Turning Point

Guest (Male): Your Christian walk isn't meant to be a solo hike done under your own power. It's meant to be done in a trusting partnership with the Holy Spirit.

Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah considers what it means to walk in the Spirit, fully relying on God at every step of your journey. From The Holy Spirit You May Not Know, here is David to introduce his important message, Walking in the Spirit.

Dr. David Jeremiah: And let me report that in this new book that we are releasing for those of you who will send a gift this month, the book The Holy Spirit You May Not Know, there's a whole chapter entitled Walking in the Spirit that includes everything I'm going to say today and a bunch of other things that will be helpful to you.

Walking in the Spirit, one step at a time. That's how we walk with God, one step at a time. You know, that's a hard lesson to learn. We are always several steps ahead, but God has promised to be there for us through His Spirit, one step at a time. We'll talk about it in just a moment.

And the book I mentioned is available to you for a gift of any size during the month of June. We want you to have this third book in the trilogy on God. We have written a book called The God You May Not Know, The Jesus You May Not Know, and this third one is the final one in the trinity series, The Holy Spirit You May Not Know.

You can get a copy of The Holy Spirit You May Not Know for a gift of any size to Turning Point. That's all you have to do is send a gift and say, please send me the book on the Holy Spirit. And you can inquire about the trilogy by just going to our website or giving us a call and we'll give you the information about that. You can get that as well. Walking in the Spirit is the only way you can make it through life with joy in your heart. So let's find out about it right now as we open our Bibles to Galatians chapter five, and this is part one of Walking in the Spirit.

If you've ever watched the halftime show at a basketball game, you know how hard they try to keep everything entertaining for the crowd during that period. There are Frisbee-catching dogs and trampoline dunkers and even dancing unicyclists. But at a recent Las Vegas Aces game, the stars of the show were two feet tall and still in diapers.

It was the baby crawl race. Ten little ones lined up at the free-throw line while parents waved toys and rattled keys and made noises they'd never make in public anywhere else. The crowd was roaring, the players on the bench were laughing, and then something unexpected happened. One baby girl stopped crawling halfway across the floor. She wobbled for a moment as if she couldn't decide what to do next.

And then to everyone's amazement, the little toddler stood up. Cameras came out, the whole arena held their breath. She took one uncertain step and then another, and suddenly she was walking right into her mother's arms. Every parent remembers that moment, but never in public like that. And the Bible talks about another kind of walk.

It's interesting that in the Bible, the terminology that is used to help us understand truth is not difficult. It's easy to understand because it comes from our own human experience. Walking is something every one of us knows about. And Paul said it this way, "Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

Now, we all know what it means to walk. We learned that before our second birthday. But what does it mean to walk in the Spirit? How do you do that? To walk in the Spirit means to live every day in dependence upon God. It is fellowship and reliance on the Holy Spirit to do what He came to do and what He alone can do.

Sometimes we get the idea that the Christian life is a matter of grim determination. Maybe that's how you were taught at some point in your life. You get up in the morning, you square your shoulders, you tighten your belt, you draw in three deep breaths, and you determine in your heart today, I'm going to live for Jesus, even if it kills me. And it just might.

As worthy as that goal might sound, it is not how the Lord intended us to live the Christian life. And if you keep that up for very long, you will be exhausted. You'll be looking for a way to resign. The truth is living as a disciple of Jesus is not an issue of determination at all. It is an issue of dependence. It isn't trying, it's trusting.

What a vast difference there is between determining and depending, and between trying and trusting. If I understand anything at all about the Word of God and about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, the relationship is one of depending on Him to do His work through us. It is not our trying somehow to manufacture all the evidences of the Holy Spirit through our own energy and determination.

There's some major reasons why trying to live the Christian life in our own strength won't work. I don't have to take a long time to tell you about these, but I'm going to outline them for you so you'll understand. One of the reasons why you can't do this on your own is that the demands of the Christian life are too demanding.

Watchman Nee once wrote a book called The Normal Christian Life, but the fact is there's nothing normal about it. The Christian life is not hard, the Christian life is impossible. If you try to live the Christian life in your own strength, you will be constantly defeated, constantly wondering why you can't do better. I once took a pencil and a yellow pad and I listed every New Testament instance of the little word walk.

