Trusting and Obeying the Leading of the Holy Spirit Results in Our Victory Over Sin.

It has been said that true Christianity is more of a relationship and fellowship with the Living God, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, than a religion simply based on the letter of law. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes.” “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Jesus Christ said, “I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” That is what He did over two thousand ago in his human body by the power of God, and that is what He is doing presently in His universal body (the church) through the power and divine influence of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives. By the way, the righteous requirement of the law is “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.”


Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” He went on to say, “My words are Spirit, and they are life.” The law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, the law (doctrine) of Christ, and the law of liberty are based on a relationship and a fellowship with God around His Word and in His Spirit. All of these divine “laws” are decidedly different from the letter of the law delivered to Moses for the Hebrew's because that law did not only serve as a reminder of their inability to keep it perfectly, it also served as a tutor for them until Christ came and died on the cross and rose from the dead in order to redeem those who where under the curse of the law. This dichotomy was both the frustration of Paul (recorded in Romans 7) and the relief of Paul (expressed in Romans 8).

I have for many years read and heard the phrase, “walk in the Spirit.” Along with this phrase comes the promise “and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” For some reason I have had a hard time knowing what the phrase, “walk in the Spirit,” actually means. It always seemed somewhat ethereal and ambiguous to me. Well, despite my spiritual thickness and stupidity on the subject, I believe that the Lord has recently given me some insights that I would like to share with you in this lesson.

To walk in the Spirit simply means to hear God’s voice and follow His lead. Jesus said, “I know My sheep, and they know Me; they hear My voice, and they follow Me; and another they will not follow.” It was said of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, that he, being a man baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, evangelized the whole country of Ireland by simply praying to God, hearing His directions, and obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit. Thousands of souls where converted from paganism to God by brother Patrick simply praying, hearing God’s voice, and obeying the Lord’s instructions and directions.

On a personal level as it pertains to our sanctification and consecration in God, we too can be saved from the sins that so easily beset us by doing likewise. Praying and obeying God leads to the crucifixition and mortification of the misdeeds of the body. It is through this discipline that those exercised thereby can legitimately testify, “They who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts” because they know and have experienced that “the misdeeds of the body are mortified through the Spirit.”

Jesus told His disciples, “Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The solution to this problem of “weak flesh” is found through communing prayer around God’s Word and in His Spirit because our spirits are strengthened and our flesh is crucified and mortified when we wait on the Lord. This allows us to hear His voice and follow His lead. Apart from the vital disciplines of watching and praying we will remain dominated by the flesh and easily led into temptation.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” To draw near to God requires both a desire and a discipline. It requires a hunger and a thirst after righteousness. Hungry and thirsty men will press through extraordinary circumstances, obstacles, and barriers to have their hunger relieved and their thirst quenched. Therefore, desire is necessary to have our initial needs met, but it alone is not enough. If we want to keep food and drink on our tables, we must exercise the disciplines necessary in order to put food on our tables daily. (Some have called this a strong work ethic.) This is also necessary concerning spiritual things. In order to continue to meet our spiritual needs, we must be industrious and diligent in the spiritual disciples ordained of God to bring us into spiritual strength, prosperity, and health.

Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of Heaven allows pressure, and those who press into it, take it by force.” Paul said, “I press for the mark of the prize of the high call of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.” He also said, “wake up and strengthen the things that remain,” or, if you will, put energy and effort into the things of eternal value, or the things that are of eternal significance.

Jesus promised his followers that those who practice the disciplines of Spirit led covert prayer, fasting, and giving will be rewarded openly by their heavenly Father. So we see that spiritual progress, heavenly rewards, and victory over our sins require a diligent and disciplined spiritual work ethic on our part. This is why Paul tells us “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God who is working in you both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.” Let’s get with it and stick with it, my brothers and sisters, until we win a decisive victory over the sins that so easily beset us. “Let us therefore labor that we may enter into rest.” “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” but remember, “if a man does not work he should not eat.” Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Our work is to consistently and continuously come to and remain in Him. If we will learn to do so in a disciplined way, it will result in a divine rest from the burden of our sins and a great overcoming victory in Him. The grace of God surely teaches us this. Amen!