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corvet786c
04-11-2011, 09:49 AM
I read a post earlier asking if we sin, but what eactly is walking in the spirit, How do we stay in the spirit and not let the fleah take over? Also what is the Flesh is Romans chapt 6 talking about the sinful nature?? I wanna always please God Someone help me!!

mfblume
04-11-2011, 10:01 AM
I always wanted to know that as well, and prayed and prayed, and the Lord blessed me!

Walking after/in the Spirit is leaning on the Spirit for empowerment in order to please God in a real Christian life.

Romans 7:6 says that it is not enough to know we must serve God. We are shown there is serving God after the letter of the law, and serving God in newness of Spirit.

Romans 7:6 KJV But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.


Paul then explains how there is a struggle when a person wants to do the will of God but cannot find it in his/her flesh to perform that will of God.

Romans 7:18 KJV For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.


This frustration is due to walking in the flesh to serve God. That is what oldness of the letter meant. All they had in Old Testament times was fleshly ability, since God did not empower them with Spirit baptism in those days. And they failed miserably. But believers today also fail if they try to serve God today using fleshly effort alone. You can have God's Spirit and power in you, but if you do not know it's there to empower you as a result of your prayers, you will continue to try your human best to do His will and fail. That is why Romans 6 repeats the question, "Know ye not?"

This is called walking after the flesh. Notice how Paul uses the term FLESH in these verses:

Romans 7:25-8:1 KJV I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (8:1) There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.


Since serving God with the mind is useless alone, since our efforts to use the FLESH to fulfill that will of God do not work (compare 7:18 with 7:25), Paul says to STOP WALKING AFTER THAT FLESH. When we use fleshly effort to fulfill the will of God that our minds want to do, we fail and fail and fail. Paul summarized verse 18 in verse 25. So Paul says to not walk after that flesh that we try to use to fulfill what our minds desire to do. Instead, walk after the Spirit.

And this brings us to your question. Walking after the flesh is trying in human effort alone to do the will of God that your mind wills to do. But walking after the Spirit is having faith in the Spirit of God to quicken or empower you to do the will of God. It is basically what Romans 6:13 is telling us to do:

Romans 6:13 KJV Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.


Actually pray for God to give you power to do His will, instead of just going ahead and trying to do His will in your human abilities. Many do not even realize THEY CAN ASK GOD TO GIVE THEM POWER to do His will! This is called walking after the Spirit.

Walking after something is living by it. So we are either living by our fleshly will power (walking after the flesh) or by the Spirit (walking after/in the Spirit).

When we resort to God's Spirit to give us power, as we present ourselves in faith for Him to do so, HE WILL ANSWER! But it takes time to really get this in our blood and always lean on the Spirit to do His will, since it is so easy to slip back into natural instinct and try doing His will in human effort alone without reliance on His Spirit.

There's much more, but that is a start!

mfblume
04-11-2011, 10:02 AM
"The flesh" is our humanity, basically. And in our humanity dwells the sinful nature. If we do not seek after God for strength and KEEP THE BODY UNDER, we will find this fleshliness drive us to do wrong.

Check out the last few posts on this thread for a discussion about this very topic you raise:

http://apostolicfriendsforum.com/showthread.php?t=34423

scotty
04-11-2011, 10:08 AM
Acts 9:31
Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

Romans 8 4-6
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

mfblume
04-11-2011, 10:10 AM
Acts 9:31
Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

Romans 8 4-6
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Amen!

Great passages!

People think walking after the flesh means they are sinning and lying and committing fornication and adultery. They are indeed FLESHLY things. lol. But Paul was trying to say that exerting fleshly effort to do His will is also waking after the flesh. When we set our minds on fleshly things, the context is talking about thinking of serving God USING FLESHLY MIGHT. It's not by power nor by might, but but God's Spirit! :woohoo

corvet786c
04-11-2011, 01:07 PM
Amen!

Great passages!

People think walking after the flesh means they are sinning and lying and committing fornication and adultery. They are indeed FLESHLY things. lol. But Paul was trying to say that exerting fleshly effort to do His will is also waking after the flesh. When we set our minds on fleshly things, the context is talking about thinking of serving God USING FLESHLY MIGHT. It's not by power nor by might, but but God's Spirit! :woohoo

So what do we have to do in order to please God. What you are saying is scary. I try to renew my mind daily, but its hard. I dont want to be decieved and then end up in hell.

mfblume
04-11-2011, 01:33 PM
So what do we have to do in order to please God. What you are saying is scary. I try to renew my mind daily, but its hard. I dont want to be decieved and then end up in hell.