Let me give you a sampling of what I found. This is what the Bible says we are responsible to do gathered around the word walk. We are to walk in good works. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We're to walk properly. Let us walk properly as in the day.

We're to walk by faith. For we walk by faith and not by sight. We're to walk in love. Walk in love as Christ also loved us and has given Himself for us. We're to walk as children of light. For you were once darkness but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. You're to walk worthy of the Lord. Walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing Him.

You're to walk as Jesus walked and many other expressions built around just one word. And let's be honest, as we read those things and we let them mount up in our minds, we say there is no way. No way. We're called to do something that's impossible. It's not hard, it's impossible. And the expectations of the Bible for Christianity are very high.

That's why so many Christians get discouraged. I once had a lady walk into my office and turn her Bible in. I'm not kidding you. She walked in and she said, I can't do this. And she turned in her Bible like it was her badge or something. So the demands of the Christian life are overwhelming. Can I get a witness? And we all know that, don't we?

And then the determination of our enemy is very strong as well. Not only is the walk difficult, but we have someone pursuing us who's constantly laying traps for us along the way. We have a determined enemy. He is real, he is after us. His whole goal, his whole reason for existence is to undermine God's people and he will go to any lengths to do that.

Who is this enemy? Of course, you know who he is. He's the devil, Satan, the adversary, and he has a team. Did you know that? Listen to Paul's description of our situation in this paraphrase of Ephesians 6:12. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies, the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule the world, and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world.

Satan is an ancient and powerful foe with vast resources and bitter hatred of Jesus and everybody who belongs to Him. You wonder why Christians are persecuted. They're persecuted because Satan hates Christians and when Satan gets control of someone, that hatred is responded to by that person. I've become very concerned when I hear people joking flippantly about Satan.

Like, I don't worry about Satan. He doesn't know what he's dealing with if he's dealing with me. Oh yes, he does. I hear people joking about it and Scripture tells us that the mighty archangel Michael did not dare to bring an accusation against the devil. I'm not saying that we should give him credit. He doesn't need it. But we must bear in mind that Satan is a fierce formidable enemy.

We shouldn't overestimate his influence in our lives, but it's easy and dangerous to underestimate him. 1 Peter 5:8 says that Satan is like a roaring lion ever prowling seeking whom he may devour. And unfortunately, as you know if you read the tabloids, many Christians are being devoured. He is devouring their influence, he's devouring their marriages, he's devouring their children, he's devouring their opportunities for ministry and service. They're literally being eaten alive.

Revelation 12:9 tells us that he is the great dragon, the serpent of old, the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He is a dangerous and devious enemy and his goal is to undermine and neutralize God's people. Satan doesn't waste much time with people who aren't Christians. I mean, why would he? He's already got them. They're already on his side of the ledger and they're already, whether they know it or not, doing his will.

But once you become part of God's family, you can count on a new relationship with Satan. You can no longer take for granted that he will leave you alone because he won't. You're no longer in the safe column of his ledger. He puts you on his hit list and he'll be after you for as long as you live on this earth. Do you remember the conversation that Jesus had with Peter shortly before Jesus went to the cross?

Jesus looked into his friend's eyes and he said, Simon, Simon. Indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. That's what Satan wants to do. He wants to get his hands on our lives. He wants to shake us and sift us and unsettle us.

In 2 Corinthians 2:11, Paul tells us that Satan utilizes schemes or devices as the King James puts it. And the word scheme means the same thing as strategy. In other words, Paul is saying that we shouldn't be ignorant of Satan's strategies to undercut our lives and destroy us. Satan has a strategy for each one of us.

If you could sneak into Satan's office, take a peek into his files, you might be surprised to find a file folder with your name on it. And inside that folder are all the strategies he's tried on you, the ones that have worked and the ones that have failed. He doesn't waste his time with the ones that don't work anymore. Instead, he uses variations on the strategies that have caused you to stumble in the past.

