Revealing The Ring

I was really wanting to this week, two weeks ago, I don't really prepare messages ever ahead of time, but I have thoughts. And so two weeks ago, I wanted to teach today on walking in the spirit. And, but you know, I'm never sure. So last Sunday, Pastor Seth, we had baptisms.

And he said, when you go into the water and come out of the water, you're saying that I'm ready to walk in the spirit. And like, I was like ding, ding, ding. That's all I needed. And God just kind of confirmed for me.

That would be our topic for this week, our topic of discussion. But one thing that when we talk about baptism, how many were here for baptisms last week? Almost everybody. I think we had eight or nine get baptized.

Great day. I love baptism Sunday. Because we're identifying publicly in front of people of the reality that's already taken place in our born-again spirits. That we died with Christ.

We were buried with Christ. We were made alive with Christ. We have risen with Christ. And that going under the water, coming out of the water, becomes that public declaration.

And as Pastor Seth said, and we've, you may have heard it before, you may be not. It's kind of like putting the wedding ring on. Like it's a public, for those that are married and wear a ring, and if some married people don't wear a ring. But if I put this ring on, if I put my wedding ring on Gretchen, if Gretchen wore a ring, does that make her married?

No. It's no difference that if you're not saved and you go under the water, you don't come up safe. Putting a ring on does not make me married. Making a covenant with my wife is what makes me married.

And then the ring, the pastor of the Reverend Minster will say, what token do you bring as an evidence? And so the ring becomes a token. It becomes a symbol of a covenant and a commitment I made with this person, my wife, almost 33. I lost track, 33 or 32.

You quit counting after a while, you know? But the ring, like, if I'm married, and I don't wear a ring, I'm still married, right? Like if you could save and choose not to get baptized, you're still saved. If I'm not married and put a ring on, that doesn't make me married.

But the ring becomes this symbol. It becomes a token of a choice, of a decision that I made to love this person for the rest of my life. And have you ever seen somebody who has a ring on that is married, but they continue to act like they're still single? Have you ever seen that person?

Anybody that person? I had to go through a point in my life where I didn't realize I was married. I was married, but I still had some singleness to get out of me. I still had some things of my prior life, prior to marriage that didn't really line up with the person that I then became 32 years ago.

And what I see, you know, you see sometimes you see people that are married that wear the ring, but they're still having conversations with people the opposite sex they shouldn't be. Or they're still frequenting establishments by themselves looking for a hookup when they shouldn't be. Or they're texting things or posting things online, or painting a picture that they shouldn't be painting. And I think we've all seen that.

And when we see somebody who's married that's wearing the ring still living as if they're single, we begin to question things like we question their honor, we question their integrity, we question, you know, what level of commitment do they really have? If they're truly married, they're put a ring on it, and now they're still living as if they never got married at all. And I know we've all experienced that. Everybody knows, everybody's thinking of somebody right now, right?

You are, you're thinking of somebody. I'm not trying to cause guilt and shame. I'm just saying that the same is true when you're walked with Christ. I see a lot of believers who have accepted Jesus from the Romans chapter seven says that when the old man dies, you're now free to marry Jesus, you marry Christ, you actually enter a covenant relationship with Christ.

You've gone through water baptism, you quote unquote, put the ring on it. You're wearing an outward symbol of an inward reality. But now you're still living as if you're still single. And so that reality permeates the church.

See, there should be a difference to your life from the moment that you accept Christ, that you take your next step in water baptism and you identify with Christ publicly, there should be a difference in your life. You should act different than you did before. You should live different than you did before. That there should be, what's the title of the message today?

Let's go to it. There should be a reflection and a revelation of the reality that's taken place. Now Pastor Cess said last week he said, baptism's not just a moment, it's a marker. It's a marker in your life.

And there should be some evidence of that. There should be some manifestation that I have made a decision to follow Jesus and now you should see a difference in the way I live life. And so I'm gonna talk to you about this today, revealing the ring, that the entirety of your life should be a revelation of the reality that you put this ring on your finger, so to speak. I'm talking metaphorically, right?

We didn't put rings on anybody's fingers last week. But metaphorically, your life should be this compendium. It should be like every area of your life should speak to this. Not just one day a week, not just several hours a day, not just when you're having your quiet time, but the entirety of your life should speak to the relationship that you now have with Christ.

