Practical Life in the Spirit
1.
Love – Love God and love your neighbour as
yourself
In
the words of Jesus:
Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[Dt
6:4-5] 31 The
second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[Lev 19:18] There
is no commandment greater than these.”
We know that God is love and that He loved us
so much that He sent is one and only son to die for us – Jesus, out of love,
took our sins upon himself and died for us so that we will have eternal life –
this is the truth!
As God loves us so we must love others – this
too is fact! If we live in love in Christ Jesus, then we live in God and He in
us!
1 John 4:16 (NLT)
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
Galatians 5:13-14 (NLT)
13 For you have been called to live in freedom,
my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful
nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be
summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
In 1
Corinthians 13:1-3 Paul tells us that if we can fathom all things but don’t
have the love of God, then we are just empty vessels that clang and amount to
nothing.
2.
Be like Jesus
The Bible encourages us to be like Jesus and
walk as he walked, follow him and imitate him. Jesus walked continually in the
Spirit. Therefore, to be obedient, so must we.
1 John 2:6 (NLT)
Those who say they live in God should live their
lives as Jesus did.
In the next verse we are told to be imitators
of God, because just like Jesus, we are his sons and daughters.
Ephesians 5:1-2 (NLT)
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do,
because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example
of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a
pleasing aroma to God.
Galatians 3:26-27 (NIV)
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of
God through faith, 27 for
all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ.
God didn’t call us to be like other
Christians, He called us to be like Jesus. Jesus is the only example that we as
born-again Christians should be following. No matter how godly any man may be,
he is still not worthy to be followed (worshipped) in place of our Saviour!
3.
Be readers and studiers of the Word
If you don’t know God’s Word, then it stands
to reason that you don’t know God’s ways for Jesus is the Word.
John 1:14 (NLT)
So the Word became human and made his
home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have
seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
James 1:23-25 (NIV)
23 Anyone
who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks
at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself,
goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But
whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and
continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be
blessed in what they do.
When we are doers of the Word and are walking
in the Spirit:
· We become more Christlike
· We don’t forget who God created us to be
4. Be light in the darkness· We live in complete freedom
· We will be blessed in whatever we do
· We do not gratify the flesh but move in the Spirit as Jesus did
Galatians 5:16-18 (NIV)
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 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. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
5. Believe in Jesus – believe in the WordWhen you are outside your “Church” environment do you shine for Jesus or do you allow yourself to be swallowed up by the darkness of the world? When we follow Jesus, he expects us to have the light of life all the time just as he does, and to let that light shine in the darkness. When we walk in the Spirit, our light will shine without us even having to think about it. It will be a part of our natural lifestyle just as it was with Jesus.
John 8:12 (NIV)
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
What is interesting in the above verse is that Jesus says that we shall not walk in darkness and we shall have the light of life. These are factual statements of truth that all believers need to appropriate. It is the truth that sets us free!
John 12:44-46 (NIV)
44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
When we believe in Jesus, and believe what is written in the Word, from our hearts, it is credited to us as righteousness. Righteousness is believing God in faith.
Genesis 15:6 (NLT)
And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
Without believing in Jesus it is impossible for us to produce any form of righteousness.
Romans 3:10 (KJV)
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
The Bible through the Apostle Paul clearly tells us that righteousness is something that we should fervently pursue!
2 Timothy 2:22 (NIV)
Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
So, if we are unable to produce righteousness on our own, where does our righteousness come from?
It is imputed to us from what Jesus did for us when he died for us on the cross. Through His atoning sacrifice and death on the cross we are able to become righteous before God. It is only the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from sin.
Philippians 1:11 (NLT)
May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 John 1:9 (KJV)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Only the perfection of Christ could have accomplished this work. Only Jesus could have lived a perfect, obedient, and sinless life. Only Jesus could have atoned for the sins of His people. Only the righteous ones of Christ – a righteousness which he has imputed to us - will enter His Kingdom.
Matthew 5:20 (NIV)
For I tell you that unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly
not enter the kingdom of heaven.
To put this little section into perspective as
far as ‘Life in the Spirit’ goes, let’s look again at the first part of Philippians 1:11 above, and in
particular the phrase ‘the fruit of your
salvation’.
What is the fruit of our salvation? What does
the Lord himself tell us about our fruit?
Matthew 7:17-19
17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad
tree produces bad fruit. 18 A
good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good
fruit. 19 So
every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the
fire.
So, the fruit of our salvation is the bearing
of good fruit and this good fruit looks like this:
Galatians 5:16, 22-25 (NIV)
16So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you
will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
TO JESUS BELONGS ALL GLORY, HONOUR AND PRAISE!
Next week: Part 2: Practical life in the Spirit continued.
An extract from my book: Fan Into Flame: Life in the Spirit available on Amazon Paperback:
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