Walking in the Spirit

If you try to live your life under the law, trying to follow rules, you're going to be a very unhappy Christian. Dr. Tony Evans says we don't turn into healthy believers by changing from the outside in. God wants us to do it a different way. Because the Spirit provides the power to move forward in your Christian life. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. God wants to energize us to live life by His power. And today, Dr. Evans tells us how we can get closer to God's Holy Spirit, which naturally moves us farther from any chaos we've been living in.

Let's join him as he explains. You go to any cemetery, and among the dead you will discover the living. People who work there, people who take care of the grounds. These are living people operating among the dead. They are facilitating death, even though they very much are alive.

Unfortunately today, many Christians who are alive are living in spiritual cemeteries. They are living among the dead. They are finding it difficult to get out of the graveyard of their circumstances. It's not that they want to be there.

They recognize that they shouldn't be there. They've just gotten so used to being there that the thought is maybe there's no hope ever to be released from this environment of death. The mind of the Spirit is the basis for walking in the Spirit, and walking in the Spirit is the basis for life. He says if we walk in the Spirit, we will live and not die. That is, we will experience the life, the abundant life that Jesus came to offer. Conversely, he says walking according to the flesh is death.

That is, it is your inability to experience the life that Jesus promised. So he says even though you are a Christian, it is possible to walk according to the flesh and therefore be a dead man walking. If you're walking according to the flesh, that means you're still moving and living and functioning.

It's just that you're doing it in a graveyard. So the fundamental principle of maximizing and enjoying and benefiting from the eternal life that abides in the believer is whether you're walking by the Spirit or walking by the flesh. And it is found in Galatians chapter 5, where he goes into more specific detail on walking in the Spirit.

What we've tried to do is concretize this concept that could easily be passed off as ethereal and as otherworldly, and it's something you can't grab, and make it something that you can put your hands on and measure whether you are indeed walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh. Paul, the same author of Romans 8, wrote the book of Galatians. And in this book of Galatians, he is very concerned that they are wandering from their faith and therefore are not enjoying and maximizing their spiritual life. He's concerned that they're not getting all that God has provided for them. In fact, he says in this book, he says, who has bewitched you?

Who has hocus pocus'd you? Who has done a number on you that you think, coming to Christ in the Spirit, you can now be made better by the flesh? You see, this comes out of his own experience, where he himself had to battle with the flesh's rule over him and his inability to have victory, because he had not yet learned what it meant to walk in the Spirit. He says in chapter 5, verse 16, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Walk by the Spirit, he says, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Now, before we go any further, let's please make sure we're reading this correctly.

Let me say what it doesn't say. It doesn't say, walk by the Spirit, and you won't have the desires of the flesh. He says, walk by the Spirit, and you won't have to obey the desires of the flesh. This goes back to our understanding of the flesh. The flesh is your body that has been contaminated by sin, or what Paul called in Romans 7, the body of this death. The flesh is your body that has been contaminated by sin, or what Paul called in Romans 7, the body of this death. The principle of sin, when you became saved, had to find a residence, a host, something through which it could express itself.

The Bible calls this propensity towards sin that is resident in our physical frame, the flesh. Verse 18, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. If you try to live your life under the law, that is, trying to follow rules, you're going to be a very unhappy Christian. Not because there's something wrong with the rules. If they're God's rules, that means they're good rules. But he's saying the problem is that what the law does is stir up sin. Have you ever seen a rule, don't touch something, and you face the temptation of touching it? The rule actually got you more excited to disobey.

Why? Because the Bible says when the flesh sees the rule, sin is stirred up. It's like trying to sweep dust.

You done stirred it up more, even though you're trying to clean up. He says if the Spirit dominates, then you don't have to be under this list to operate. Why? Because the Spirit provides the power to move forward in your Christian life. Because God is going to keep the law for you and through you. So you don't have to make yourself keep it. He enables you to keep it because of a higher law. The higher law is called the law of the Spirit in Romans chapter 8.

That is the supernatural engaging that God brings to bear in your life to deal with what the flesh cannot deal with. My job some years ago was to clean the tub. Then they came out with this product. I remember the name of it. All I remember is it says, it works, you don't.

I said, give me some of that. Let me try that. They said, it works, you don't. So you sprayed it around the ring in the tub and let it sit there. And after it sat there for a while, you wiped it. And the thing you were scrubbing to fix now slid off. What I was using previously required my human effort to get a clean tub. What I was now using sucked up the problem. That's the difference between the flesh and the Spirit.