And what I wanna talk to you about today is simple. Am I like simple? It's simple, it's very simple. Anybody ever have those issues in your life you just can't seem to get victory over?

Am I the only one? No, we all have things, right? There's things. But what I'm gonna share with you today is a simple fix.

It's easy. Well, I don't know, take that back, strike that from the record, it's simple, but it's not easy. It may be the hardest thing you ever do, but it's simple. There's a simplicity in Christ.

He doesn't make it complicated. It doesn't mean it's easy, but it's simple. And so I wanna give you some, I wanna talk today about what it means to walk in the spirit. You know, a lot of people will say, well, you don't preach against sin much, I don't.

Because I say, why would I preach against something that's already been dealt with and is gone? Because there's better ways to attack the issues in our life that we're still trying to gain victory over. And the Bible tells us, we're gonna read the day in Galatians, chapter five, it says, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. So a lot of times we get the cart before the horse, we tell people, well, if you don't fulfill the desires of the flesh, then you can be filled with or walk in the spirit.

And that's not the order that God puts it in. That there is a simple way to live the very life that God desires for you to live. It's simple. And so I wanna uncomplicate it a little bit today.

So I wanna talk about what that means to walk in the spirit. And at the end of it, toward the end, I'm gonna give you seven keys to walking in the spirit. Seven keys to walking in the spirit. And so it's gonna be more of a machine gun today, right?

I won't have time to develop each one. So I'm gonna tell you you're gonna need to study. I want you to go home. I want you to digest this a little bit.

But so I'm gonna do a little basic teaching first and then we'll go into what seven keys that look like. So to get started out, let's read, I wanna read Galatians chapter five, very common passage. And we're gonna start at verse 16. And we'll read down through verse 26.

It says, I say this then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh lust against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary one to the other so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like, which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So let me stop there with this litany of what we call works of the flesh, right? It's what happens, it's the evidence of sin or yielding to sin. And so I don't think we need to spend time, everybody knows, maybe you don't know all those words, I'm not gonna go through them today, but Paul says this, those that practice these things don't inherit the kingdom of God.

Don't confuse that, that if you practice that, any of those you're not going to have it. That's not what it says. It says that you don't inherit, you don't actually tap into the inheritance that Jesus has provided for you. So that when you live in a certain way and you practice any of these type of things, there's an inheritance that God has for you that includes all that Jesus has, that you don't actually, you're not able to appropriate that inheritance.

I'm not talking about heaven and hell here. And then he goes on to say this, he says, but the fruit of the spirits, now we have a contrast here between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, fullness, faithfulness, sorry, gentleness and self-control against such there's no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. So much there, right? So much there. We're gonna hone in on verses 16 and 17.

We're gonna spend time on verses 16 and 17 because that's the crux of this passage. So let's read that again, go to the next slide. Now let's go forward, there we go. Let's just read this slow.

Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary one to another so that you do not do the things you wish. And so I wanna talk just about a few, bring some clarity.

So what does the word lust mean? It's the Greek word epithemia, lust. It means this on the next slide. It's a desire, some translations say desire.

It means a longing or a craving, a desire, a longing or craving, a strong desire. Typically when we think of lust, what do we think of? Sex. Sex.

Somebody says sex. Well, sex is just a part of it. Lust is any type of strong desire. It's any type of longing.

And a lot of times it says, especially that which is forbidden but not always. Right, there can be good lusts. This same word is used of Jesus. On in Luke 22, the night when he's, we just celebrated communion.

He says, with fervent desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. So that's Jesus used the same word. He says, I desire to eat this meal with you. The Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter one, when he says for me to live as Christ, the dyes game, he's talking about, hey, it's needful for me to be here with you because there's still fruit that needs to be born in your birth and your life.

And you need my presence here. But he said, I desire to depart this earth and be with Christ, which is far better. And so Paul, he's talking about the struggle between, hey, you guys need my ministry, but I also have this desire to be with Christ. And so that's the same word desire.

So it's not always a bad thing. So there's good desires that come from the Holy Spirit. Even here it says that the flesh has desires and the spirit has desires. So the word desire or lust is not always a bad thing.

