The Sheer Wonder of God’s Plan // Walking in the Spirit, Part 4

Christianityworks Official Podcast

Each person who believes in Jesus has a battle going on inside. Between the desires of the flesh, and the work of the Holy Spirit. Each one. Sometimes we feel as though it’s a battle we’re losing, even though we’ve already won. How can we actually live out that victory? How can we walk in in the Spirit?

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

One of the most encouraging things God has ever said to me in His Word, the Bible, the most powerful thing I think, is that He is not surprised or perturbed or put off His purposes for me, one little bit, because of my sin. I mean, He doesn’t like it; He doesn’t want it to be the norm in my life but it is no surprise to Him. How do I know that? Well, simple. The Apostle Paul writes that very thing in the Book of Romans, beginning at Romans chapter 7, verse 22. Paul says of himself:

Look, I delight in the law of God in my innermost self but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who is going to rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

And this is from a man who wrote almost half the books in the New Testament – Paul the Apostle. And you know what Paul was going through is exactly the same thing that you and I go through. There’s a war going on between our flesh (the original Greek word for ‘flesh’ is ‘carne’, from which we get ‘carnal’ – right?) and the work of the Spirit in us.

And that battle can get us so down – it seems some days as though we are never going to win the battle – but Jesus has already won. “Who is going to save this wretch from this body of sin and death?” asks Paul, “Thanks be to God, Jesus Christ our Lord.” And that’s the fantastic news I want to share with you today. Are you ready for it?

One of the things I don’t hear much chatter about in Christian circles is this reality of the battle that is raging within us between the flesh and the spirit. And when I finally go to be with the Lord, I want to find Paul and thank him for being so direct and honest and real about this reality in his life. He tells us here in Romans chapter 7, that he knows the right things to do – I mean he even wants to do them – he just can’t seem to do them. That’s the problem. Not that he doesn’t know, not that he doesn’t want to, but that he just can’t.

And our mate Paul wasn’t some woos. He was no airy fairy weakling. Paul was tough as nails when he had to be. He was driven, he was focused, he was an achiever, he poured out his life for the Gospel and even he had this very same problem.

Can I go on record and say I had this very same problem happening in me? And I know, I know absolutely, that you had the same thing going on in you. That’s why church is never perfect because it’s full of people like you and me – people who are growing and improving and changing but people who are, never the less, a lot like Paul.

And his answer to everything is the grace and the power of Jesus Christ. I am going to share with you now what he goes on to say about how to win this battle that rages between the flesh and the spirit because the answer has everything to do with the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Are you ready to settle down and join me for this wonderful passage? Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 1. He comes straight of the back of this problem that he is talking about and says, look:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from this law of sin and death. Because God has done what the law, weakened by our flesh, simply could not do: by sending Jesus, his Son in the likeness of our sinful flesh to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk, not according to the flesh any more but according to the Spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those of us who live according to the Spirit, we set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh, frankly, is death, but to set our minds on the Spirit, that is life and peace. It is for this reason that the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh simply cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ in them, does not belong to God. But if Christ is in you, though the body might be dead because of our sin, the Spirit is life because of God’s righteousness.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit that dwells in you. So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to our flesh, to live according to the desires of our flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you will put to death the deeds of the body and you will live.

I love this! Because what it is saying is: look, boys and girls, I don’t care how bad things are, God’s not going to condemn you if you put your trust in Jesus. “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Your slate has been wiped clean and that is your starting point of your relationship with God.

But now we have to deal with this battle that everybody has between the desires of the flesh and the work of the Holy Spirit in you. And the way we do that is by sorting out what we really want. Do you really want to follow the nasty desires of your humanity – greed, anger, sexual immorality, hatred, selfishness? Is that what you really want for your life? And if it is, then set your mind on that and that’s what you are going to get! If that is what you set your heart on, friend, it’s going to kill you.

But if you set your mind and your heart and your desires and your focus and your attention on the Holy Spirit, that’s going to bring you life. Your body may well be dead in sin, but set your heart and your desires on Christ and you will have life. Seems to me that whatever we set our hearts on; whatever we turn over and over in our minds, it’s what we end up living. Set your heart and your mind on the Spirit of God and you will end up walking in the Spirit.

Elsewhere in writing to his friends at Philippi, Paul puts it this way, really powerful. Philippians chapter 4, beginning at verse 8. He says, look:

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just and pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, then think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me and the God of peace will be with you.

