Unknown Footsteps:

The Concept, Application, and Experience of Walking in the Spirit




Preface

I want you to see something. I want you to see the beam of heavy wood lying across the bloody beaten shoulders of the Messiah. I want you to see the wooden upright post waiting at the top of the hill for the arrival of that bloodstained beam. I want you to see the miracle that is about to take place. I want you to see the symbolism of two pieces of wood and the miracle of their connection.

Why do I wish for you to see these things? Because I want you to be able to really walk in the Spirit and the depiction of the cross can aid you in doing so.

The cross has been the symbol of Christianity for centuries; its likeness adorns the rooflines of cathedrals, the bumpers and dashes of automobiles, the covers of our bibles, and the shields and banners of warriors past; it hangs on golden necklace chains everywhere. But let the symbolism of an ornamental nature give way to perhaps a more helpful interpretation of what those two beams of wood might represent.

Having no scriptural authority to bring you this interpretation, please allow me to share it with you and then you may judge the merit of the image I want you to see. Consider first the beam carried by Jesus; the horizontal one.

Time is horizontal; when illustrated it is most often thought of in linear form. We use timelines to illustrate historical events or to anticipate events that lie in the future. I want you to see the horizontal beam of the cross as an illustration of a segment of time. That segment of time might be the whole of human history or the last thousand years or maybe the segment of time that represents your life. To personalize the atoning work of the cross I want you to see the horizontal beam… the bloody one… as your life. Do you feel the tremendous effort of carrying it?

There is going to be a bisection of the horizontal wood beam that Jesus is carrying by the vertical beam that waits on the top of Calvary. Look at it now as the two beams are attached and the body of Jesus is fixed to them. The horizontal beam is a line representing your life. On the left side are the actions you have chosen to commit up to this point in your life. On the right side is the judgment of those actions that lead to the sentence of death. You are guilty of sinning and condemned to die as a result. By itself the horizontal beam of the cross shows that there is no hope. You will die as a result of your sin.

Now let the vertical post represent the judgment of God, not at the end of your life but in the middle. Hebrews tells us “some men’s sins go before to judgment others follow after”. If your sins can be dealt with before you die; in the middle of your timeline, then your judgment of death will also be commuted. The miracle of the vertical post is God’s intervention into your life with judgment and mercy. The judgment of your sin is satisfied by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; the mercy of God is then established for you as a result! From out of eternity the wonder of God’s judgment and mercy descend into time so that your predicament caused by sin can be alleviated.

You may be well aware of the sacrifice of Christ for you and the chance that sacrifice gives you to have sin and the accompanying death sentence removed from your life. But how and when does this miraculous occasion take place? Obviously, it takes place at our salvation. But after that can, or must, it be incorporated into our walk? Or… is it our walk?
To the Galatian church Paul asked, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Is walking in the spirit in some way linked to this symbolism of the cross? I believe that it is and I want you to see it.

Introduction

The Apostle Paul admonishes us to “Walk in the Spirit.” One of the most common and important questions asked among God’s people is, “How do I walk in the spirit?” There are, it may seem, as many approaches to satisfy this Godly appeal as there are individuals attempting to pursue it. Some would endeavor to live their lives in a state nearing a mystic trance in order to satisfy to the admonition. Others would try to follow every command of God with absolute perfection. Every idea in-between becomes the smorgasbord at which Christians eat to try to fill the emptiness in their walks. However, satisfaction can only come by genuinely walking in the spirit.

These attempts tend to lead either toward being a frustrated child of God who knows he still lacks the essence of the walk or to a proud one who presumptuously claims that he is walking in the Spirit. Either way neither God nor his children are satisfied. Walking in the Spirit should be the normal Christian experience not an elusive spiritual dimension beyond attainment or, at best, accessible only to the “elite” of the faith.

We must search the scripture if we are to find an answer that is authoritative, practical, and spiritually helpful.
As a launching pad, we will consider the words of Jesus as He gives parabolic insight to the spirit’s operation. We will learn how to apply those concepts and finally consider a tremendous experience from the lives of the disciples that demonstrates the spiritual walk.

Part One:


The Concept

Chapter 1


What is Spirit?


He excitedly slipped first one leg and then the other over the well-worn wooden side. With both feet planted on a strangely solid surface offering an odd cushioned sensation that he had never felt before, he knew he was well beyond his normal realm of experience. Expecting his feet to slide as if on a slick surface, he was surprised when his first few steps had good traction, although that was far from being his main concern. The other man, who was only a few yards from him… the one who had just confirmed this disciple’s request to walk with him in this strange environment, was his true focus. A strange urge to join Jesus motivated him with a desire that he could not fully explain.

The aspiration to walk in the Spirit will call for faith so that one can pass through the environment of unfamiliarity that this challenge requires. Even as Peter walked on the odd surface of the Sea of Galilee, so those who find their footing in the Spirit will trod a path that neither has nor leaves any evidence of travel… for the footsteps are unknown. Let us explore.

Walking in the spirit necessitates knowledge of what the spirit is. In chapter four of John, Jesus told a Samaritan woman, who had come to draw water at Jacob’s well, that God is a spirit. We are walking with God when we walk in the spirit; Christians generally understand this. The spirit that we walk with is God Himself. An awesome privilege to say the least! God wants us to walk with him.

Jesus told his disciples that, “a spirit has not flesh and bones,” revealing to them that he was no longer in the form common to humanity. He had transcended, in his make-up, the earthly elements of this natural world and clothed himself with a spiritual body. To be released from the corporal body is to enter into the realm of the spirit. There is an affinity in our natural body to sin. The “spirit walk” requires a discharge from that association… we must be liberated from the body of flesh to walk in the spirit. This is the result of the salvation of God that has been made available to all who will call on Him.

