- Well, last week,

we talked about operatingin the Spiritual gifts.

This week, we're going tofocus on walking in the Spirit.

And as you know, Gordon, inGalatians 5:16, it says that;

"I say then, walk in the Spirit

and you will certainly not carry out

the desire of the flesh."

How do believers walk in the Spirit?

I mean, is there a differencein operating in the Spirit

and walking in the Spirit?

How can we walk in the Spirit?

- Alright. I might turnthe question back to you,

but anyway, I'll start out.- Okay.

- Paul is writing to, in Galatians,

he's writing to people inGalatians, he's writing to Greeks.

Within Greek culture,

the tradition was the walking philosopher.

Peripatetic is the English word for it.

And it's a school of philosophythat the philosopher,

and Aristotle was sortof the leader on this,

the philosopher wouldwalk with his disciples,

and in the walking, give them instruction.

There wasn't this sit-down in a classroom.

You would walk with the philosopherand receive instruction,

and it was the walking school.

When you walk with someone,you have to be in agreement.

Number one on;

"Where are we going?"- Yeah, yeah.

- "You know, are we justgonna wander around?"

I mean, you know,

either way, you have to be inagreement in order to walk.

And so the Apostle Paul isbuilding us a visual picture

of walking with God andlistening to His voice

and listening to His instruction.

Another way to put itthat may be more modern

is practice the presence of God.

When you have the conscious presence,

that He's Emmanuel,that He's God with you,

that He's God in you,that He's all around you,

that in Him, we live andmove and have our being,

that He is a prayer away,

and if you want to talk with Him, you can.

You can talk with Him as afriend talks to another friend.

When you have that

as a present reality throughout your life,

not just on Sunday morning

or the special timeswhere you have Bible time,

or devotion time, but you say,

"I'm going to practicethat God's always with me,"

because the reality is, He is.

And when you do that,

then you develop a relationship over time.

This is what he meantby pray without ceasing.

For Paul, prayer was a conversation,

and Jesus would literally appear to him

and give him revelation,

and there was theseincredible times that he had.

Realize you as a believer in Jesus

can have the sameexperiences, just practice it.

So walk with Him, talk with Him.

Realize He's always there, He's always on,

He never sleeps, He's always available,

and He always wants tolisten to His children.

- Yeah.

Well, that scripturespecifically is talking about,

you know, when you walk in the Spirit,

you're able to resist theflesh, the desires of the flesh,

the desire to sin, whetherthat's lying or something else.

So if somebody does giveinto the desire of the flesh,

are they able to walk in the Spirit again?

- Yes.(both laughing)

- Yes.- Yes.

And hallelujah, yes.

Let's go back to the Old Testament.

And so King David, he wasn'tunder the New Covenant.

Although there's anargument that perhaps he was

because the Savior was revealed to him.

But he committed a grievous sin.

It wasn't just adultery with Bathsheba,

he then murdered her husbandin order to cover up his sin.

And he acknowledged thatthere was no sacrifice

he could make for it.

Under the Old Testament system,

there wasn't a sacrifice you could make

for adultery and murder.

The consequences were extreme.

You were killed if you did that.

You couldn't go to thetemple and offer a sacrifice.

But here's what David prays;

"Take not your Holy Spirit from me,"

which meant the HolySpirit was still with him.

Ain't that incredible?

And then he gives us this wonderful verse;

"A broken and contrite heart,you will never despise."

David broke his heart beforethe Lord in the temple,

and God forgave him.

And He will always forgive you

if you just follow the same principle.

Be broken before Him, becontrite, turn from any sin

and say, "Jesus, I want youmore than I want that sin.

Please come into my heart."