When Jesus and His disciples traveled from place to place, they walked. What do you think they did as they walked?
The Bible uses the image of walking to convey the idea of how we go through life. Some Bible translations replace the word “walk” with terms like “behave,” “act,” or “live.” They all describe how we walk through life with God.
Discuss: What are some of the different meanings in the image of “walking” in the following verses?
Genesis 6:9 Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Psalm 81:13 “Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!”
Micah 4:5 For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.
Colossians 1:10 Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
1 John 2:6 Whoever says he abides in [Jesus] ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith not by sight.
Reflect: What does the image of walking with God convey to you?
WALK BY THE SPIRIT
Ezekiel 36:27 explains that the Holy Spirit in us enables us to walk the way God desires.
Ezekiel 36:27
“And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Galatians 5 gives us more detail on how we walk by the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16-18, 24-25
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 . . . And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Discover: What opposition do we experience when we walk with God?
Discover: How are we able to walk through life without fulfilling fleshly desires?
Discover: What has happened to the old self (flesh) and sin’s power over us?
Discuss: How does this free us from the law so that we can walk in the Spirit?
We walk by the Spirit when we yield to His control and follow His leading. The phrase “keep in step” used in Galatians 5:25 is a military term used to describe marching in rank. Soldiers match their steps to follow their leader.
Reflect: What would happen if a marching soldier chose to follow his own lead?
Discuss: Are we able to keep in step with the Spirit without yielding control to Him?
God wants us to live yielded to Him, following His lead day after day, moment by moment. Let’s look at how this may or may not take place in our lives.
CHOOSE TO RESPOND THROUGH THE SPIRIT
Imagine the following scenario:
One of your students repeatedly ignores your instructions. You deal with this behavior, but it keeps going on all week and seems to get worse. Today when you remind the child what to do, he talks back to you rudely and even calls you a foul name.
Share: What would your natural (old self) reaction be?
We do not have to respond in anger or impatience. God has made His power available to us so that we can respond as the new self rather than as the old self. Colossians 3:12-15 gives us a picture of how the new self, made in the image of Christ, can respond in any situation.
Colossians 3:12-15
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Discover: What can we choose to put on?
Share: Which of these “new self” characteristics would be hardest for you to display in this situation?
Discuss: Is it possible to display these characteristics through your own effort? What is the result when you try?
Sometimes we mistakenly think the goal is to train ourselves to act like Christ. We believe that if we try hard enough, we will produce the right behavior. (How often have you said to yourself, “Today I am going to be more patient!”?) But our abilities and resources are inadequate, which becomes obvious when we are pushed to our limits. Instead, God wants us to rely on Him and His resources.
Discover: According to Colossians 3:12-15, we can experience peace. Who is providing the peace? What is our role?
God provides His peace and His character qualities for us to “put on.” When we walk by the Spirit, we choose to let Him lead and produce results instead of us relying on our own efforts.
When we yield to the Holy Spirit to control our lives, He causes us to walk as Jesus walked.
Reflect: In the scenario above, if the Holy Spirit is in control of your life, how will He enable you to respond?
Share: How will putting on God’s character through the Holy Spirit enable you to deal with a difficult situation you are currently facing?
DEPEND ON HIM CONTINUALLY
Your cell phone gives you incredible resources, but when the battery charge runs out, you are without power. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a cell phone that did not have to be recharged? The Holy Spirit’s direction and power to live God’s way is continually accessible, without ever running out. We see this in Jesus’ description of the Holy Spirit in John 7:37-39 and John 4:14.
John 7:37-39
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Discuss: How does Jesus compare our thirst for water to our spiritual needs in everyday life (like peace or patience)?
Discover: How do we receive this water that allows us to live as God intends?
Reflect: What does Jesus want us to learn about the Holy Spirit in our lives from these two images of water?
Discuss: How do a flowing river and well of water springing up compare to a bucket that constantly needs to be filled?
Share: Is your experience of God supplying your needs more like a flowing river or a bucket needing refilling?
When we allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives, what flows out of us comes directly and fully from Him. We don’t have to muster our own willpower to do the right thing or beg Him to help us. If we choose to give the Spirit control, Jesus’ character and actions will supernaturally flow out of us. We “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), trusting God to work in and through us. This is the Spirit-filled life.
ABIDE IN HIM
In John 14:17 Jesus promises the Holy Spirit will “dwell with you and will be in you.” By yielding to the Holy Spirit’s control in our lives we can experience what Paul describes in Galatians 2:20: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
John 15 gives us another image to describe the Holy Spirit flowing through us, what He produces, and our role in that.
Read John 15:4-5.
John 15:4-5
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Discuss: What does the analogy of Jesus as a vine and us as branches tell us about our relationship with Him?
The branch itself does not have the power to grow or produce fruit. Water and minerals must flow from the vine to the branches to give life, cause growth, and produce fruit. Jesus abides in us through the Holy Spirit, doing those same things.
Discover: What fruit will we be able to produce if we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to control our lives?
Discover: What is needed for us to bear fruit?
Discuss: What does “abiding” mean? Why do we need to abide in Him in order to have the Holy Spirit working in and through us?
Discover: According to Galatians 5:22-23, what is some fruit the Spirit produces?
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
When we abide in Christ, we recognize our dependence on Him and our attention is focused on Him. This enables us to keep in step with His direction and rely on the Holy Spirit to make it possible. Read Romans 8:5.
Romans 8:5
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Discuss: How is it possible to set your mind on the things of the Holy Spirit while doing your work?
When we have yielded control to the Holy Spirit, we act in faith, trusting Him to work in and through us in whatever we do. This can become so natural to us that we do not need to be focused on the mechanics of walking in the Spirit but on God’s presence walking with us. However, when someone is learning to walk in the Spirit, they may want to check frequently whether they have yielded to the Holy Spirit and are willing for Him to produce His fruit through them. The more we abide with Christ, the more natural this becomes.
GOING FORWARD
Clarify: What thoughts or questions do you have?
Summarize: How does being Spirit-filled make a difference in our lives?
Apply: How can you focus on walking in the Spirit this week?
Pass It On: If anyone notices that you are reacting differently, how could you explain the difference in you?
Reinforce:
This week, as you read these verses, reflect on God’s goodness to provide you with His Spirit as you walk through life.
• Romans 8:1-11
• Galatians 3:1-6
• Galatians 5:16-26
• Ephesians 5:15-21
• John 15:1-11
• John 16:7-15
Romans 8:1-11
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Galatians 3:1-6
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Galatians 5:16-26
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. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Ephesians 5:15-21
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
John 15:1-11
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
John 16:7-15
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
