Are you getting your steps todays?
Amplified Bible
But I say, walk habitually in the [Holy] Spirit [seek Him and be responsive to His guidance], and then you will certainly not carry out the desire of the sinful nature [which responds impulsively without regard for God and His precepts].
So, what is going on today? Why are so many Christians leading a defeated life? If you talk to the average Christian today, they will tell you it is hard out here for a saint.
As a child of God, born again through faith in the death, burial and resurrection Jesus Christ, and the washing of the Holy Spirit, we do not want to live defeated lives. I do not know of any person walking around saying to themselves, I want to be on a losing team.
But as Christians, we are on a winning team.
The following scriptures are just a few that tell we are winners through Christ Jesus.
John 16:33
I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!"
Romans 8:35
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written” For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:57
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
It used to be hard for a sinner. There use to be so many people practicing Christianity until sinners would stay in the closet with every sin going on in their lives for the most part. Everybody is out in the open and Christians are now in the closet. After 3 years at my current job, a co-worker walked up to me and said "I just founs out that you are a Christian, and not only that you are a preacher too." I thought about going to my job the next day, standing up in the meeting and say, I’m coming out today you’ll. I am a Christian. But I also wondered why I had not done to let my light shine before or what happend that suddenly made them aware that I was a Christian. Because we are living in the shadows of Society now. The world seems to be in control of everything. We are not changing the world, but the world is changing the church. In my own personal experience, it is hard to stay off of Facebook and You Tube and Twitter and Bing and Google. It is even harder to get up in the morning and pray everyday and fast on occasion.
Paul when speaking to the Galatian church said there is a way to do it. I say then, walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Notice that he said, I say then. He in other words, he is saying let me explain something to you that is connected to what I have already said.
This is what he had already said in summary if you read Galatians 5 in its entirety.
6–26. The spiritual life of liberty is inconsistent with the indulgence of the works of the flesh
In other words, if we are free in the spirit to do what we want to do, why would we as Christians want to do bad when that is not what is consistent with the Christian life.
Paul is saying there was only one means by which the problem of the lust of the flesh could be resisted and broken accept by the guidance and power of Him Who is the Spirit both of love and of liberty.
What does it mean to walk in the spirit vs the flesh?
Got Questions: Believers have the indwelling Spirit of Christ, the Comforter who proceeds from the Father (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit assists believers in prayer (Jude 1:20) and “intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Romans 8:27). He also leads the believer into righteousness (Galatians 5:16–18) and produces His fruit in those yielded to Him (Galatians 5:22–23). Believers are to submit to the will of God and walk in the Spirit.
A “walk” in the Bible is often a metaphor for practical daily living. The Christian life is a journey, and we are to walk it—we are to make consistent forward progress. The biblical norm for all believers is that they walk in the Spirit: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25, KJV; cf. Romans 8:14). In other words, the Spirit gave us life in the new birth (John 3:6), and we must continue to live, day by day, in the Spirit.
To walk in the Spirit means that we yield to His control, we follow His lead, and we allow Him to exert His influence over us. To walk in the Spirit is the opposite of resisting Him or grieving Him (Ephesians 4:30).
Once the spirit of a person has been raised to life by the Spirit of God, the old desires of the flesh do not immediately disappear. There is a battle that rages on. “So, I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want” (Galatians 5:16–17).
The person who has been brought to spiritual life—the work of the Holy Spirit within—will want to please God. But the pull of the world and temporal, physical needs and pleasures are still present. Therefore, the Christian must feed on spiritual food and continually yield to God’s Spirit on a day-by-day, minute-by-minute basis. Feeding the spirit and yielding to the Spirit are done by reading, studying, and obeying God’s Word and then availing oneself of all of the means of spiritual nourishment that the Word prescribes, such as prayer and fellowship. The more one gets into the Word, the more he or she will desire what God desires. The more a person gets into “the world,” the more he or she will desire what “the world” desires. Although Paul does not use the flesh vs. spirit motif in Colossians 3:1–2, the verses do present the same idea: “Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
Some things will become obvious as we walk the Christian walk
1- We cannot do it by ourselves
2- The flesh is where we have a naturally tend to obey
3- The Holy Spirit will not force us to do anything, but will empower us to do the right thing.
4- The flesh will do everything in its power to push us toward evil
Walking in the spirit does not mean a neglecting of the life that we are given to enjoy in this human body.
We are given specific things that are the works of the flesh, versus that which is the fruit of the Spirit.
Look at the list.
Galatians 5:17-26 list the differences: The Amplified Bible
17 For the sinful nature has its desire which is opposed to the Spirit, and the [desire of the] Spirit opposes the [h]sinful nature; for these [two, the sinful nature and the Spirit] are in direct opposition to each other [continually in conflict], so that you [as believers] do not [always] do whatever [good things] you want to do. 18 But if you are guided and led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the Law. 19 Now the practices of the [i]sinful nature are clearly evident: they are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality (total irresponsibility, lack of self-control), 20 [j]idolatry, [k]sorcery, hostility, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions [that promote heresies], 21 envy, drunkenness, riotous behavior, and other things like these. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the [l]sinful nature together with its passions and appetites.
