What it looks like to walk in the spirit
Step one: Pray
This month, God is teaching me to live outside the box of what ministry has looked like in my mind for my entire life. Talk about being stretched. So the first step in learning is to seek guidance, discernment, knowledge and wisdom. So I pray for those things. I pray for the ability to walk in the spirit trusting the Lord to guide me. Romans 8:14 “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”
Step two: Receive
What does it look like to receive? For me it means asking in faith and waiting and trusting in the word that says God hears my prayers, and that He does not withhold any good thing from me. So basically, I have faith and I thank Him for being a God that is my provider. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that He has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” So this tells me that I already have been given the guidance, discernment, knowledge, and wisdom that I have been praying for.
Step three: Listen
When I trust that the Lord is giving me these things I pray and ask for; then I listen in my spirit and wait for Him to speak. His word says that He speaks to us, not often is it audible and in fact it never has been for me. However, He does speak, and when we are walking closely with Him and desperately desiring to hear from Him, He speaks to us in our spirit; but we must be listening. 1 Peter 1:13 tells us, “prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Step four: Obey
This might be the hardest one for some. Often times in life, we cry out to God and we ask for guidance, we ask for direction because we don’t know which way to go. But what happens when we get an unexpected answer, what happens when He tells us to go where we never expected or where we aren’t comfortable. Satan often uses this time to tempt us and plant fears in us. So it is vitally important that when we hear from God, rather than sitting, waiting and hesitating, we immediately dive in and just trust him. Romans 8:24b-25 says, “Who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”
My team and I were together the other night and Marcie said the Lord gave her a vision. Our team was running full speed towards this cliff and as each of us came to the edge we jumped and right before our bodies hit the water, the Lord caught us. Each one of us, as we leaped into the air over the unknown waters right before every single one of us hit the water the Lord put out His hand and He caught us.
This is something that speaks for every believer. The Lord wants you to trust Him with everything, but until you are willing to let go and jump He’s not able to catch you. You can stand on the edge of that cliff all day long looking over the edge. Will you jump? Or will you stand wondering what might happen. Will you trust the Lord to catch you? Or will you turn in fear and never experience the freedom in truly living your faith that you daily claim.
I am learning it is ALWAYS better to jump. It can be scary sometimes, but so far the Lord has caught me every time. I refuse to stand on the edge wondering. I refuse to live in fear of failure or in fear of the unknown. I declare that I will live out my faith daily; I will follow where the Lord leads me. I will speak when He tells me to speak. I will pray how, when, where, and for whomever He shows me. I will jump. Will you jump with me?
