But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. – Galatians 5

This week I want us to think about how God’s transformation works in us.  I do mean transformation.  God isn’t just wanting to tweak us.  He is wanting to transform us.  Yet, how does He do it?  We know that He saves us by His grace, by Paul’s message in several letters is captured here succinctly in Galatians 5: walk by the Spirit. We have been made alive by the Spirit of God.  Now, do we live by that Spirit in our everyday lives or do we go back to living in the flesh?  What kind of logic is it for Spirit born people to live in the flesh?

Paul says in Colossians, “in them you also once walked, when you were living in them…since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.”  We, “once walked,” in the flesh.  Now?  Now, we are living in the Spirit.  We have put on the new self.  We are being renewed by the true knowledge of Christ.

What is our part in this renewal?  Our part is a choice: do we live our life day to day as people who walk in the Spirit or as people who still do things for only natural reasons?  Doing things for natural reasons is familiar, even comforting.  Yet, does living by the flesh make us better?  Does it make us more in step with Christ?  Are we more connected to things that really matter when our thoughts are just natural?  Of course, the answer to all of these questions no.  We need the Spirit to be more than natural.  We need the Spirit to connect us to the things that really matter.  We need the Spirit to give us power, strength, hope, peace and life.  God asks us to choose to walk by the Spirit.  He has made us alive in Christ for eternity.  He wants to make us alive everyday. Paul challenges us to walk by the Spirit.  It is really the only good choice.  Living in the flesh only leads to death.  It is because of the flesh Jesus had to die.  So, live by the Spirit and see life come into your everyday walk.
Something to think about,
Pastor John