh” in the Greek means to conquer. When we walk in faith, knowing we are overcomers, we are fully armed with everything we need to be conquerors in this life.

Satan may try to use the world around us to do battle with us because he is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). But we are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ.

I have thought about this walking the walk, “walking in the light.” How do we do it?

Galatians 5:22-27 says, “but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Notice the word “fruit.” How is fruit produced? It comes from some kind of seed and the seed sown determines the fruit that will be produced. Apples always produce apples. The character of the seed determines the fruit.

As Christians, God sowed his spirit and word into our hearts like a seed. So, in turn, we must sow the seed of love, walking in faith to produce the fruit of love. So we must not give way to the flesh and allow it to produce its ugly works in our lives. Yield to the Spirit and allow the seed of love to come forth by allowing his word to produce in our lives the blessings we have in Christ.

Negative thoughts will affect our love walk. Christians, we must realize negative thoughts are not from God.

The adversary is behind thoughts of depression, pride, even loneliness. We must walk in love, knowing that we are children of light and that we have authority in the name of Jesus. Ephesians 6:10-18 shows us how to be strong in the Lord. Verse 16 says, “above all, take the shield of faith, with which to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

Ephesians 6:10: “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”

When Christians endeavor to walk in the light, the love of God will always abound in our lives because the potential for his divine love is within you all the time. So we must keep the word of God before us so our love walk can continue to bear fruit.

God’s love, “agape,” is a love that has no strings attached. This kind of divine love isn’t looking for what it can get, but for what it can give. In 1 John 3:18, John said, “my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

Are you having a hard time walking in the light? How strong is your desire to walk in God’s light? Because God looks at our hearts. The scripture that says “love covers multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) shows us that if we repent and walk in love that those many places where we miss it in our lives are covered under the blood and through God’s grace, he sees our love walk.

Phillippians 2:3-4: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.”

We are to prefer the other person.

What you sow is what you reap. It is far better for you to sow mercy and grace then to get into sowing strife, which will produce strife.

It seems when we make a decision to walk the walk that Jesus set before us in his word, then along comes a situation or person that seems out to get you out of your love walk. It may seem that it is impossible to achieve the love walk because, try as you do, you still miss it and you find yourself asking God to forgive you again, which he does. Don’t give up. Understand you can get up and go again. Those negative thoughts will tell you, “you blew it.” Your head will tell you, “you keep missing it, and expect God to forgive you.” But he will if you repent (turn and go the other way). 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness“

That is when you want God’s word planted in your heart and know that when you repent from a sin, God forgives. You are in right-standing with the Father. You have the righteousness of God in you because of Jesus. I like to say it this way, “I am a child of the King.”

Christian, continue in your desire to walk the love walk. Don’t give up. Don’t say it’s too hard, if you fail in your love walk. Repent; know that God will do what he says in his word. You are conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us,” Romans 8:37. We are more than a match for any foe. This verse declares that you are always the winner and never a loser. And when you begin to see yourself the way God sees you, then you will more clearly be able to walk the love walk, because this will help you to get your eyes off your past failures and see yourself as a conqueror.

Lavon Barve works with Cup of Life Ministry in Wasilla.

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