The flesh is you scrubbing. I'm going to do better. I'm going to do better.

I'm really going to do better this time. What walking by the Spirit does is suck it up so that there can be righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. When's the last time God supernaturally delivered you from something that you couldn't deliver yourself from? But if you could fix it, how do you know it was God? Couldn't any non-Christian do what you did and still be better like you are? He says, then you don't have to operate under a law that is under this rule of life because all that's going to do is make the sin get worse. The more determined you are to do better, the more you just stirred up the problem. The more determined you are. And that's why it's so much hard work.

I'm really not going to today. All the law did was stir that thing up. Even if you don't do it, you're going to be thinking about it. He says in chapter 5, Now the deeds of the flesh are evident. Now let's contrast that with verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is. He now contrasts how you know when you're walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit. He says this is not something you have to guess at.

This is not something you have to wonder about. This is something that has very tangible effects and evidence. He says the deeds of the flesh are, and then he lists three categories, sexual, superstitious, and social. He says, please notice, the deeds of the flesh are. How the flesh expresses itself so you know you are being controlled by the flesh is because this is what the flesh produces.

So you can just go down the list and find out where you are. Immorality, impurity, sensuality, that's pornography, that's the internet. Idolatry, anything that takes the place of God in your life, sorcery, imities, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, fractions, always fussing and cussing, envying. By the way, the difference between jealousy and envying, jealousy is my feeling bad about the progress of another. Envying is interrupting their progress.

So envying takes jealousy to the next level. Drunkenness, I don't care whether your father was a drunk or not, he says it's a deed of the flesh, carousing and things like these, and I have warned you that such people do not inherit the kingdom of God. Now that's another misunderstood phrase. He does not say such people don't enter the kingdom of God. He says such people don't inherit the kingdom. To inherit is different than to enter it.

All you have to do to enter the kingdom of God is to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior. To inherit it means to enjoy its benefits. What happens is, if you live by the deeds of the flesh, you don't get to enjoy the benefits of being in the kingdom. You may be in it, but you're not enjoying being there.

The benefits of the kingdom are not accruing to you. You sing about a happiness you don't have. You sing about a joy you don't have. You sing about a power you don't have.

You sing about authority that you don't have, because you have not inherited it, even though you may be in it. So look at your life, and all of us have to do that, and look at ways in which you're living in the flesh. If you're mean all the time, ornery all the time, fussing all the time, cussing all the time, if you've got bad attitude all the time, all that, he says, is the deed of the flesh. He said, this ain't got nothing to do with your personality. Don't be blaming this on your mama, your grandmama, and your great granny.

This has got absolutely nothing to do. This is the deeds of your flesh. See, and one of the reasons we don't make progress is because we pawn it off on something else. He doesn't even say it's by your circumstances. He says it's sin which dwelleth in you that's causing this. We have to take ownership. There's no way around taking ownership, because you've got to say what God says about it. So whatever your issue is, you've got to say, it's me, it's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

This is my problem. It's my flesh. Because unless you discover what God says about it, you're in the flesh. You're not in the spirit. But then he contrasts it and he says the fruit of the spirit is. Now watch this now. Anybody notice anything about the difference between verse 19 and verse 22?

Look at this. The word deeds is plural. The word fruit is singular. But yet after he says fruit, he lists nine things.

So why wouldn't he say the fruits of the spirit are and then list the nine things? He doesn't do that. He does that with the deeds.

He says the deeds of the flesh are. And then he just goes all over like buckshot. He just goes all over the realm. Why? Because all of these become disconnected, disjointed, and are independent. So one minute you got this one, another minute you got that one, another minute you got that, another minute you got that.

Things are random. He says, but when the Holy Spirit takes over, you got one fruit tree producing nine different kind of fruit. Why? Because all these fruits come out the same tree. They are ordered, organized, harmonized, and unified.

Why? Because the source is different. Dr. Evans will have more for us on the difference between deeds and fruit when he continues our message in just a moment. In the meantime, if you'd like to dig deeper into what we've been learning, we've put together a perfect package of resources that can help you do just that. It begins with Tony's current teaching series, Life in the Spirit. These eight messages show how God's Holy Spirit takes up residence inside us to focus our thoughts, empower us to face life's challenges, transform the way we live, and help us grow into mature, fully dedicated followers of the Lord. Along with these audio lessons, available both on CD and as digital downloads, we've also bundled a quick but powerful read.

