What Does It Mean to Walk by the Spirit?

The Bible gives us the secret to never sinning. It couldn’t be clearer. “Walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). The Greek is very emphatic. It uses a double negative (ou me) which intensifies the “no.” We might say, “Walk by the Spirit and you will never ever carry out the desire of the flesh.” Beating sin is as simple as walking in the Spirit.

I was in college when a friend first really called my attention to this verse. I was floored. I had been trying to do right and it was quite the bumpy ride. I was tired of sinning and finding this passage was like a breath of fresh air. All I had to do was walk by the Spirit, and I would never sin. I felt hope rise within me!

But then came the next question, “How do I do that?” I went back to my dorm room and felt the hope subside somewhat as I wondered how to put into practice this newly uncovered secret. Walking by the Spirit sounded somewhat vague and unclear. There isn’t a clearly laid out list in Scripture, not “Step 1, do this. Step 2, do that.” Over the past fifteen years I have learned and grown a lot in this area. I think I have a better idea of what walking by the Spirit means, and while it doesn’t mean that stopping sinning is easy, it does mean that it’s possible.

“Keeping In Step”

Walking in the Spirit, then, means that I follow wherever the Spirit leads, step by step. It’s as if I’m a soldier marching in line behind my commander. It’s like a small child following the footprints of his father while tromping through the snow. If I want to stop sinning, I do that by constantly following the leading of the Holy Spirit. The imagery of walking is especially appropriate, as it means that every step I take, every little choice, must be surrendered to the Spirit’s control.

So the first step is surrendering to the Spirit’s control. I won’t have victory over sin until I’ve decided that God gets to call the shots. But while this helps bring some clarity, it still hasn’t translated all the way into my practical, day-to-day behavior. How do I listen to and then follow God’s leading? For me, practically walking by the Spirit has two dimensions:

1. Constant Communication

First, I need to be in constant communication with the Spirit. That means regular Scripture reading and prayer. I find it takes work to be regularly reading my Bible, and that it takes even more work to be consistently in prayer. I also find that when I do that regularly, it helps me make the right decisions and at the very least know what those decisions are. It’s hard to say that I am sincere about wanting to follow God if I never read His Word or spend time talking to Him. Therefore walking by the Spirit begins with the discipline of reading my Bible daily and spending regular time in prayer.

This isn’t a one-to-one correspondence, as if I read the Bible for 30 minutes one day and everything is perfect. I do find that my spiritual walk tends to be getting better or worse based on my consistency, though. One of my professors used the term “spiritual tan” as an illustration for how being consistently in the Word and prayer changes me and not being in the Word and prayer causes me to revert. That might be experiential language, and I’m not sure I can find a clear passage that teaches this, but I have found it to be a pretty good illustration for my experience.

2. Constant Surrender

The second key is that I need to follow the moment by moment leading of the Spirit in every area of my life. I need to follow Him step by step. I find that if I have been in the Word and prayer, and stop at any moment I stop and ask, “What would God have me to do with the next fifteen minutes?” the answer is normally pretty clear. If not, I find that if I pray it is normally pretty clear. The problem is that I often don’t want to do what I know I should do. God’s will for me three year, three months, or even three weeks down the road may be murky. I tend to find that God’s will for the next three minutes is pretty clear. The problem is that I have a flesh that would rather do something, sometimes anything, different.

This is where walking in the Spirit becomes really practical. I have found that the core of walking in the Spirit means choosing day by day, moment by moment, to surrender to what I know God would want me to do rather than what I feel like doing in the moment. I have found that when I do that, I enjoy God’s blessing and am normally more productive, happy, and satisfied. When I don’t, I normally end up frustrated, angsty, and listless. Constantly surrendering to what God would want me to do rather than what I feel like doing, a surrender that is fed and reinforced by regular Scripture and prayer, is the key to never sinning again.

Conclusion

This should go without saying but let me say it anyway: I don’t always do this. I will sometimes allow the business of life to push out Bible reading and prayer, and I will sometimes justify doing what I feel like doing instead of what I know deep down God wants me to do. But I often know when I’m not doing it, and it normally doesn’t go too well for me. I find that if I haven’t been walking by the Spirit, the best thing to do is stop, get things right with God, and seek to live the rest of the day following Him rather than doing what I feel like doing. I have found that even if I make it halfway through the day walking in the flesh, God is gracious and is always ready for me to return to Him and start doing right. I have also found that I can have a great start to the day, but if I get careless I can quickly start following my own way and getting off track.

Walking by the Spirit may sound mysterious and subjective, but it’s actually quite simple. Listen to God’s Word and then seek to follow His will every moment of the day. Will it be easy? No. Will it be worth it? Absolutely. To believers desiring to do right but overwhelmed by their sinfulness, the promise of Scripture stands achievable yet challenging: “Walk by the Spirit and you will never ever fulfill the desire of the flesh.”

Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. This article originally appeared on his Substack.

Photo by Noémi Macavei-Katócz on Unsplash