How To Walk By The Holy Spirit Series

How to Walk by the Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:16-25

Rev. Brian Bill

November 25-26, 2023

I have the joy of being married to my best friend. I’ve been crazy about Beth from the first day we met and am always amped up when I get the chance to be around her. This is a bit embarrassing to admit, but in the early days of our relationship, I remember working really hard to have our steps be in sync during our walks. I would glance sideways to look at her and try to match our gaits so we would be in rhythm as we walked. Let’s just say it created some awkward moments.

Often, this didn’t work because she walks faster than I do, but I continued to try hard to synch our strides. I thought I was the only strange person who did this but found out this week that “step matching” is a real thing. By God’s grace, we’ve been walking together in marriage for more than 38 years as we strive to stay in step with each other by serving Christ and this community together. Amos 3:3 says, “Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?” (NLT)

We’re wrapping up our series called, “Our Holy Helper.” Two weeks ago, we learned about the identity of the Holy Spirit and last weekend we focused on the activity of the Holy Spirit. Today, we’ll discover how important it is to stay synchronized with the Spirit.

BTW, some have asked about the symbols we chose for the sermon title slide. The Bible presents various symbols for the Holy Spirit, each depicting different attributes of His nature or aspects of His work.

• The dove represents God’s provision and expresses the Holy Spirit’s gentleness, innocence, purity, patience, and peace (Matthew 10:16; Mark 1:10).

• The wind is a symbol of the Spirit’s omnipresence and omnipotence (John 3:8; Acts 2:2).

• The wave symbolizes how the Holy Spirit cleanses and flows through us as living waters (John 3:5; 7:37-39).

• The fire focuses on his power, presence, and purifying work (Matthew 3:11; Acts 2:3-4).

We’ll be kicking off our December series next weekend called, “Before Bethlehem” as we go deep into the opening verses of John’s gospel.

Here’s our main idea: To walk by the Spirit, we must keep in step with the Spirit.

1. Walk by the Spirit. In the Bible, the word “walk” is often a metaphor for practical daily living and means, “to tread with the feet and refers to one’s conduct or behavior.” Among other things, walking implies forward progress, going from where we are to where we ought to be.

Walking also refers to living differently than we did before we were saved in Ephesians 4:17: “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.”

This brings to mind a popular expression used by philosophers in the first century: “If a Greek wanted to know what you thought, they simply asked you. If a Jew wanted to know what you thought, they followed you around for a week.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27 looks ahead to the time when God would put His Holy Spirit within believers, causing us to walk differently and giving us the power to obey His commands: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Please turn to Galatians 5 where we see the “Spirit” mentioned eight times. After describing our freedom in Christ in verse 1, Paul celebrates the Holy Spirit’s work in verse 5: “For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.”

In verses 16-18, we see how walking by the Spirit keeps us from falling into the ditch of depravity: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

The word “walk” is a present imperative and is literally translated, “keep on walking.” The Spirit does not operate automatically in our lives; we must intentionally depend on Him by following His lead. The word “led” means, “to bring forth, to carry.” Romans 8:14 tells us the Spirit is committed to lead us, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”