What does it mean to walk in the Holy Spirit? It’s clear throughout the Scriptures that it will be rare to find someone who lives a godly life, serves the Lord accurately, or interprets the Bible correctly without the Holy Spirit. It is God’s grace that causes us to do great works. Paul told the church in Galatia, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). To walk by the Spirit is to follow in the guidance of the Lord.
When we turn to the right or the left, we should do it because the Holy Spirit is guiding us. Now that doesn’t mean that have ask the Lord what pizza we should buy. This is the idea that simply throughout our daily lives, God is leading us.
Some get confused about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If you read the KJV it describes the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost. That may be a bit odd for us today. I think the NASB and other translators did a better job by calling Him the Holy Spirit. Others have had a bad experience in the Charismatic church so some totally disregard the topic of the Holy Spirit. Yet that is not a good reason either. Remember there is a difference between someone’s reaction and who the Spirit really is. He is as sane and stable as Jesus is.
What are the desires of the flesh? They are desires that are outside of God’s will for our life such as sin. When Paul talks about flesh he is not talking about literal flesh and blood. He is talking about the evil patterns of our old nature.
Zechariah 4:6 teaches us, “Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.” We are able to live a godly life through the work of the Holy Spirit. When we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law (see Galatians 5:18). The old covenant mixed with our flesh causes sin to be evident. When we say that we need to walk by the Spirit we are reminding ourselves that we follow in God’s footsteps. The fruit of the Spirit is, “love, joy peace patience…” and much more. This is the way the Spirit walks.
Psalm 66:4says,“All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing the praises of your name. Selah!” This last word added at the end of this verse is selah. The Amplified Bible translates the word as to,“pause and calmly think about that.” GotQuestions.orgexplains that, “From salah comes the belief that selah is a musical notation signifying a rest to the singers and/or instrumentalists who performed the psalms. If this is true, then each time selah appears in a psalm, the musicians paused, perhaps to take a breath, to sing a cappella, or to let the instruments play alone.” This is very similar to how an instrumental is in a song. This word is mentioned 71 times in the book of Psalms. It is a reminder to the reader to take a moment to pause and thing about this valuable truth. Some of the best worship takes place when we pause.
Let’s begin to first pause and recognize the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let’s remember that He at work in our lives. When we get a promotion, get a new car, or finish that degree, take a moment to reflect on the words in Zachariah. This happened not by my might nor by my power, but by the Holy Spirit who works within me.