It can be used in a positive context, but a lot of times we only think of it as Jen said about sex, but that's a narrow definition. But every time people hear the word, certain things come to mind, but I just want to let you know, it's broader than that. It can be good or it can be bad. It applies to both the spirit and also to the flesh.

So when we talk about the flesh, when it talks about lust of the flesh, so it's meaning there are certain desires that the flesh has. And when we hear the word flesh, here's where a lot of people have misunderstanding, right? Because when you read the word flesh in the Bible, flesh can be used to describe numerous things. If you go back to the book of Genesis, chapter 6, verse 12, it said, you remember when after God created it and before the flood it said that all flesh was corrupt.

God looks down on the earth and he sees that all flesh is corrupt. So in that context, flesh talks about all of humanity. All of humanity, all humankind is referred to as all flesh. Flesh also can mean this, right?

This stuff. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 39, he says, not all flesh is the same flesh. There's flesh of man, there's flesh of animals, there's flesh of fish, and there's flesh of birds. So that flesh sometimes can come to mean just your physical body, that flesh.

But here's where the confusion comes in. It's what is the meaning of flesh when it pertains to the desires that are inside of you. And there's a difference between what encompasses the flesh before you get saved and what encompasses the flesh after you get saved. And a lot of translations, actually, when I'm specific about which translation I use, because some translations of the Bible and Galatians 5, 16 translated incorrectly.

And so if you look at this, just put this up for you. I don't wanna do a teaching on Spirit's own body, but you remember, I've taught in this before, is that first and foremost, you are a spirit, you're a spirit being. You possess a soul, which is your mind, will, and emotion, and your spirit that possesses a soul lives in this physical body. Before you get saved, right?

This is BC, before Christ, the definition of flesh included your unregenerated fallen nature, what we call the old man in the Bible, the old man of sin, your old nature. Before you're saved, your flesh included your old nature. After you accept Christ, that man dies, and you're made new, and you get a new nature. Remember it says in Corinthians 5, 17, and says, if any man be in Christ, he's what?

A new creation, you become a new creation. It says in 1 Corinthians 17, it says, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. So that at the spirit realm, inside of you, your spirit and the Holy Spirit literally glued together, you're one. And so a lot of translations will call the flesh, will say, don't, it says walk after the spirit, and you won't fulfill the desires of your old sin nature.

That is 100% wrong. Because when you get saved, you no longer have an old sin nature. Your old sin nature is gone. So be careful when you read the Bible and it translates it that way.

So because people think, well, I got an old sin nature and I got a new nature and they're doing this. No, the old man is completely gone. It says in Romans 6, verses 5 and 6. On the next slide, I think we might have read these last week.

It says that our old man was what? Crucified with Christ. Christ died, our old man died with him. We were made alive with Christ.

You get a new creation in you. And now that is what is in you. It is the life of Christ. The new man is in you.

Now, that means that we still have two other parts of us that still have some flesh in us, right? We have our body that still has habits, that still has actions, that still was used to doing things a certain way. And more importantly, we still got this, the unrenewed mind. And this is what, this is really, I even think more so than your body.

I think your flesh is more here as a believer than anywhere else. See what's happened is even though this old man is gone, he left some residual in the rest of you. He left some residual in the way that he thought. He left residual in the way that he fell about things.

He left residual in your decision making process. He left residual in the actions that you take and the habits and the things that you do. And the way that we have victory over that is through this thing called walking in the spirit. It's not trying to do better.

It's not trying to stop sinning. It's not trying not to do this and trying to do this. Walk in the spirit. I told you simple.

It's not complicated. But it becomes difficult to live from the reality of the new you in Christ versus what we tend to experience every day. It's not easy. And so I want to give some clarity to that today.

And so when talking about, just let's go backwards. I'd like to go back to the 516 if we could. Let's go back. One more slide.

So a couple things about the lust of the flesh. Here's where a lot of people get sideways. It says walk in the spirit and you will not do what? Fulfill the desires of the flesh.

See, a lot of people think, well, once I get born again, shouldn't those desires go away? Well, that'd be great if they did. And sometimes miraculously, God removes the desire. He can do that, right?

He can do a miracle in your life. I've thought to people, I used to be this, an S, an S, an S, and God removed that desire for me. But the norm is this, that the desire does not get destroyed, but it can be dethroned. Like it doesn't go away necessarily.

