Walking By the Spirit

Have you ever heard of walking in the Spirit or walking by the Spirit?

Think back to a time when you walked by the Spirit? What did it look like in your life when you did? What was the difference? What were the circumstances? Seriously, take a moment to think about it.

When life is easy, we don't really see a need to depend on the Spirit, do we? It often takes drastic, "out of our control" circumstances to make us stop relying on ourselves and turn to the Lord. As a result, all we practically know of the Spirit's work in our lives is usually surrounded by crisis management, and we can't really picture it otherwise. Does God want us to walk by the Spirit only in times of crisis? Could He intend for us to walk by the Spirit all the time?

Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."( Luke 9:23 NASV), and the apostle Paul wrote, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25 ESV)

I noticed that the construction of these sentences looked similar, so I asked my husband if there is a name for them. Ok, so he gave me an answer, I just wasn't expecting it to make me laugh. What would you do if someone said "hortatory subjunctive" to you? All that means is that it's not exactly a command, but rather a strongly implied exhortation.

If you have ever had a desire to make your life count for Christ, you've probably suspected that these two "hortatory subjunctives" are crucial to accomplishing that. You've known the Spirit's exhortation to do these things, but wished you had a few more clues on how to make it practical.

I believe that walking by the Spirit and taking up your cross daily are linked together, that the success of one is dependent on the learning of the other. Therefore, I would say to you, don't attempt to carry your cross if you aren't walking by the Spirit, and you can't walk by the Spirit if you haven't got a cross on your back.

This book is intended to give a practical approach to taking up your cross and walking by the Spirit, that is, to join the two into what I'll call "cross-walking".