Intro
We are talking about HOW to Walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5 explicitly tells us to walk in the Spirit.i It is essential for our spiritual success. But how do we do that? What practical steps can we take that keeps us in the mode of living? In our last message, we discussed two principles that need to be applied for us to walk in the Spirit.
1. Set your ATTENTION on the activity of the Holy Spirit in your regenerated spirit. We must pay attention to God and what he is saying to us. We must seek things above and not get overly occupied with the cares of this life. Colossians 3:1-2 puts it like this: “If then you were raised with Christ [That is a fact for every believer], seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”ii We need to live with the right objectives in mind. We need to listen to God’s promptings in our human spirit. Set your attention on the activity of the Holy Spirit in your regenerated spirit.
2. IDENTIFY with Christ’s death and resurrection.
Paul gave the secret of his success in Galatians 2:20-21 when he declared: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Our union with Christ is two-sided. one side of this union is our co-crucifixion with Christ. Our old man was crucified with Christ at the cross 2,000 years ago. “Knowing this,” Paul wrote in Romans 6:6, “that our old man was crucified with Him.” The NIV says, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him.” The depth at which we know that is important. We may need to know it intellectually as a step toward knowing it more deeply. But knowing it by revelation from God empowers us to experience its benefits.
A person may intellectually accent to the power of Jesus’s blood for forgiveness. Hearing that truth may be an essential preparation for receiving it (Rom. 10:14). But that truth must be revealed in the heart by the Holy Spirit, for it to be experienced.
In the same way, an intellectual ascent to our co-crucifixion with Christ may prepare the way for divine revelation of this biblical truth. But it can only be experienced by revelation from the Holy Spirit. Faith to lay hold on this factual reality must come from God. When Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ,” his knowledge of that went deeper than intellectual assent. He knew it at the core of his being and lived accordingly. So, one side of our union with Christ is co-crucifixion. One side of walking in the Spirit is knowing that our old man was crucified with Christ at Calvary.
The other side is our identification with him in his resurrection. Colossians 2:12-13 tells us we
were “buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the
working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and
the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him.”iii The old self is dead
and buried, the new self is alive unto God in Christ. So, in the same way you trusted in the blood
of the cross for forgiveness of sin, trust also in the death and resurrection of Christ for the power
of his resurrected life to be expressed in and through you. Identifying with Christ in his death and
resurrection is foundational to walking int eh Spirit.
Today we want to address a third key to walking in the Spirit: TEST & TRUST the knowledge
and guidance you receive in your spirit from God. We will deal with this subject through five
instructions:
I. KNOW THE TWO SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE. How is knowledge received?
Rational knowledge is received in our mind. Our natural minds have the capacity to see, hear,
and know information through the five senses. Learning and thinking are a source of knowledge
and understanding. We can take in data, process it, and draw conclusions. We all have experience
with that. Even unbelievers gain knowledge in that way. But that is not the only source of
knowledge.
Revelation knowledge is received in our spirit. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul talks about knowledge
that must be “spiritually discerned.” “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.” They cannot know them because they only receive knowledge through their five
natural senses.
But God is able to reveal things to you in your spirit that your rational mind has not learned
through the five senses.iv Most Pentecostals know this by personal experience. But we want to
know how that works in relationship to soul and spirit, and we want to become more attuned to it
in our daily lives. Walking in the Spirit is largely dependent on hearing God in your spirit and
obeying him.
II. DEVELOP YOUR SPIRITUAL EAR THROUGH EXPERIENCE.
Hebrews 5:14 refers to spiritually mature people as “those who by reason of use have their
senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Commenting on this, Andrew Murray wrote:
“The eye is exercised to see and know God’s way and Him who leads in it; the ear to hear His
voice; the conscience to reject everything that is not well pleasing to God or even doubtful, the
will to choose and do only what is His will.”v To walk in the Spirit consistently we must become
sensitive to God’s voice and obey his leading.
Musicians develop “an ear for music.” Their sensitivity to distinguish one key from another—
their ability to hear the notes more precisely is developed “by reason of use.” They may be gifted
in this direction. But a good musician develops his sensitivity to the sounds of the notes. In the
same way, we are to develop our sensitivity to the sound of God’s voice in our spirit so that we can more precisely distinguish it from our own thought or any other voice.