It's Tony's book on how the Holy Spirit can charge us up from the inside out, and it's called The Fire That Ignites. This important teaching isn't communicated as often or as thoroughly as it should be, and that's why we're making it available as our gift to you in appreciation for your contribution toward our ministry. Just visit us at tonyevans.org, make your donation, and let us send you Life in the Spirit and The Fire That Ignites. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call us, day or night, at 1-800-800-3222, and let one of our friendly team members assist with your request.

That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll have that information for you again after Part 2 of today's message and this. The Bible makes it clear that you know when God has cursed a land, when its fathers are nowhere to be found. Dr. Tony Evans says that what becomes of the next generation of men depends on what happens with this one. Our kids need to see men in their midst who love God and who love them. But what does it take to be that kind of man?

You can find out with the help of the Tony Evans Training Center's free course called Kingdom Man. It'll teach you to see past the phony images of manhood that society surrounds us with and become the loving leader that a wife and family would want to follow. As with all of our courses, there's in-depth study material you can work through at your own pace. Lots of exclusive content from Tony, tightly focused Q&A videos, and an online forum where you can collaborate with other students. It's almost like having a seminary on your smartphone. Check out the free course called Kingdom Man and the growing list of other subjects waiting for you.

Visit tonyevans.org today and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. You will always know whether you're in the flesh or in the spirit, not only by the deeds, but by the chaos. The deeds of the flesh are like this.

They're all over the place. The fruit of the spirit is harmonized. Deeds are what you do, right? Deeds, the activity, the work.

This is what you do. Fruit is not what you do. Three things about fruit. Number one, fruit is always visible. You've never seen invisible fruit, okay? So you know when you see an apple or an orange or a pear.

But it's not only visible, it's recognizable. In other words, fruit always bears the character of the tree of which it is a part. In other words, apple trees don't produce oranges.

Orange trees don't produce pears. The fruit reflects the nature of the tree. But let me tell you something else about fruit.

Fruit is also beneficial. In other words, somebody else wants to take a bite out of it. You don't see fruit eating itself, that is unless it's rotten. Fruit exists so that somebody else can bite it.

It exists for the benefit of another. The rotten deeds of verse 19, they're rotten because they are self-generated. And you wind up eating you. Fruit is not like that. Grapes don't grunt and groan to become grapey. Apples don't grunt and groan to become appley. That ain't a word, but you got the idea. Oranges don't grunt and groan to become orangey.

You know what they do? They simply let the tree do its thing. And the tree produces the fruit. It becomes a natural outgrowth of it being tied to that particular tree. You don't force a fruit tree to produce fruit.

You just plant the fruit tree in the right environment and fruit is what it does. It's just what it does. Have you ever seen a fish out of water flopping? You know, it's just wiggling and jumping. Because if it's out of water, it's out of where it's supposed to be. So it's trying to move. It's trying to get somewhere, but it can't go where it's trying to get because it's not in the environment it was made to be in. So it's flopping and twisting and flipping and doing all this stuff, but absolutely going nowhere.

Why? Because it's trying to be fishy in a non-water environment and it wasn't created for that. So no matter how much flipping and flopping it does, all it's doing is running out of breath and it's going to die because that's not home. A lot of us are flipping and flopping to do better, running out of breath and getting tired because we're not doing it in the right environment.

He says the environment has to be the Spirit. When that happens, notice what you have. Love, where you used to have hate. Joy, inner stability, where you used to have inner confusion.

Peace, harmony, where they used to be fighting all the time. Patience, the stuff you used to run out of, now you find out you have. Kindness, don't have to be mean all the time. Goodness, you seek to help and not hurt. Faithfulness, the undependable becomes dependable. Gentleness rather than harshness.

Self-control rather than being out of control. He says, against such there is no law. He says, when the Spirit works, there's no law that can stop you. Those who belong to Jesus Christ, verse 24, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Why? Because you have a total righteous inside. If we live by the Spirit, here it is, here it is, here it is, we're coming to a conclusion here. If we live by the Spirit, that's another way of saying, if you're saved. You've come to life by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God dwells in you. If you live by the Spirit, watch this, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Now, here's what that means. It means it's possible to live by the Spirit but not walk by the Spirit. It's possible to be alive on the inside and to not show up on the outside. Because walking by the Spirit involves determining God's viewpoint on a subject, deciding to respond like Christ to that viewpoint, and then calling on God, the Holy Spirit, to empower the decision based on the discovery. When those three things happen, you are now walking by the Spirit and the supernatural takes over.