So a lot of people get depressed and like, man, I've been 20 years and I'm still, I still have these desires. Well, there's a fix for it. Paul says the law of the spirit of life in Christ has freed me from the law of sin and death. That there's a higher law out there that you can operate in, that it's just like if you get in an airplane, right?

Did the law of gravity go away when you get up in an airplane? It's still there, right? The law of gravity didn't go away. It's still there.

You're just superseding it. So what happens if the plane runs out of gas? Boom, gravity's still working. It's just that you're able to operate in a law that's a superior law to the law of gravity.

It's called the law of aerodynamics, the law of lift. The same thing is true in your spiritual walk. It doesn't, you know, don't get depressed if the desires don't go away, but you can live in such a way to where they're no longer, they're not effective in your life. You can live above that.

A lot of people also think this, it's that it says, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, the lust of the spirit against the spirit against the flesh. They are contrary. Imagine that. What the flesh wants you to do is contrary to what God wants you to do.

That should be a telltale sign. Is this desire in my life, is it what God would want me to do? Contrary means this, it means in opposition to, adversarial against. They stand in opposition to one to the other.

And so that as I naturally move in the things of the spirit, I've abandoned the things of the flesh. But what's happened when I go this way? And I start feeding the flesh and moving in more things of the flesh, the things of the spirit go. That's kind of like a sea salt, right?

Anybody still make those? No, they don't make, probably somebody decided it was too dangerous for kids. I went to school down here at Johnson Heights Elementary when there was one, and we had the monkey bars, and we had sea salt, and all this stuff kids got real hurt on, but I guess they don't, they don't make it. Like what happens on a sea salt?

When one goes up, what happens to the other? It goes down, and when this one goes down, what happens down? It goes up, and it's the same thing. If I walk in the spirit, I no longer fulfill those desires that are there in the flesh, they just do this.

It just depends on which one I'm focusing my attention on. A lot of times people think this, they think, well, is desire sin? Is the lust of the flesh sin? No, it's not.

It's what you do with it. It says if you walk in the spirit, you won't do what? Fulfill it. It's the fulfilling of it that becomes sin.

Having wrong desires is not sin, but it will lead to sin. It'll lead you there. It says in James 1, verses 13 to 15, it says, let no one say when he is tempted, I'm tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. So don't ever say that God is tempting you.

God is not tempting you to do wrong. Now we know this, that God may lead you, it says that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. So if God leads you to a place, he's not doing the tempting, but he might bring you to a place to give you victory in the midst of it, to bring you on the other side to a place of power. And it said that Jesus returned to the Jordan in the power of the Holy Spirit after he went through that.

It says each one of you, what's that mean, everybody? Like nobody's exempt. Each one of you is tempted when you're drawn away by your own. Here's the same word, lust or desires, and enticed.

The word in the Greek is actually a hunting word. It means to lure an animal from the safety of its den. It's like when the animal's in its den or the animal's in its hiding place, it's safe. And it throws some bait out there, right?

And if I'm gonna attract, let's say, if I'm gonna attract deer, what did, yeah, it's not legal, right? But if you wanna shoot a deer, you put out a block of salt. But you know what the block of salt won't attract? It's not gonna attract squirrels, because squirrels aren't attracted to the block of salt.

Deer are. If I'm gonna catch trout, I'm gonna use trout bait. I'm not gonna use bass bait, right? Because certain types of bait appeal to certain animals.

It's the same way with you. What it says that each one is drawn out from your own desires. That word own is idios, which means kind of like the word idiosyncrasy, not idiot, idios, like idiosyncrasy, something that's specific to you. So there's desires that I have that really are just mine.

Pastor Seth probably has other things that stir him up, and Jen might have other things that stir her up. See, if you put out the thing in front of me that stirs you up, it may not do anything to me. You put something out that stirs my desire up, it may not affect the evil. They may, we might have the same ones, we may not.

But there's certain things that are specific to me. And the enemy knows that. So he sends bait out that tempts me with the thing that is one of those desires. And he says each one is tempted when he's drawn out by his own desires and enticed.