Sometimes we hear God in our spirit, but we don’t trust our own ability to hear enough to follow through with what God is saying. This problem can only be addressed through experience. If I fail to act on what God is revealing to me in my spirit, I deprive myself of the experience needed. How did you learn to ride a bicycle? You may have watched others do it. They may have given you some instruction on how to do it. But to develop the balance and skill to ride that bike, you had to start doing it yourself. As a child, you may have had fears of falling down on that bike. But you did not let those fears stop you from trying. And the more you tried, the more skilled you became in doing it.
Becoming seasoned in spiritual matters requires humility to risk mistakes. Suppose the Lord speaks a word of prophecy in my spirit. I think: what if that is just me? Is the voice I hear in my spirit truly the Holy Spirit? I am confronted with a decision. I will either play it safe and not act on what I am hearing, or I will step out in faith and share it.
If it is confirmed to be true, then I have learned more about what a true word in my spirit sounds like or feels like. But what if it is not true? That is a learning experience as well. It’s humbling to be wrong. But if we respond to that in humility, it’s not so bad. I have increased my understanding of hearing God even in that experience. If I never step out and test what I’m hearing in my spirit, I will not develop the ability to distinguish what is from God and what is just my own thoughts.
III. MAXIMIZE THE LEARNING PROCESS WHILE MINIMIZING THE RISK.
How do we do that? We do it by operating in humility. Consider yourself a learner. That’s what a disciple is; he is a learner. You are not expected to know it all. You are not expected to do everything with perfection. Perfectionism in anything is an obstacle to learning. We must be sincere. We must operate in a holy reverence for the things of God. The fear of the Lord protects us from presumption. But your Heavenly Father knows you’re not perfect. You are a disciple—learning the ways of God. If you make a mistake, humbly admit it, and learn from the experience. Maximize the learning process while minimizing the risk by operating in humility.
If God gives you a word of prophecy in your spirit, deliver that word with humility. Understand your responsibility in the matter, but also understand the limits of your responsibility. For every prophecy, the prophet has a responsibility and those receiving that word have a responsibility When talking about prophecy given in a congregation, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:29: “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.” The prophets who speak are attempting to hear and speak what God is saying. They have the responsibility to filter that as best they can. But those hearing the prophecy are not to just swallow it hook, line, and sinker. They are to judge it with spiritual discernment. In this way, God’s people are hearing his voice together.
None of us do this perfectly. That’s why we need one another in the process. That’s why humility is an important factor in walking in the Spirit.vi The more we do this out of an honest heart, the more accurate we become, the more we learn to trust God’s leading in our spirit.
IV. TEST THE LEADING THAT YOU RECEIVE IN YOUR SPIRIT.
I have just indicated one test: we receive the feedback from other Christians as to whether their spirit is bearing witness with what we are hearing. That requires humility and submission one with another. But that is the way God wants us to operate.
Another test is to apply our knowledge of Scripture. You hear in your spirit, but the knowledge stored in your mind is compared to the revelation. Isaiah 8:20 warns, “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” We apply that principle to words spoken by others. But we also apply it to our own hearts.
Hearing in our spirit is very subjective. It generally comes to us intuitively. We must always test it with the revealed light in Scripture. If what we are hearing is not consistent with that light, then we are not hearing the Holy Spirit. This is a God-given protection for discerning the subjective leadings of the Lord. We have “a more sure word of prophecy” as a standard for evaluating those leadings (2 Pet. 1:19)—the objective revelation in Scripture.
To increase our ability to apply this test, we must increase our knowledge of Scripture. That’s one reason we gather in meetings like this. That’s one reason we read and study our Bibles. Truth in a dusty Bible on the self is of little value.
It is truth that we have hidden in our hearts, that we can use to test the subjective leadings of the Spirit. Psalm 119:11: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!” The word of God that is hidden in your heart is a powerful resource for testing the subjective leading of the Lord in your spirit. The more of that word is hidden in the heart, the better equipped we are to discern God’s voice and walk in the Spirit.