You see, our thoughts are where our actions come from. And that’s something effectively, that you and I already know. I am in the process at the moment of shedding a few kilos of weight and often times I would just love not to go out for a walk after work and miss out on that calorie burning exercise. And often times I think, “Gee, look at that piece of cake. That would be nice for morning tea.” Do you know what keeps me on track? I keep thinking about what it will be like when I reach my target weight.

God has already given His Holy Spirit to each person who has put their trust in Jesus. We already have the Spirit of God – we have the power. What God is calling us to do here is to turn that over and over in our minds; to keep focused on that; to keep thinking about how wonderful it will be when we finally overcome our anger or overcome our selfishness or whatever it is that’s plaguing our lives. If there is anything commendable or excellent or praiseworthy, think about those things and the result of that is that we will end up doing the things that we have learned and received and heard from God.

Thinking comes before walking. And so when it comes to walking in the Spirit and seeing the power and the blessings of that walk flow out into our lives, all we need to do is to set our hearts and minds and desires on the Holy Spirit and discover that by doing that we engage His power – the power to do the things that, in our own strength, we simply could never do.

It’s good news, hey?

CHILDREN OF GOD

One of the greatest blessings in my life was my parents. Now, no one’s parents are perfect and I know there are a small percentage of them who are absolutely horrendous. But what I got from my parents as I grew up in the Dymet family, in the small but comfortable home just south of Sydney in Australia, was safety and security and nurture. And I try to imagine sometimes what it would be like to be a child growing up in fear – afraid of being beaten, afraid of being abused, afraid because they are completely alone.

Sadly many, many children grow up like that. Their parents have died or they live in poverty, completely alone. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in fear as a child – at a time when you are weak and vulnerable and defenceless. There is something precious about belonging to a family. We are made to need that sense of belonging and frankly, we are not made to live in fear.

Over these last few weeks we have been chatting about walking in the Spirit; living our lives and journey in the presence and the comfort and the guidance and the nurture and the blessing of God Himself because His Spirit dwells in us. God Himself dwelling in us! And today we are going to finish off by looking at the powerful sense of family and belonging that comes through walking in the Spirit.

Earlier we were chatting about how to walk in the Spirit – laying hold of the Spirit, rather than the desires of our flesh in our day to day walk. And it comes down to this one simple thing, according to God’s Word:

… 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. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. It is for this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

It’s about where we set our minds and what we desire in our hearts. It’s a powerful thing! Because when we set our hearts and minds on God; on the Holy Spirit, it’s like putting a car into gear and letting out the clutch. By faith we are engaging the power of the Spirit! And there are two other things that the Apostle Paul has to say about walking in the Spirit. The first … the first of those has to do with family, belonging to God’s family. If you have got a Bible, open it. Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 14. He says:

For all who are led by the Spirit are children of God. See, you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry out, “Abba! Father!”, it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are in fact, children of God and if children, then we are heirs, we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – since we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

See, the Spirit of God in us witnesses the truth to us, that we have been adopted into God’s family. When we give the Holy Spirit full sway in our hearts, through Him we know that we know that we know that we know that we are children of God – precious in His sight. And here is the thing about being a child: what happens whether we live with our natural parents or whether we have been adopted into a family, is that we take on many of the traits and the mannerism of our parents.

You may have heard me tell this story before but I remember the first time I saw myself interviewed on television – I was completely gob-smacked at how much I was like my father. The mannerisms, the way I spoke … it just completely blew me away. How could this be? Well, because he’s my dad and some of the things I had inherited genetically from him and others, without ever realising, I had learned by mimicking him over the years. I was an absolute revelation to me.

As we come to the realisation that God is our Father; that you and I are His children, I have to tell you, exactly the same thing happens. We start looking like Him and sounding like Him and thinking like Him and loving like Him and sacrificing like Him – right? And that’s what is meant to happen. Being a child of God takes the fear away from our lives – the fear of being alone, the fear of not belonging – because when we are adopted back into God’s family (which is actually where we were always meant to be in the first place) we know the blessedness of having God as our Father. And when we cry out to Him, “Father”, “Abba”, “Dad”, right then and there the Holy Spirit tells us that we are His kids.

But secondly, children aren’t just children. Children are heirs and in this case, we are co-heirs with Christ when we put our faith in Him. In other words, walking in the Spirit gives us the certainty that we have a destiny … an eternal destiny. Let’s go on and read the second part, beginning at Romans chapter 8, verse 17. Paul goes on to write. He says, look:

… if we are children of God, then we are heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ – since we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits in eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation has been subjected to this futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning like…..like in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for this adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved.