Then when desire has done what? Conceived. So desire doesn't turn into sin until there's a conception. When you agree with, when you partner with that desire, conception takes place.

When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So it doesn't become sin until there's conception, so you partner with it. When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin becomes full-grown, it produces or gives birth to what?

Death. And it's not talking about spiritual death, it's talking about that you are now opening the door for the enemy to come into your life. And to do what Jesus says in John 10, 10, which is what? Steel, kill, and destroy.

Now open yourself up to the effects of death in your life. See, the desire is not sin, but the desire can lead this in. I think it's interesting. You notice that it says desire when conceived gives birth to sin.

The same two words that Gabriel, when he, you guys remember the Christmas story when Gabriel comes to Mary? He says, Mary, you found favor with God. And he says this. He says, you will conceive in your womb, and you'll give birth to a son, and you'll call his name Jesus.

You'll conceive, and you'll give birth to a son. And she says, be it unto me according to your word. See, it depends on what words you're partnering with. Are they the words of the Holy Spirit?

Are they words from your flesh? Are they thoughts? Are they wrong thoughts? Right thoughts?

Whatever it is. See, one gives birth to sin. The other gives birth to the son of the manifestation of Christ in your life. Conception gives birth to the son.

She says, be it unto me according to your word. All right. So the last of the flesh is this. It's any desire that stands in opposition to and is adversarial toward the desires of the Spirit.

It's any desire that stands in opposition to or is adversarial toward the desires of the Spirit. And so when you have desires in your life, then you have to weigh them on that balance. Is this a desire of the Spirit? And if it's not, then it's by default a desire of the flesh.

There's really only two options. It either is or it isn't. You're either pregnant or you're not. And so that's the test that we give it.

Is it contrary to? Is it in opposition to what the desire of the Holy Spirit would be for my life? So what does it mean to walk in the Spirit? So that's just a little bit about flesh.

Now I want to transition. So what does it mean? If the only thing that I have to do is walk in the Spirit. What does that look like?

Now let me tell you what it's not. You ever meet somebody that's so spiritually up there, they're just kind of walking around the clouds all the time. Oh, you know, they're just floating in the clouds and they're, oh, Jesus, this, and Jesus. All right, that's not walking in the Spirit.

That might be the manifestation of it. But don't just assume because somebody's walking around, floating around the clouds that they're necessarily walking in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit comes from this word, peripitio, in the Greek. And it means to regulate one's life, to conduct one's life, and to make due use of every opportunity, it means to progress.

It really has to do with the entirety, the whole round, everything about your life. So when we're talking about walking in the Spirit, we're not talking about just coming to church and having a feeling when we're doing worship. It's talking about the entirety of your life, which means that the me that you see on Sunday morning should be the me that you see at the supermarket, should be the me that you see on vacation, should be the me that you see at the ball game, should be the me that you see at my profession or my job, should be the me that's in my marriage, should be the me that goes out to dinner, that it's the entirety of my life. We're not just talking about coming in and having some spiritual high.

We're talking about living life beat by beat day by day, moment by moment in this thing called walking in the Spirit. And when we do this, naturally what happens is, you don't fulfill the other things. Think about this. How many of you know that I'm married to my wife?

I've told you that a hundred times, right? Now, if I'm gonna grab you for a minute. If I've stayed with her 24 hours a day like this, not even, see the good thing is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit never says, oh no. He says, yes, I do.

But if I stayed in a fashion such as this, would it be pretty good chance I'm probably not gonna do something outside the bounds of my marriage? Yeah. Oh yeah, right? Why?

Because I have this, the Holy Spirit's right here with me, right? Thank you. Living, walking in, living in this reality of the Holy Spirit is it encompasses him, like he's in us, but like we need to have this recognition that he's with us everywhere we go. And there's things to developing this.

I wanna give you seven things today. And these are where we're just gonna give you seven things and then we're gonna pray. But seven things, seven keys to walking in the Spirit. What that looks like.

Well, first and foremost, it's this. You cannot walk in the Spirit if you're not saved, right? You have to be saved. You have to have the Holy Spirit living in you.

If he doesn't live in you can't walk in him. It's a physical, spiritual impossibility. So step one is this, you have to be saved. Jesus says, don't marvel that I say you must be born again.