25 If we [claim to] live by the [Holy] Spirit, we must also walk by the Spirit [with personal integrity, godly character, and moral courage—our conduct empowered by the Holy Spirit]. 26 We must not become conceited, challenging, or provoking one another, envying one another.
Just being on a team that is capable of winning is not enough when you are not winning anything right now. Just having the right to be called a child of God is not enough. We are to walk as Christians in victory over the flesh. We are not walking just to walk, but we are walking to be victorious.
What is Victory? Victory is winning the battle over the attempts by the fleshly part of us to do something that is not consistent with what a Christian does.
Can somebody tell me when was the last time you had a victory in Jesus Christ?
Do we even keep up with what we are doing and monitor our behavior on a daily basis?
I think that I have told you all this before, but at the end of the day when I have settled down and lay down for the night. A highlight of my day appears before me. The good and the bad. How did I talk to my wife, my students that day? Was I kind or harsh? Did I look a person the wrong way? What did I do right that day? Did I slow down and let the person over who probably should have waited in traffic, or do I show them who is boss.
The next day I practice doing better. That is walking in the Spirit. It is not some hocus pocus feeling that we feel for. It is a constant monitoring of our behavior to see how it lines up with the word of God and the Holy Spirit living in our conscious.
The Holy Spirit does not come and go. Jesus said I will not leave you comfortless. I will send the Holy Spirit to you, and He will bring back to your memory what soever thing I have commanded you and low I am with you always even unto the end of the world.
I got this from the Christianity.com Editorial Staff: April 15, 2019,
Take a walk with the Spirit today and learn to know His voice. Whenever your mind is not occupied with the duties of the day, focus your thoughts on Him, asking for His guidance and looking expectantly for His leading. When He gives it, rely on His power to obey.
My wife recently bought me a Fitbit watch. It tells me how many steps I am taking each day. I try to get at least 10k a day and somedays I get more. The goal is to move and not be stationary all day. It is healthier for you. In fact, there is a correlation between how active we are and our lifespan. The older we get; it is the less likely we are to walk. It is the thing that we need to do the most. That is how it is with walking in the Spirit. It is something that we need to do every day, but it is something that fleshly man is least likely to do. We must make conscious effort to walk in the spirit and not after the flesh. To walk in the spirit is to take away energy and life from the flesh. To walk in the flesh is the takeaway energy and life from the spirit. Make a conscious effort to walk after the spirit and you will not fulfill the works of the flesh. Where are you today. Examine yourself to see whether you are doing the things that please God or just your own fleshly desires all day long.
You can be walking in the spirit while going through temptation at the same time. The flesh acts as a villain attacking us in the spirit trying to get us to sin against Christ. But when we respond by walking in the spirit instead, we please the Lord Jesus Christ.
When the flesh says get back at them, walk away
When the flesh says, commit adultery walk in the spirit and get some steps by walk away
That angry driver that wants to cut you off and upset you, pull over and cool off. That is walking and driving in the spirit.
That person who wants to argue about something that is meaningless, get some steps and walk away
After you drink one beer walk away from getting drunk.
When you find yourself at that that party that leads to getting high, partying, and illicit sex, walk away just take one step at a time.
Walk away from being harsh by being gentle instead with your family if you can.
Keep control of yourself and walk away from the person that is so tempting to you or that picture or movie that leads your mind down the wrong road.
God has a spiritual Fitbit watch. Everyman shall give in account for every deed that we have done in the judgement.
What kind of steps are you getting your steps today?
My wife and I have started to count our steps since we got these new apple phones that we are still learning how to operate for over 8 months now. She tries to get 10k steps a day and I try to outdo her each day. I would not say that trying to walk spiritually better than the next Christian is a healthy thing to do because Satan could use that against us. But how about feeling good about yourself. When I physically walk and exercise, I feel better. When I walk in the spirit, I feel better, my conscience is lighter, my burdens are less and the spiritual weight of sin that so easily comes up on me is less likely to stay there and wear me down in the spirit man.
I was reading a blog about my Fitbit watch. One man asked the question about how do I turn off this calorie counter? It says that I am burning calories in my sleep. Someone responded saying why would you want to do that. She said if you are not burning calories, you are dead. It takes calories for your heart to beat and your eyes to move and both are happening when you sleep. As we travel this Christian journey, we are constantly walking in the spirit whether we move or not. We have to walk in our minds, with our eyes and watch what we say as well as what we do. Anytime we are striving to keep from sinning with any part of our lives that is the hard walking,
Where are you today?
We are told to run this spiritual race that is set before us. Running requires having built up muscles from walking and crawling. You have to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run. God does not want us just crawling and walking. He wants us to run as well.
Paul says in Hebrews 12:1-4
1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Do your part to get your steps in today, not just physically, but walking in the Spirit making a conscious effort to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit for your life.
