Since We Live By The Spirit, Let Us Keep In Step With The Spirit

GALATIANS 5:25
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
”‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:25‬ ‭NKJV‬
‬https://www.bible.com/114/gal.5.25.nkj

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We committed believers have the Holy Spirit to lead us through our daily life in His righteousness; He is our helper (JOHN 14:15-18), and our guarantor of salvation (2 CORINTHIANS 1:22; EPHESIANS 1:14).
Our bodies are Temples of the holy Spirit (1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20), and He is with us at first, and later in us (JOHN 14:17).
While He leads us in His righteousness, He does not take away our free will; we all have choice-we can either follow the leading of our flesh, or follow the leading of the Spirit.
Following the leading of the Spirit is not always easy; at times God’s way conflicts with what we think is best for us, and often calls us to let go of people or objects that seem important to us; it can mean a complete change of life style or direction; repentance is to turn from our sinful ways toward God and submit to His direction and will.
God’s number one goal is your salvation, and while we focus on the troubles of today, He looks at the long-term outcome.
While our flesh will seek worldly pleasures, the Holy Spirit leads us in truth and service that will reach out to others, draw them to the Lordship of Christ, and build the church.
Jesus died on a cross to pay our debt of sin; not that we can continue in it; but rather to set us free from the power of sin and death, and free us from all bondage and captivity to serve God and receive the gift of eternal life. “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
‭‭John‬ ‭8:36‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:16-18‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
The devil will constantly bring situations that test your obedience and your faith, because he knows we humans are all to easy sucked in by his evil schemes. Furthermore, we all have a deceitful heart (JEREMIAH 17:9), and it will look for ways to justify sin purely to satisfy our flesh.
The devil knows that if he makes us hungry or desperate enough, we will fall into sin; he particularly draws us into sexual temptation, because it is sin against one’s self and contaminates the whole body (1 CORINTHIANS 6:18).
That is not talking just about an individual, it affects the whole body of Christ, the church.
Therefore Paul tells us, “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But I say this as a concession, not as a commandment. For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”
‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭7:1-9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
Prevention is always better than cure; therefore avoid people, places, and situations that might bring temptation, and equally don’t cause others to slip back by your actions, particularly your spouse. Therefore, in marriage, “Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭7‬:‭5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
My beloved, make others needs as important as your own, especially your spouse, and those of the house of God (GALATIANS 6:10). Make sure that your priorities are correctly placed.
My brethren, only by the leading of the Spirit can we walk in Christ’s righteousness and produce good fruits that shall draw others to the kingdom of God.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:19-25‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
God is interested and wants to be active in every part of our lives, not just the spiritual but the physical too.
If we are going overcome the temptations of the devil, we must submit to the leading of the Spirit in every aspect of life-physical, spiritual, emotional, social, intellectual, and vocational.
Paul tells us because we are saved children of God, we must live accordingly, as disciplined follows of Christ. So “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another (GALATIANS 5:26), for we are all equals in Christ, “For there is no partiality with God (ROMANS 2:11).
‭We all have our own place within the body of Christ, our individual calling, and are all gifted accordingly (1 CORINTHIANS 12:1-11).
When we all follow the leading of the Spirit, we shall walk in righteousness, working together peacefully in unity like a well oiled machine, doing God’s work for the glory of our Father in heaven. For “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:4-6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
But just as in marriage, we believers are not to withhold intimacy from our spouse, so the body of Christ, His bride,must not hold back intimacy from the groom.
That my beloved, is every individual part of the body of Christ. “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.”
‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭12‬-‭14‬ ‭NKJV‬
Furthermore, each member has an individual role to play and falls into at least one of the five categories of Christ ministry. “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬-‭16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
Therefore, just as the church must submit to Christ, so “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭28‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
My beloved, we are all sinners, but because of what Christ has done, “I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭14‬:‭14‬-‭23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
All glory to God forever and ever! Amen