What Does it Mean to Walk in the Spirit?

To walk in the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit of God living within you.

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Think of the word walk. Have you ever noticed a person walking a big dog? Who is walking who? Sometimes the dog leads the person where they do not intend to go. Similarly, the Spirit can lead you. The indwelling of the Spirit is within you. As you obey and live according to the ways to the Spirit, He takes control and takes you places you would not have traveled on your own.

Imagine a huge sail on a sailboat. When the wind hits the sail, it fills the sail. The wind takes the boat in the direction of the wind. The key to walking in the Spirit is to yield and submit your life to Christ. To be filled is to voluntarily surrender your life to God, giving up your rights, and submitting to His ways. His Spirit will take you like wind in a sail, wherever He wills.

Suppose a bottle is full of anger. What if you want to fill the bottle with God’s peace? How do you fill a bottle with peace when it is already full of anger? You must empty out the anger before filling it with something else. God will not force you to walk in love, joy, and peace, but He has indwelt you with His Spirit to give you the potential to live that way. You cannot walk in His ways unless you yield to Him, surrender yourself, and give up your rights. Walking in the Spirit means to depend upon the Spirit- to actively choose to follow God in all His ways- not your ways!

What does that mean for us practically? Galatians 5:19-21 states,

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

You cannot permanently live in these ways and have other people fooled into believing that you are indwelt by the Spirit. the key term is that the works of the flesh are evident (obvious). But if you live by the fruit of the Spirit, it will also be obvious.

From My Spirit is Life and Peace: Workbook by Alison Veazey and Kerry Skinner.