We pray and ask the Spirit of God to empower us and lead us to do His will. Ask Him to use us that day and cause circumstances to occur where we can be of use to His Kingdom. We cannot be deceived if we are simply asking Him to give us the grace to do His will instead of trying in our human efforts and contrivances. Like Jesus said about knowing what to say when the hour comes, we will know what we must do when He wants us to know it.

Renewing our minds is really only changing the way we think about how we try OUR best and depend upon fleshly power rather than rely on the leading of God instead. It is just that we know we need to please God in a life lived for Him, but we are not contriving what we should do on our own ingenuity, or using fleshly strength to do it. We just ask Him for help and He helps!

Living in the Spirit requires faith. Most never experience it since they're so used to running the show in their own ingenuity and strength. But you believe what you pray for will come to pass, after you pray for Him to lead you. He will keep us on the strait and narrow if we ask Him to! If we go astray He will let us know one way or another.

It is scary after we have run our lives ourselves without reliance on Him. It's like turning the stearing wheel to someone else when you've been used to driving yourself. But we have to let go of RELIGION and grow into a real relationship with Him!

corvet786c
04-11-2011, 02:08 PM
Forgive me for my questions but, Let me get to the point, I have been saved for 17yrs and yes I always pray for Gods will, but I sin and am scared sometimes. What am I missing?? Sometimes I do give into temptations. I admit. Am I just too human? Can you explain the diffrence. I wanna make sure I always walk in the spirit.Can you just give me advise. I dont go to a church.

mfblume
04-11-2011, 02:15 PM
Forgive me for my questions but, Let me get to the point, I have been saved for 17yrs and yes I always pray for Gods will, but I sin and am scared sometimes. What am I missing?? Sometimes I do give into temptations. I admit. Am I just too human? Can you explain the diffrence. I wanna make sure I always walk in the spirit.Can you just give me advise. I dont go to a church.

First of all you need to go to a church. lol. You need to find a good church that feeds your spirit with indepth teaching and preaching. If you sorta refuse to attend a church there is not much more I can tell you. Getting with saints and believers of likeminded faith and regularly allowing the five-fold ministry (Eph 4:11) to equip you with spiritual understanding is simply God's plan for us to grow and mature so we can be used of God ourselves. He planned for birds to be in flocks and lions to be in prides and Christians to be in the Ecclesia (church). Just no way around it. And without belonging to a body of believers, we're like a finger cut off the body, and consider what happens to the body without a finger and what happens to a finger without the body. The finger cannot even live.

So it is a matter of how opposed or not you are to becoming part of a church body. We cannot survive without sinning if we are not even following God's plan for the members to be involved with other members. I do not mean it has to be a church building but even house meetings. SOMETHING where you are growing with others and regularly getting together for Word of God and worship.

corvet786c
04-11-2011, 02:18 PM
First of all you need to go to a church. lol. You need to find a good church that feeds your spirit with indepth teaching and preaching. If you sorta refuse to attend a church there is not much more I can tell you. Getting with saints and believers of likeminded faith and regularly allowing the five-fold ministry (Eph 4:11) to equip you with spiritual understanding is simply God's plan for us to grow and mature so we can be used of God ourselves. He planned for birds to be in flocks and lions to be in prides and Christians to be in the Ecclesia (church). Just no way around it. And without belonging to a body of believers, we're like a finger cut off the body, and consider what happens to the body without a finger and what happens to a finger without the body. The finger cannot even live.

So it is a matter of how opposed or not you are to becoming part of a church body. We cannot survive without sinning if we are not even following God's plan for the members to be involved with other members. I do not mean it has to be a church building but even house meetings. SOMETHING where you are growing with others and regularly getting together for Word of God and worship.

Alright Thanks alot, you have been very helpful to me.

riverslivnwtr
04-11-2011, 07:43 PM
I read a post earlier asking if we sin, but what eactly is walking in the spirit, How do we stay in the spirit and not let the fleah take over? Also what is the Flesh is Romans chapt 6 talking about the sinful nature?? I wanna always please God Someone help me!!



I too longed to walk in the Spirit..the bible says indeed that if you do you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh....This remained a desire of mines for many years..Peter says that we are given many exceeding great and precious promises that by which we may partake of the divine nature.... many of these promises are not possible to obtain except by the grace of God....

I say wait on God...If you are serious wait on him..expect him to come to you..and give you what you need...You have to be looking for him, expecting ...in a moment in an instant you will be surprised exceedingly with great joy when he does....I assume you have been filled with the Holy Spirit..if that is they case then you belong to him..Solomon says in his proverbs yo have to cry after knowledge calling for wisdom.....

