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"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
(Galatians 5:16)
Our God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—is the awesome God! What a joy and blessing it is this week to share with you messages on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. He is not some force or lesser person in the Godhead. He is the eternal, uncreated, third person in the Trinity. I have noticed two extremes related to the Holy Spirit: things attributed to Him that are not of Him, and not recognizing Him for who He is and what He does. For the former, many abuses, extremes, and blame have been associated with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will never do anything that is contradicted by the Bible, the Book He wrote. As for the latter, in some Christian circles, the Spirit is not properly emphasized due to a fear of extremes. May God grant us a healthy, biblical theology of who the Spirit is and how He has worked and continues to work in the world today.
Apart from the Holy Spirit, there is no salvation, sanctification, spiritual fruit, or gifts. He illuminates our minds so we can understand the Bible. Pastor Stanley said when he was a child, they only read from the King James Version. When the Holy Spirit was referred to as the Holy Ghost, that frightened him! But the Holy Spirit is not to be feared in that way at all. He is to be known, worshiped, and loved as the other two Persons, Father and Son, are as well. You cannot interpret the Bible and serve God without the Holy Spirit working in your life.
I love our focal text this week: Galatians 5:16 states, "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are saved, sealed by the Spirit. The Spirit of God comes in us, but our salvation does not remove the tendency to do something outside of God's will for us. We still live in these human bodies, and there are inner desires that are not godly, and we have to deal with them daily. Galatians 5:25 says, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." As we will notice later on this week, walking in the Spirit is not a day-by-day occurrence; rather, it is a moment-by-moment activity.
It is so neat how we are introduced to the Spirit of God in the second verse in the Bible! Genesis 1:2 states, "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." In Genesis 1:26 we read, "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image.'" Here we see the first reference to the Trinity. Other verses that teach us who the Holy Spirit are John 14:16-17, 26: "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you...But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."
The Bible has much to say and teach us about the Holy Spirit! What a joy, blessing, and privilege it is to study who the Spirit is and how He works.
Will you pause for a moment and ask the Spirit of God to continue to open your eyes, so you understand Him better? Ask Him to teach you how you can better walk with Him and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Praise God for the Holy Spirit who gives us power to live the Christian life.
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