Walk After theSpirit Rom 8: 1 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
In the last half of Rom 8:1, the Bible instructs you plainly to walk after the Spirit. You know that this has to be a very important spiritual truth because the last half of verse 1 is missing in modern Bibles. When you see the other verses and partial verses that have been removed from modern Bibles, and you know how important they are, you can be sure that we need to pay careful attention to these words.
According to the verse, you and I can experience temporal condemnation for walking after the flesh. We cannot, under any circumstances, experience eternal condemnation once we are saved [Jn 5:24]. However, we can definitely shorten our lives by walking after the flesh [Rom 8:6, 13] and that is the condemnation of which Paul speaks [compare 1 Cor 11:29-30].
If you are walking after the Spirit:
Your walk will change – There are some places where you will no longer go and no one will have to tell you to leave those places – the Spirit of God will be leading you away – you’ll leave bars, theaters, gambling joints, and even bad churches [2 Cor 6:14-18] – there are some places where you will start to go and, though the Spirit may use someone to invite you to those places, the Spirit will be leading you to where He wants you to be – Bible study, good church, Christian fellowship, home, etc.
You’ll start at a crawl – The Holy Spirit is not in a rush to grow you up – as in your natural growth, you will begin to grow at a pace you can sustain – and the best way to start is in the Bible, 1 Pet 2:2 – Christians who are in a rush to be somebody are walking after the flesh [Gal 6:3].
You’ll have battles you never had before – Spiritual growth is accompanied by spiritual battles – 2 Cor 10:3-5; Gal 5:16-17 – if you aren’t having spiritual battles you are walking comfortably in the flesh [me, backslidden]
Your walk will mature – Like an athlete well-exercised in his sport, your walk will strengthen as the Holy Spirit gains more control of your life, Eph 6:10 – this maturity will come through suffering, trouble and experience [Rom 5:3-5; 2 Thes 1:3-5].
Your walk will never plateau – The odd thing about our spiritual walk is that if it ever plateaus we are actually sliding backwards – the Holy Spirit is constantly conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ [Rom 8:29] which is a work that never ends [Phil 3:12-14].
Your walk can become carnal – The most dangerous Christians are the ones who have walked with the Lord a while and have “figured out” how to walk as if they are walking after the Spirit – these are carnal Christians [1 Cor 3:1-4] – and here are some ways to know if you are one – envy, strife, divisions – more church splits have been caused by these Christians than any other – the other way to tell is that they mistake works of the flesh for spirituality – examples of these are stage productions and entertainment mistaken for the moving of the Spirit, tongues and signs mistaken for the “baptism with the Spirit,” a spiritual looking outward appearance mistaken for an inner holiness.