Walking by the Spirit is a phrase heard often in most churches. This week I have learned what that truly means.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” -Galatians 5:16
Walking in the Spirit is when your divine desires outweigh your fleshly ones. Sometimes we think if we desire something it can’t be God’s will when oftentimes, He is the originator of that desire in our hearts. The desire of your flesh is human nature; it is the inherent sin in us that dictates desires apart from heavenly things. Throughout history, God has given people up to their fleshly desires,
“Therefore God gave them up in their lusts of their hearts to impurity” -Romans 1:24
God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus 7:3, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart”. God did this to the Canaanites, a wicked and twisted people: “For it was the Lord doing to harden their hearts that they should stand against Israel.” It is clear that God can give people up to their fleshly desires or harden their hearts, but why?
God hardens hearts because he gives us the desires of our hearts. So if we are walking in the Spirit, then our core desires are usually the Spirit.
“You have given him his heart’s desire” -Psalm 21:2
“Ask and it will be given to you” -Matthew 7:7-8
“Delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” -Psalms 37:3
Grace can either soften or harden a heart. We cannot question why God gives people over to their flesh because He does the same to us by giving us the desires of our hearts. But what are the desires of a believer’s heart? In Matthew 6:21 it says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.” Abiding in the Spirit means to treasure the things that God treasures. In this sense, we are to desire what Christ desires.
What does it mean to desire the divine? I consolidated Matthew 5, the beatitudes, into a bullet point list of what someone walking in the Spirit should desire.
To desire to be poor in spirit (3)
To desire to mourn (4)
To desire to be meek (5)
To desire righteousness (6)
To desire mercy (7)
To desire purity of heart (8)
To desire peace (9)
To desire to bear your cross daily (10)*
*This is what people miss and it is the most important. In Philippians, it says we will endure suffering for the sake of the gospel. This means by giving us our heart’s desires it does not always come with sunshine and rainbows.
When we don’t get what we desire it usually means it is not what God desires for us and so it really isn’t what we even desire for ourselves. In conclusion, in the most real sense walking in the spirit means not walking in our flesh. The absence of God’s grace in a person will harden a heart giving us over to our fleshly desires, or the presence of God’s grace in a person will soften a heart and God will give us what our identity in christ desires.
I would like to end with a verse. I think of it as the hope for the hardened heart in your life.
“He has blinded their eye and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and turn I would heal them.” -John 12:40