Or to put it another way, you can stop using manual transmission and go to automatic. Now, let me explain how this is going to work, because some of you are going to try this. Some of you are going to try this. Others of you are going to decide, no, you and your flesh are going to do fine. But for those who have heard this, you're going to try it. You're going to say, okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to determine now whatever I face an issue in my life or in my circumstances to identify God's view on the matter, to make the decision to respond as Christ would respond to that view, and then to call on God, the Holy Spirit, to empower that decision. I'm going to start operating that way.

Now, let me tell you how this is going to work. When you first start out, it's going to be like a baby learning to walk, okay? When a baby's been crawling for a while and now it's ready to stand up, knees get wobbly, it falls back down, it becomes very mechanical at first, you know? It's like doing the robot, you know? Like real mechanical at first. It's going to be a little awkward at first. It ain't going to be a smooth flow, because you're not used to walking yet.

See? You're used to being a crawling Christian. But now somebody in here is going to get up today when they leave church and say, you know what? I'm going to start walking. I'm living in the Spirit, I'm saved. Now I'm going to start walking by the Spirit. And it's going to be a little awkward at first. All I want to tell you is keep getting up, because after a while you're going to get used to it.

And when you get used to it, you're going to discover you can get a lot further on your feet than you used to get on your knees. You will discover that that will give you the ability for the flesh to no longer rule you. God will let you get tired of trying. So this sermon today is only for folk tired of trying. Tired of trying. You didn't try everything. You didn't try twelve steps and twenty-four steps.

You didn't try this, you didn't try this. This is not for folk who are not tired of trying, because you're not ready to walk yet. But if you're tired of trying, and you're willing to walk in the Spirit, that is, operate by the Spirit's point of view, not by the human point of view, because you want to see the supernatural and not keep trying to make the natural work, then this one is for you. For the others of us who are not ready yet, three years from now, when you decide to walk in the Spirit, after you've discovered that on your best day, all you can do is camouflage, God will take you back to the same word. His scripture is not going to change. His method is not going to change.

If you're ready to change, you have to adjust to Him. Dr. Tony Evans, wrapping up today's message called Walking in the Spirit. You know, learning to live by God's strength rather than your own does have an important prerequisite, and Tony's back right now to share what that is. If you've been listening to our broadcast and you have not personally trusted Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins so that He can give you the gift of eternal life right now, I want you to go to God and transfer your trust from any and everything else except the Son of God who died on the cross for your sins and arose from the dead. In fact, I'm going to say a little prayer, and you can repeat it after me. You just have to mean it for yourself. Heavenly Father, I know I'm a sinner and that I can't save myself.

I believe Jesus Christ, Your Son, died on the cross in my place for my sin, and I now am trusting Him alone to forgive me and to give me the gift of eternal life that He promised to give to anyone who came to Him for it. Thank You for saving me and help me from this day forward to live a life pleasing to You. Congratulations. Welcome to the family. God bless you.

And that goes for all of us here at The Alternative. We encourage you to connect with a good Bible teaching church so you can grow in your faith and knowledge. We also invite you to visit us at tonyevans.org and click on the link that says Jesus. There, Dr. Evans has further words of encouragement to share and plenty of downloadable resources to help you in your journey. Today's message was all about life in the Spirit, and if you're ready to get past the mystery that surrounds the subject, you can learn exactly who the Holy Spirit is, how we receive Him, and what He can do in our lives. To do so, I encourage you to take advantage of that special offer I mentioned earlier, the CD and digital download versions of this eight-message Life in the Spirit collection, Antony's powerful and insightful book, The Fire That Ignites.

We'll send them all to you as our gift when you make a donation to help support our work here on the air and around the world. Get all the details and make your request online at tonyevans.org or call our resource request line at 1-800-800-3222. Helpful team members are always on hand to assist with your request, so give us a call anytime that's convenient for you. Again, dial 1-800-800-3222. The very idea of masculinity these days is thought of as at best outdated and at worst downright evil. But next time, Dr. Evans will bring a message that redefines the term from a biblical perspective and explain why it's a vital ingredient in God's recipe for humanity. Be sure to join us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.