That which is born in the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. So there has to be this time that you say yes to Jesus and that he birthed something new in you. And you're called what's called born again.

That he comes to reside in you in the form of and in the person of his Holy Spirit. Let's go back to number one. I don't wanna go to seven because you guys are getting way ahead of me here. Let's go back to number one because I screwed up the order.

So you're gonna know. We're gonna walk through them. But by the time we get to the end, you're gonna notice number three and four got messed up and I apologize in advance. But number one, you must be in dwelled by.

What does that mean? It means that he lives in me. He lives in me. Jesus says, I'll pray the Father that he will send another comforter, the Holy Spirit.

He says, whom you know, he says that the world can't receive because the world neither sees him or knows him, but you know him because he dwells with you and will be in you. And so the moment you say yes to Jesus and you make him Lord of your life, the Holy Spirit, it's called he takes up residence. He dwells in you. He lives in you.

Romans eight says this, next slide. It says that, it says you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit dwells in you, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. Like when, and I think Seth mentioned this last week, but we're not gonna go into it. But when the moment you say yes, there's all kinds of things that happen.

Like you become the new you and the Holy Spirit moves in and he puts a new Spirit in you and he comes in you and it says in Ephesians 1.13 that he stamps us or seals us with the Holy Spirit. He puts his mark on me and then encapsulates everything inside of me and seals it and keeps it perfect forever. He seals me, he marks me. And so he stamps me and he calls me his own.

And so step one, if I'm ever gonna have a chance of living free from the desires of the flesh, you have to be saved. You can't do it any other way. It says, do you not know Paul? It says sin will not have dominion over you.

It says it won't. It won't because I made Jesus Lord of my life. He died to sin one time. And now he lives ever more.

Resurrection life has to be in you. The Holy Spirit has to be in you. Number two is this. You have to be indwelled by his Spirit.

Number two, you need to be and must be filled with. The Holy Spirit. See, there's a difference. I believe that the moment you accept Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you.

But then there's another work that Jesus does where he baptizes you with and in his Spirit. It's called being filled with. It's now releasing the Spirit that's in me and allowing that Spirit to flow into my mind, into my soul, into my body and be released out of me. Ephesians 5 says this, 5-18, it says, do not be drunk with wine.

Now you can substitute anything else in there you want. Do not be drunk with wine. Wherein is, what's the word? Disopation, it just means excess.

It means riot. It means reckless living. Debacry. So anybody been there?

Well, pretty much everybody knows what that looks like, right? Can I ingest alcohol in an only go to my finger? Yeah, right? Or does it only go to my right foot?

Does it affect all of me? When I ingest alcohol to the place of being drunk with it, it affects the way I think. It affects the way I talk. It affects the way I walk.

It affects the way I move. It affects the way I make decisions and feel. And it affects the entirety of me. And he says I don't want you to drink that way, but I want you to drink something else.

I want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He has the same effect on you. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it affects, I don't say it. He effects the way you think.

He affects the way that you decide. He affects the way you feel. He affects the steps that you take and the actions you make the way that you interact with people. So you can't have a release of power until you're filled with the Holy Spirit.

The word here when it says be filled, it's in the present tense, which means really it should say be being filled. So you get saved and he moves in once, he indwells you once, but there needs to be a continual action of being filled with the Holy Spirit. It goes on, it's not only a present tense verb, but it's passive, which means you don't do it. You receive it.

It's passive in this, it's Jesus is the one that baptizes you. Jesus is the one that baptizes you in the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said this, he says, I indeed baptize with water, but there comes one after me who's mightier than me, who's shoes I'm not worthy to tie, and he shall be the one that baptizes you in the Holy Spirit and with fire. Jesus is the baptizer.

So it's passive. It's him baptizing you, and then it's in the present tense, it's in the passive voice, but it's also in the imperative nude, which means this, you got to do it. It's not, it's like some people say, well, it's optional. Well, it's optional, but it's required.

Like you need it. You need this. This made the biggest difference in my life. This one thing helped me get so much victory that if I had to pick one thing, two things, it's the word in the Holy Spirit working in unison, but this radically changed my life.

So it says in Acts 1, it says, it says, you will receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses. So think about this, it's power to be a witness. Guess what? You're not going to be a very good at doing if you're living in a way that's inconsistent with God's work.

