Walking by the Spirit

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of he 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." Galatians 5:16-18 (ESV)

God tends to work in my life in themes. The theme for this chapter in my life has been walking by the Spirit and enjoying my freedom in Christ.

This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to journey to Africa on a three week mission trip with e3 Partners. This was very special to me, because from the age of 6, I had told my mom, "One day, I am going to be a missionary in Africa!" I knew that had to be God. It was kind of weird because I did not get saved until I was 10 years old... just goes to show, you can't put God in a box! My dream was finally becoming a reality at the age of 25!

When I was in Africa, I brought a book with me called Victory Over the Darkness by Neil Anderson. If you haven't read it, you must! This book floored me. It was an excellent companion to my daily quiet time with the Lord, and it was perfect for what I had been struggling with, even before I went to Zambia. This book talks about being secure in your identity in Christ.

Now, let me tell you a little more about my background. I was raised in church, and I was saved at the age of 10. But like many Christians, I lived in bondage for years after my conversion experience because, even though Satan has no ownership over me, he still works to deceive me into believing lies about who I am and who God is. When I was physically born into this world, I was born a sinner. I was totally depraved. When I was reborn spiritually, I received a new identity (2 Corinthians 5:17.) God no longer related to me as a sinner, but as a saint. It is not because of anything I did, but because of who I instantly became in Christ because of my faith in what he did for me on the cross(Ephesians 2:8-9.)

However, my mind was not instantly rebooted. Even though I instantly became a new creation from an eternal perspective, my mind still operated according to sinful, fleshly patterns that I had learned over the course of my life until that point. Psychologists call these "defense mechanisms." The Bible calls these thought patterns "strongholds." For me to experience my freedom in Christ, these strongholds must come down. But that is a daily process. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 contains the secret to demolishing these strongholds: "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ."

Now, fast-forward to my trip to Zambia. Prior to this trip, I had begun being attacked my Satan. He had planted all kinds of doubts in my mind about whether of not I should even be on that trip. He had reminded me of all the sins I had committed, and accused me of being a hypocrite, and not being strong enough to handle what lied ahead of me in Africa.

When I got to Zambia, the attacks only increased in frequency and intensity. I admit I was unprepared. Not only did Satan attack me more because I was serving God, but also because I was in a geographic place where there is much spiritual darkness because of the prevalence of Satanism, witchcraft, animal sacrifices, praying to ancestors, and much other demonic activity. It was hard. But God... (don't you love that! He that is in me is GREATER than he that is in the world!)

BUT GOD was with me every step of the way, and in my weakness, he is stronger! He gave me everything I needed and he kept me safe! He is my Advocate against the Accuser! He gave our team a spirit of unity and we saw many people come to Christ, and we even started a new church in a remote village that had none!

As awesome as that is though, the most awesome thing of all was what he did and is continuing to do IN ME. You see, he is teaching me to WALK BY THE SPIRIT...

Before I went to Africa, I struggled a lot with falling into sinful patterns of living, knowing it was wrong, repenting, sinning again, beating myself up, repenting, sin-repent, sin-repent, sin-repent, repeat. This is not the victory Christ died to give me. I couldn't figure out why I had been a Christian since I was 10 years old and I still had to deal with this. Was something wrong with me? Was I really even saved? Yes, I was saved. But I was in bondage.

God used this trip to Africa and the months that followed to lead me out of bondage and into my glorious freedom in Christ. The whole time I was there, I felt compelled to read Romans 6, over and over again. It made me feel terrible every time I would read it. Starting in verse 1, it says,

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"

Stop right there. I have already blown that part. But it gets a little more tricky starting at verse 3:

"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin."

That's it! I thought. I just need to try harder to die to myself so that I can be freed from sin! I need to let my old self be crucified with him so that I will no longer be a slave to sin! Why didn't I think of that before?

However, applying my new insight to the scripture wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I kept failing at it. Then I kept reading it again and again, thinking that would help, because I desperately wanted to be free. Finally, after the umpteenth time of reading it, I realized a grammatical detail I had not noticed before... and it totally changed the way I understood that scripture...

"We DIED to sin, how can we live in it any longer? (past tense verb)

"Or don't you know that all of us who WERE baptized into Christ Jesus WERE baptized into his death?" (past tense verb)

"We WERE therefore buried with him..." (past tense verb)

"If we HAVE BEEN united with him in his death..." (past tense verb)

"For we know that our old self WAS crucified with him..." (past tense verb)

"...because anyone who HAS DIED HAS BEEN FREED from sin." (past tense verb)

So, what does all that mean? It means that, the moment I trusted Christ for my salvation, I died to sin! I was baptized into Christ's death! I was buried with him! I was united with him in his death! My old self was crucified with him! And so, therefore, I have been freed from sin!

Of course all that trying and striving was futile... I can't make something happen that has already happened! It is already a reality in my life! It's not what I do; it's who I am... who I am in Christ! Faith is what makes the difference... the reason why I was not experiencing victory in my life is because I was believing in my own efforts instead of believing in Christ in me. When
I finally realized this, and I changed the way I had been thinking, everything started to change. Satan didn't have a leg to stand on in my mind anymore. I was able to live free from sin, because when I would be tempted to go back to old patterns, I would remind myself of WHO I AM IN CHRIST! That is what victory is, and that is what it means to "walk by the Spirit!"  

Let me close with a brief story from my trip to Zambia. After our team had been out in the bush for 12 days, we were packing up and looking for a place where we could camp for one night while we waited for our van to come out and take us to the capital city the next morning. We saw a school that had a big courtyard in the front, and it looked like a safe place to stay for the night. We approached the school and talked to one of the teachers, named Dominic, who happened to be a believer. When we told him why we had come to Zambia and what we had been doing there, he cried. He was isolated as a believer at the school and had been praying for other Christians to come to the area to help start a church there. He begged us to stay there for three days, but unfortunately we had to leave the next day. We were, however, able to show the JESUS Film to his students that evening. It was a beautiful end to our two weeks of ministry. Dominic reminded me of something that captures my experience of learning about walking by the Spirit... He said that in Zambia, there are many people who are Christians, but they have a limited understanding of what that really means. They still live the way they have always lived, the way their parents and grandparents before them lived. This sounded very similar to the United States. But, the believers who really experience what God has for them, are those who BELIEVE and APPLY the gospel... the whole gospel... that it doesn't stop just at being saved... God wants us to enjoy what is already ours in him... glorious freedom that changes EVERYTHING!!

For more insight into what it means to walk by the Spirit, click here