Jesus called them pearls...My first pearl even before I was baptized in the Holy Ghost or even knew about him was John 15:7.......funny thing that was in 1977-78, but I didn't realize until after God began to give me those pearls in 1991...but in all the years in between was the desire for those things that you mention...:happydance yeah you will :happydance

Purple
04-12-2011, 01:39 AM
First of all you need to go to a church. lol. You need to find a good church that feeds your spirit with indepth teaching and preaching. If you sorta refuse to attend a church there is not much more I can tell you. Getting with saints and believers of likeminded faith and regularly allowing the five-fold ministry (Eph 4:11) to equip you with spiritual understanding is simply God's plan for us to grow and mature so we can be used of God ourselves. He planned for birds to be in flocks and lions to be in prides and Christians to be in the Ecclesia (church). Just no way around it. And without belonging to a body of believers, we're like a finger cut off the body, and consider what happens to the body without a finger and what happens to a finger without the body. The finger cannot even live.

So it is a matter of how opposed or not you are to becoming part of a church body. We cannot survive without sinning if we are not even following God's plan for the members to be involved with other members. I do not mean it has to be a church building but even house meetings. SOMETHING where you are growing with others and regularly getting together for Word of God and worship.

:thumbsup

Austin
04-12-2011, 04:44 AM
I read a post earlier asking if we sin, but what eactly is walking in the spirit, How do we stay in the spirit and not let the fleah take over? Also what is the Flesh is Romans chapt 6 talking about the sinful nature?? I wanna always please God Someone help me!!


It's very simply. You walk in the newness of life as God's spirit created you when you had your born again experience. Most Pentecostals don't teach being born again but never the less that's exactly what happen to your spirit when you repented and turned toward the Lord Jesus with all of your heart. At that moment your spirit was changed and made new and translated into the kingdom of God. It is that portion of your being that the book of John states, That which is born of god doth not commit sin because His seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin. It means to realize who you now have become in Jesus. That you have passed from life through death and reborn to life after the image of Him[ Jesus ]. So walk you in that newness of life. Others scriptures Paul states to be filled with the Spirit. This is another way the Lord helps us to have the power to walk in this newness of life. People need to come to the revelation of who and what they have become through the power of God to have victory over all things pertaining to the flesh.

Jimmyjay
04-12-2011, 05:26 AM
So what do we have to do in order to please God. What you are saying is scary. I try to renew my mind daily, but its hard. I dont want to be decieved and then end up in hell.

Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Act 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Act 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Mar 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Mar 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mar 16:18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

mfblume
05-07-2011, 08:31 PM
I like how THE MESSAGE Bible brings out these key points in Romans:

Romans 7:17-8:2 MSG But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! (18) I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. (19) I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. (20) My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. (21) It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. (22) I truly delight in God's commands, (23) but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. (24) I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? (25) The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. (8:1) With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. (2) A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

mfblume
05-07-2011, 08:37 PM
Walking after the flesh is doing things in our own power. Walking after the Spirit is focusing on God's Spirit in us and realizing His power working in us is our answer! I do not know if anyone dislikes THE MESSAGE Bible, but it hits the mark dead-on with this issue in Romans!

Romans 8:4-10 MSG And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us [walk after the Spirit]. (5) Those who think they can do it on their own (those who are after the flesh) end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them--living and breathing God! (6) Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. (7) Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. (8) And God isn't pleased at being ignored. (9) But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. (10) But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells--even though you still experience all the limitations of sin--you yourself experience life on God's terms.


WOW, what a great translation of the THOUGHTS of Romans!

NotforSale
05-08-2011, 12:17 AM
I read a post earlier asking if we sin, but what eactly is walking in the spirit, How do we stay in the spirit and not let the fleah take over? Also what is the Flesh is Romans chapt 6 talking about the sinful nature?? I wanna always please God Someone help me!!

Walking in the Spirit is accepting the fact that Humans fail. The minute we think otherwise is the minute we fall headlong into Hypocrisy and false doctrine.

Religion carries the illusion that we can become Righteous, and Organized Faith does far more damage than people realize. When people gather together under the assumption that the building is full of people who don't sin, IMO, the Spirit is gone.

Jesus Christ enters the place that is honest about their weaknesses, and this includes all who walk through the doors of a Church or place of Worship. Just stay honest, and your heart will adjust in His timing. We all go through Seasons of Change, and God understands our inability to be on the mark every day of our life.

mfblume
05-09-2011, 09:04 AM
Walking after the Spirit or in the Spirit is simply realizing we cannot cut it on our own. We cannot do it ourselves. We need to seek the empowerment of the Spirit to work in us to have us succeed. This takes much learning because our instinct is to TRY OUR BEST, and that will not work. that is the do-it-yourself manner and it fails. So, again, walking after the Spirit is thinking in spiritual terms of how we need God's power or else our do-it-yourself methods will fail every time. That is what Paul was relating when he used the term walking in/after the spirit.