BEING LED BY THE SPIRIT
By now you have noticed how often we spoke of being led by the Spirit in our various discussions of living under grace free from sin. We believe this is the key to the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This is why Paul followed chapters 3-7 of Romans with chapter 8. We can, in fact, live free from sin and walk in love and according to the will of God every day, as we are led by His Spirit.
Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
“All that is in the world;” everything in the world falls into one of three categor-ies: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. So John urged us not to love the world nor the things that are in the world. These things will lead us away from the Father. Therefore, those who are led by the Spirit will be led away from those things and led into the things that are on the heart of God the Father for us. Things against which there is no law (Galatians 5:23). Why are the things of the Spirit on God’s heart for us? Because we are His sons and daughters.
Romans 8:14–17
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
We can see the love of God for His children; that He gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. For God knows that the truth will make us fully free from all bondage to fear. Fear is the enemy’s primary tool to keep us bound so we never fully know the love of our Father. The thought of us fully knowing our Father’s love terrifies the enemy. When we fully know Father’s love, all fear will leave us and we will become bold witnesses for Jesus. No weapon formed against us will prosper, but be turned back upon our enemy’s head. What a frightful thought to Satan.
The Spirit of God leads us into the knowledge of all Christ has done to set us free. Then He leads us into complete knowledge of the full range of our liberty and authority in the Kingdom of God.
In the process of learning all the blessings of God in His love for us, we will discover that the Spirit of God loves us with the same love that Father and Jesus love us with. For He is God and God is love (1 John 4:8).
Think about it. The fruit of the Spirit includes love. Yet all the other ingredients listed as fruit of the Spirit coincide nicely with the attributes of love listed in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. The fruit of the Spirit is simply love because the seed planted in every newly born-again believer’s new heart is a new spirit joined to and of the same loving nature as the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26, 27). Fruit only grows from seed. So the love of the Father and His Son growing to maturity in us is the love of the Holy Spirit imparted into our spirit.
Romans 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Ezekiel 36:25–27
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Our old stone cold hearts and our old dead spirits were not able to receive the seed of God’s love. So as God gives each new believer a new heart of flesh and a new living spirit, He creates in each one perfect soil for His seed of love. He gives each one His precious Holy Spirit and each one becomes one with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). Truly old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). As this wonderful seed grows in each heart – love becomes the motivation for what we say and do.
The one thing the enemy uses to derail this natural process or slow it down is the lie that the blood of Jesus is not fully sufficient to cleanse our consciences of all evil dead works of our flesh. We are then deceived into adding our own works of righteousness to appease God’s anger. Hebrews 6:1 calls these dead works, for we have no righteousness to add by any work we can do. Anything we do to add to what Jesus has done is a dead work. Jesus fulfilled all the law for us.
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Our old man could never walk in the faith that pleased God. However, the new man, born of the Heavenly seed, has the faith which works naturally in us through love.
Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
The combination of love and faith is the gift of God within us which causes us to walk in the statutes and ordinances of the New Covenant.
Love and faith; faith and love, work together to cancel the enemy’s lie, drive out fear and make it natural for us to walk in the Spirit with Jesus and God the Father.
By the way, the statutes and ordinances of the New Covenant are simple and only two in number.
1 John 3:23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
Faith and Love
Faith believes in the One whom God the Father sent to bring us back to Him.
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
Who did God send? Who else but Jesus, the Son of His love. The first part of His commandment is to believe on the name of His Son. The second part is to love one another according to the New Commandment Jesus gave in John 13, that we love one another with the love by which He loves us.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
This we will do. Not by external pressure to perform for acceptance. For we are even now accepted by God the Father in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6). We will do this according to our new nature which we receive directly from God.
2 Peter 1:1–4
1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.