And as long as they keep working, he keeps using them. Somewhere in that file cabinet, there's a file labeled Jeremiah, David. In that file, I wouldn't be surprised at all if there's a notation that reads something like this. Subject may be prone to discouragement, especially if he becomes overly weary. This has worked several times before and seems a promising method of attack.

Suggestion. Make sure he stays very busy and physically tired at all costs. Keep him from extended times of Bible reading and prayer. So what is Satan's strategy for me? He looks for ways to discourage me. He uses whatever people and whatever means and whatever circumstances it takes to achieve his goal. I know that to be true, but it shouldn't surprise me because the Scripture says he has a strategy for every one of us.

And it's the same for you. Maybe your file says frequently tempted to gossip or has quick temper or is prone to coveting and jealousy or is weak in the area of lust. Don't kid yourself. He knows very well where your vulnerabilities lie. It's all in his file. You've probably heard the statement that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

That's very good news, but it's also true that Satan hates you and has a plan to destroy your life. And he's after you with unbounded energy to see what he can do to make sure you do not succeed as a follower of Jesus Christ. That sounds scary, but remember this when you think of it. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. You ultimately have the winning card in your heart in the person of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

And then there's the destructive influence of the flesh. In Galatians 5:16 we read these words, "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." What does that mean? Let me help you remember what the flesh is. Here's how it works. Take the H off of the end and spell it backwards, and what does it say? What is the flesh, you guys? It is self. It is selfish. Me only. I'm the key. I'm the center of everything.

That's what the flesh is. It's a term that goes beyond bones and blood and muscle. Especially Paul's writing tells us that the flesh is life apart from God centered only on you. The flesh is everything you are minus God. The flesh is everything you were before Christ became your Savior. So Paul says if we walk by means of the Spirit, we won't be walking in the flesh. We won't be walking like God wasn't a part of us.

Did you know that you can be a Christian and act as though God isn't even in your life? I've known people like that. For all intents and purposes, some Christians are practical atheists. They live their lives as if there is no God. They are Christians, yes. They've trusted Christ, but somehow they've gotten away from walking with the Lord and they are walking in their old flesh nature.

The flesh can have great power over us. You don't lose your flesh when Christ comes to live within you. And that's a strategy that we need to remember. When you become a Christian, your old nature doesn't go away. Can I get a witness? Listen to these words. 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 able to do whatever you want.

How many of you have ever thought, why can't I do what I know I'm supposed to do? Because you're in a battle with the flesh. You're in the battle with the old nature. And what Paul is saying is he's saying that there is a war going on within us. Flesh against the Spirit. This is more than a matter of human willpower. I'm reminded of the story of the old farmer who was once seen wrestling with a stubborn mule and someone finally yelled out, Sam, where's your willpower? And he wiped his brow and replied, my willpower's fine, this mule's won't-power is the problem.

Sometimes people ask me why is the flesh so stubborn? Why does the flesh, self, the old you, why does it still have such power in your life? I'd like to explore that for just a moment with you. I remember the first time I realized this and how it made so much sense to me. First of all, physical age versus spiritual age.

If you got saved at the age of 30, your flesh had a 30-year head start on the Spirit. If you got saved at 70, your flesh had a 70-year head start on the Holy Spirit's reign in your life. Why is the battle so hard? Because the flesh was running before the Spirit ever showed up. And sometimes those habits and those things which you did before you became a Christian reappear.

Before you were saved, you formed habits and reactions and thought patterns that cut deep grooves in your heart. And becoming a Christian doesn't instantly erase those ruts. The Bible says old things pass away and behold all things are becoming new, but they don't become new immediately. You don't immediately when you become a Christian realize that you never had any problems in the past. You know you had problems.

There's parts of the American West where you can still see wagon tracks from the Oregon Trail. No wagons have passed there in over a century, but the grooves are still etched in the ground. And it's the same with old patterns of sin. We may have turned in a new direction, but the old tracks remain and if we are not careful, our wheels slide right back into those paths. You may have gone places, practiced habits, seen things before Christ that you now reject, yet the memories linger.

You might be in worship when an old image or an old craving suddenly flashes into your mind. That's the flesh and the enemy trying to pull you back into familiar ruts. And there's another reason we struggle and can wonder why the struggle is so strong, and that's the influence of our culture. Let me ask you a question. What message does our culture promote today? The Spirit or the flesh?