The works of Jesus while he was on the earth make this salvation available. The essence of his work as stated in I Corinthians 15:1-4 is that he died for our sins, was buried and rose again… this is referred to, by Paul, as the gospel. As a result of his work he obtained a spiritual body free from the earthly elements that are the source of our temptations. Jesus arose with a body that is incorruptible, immortal, and literally, spiritual.

In explanation of our bodies Paul wrote, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.” Resurrection brings forth a spiritual body. In as much as the gospel of Jesus Christ concludes with the resurrection its end result is the attainment of a spiritual body. We are commanded to obey this gospel, it follows, then, that we too will come to the realization of a spiritual body by our obedience to this good news. While the ultimate fulfillment of this is at the return of Christ when we shall be changed bodily, those of us who have received the Holy Ghost have even now been given a new nature… one that is not tied to the earth, but is heavenly.

Until the time comes when we are given spiritual bodies a battle ensues for those of us who have received the dual nature that is the result of the new birth. The battle is between the earthly nature of our first birth and the heavenly nature of our second birth.

While we await this redemption of our bodies we need to know that a spirit is a living thing that has no natural body. God, being spirit, does not have a natural body. However, a spirit can dwell in a body as God dwelt in the man Jesus. Jesus is called the word of God made flesh (John 1:14). The word of God is spirit. We know this because words are conveyed by breath and (as we will look at later) spirit is breath. Let us read the Lord’s teaching to Nicodemus as he uses the wind to reveal a parabolic picture concerning the spirit.

“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and wither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the spirit.” John 3:8

Consider what is being said in this parable. Like the wind the Spirit of God goes where it wants. We recognize the Spirit’s presence by the sound it makes. We don’t know where it came from or where it is going. This illustrates being born of the spirit. Paul asked the Galatians, “Having begun in the spirit are you made perfect in the flesh?” The point being that the manner in which we are born of the spirit is the manner in which we continue in, or walk in, the spirit.

No wonder walking in the Spirit has been, at times, hard to understand; if we don’t know where the spirit comes from and goes to how can we walk with it? The manner in which we are accustomed to walking with someone is to observe the other person and then calculate their walk’s direction, speed, and other variables; we then match ours to theirs and we walk together. To us walking is a function of mental analysis and the bodily movements resulting from the analysis.

Spiritual walking is neither a function of mind nor of body. Spiritual walking is nearly spontaneous and is unencumbered by excess thought… it comes from spiritual nudges of the Holy Ghost. We have trouble because the human mind is analytical. We have a great need to figure things out, however this is the very reason that walking in the spirit is difficult for us: the spirit cannot be figured out! Walking in the Spirit is not accomplished by calculating where the spirit is going, but rather to be lead by it. As the title of the book suggests the footsteps of the spirit are not known… they cannot be anticipated nor followed. We can walk in the Spirit, but the Spirit leaves neither permanent path to follow as it moves nor does it follow any trail of tradition or ritual that permanently establishes its movements.

If we are going to walk with some one we will look at the direction of travel, speed, incline or decline, surface to be walked on (snow, sand, concrete, etc.) and make subconscious calculations before we join in the stroll. Jesus was saying, “We can’t analyze the movement of the spirit.” If we are not able to analyze it we are not able to mentally unite ourselves to the walk. This means that we must move into the “Spirit walk” by another portal. Amos asked, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” Walking in the spirit, then, is not about calculation, but rather agreement. We are seeking to agree with the spirit in our walk. To agree one must know where the other is, not where he has been or where he will be. A sense of where the Spirit is and what it is asking or saying needs to be developed… like taking a moment to listen for the gentle breeze of a summer day. Jesus said several times that, “he that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit is saying...” We should learn to hear with our spiritual ear… this is a must.

Adam walked with the voice of God in the cool of the evening. It seems as if this were an every day occurrence and was perhaps most vital in Adam’s relationship with God. It was the voice of God, the scripture tells us, that Adam walked with… Adam’s relationship was built on his walk with the voice of God… as so must ours be.

These walks took place before Adam obtained the carnal mind… a way of thinking that is centered upon self-preservation. This way of thinking was a consequence of eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One of the strongest traits of the carnal mind is analysis. We want to figure out how things work, or if they indeed will work because we desire to eliminate risk… we want guarantees and our minds actively search for them in all we do. But beware, “mental analysis is spiritual paralysis”. There are no guarantees in spiritual matters. None, that is, but our faith. Faith is not a function of the carnal mind, but it is a prerequisite to walking in the spirit.

Think about the story of Jesus walking on the water. Jesus is crossing the sea on foot. The disciples are crossing the same body of water in a boat and a storm comes. Tensions rise, nerves are on edge, the men in the boat are struggling to ensure safe passage. Night is falling, clouds are hovering, the wind is blowing, there is lightning, thunder, rain… and then there is Jesus.

Jesus!!

What is Jesus doing?

“Master is it you?”

“Can I come?”

“Come.”

“I will…I am…. I am walking on … on wa…. on wat … on water… on WHAT! Oh!… Oh! Oh… Oh, no! ….Nooooooo!”

“I didn’t think this through… I’m not walking … I’m standing… I’m not standing… I’m sinking… I’m going down… I’m going to drown!!”

Jesus, HELP!!!!

Do you see how the analytical mind is a hindrance to our walk with God? It was the thinking of Peter that got him into trouble. The bible says, he doubted. Doubt is our natural mind looking for a guarantee, while the Spirit is challenging us to move forward… in belief.

The wind of the Spirit is blowing and its beckon is to the faithful who will walk in this holy last day movement. In this moving together of God and man the great works expected of a great God will be accomplished. Care to join?