You're not going to be a good witness. You're not going to be a good witness. You're going to be the guy wearing a ring, living in a different way. You need to power the Holy Spirit to empower you to live the life that mirrors the reality of this and so that you can actually bring people to the Lord by the way that you live.

You need to power the Holy Spirit. You need to be in dwell with the Holy Spirit. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Number three is this.

You need to set your mind after the Holy Spirit or according to the Spirit. You need to set your mind after the things of the Spirit. See, once I've been saved, He lives in me. Once I've been filled and continue to be filled, look, my mind is unrenewed.

Right? You have one nature, but do you realize you have two minds? The old nature's dead. Right?

The old man's dead. You got a new nature. We talked about that. You got one nature, but you got two minds.

You have the mind of Christ, but you also have the unrenewed mind. And the goal and the rest of your Christian life is getting your unrenewed mind to come over here to match the mind of Christ. But you're living with this dual mental reality simultaneous. I have the mind of Christ.

That's the truth. I also have an unrenewed mind that needs to become more like Him. And I do that by setting my mind on the things according to the Spirit. It says this next verse, Romans chapter 8 says, it says, those who live according to the flesh, if you're living according to the flesh, it's because you're doing what?

Setting your mind there. Do you know your life is going the direction of your thoughts? As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You're going to live out what's right here.

See, my thoughts, what I think about turns into effects the way I feel, the way I feel effects what I decide, what I decide to affect my actions, what I do, my actions turn into habits, and my habits will lead me to a destiny, good or bad. See, if I don't like the destination I ended up in, maybe you're like, well, I'm in the wrong place. Well, then let's go backwards. If I don't like the destiny, what are my habits?

What are my habits? Well, how did that? Where did the action start with? Well, the action started with a decision that was formed by a bad attitude or feeling that was shaped by the way I thought, which was either based on the word of God or some other word or thought inconsistent with God's word.

Your life is going the direction of your thoughts, good or bad. It says, those that live according to the flesh, set their minds of the things of the flesh, those who live according to the Spirit, set their mind according to what? The things of the Spirit. You have to not just, it's thinking from the realities of the Spirit, thinking from the direction of spiritual realities of heaven realities.

That's where I set my mind to. Set your mind on things above, not on things of earth, for your life is sitting Christ. It's like, set your mind where Christ is at the right hand of the Father. That's where I set my mind to.

See, when I start from that direction, all of a sudden, the way I'm setting my mind, I'm thinking of certain way and then I'm going to feel a certain way, then I'm going to decide a certain way, then I'm going to act a certain way and then I'm going to develop good habits in my life, and those good habits are going to take me into my purpose and destiny that God's designed for me. But if I go the other way, according to having a mindset, according to the flesh, I'm going to end up in a destination not where God wants me to be. I've got to set my mind according to the things of the Spirit. Number four is this, I need to be submitted to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, submitted to His lead in my life, submitted to yield it to, right?

I can have Him in me, I can be filled with Him, I can renew my mind and set it right, but at the end of the day, I've got to say yes to His leadership. I need to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. It takes submission, it takes obedience, it takes willingness. I can do the other three and still say no.

I can have Him in me, I can have Him upon me, I can reset my mind there and still say no. I have to willingly submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We didn't really, we kind of glanced over it, but at the end, at the end of Galatians 5, I think it's verse 25, it says this, it says, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. That's a different word walk.

That's the word stoichio, which means this. I always think, you ever see the Russian military, you ever see those pictures, if you're Russian, I apologize. But you know the ones where the guy's like, March like this. So the word stoichio means to walk, not peripitio, not the entirety of life, but it means to walk in military fashion or form.

It means to stay in exact step with the Holy Spirit. See, when I was a kid, my dad used to take me hunting. And he would be like, look, I want you to step everywhere I step. Why?

Because he's teaching me how to not to step on twigs, how not to make noise. What am I doing? And I had to learn. I had to learn.

Okay, my dad obviously knows more than I do about hunting. My dad knows more than I do about walking through the woods. He knows more than I do about how to be quiet and how to sneak up on things and how to walk stealthily in the woods and how to not make noise and shuffle the leaves and break twigs. And I only learned that as I submitted to his guidance and when his foot picked up, mine went down.