So, Paul is saying, look, indeed there is going to be suffering – Jesus suffered, we certainly will but because the Holy Spirit is in us every moment of every day, we know that we have a destiny … an eternal destiny. As we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need fear no evil, because God is with us and He is witnessing to us that we have a future – not just here on this earth, but a future with Him for all eternity.

One day this world as we know it will cease to exist. One day you and I will no longer be alive on this planet and when either of those two eventualities takes place – whichever one happens to come first, we will spend the rest of eternity with God if we have placed our faith in Jesus today. We will be there with Jesus, so the suffering we are travelling through just doesn’t compare to the glory of our eternity with God. Anyone who walks in the Spirit as the days and the weeks and the years pass by, knows that more and more in their hearts because the Spirit of God speaks it to us in a way that it becomes a part of us.

Friend, walking in the Spirit is about experiencing the presence and the power and the promises of God. Let me say that again – walking in the Spirit is about experiencing the presence and the power and the promises of God. And that happens when we yield our lives to Jesus and set our hearts and our minds and our hopes and our dreams and our passions and our desires on the things of God; the things of the Spirit, rather than on the things of this world. And a huge part of that is setting our hearts on the destiny we have because of Jesus.

And all of a sudden – and many of you figured this out way, way before I ever did – then all of a sudden we get the things of this world into perspective – the pleasures and the pains, the triumphs and the trials. We walk through each and every experience with power and peace, focused on the end-game; focused on the reality that we are saved in Jesus Christ; we are here to do His work; we are here to sacrifice our lives for Him. And one day we will be there with Him for all eternity, to worship Him and to rejoice with Him in His glory. Friend, that is God’s plan – nothing more, nothing less – for those who choose to walk in the Spirit. Hey, that’s quite a plan, isn’t it?

GLORY, GLORY, GLORY!!

So let me ask you – this fantastic stuff we have been talking about, not just today but over the last few weeks on the programme – is it just all too much to believe? Do you look around sometimes and think, “Yea, well, maybe for that preacher on the radio, maybe that stuff is happing in that guy’s life, but mine … holy good night!” If you are thinking that right now, you wouldn’t be alone and from time to time, to tell you the honest truth, that’s how I feel too.

You see, things happen in your life and you think to yourself, “Is God really in this place?” Well, seems the Holy Spirit knew exactly what you and I would be thinking when He had Paul pen Roman chapter 8. Have a listen with me. Just let the wonder of God’s Word melt into your heart. Listen as though He had Paul write this for you, because you know what, He actually did. Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 18. Paul says, look:

… the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. … For in hope we were saved. And hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what they can see? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

So the Spirit helps us in our weakness; because we do not know how to pray as we should, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, and for those who are called according to his purpose … What then should we say about these things? If God is for us, who can possibly be against us? … Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … I am convinced that neither death, or life, or angels, or rulers, anything in the present, anything in the future, no power, no height, no depth; nothing else in all creation, will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What is God saying? He is telling it just the way it is. There will be suffering and pain and all that stuff, but right here in the middle of this, the Holy Spirit is interceding for us; right here in the middle of this mess, God Himself is working things out together for good; working things out for His glory. And this Apostle Paul who went through all of the things he lists here – all of them: hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword – has experienced the presence of God, the very Spirit of God, right there with him in the middle of all that stuff.

And as a result, because of that experience, he is convinced absolutely nothing: not death, nor life, not angels, nor rulers, things in the present, things to come, powers, height, depth … nothing in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. Halleluiah!!

Friend, this is what it means to be filled to overflowing in the wondrous Spirit of God. It’s what it means to be baptised in the Spirit, drenched in the Spirit, drowned and changed and transformed in the Spirit. To live life, all of life, all of the ups and downs – two steps forward, three steps back – in the certain knowledge God is here in this place with us. God’s Spirit is at work in us, changing us, cleaning us, pruning us, growing us. Halleluiah!!

Friend, it takes power to live as Christ. It takes power to forgive as Christ forgave those who crucified Him. “Forgive them Father, they don’t know what they are doing,” as they gambled over the very clothes on His back. And it takes that very same power – the power of the cross; the power that raised Jesus from the dead – that same power that is alive and effective in you and me as we yield our lives to Jesus, as we are filled with the Holy Spirit just as Jesus promised.

Isn’t that what you want for your life? Well, in Christ it’s yours!