Remember when Satan was trying to mislead Jesus in Luke 4. He even quoted Scripture to him. But it was the word hidden in Jesus’s heart that was the sword of the Spirit that defeated the deceiver.vii For example, in Luke 4:9 Satan “brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,' 11 and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'” Jesus had that word in his heart, and he used it to expose the misuse of Scripture by Satan. Time spent getting God’s word in your heart may make all the difference in a crucial test like that.
Another test is spiritual impact of what I am hearing. Does it uplift and minister life or does it have a heavy, deadening effect? We apply this test to words spoken by others. But we must also apply it to what we are hearing in our hearts. We just saw in Luke 4 that the devil can quote the letter of the word. But the word Satan was quoting to Jesus was being misapplied and had to be countered by another passage that corrected the misapplication.
Early in my walk with God, I was spending extended time in the word and prayer. As I was reading in Romans 8, the enemy highlighted the phrase in verse 36: “As it is written:‘ For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’” Suddenly a heaviness came upon me. The impression came: “You must die; it is God’s will for you.” Confusion immediately set in. If it was God’s will, I needed to accept it. But it was a heavy, depressing thought that weakened my inner spirit. Instead of being edified and strengthened in my inner man, my strength drained away in me. I felt I was under a dark, heavy cloud.
Then the Holy Spirit took me to the next verse: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Suddenly, God’s light dawned in my heart, and the dark cloud was driven away. While there may be persecution in my life, God’s destiny for me was not death and destruction. God’s plan for me was not that of slaughter and defeat. God’s will for me was victory in Jesus—“we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” The heaviness broke off my spirit as the light of Christ shined into my heart. Instead of being heavy and defeated, I was suddenly empowered and strengthened by the Lord.
Hearing that story, you might think: Richard, you should have instantly known that heaviness was not from God. I was a young Christian, and God was using this experience to teach me what I am currently teaching you. Don’t be naive. Satan can present himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). We must be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”viii
So, one test is whether the idea coming to us is consistent with the Bible verses we know. We talked about that earlier. This test is whether the biblical truth is being properly applied in the light of Scripture as a whole and what impact is it having on our inner man. I say inner man because sometimes a true word can be corrective or emotionally difficult. But a true word will not deplete your inner spirit. It will not drain life from your spirit. A true word from God will strengthen you within. It will bring life and vitality to your spirit. Jesus said in John 6:63, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” His words are life-giving to your spirit. His words strengthen your inner man.
There are other tests, but my point is that we test what we are hearing in our spirit. This testing may happen very quickly. Jesus’s response to the voice he heard in Luke 4:9-11 probably happened within seconds. He did not go do a Bible study in order to respond. He responded out of God’s word that was written in his heart.
The instruction we are talking about is that we test the intuitive leading in our hearts before proceeding. If we will apply these tests, we can more accurately filter out thoughts that are coming from Satan or thoughts that are originating in our own mind. Then it becomes safer to follow the Spirit. Then we are more successful, and that will increase our confidence to follow the promptings of the Spirit.
V. TRUST THE LEADING THAT PASSES THE TESTS AND ACT IN OBEDIENT FAITH.
We must obey the voice of the Spirit. If we back off from that obedience and simply do what our reason and emotions tell us to do, then we do not grow in this thing called walking in the Spirit. That’s why 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 instructs us: “Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.”
We have talked about testing the leading of the Sprit because our own thoughts, even Satan’s suggestions can present themselves as the voice of God. But the tests we have suggested will
usually filter those out so that you become reasonably accurate in discerning the voice of God. And the more you operate in that the more you are able to distinguish God’s voice. “Do not quench the Spirit.” In faith, act on what he tells you to do. Do it in a spirit of humility and teachability—but do it!
ENDNOTES:
i Gal. 5:16, 25.
ii All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise. Cf. Rom. 8:5.
iii Water baptism is a declaration of our union with Christ in his death and burial and in his resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4).
iv We should also be aware that Satan counterfeits this. If his suggestions are not discerned for what they are, the person can be deceived. But that is not the focus of this teaching.
v Andrew Murray, The Holist of All: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, n.d.), 200.
vi Cf. Micah 6:8.
vii Cf. Eph. 6:17.
viii Matt. 10:16.