It's no contest. Growing spiritually doesn't come easy. Take Sunday morning as an example. It takes effort to join your local community for worship. You set the alarm, you drag yourself out of bed, get the kids ready, drive across town, find a parking spot, finally sit down hoping to hear from God's Spirit. That takes work. But the flesh, that is effortless.

You don't have to plan for it or put it on your calendar. The moment you flip on the TV or unlock your phone, it's there parading itself, calling for your attention, trying to shape the way you think and the way you feel. It hardly seems fair, does it? What takes discipline to build can be undone with hardly any effort at all. And as believers, we're pulled in every direction.

We know that. We want a life dominated by the Spirit, but the enticements of the flesh surround us. And soon we feel guilty and defeated and confused. It must be me we think, I must be doing something wrong we think, something must be wrong inside of me. If we don't understand the nature of that struggle, it's easy to grow discouraged and think there's no hope. But there is an answer and it begins with recognizing that the battle is real.

If you are not having any inward struggle in your life, the probability is you don't have a new nature. Maybe the old nature's just very comfortable and you're doing what you've always done and everything is cool. But insert the new nature and World War III can start before you know it.

Then there's the incompatibility of our lifestyle with the world's. That's the third thing. Another reason we feel the pull of the flesh is simple. The moment you come to Christ, you're no longer in step with the world. Your direction changes, your values shift, the current that once carried you now runs against you and that's not a flaw. It's evidence that you've been made new.

We have watched this happen in our culture visually in these last weeks and months as we've seen the battle between good and evil, the battle between Christians and those who don't know Christ. And the actual hatred, vitriol hatred for Christian people. Why is that happening? That's a satanic thing that goes on. When you become a Christian, you become a target.

Some of you know that because it's happened where you work or in your neighborhood or among your family members. Christianity can be a uniter, but often it's a divider between people who know Christ and people who don't know Him. A.W. Tozer once described the Christian life like this. A true Christian is a very unusual person.

He loves someone he's never seen and speaks daily with someone he cannot see. He expects heaven because of another's merit. He empties himself to be filled and admits he is wrong in order to be made right. He goes down to rise up and is strongest when he is weakest. He gives to keep, he dies to live, he sees and knows what others say is impossible.

The Christian life doesn't really fit with the world around us. Isn't that true? If you're a Christian, in essence, you're in a minority. We do not live in a Christian world and we do not live in a Christian nation as much as that likes to be said. Our nation may have been founded on Christian principles, but it has long since left that path.

We are a godless nation, and if you're a Christian, you walk in the midst of that environment and you wonder why it's hard, why it's difficult, why it's impossible. If you do not have the Holy Spirit helping you, you're just a target. The Christian life really doesn't fit with the world and we're different because of Jesus and that's a good thing. And I'm not saying we should hide from people or act strange. Christ changes what we love and how we live.

Amen. Every step is a new adventure. Every day He works in our lives and shows us things we could not know apart from His intervention in the daily events. Walking in the Spirit, we never do master that perfectly, but as we learn to do it more and more, we discover the joy of personal fellowship with God through His Spirit each day. Part two of Walking in the Spirit on the Friday edition tomorrow. I hope you'll join us then.

In the meantime, if you haven't already done so, please be involved in this month's resource program. We want to send you this 250-page hardback book called The Holy Spirit You May Not Know. It's available to you for a gift of any size during the month of June, but we're almost halfway through the month, so don't wait too long to get your request in and just send your gift and say, please send me Dr. Jeremiah's book on the Holy Spirit as we reach out with the gospel. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you right here in this good station tomorrow.

David Michael Jeremiah: For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's new series, The Holy Spirit You May Not Know, visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly magazine Turning Points and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org/radio. That's davidjeremiah.org/radio. Or call us at 800-947-1993.

Ask for your copy of David's new book The Holy Spirit You May Not Know, a valuable resource that's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King James versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study. Get all the details when you visit our website, davidjeremiah.org/radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue The Holy Spirit You May Not Know on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.