And when his foot picked up, mine went down. And I began to walk that out for years and years and years until I was able to walk that on my own. So you have to submit to the leadership, the guidance. What does Jesus say?

He says, the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. Like you don't have to worry about him leading you down the wrong path. If you follow, if you submit, if you let him lead you. I mentioned earlier, it says in Luke chapter 4, it says Jesus being right and right, he gets baptized.

John to baptize him, he says the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove. Jesus gets filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke chapter 4 says, it says he left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted to the devil. He followed the whole, see, it says in Paul says that Jesus, God always leads us into triumph in Christ.

So wherever he leads you, you can be certain that the end of it will be a victory. It never ends in defeat. It's always, he leads us into triumph. But you have to follow his lead.

You have to submit. You have to lay your will down. Even Jesus had to lay his natural will down. He wanted to do things.

He says if there's any way this cup could pass from me. Like that's what he wanted. But he said, nevertheless, not what I want, but what you want. He said, I trust you.

I'll follow you. I'll lay aside my wants, my desires, my whatever's and I will take a step and follow you every day. All the way to the cross. Number 5 is this.

It's that you need to be armed with, armed with the sword of the Spirit. Armed with the sword of the Spirit. What's the sword of the Spirit? The Word of God.

Right, Ephesians 6, the armor of God says and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Right? You need the Word of God in your life. Set a couple weeks ago.

The Holy Spirit is truth. The Word of God is truth. They will always agree. The Holy Spirit uses the Word to give you direction in life.

He teaches you from this. He reveals things to you from this. It says in Hebrew chapter 4 verse 12, it says the Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's the sword of the Spirit.

It says, dividing a sunder, soul and spirit, joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. See, if you ever wonder, well, is what I'm thinking right, is what I'm feeling right, where it says it's a discerner of it means it judges. It passes judgment, not in a bad way, but just like let's call it a spade. It's going to call it out of the thoughts and intents.

The word intense is not really like we would think intentions. It means to feel a certain way, which is a term we actually use a lot. Well, it feels certain way about that situation. Anybody ever feel a certain way about something?

All right. The Word of God will discern that. Is the way you're feeling a godly feeling. Is the way you're feeling not a godly feeling.

The Word of God calls it out. And when I allow the Word of God to permeate my life, it discerns the thoughts, the intents of my heart and whether they're godly desires or whether they're fleshly desires. I need, you need the Word of God in your life. See, it's a weapon against the enemy.

It's one of only two, like offensive weapons in the armor of God. Like Jesus used the Word of God when he was tempted, right? As it is written, as it is written, as it is written. But there's also an aspect of the sort of the spirit that penetrates you.

Like it's a weapon that you can use to discern your life. And the Holy Spirit does that. The next one is this. It is praying in the spirit.

We're running out of time, so I'll make this really quick. Prayer in the spirit. The very next verse, which is also in Ephesians 6, says this. It says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit.

Praying always, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. There's a gift that's available to everybody here. If you've been saved, he lives in you. If you've been filled with the Holy Spirit, it's called praying in the spirit.

Another terminology would be praying in tongues. It's available to every believer. It's a gift that's available. It's a way that God allows you to pray.

It says in Romans 8, it says how the spirit helps our weaknesses when we know not what to pray. He makes intercession for us. So when you have a situation you don't even know how to pray for, you can pray in the spirit. And the Holy Spirit actually fills in the gaps, the limitations in your head for you.

He allows you to pray beyond your natural ability. It says that he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God so that the prayer you're releasing in the spirit lines exactly up with God's will, which is also the desires of the spirit. You know that you're praying things that are not in line with your flesh, but in line with your spirit. It's a way to build yourself up.

It's a way to praise in the spirit, edifies himself. Like life gets tough. Life wears you down. It's a way to naturally, spiritually, supernaturally build yourself up.

It's a way to refresh yourself. It's a way to release hidden wisdom, it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 that how being in the spirit we speak mysteries, hidden wisdom that you can release thing that God has set aside for you in eternity past and bring it into today's reality. Like you need to pray in the spirit. Like it's another thing that a lot of people don't take advantage of.

But it's part of walking that life, the entirety of my life, walking in the spirit. I pray in the spirit every, I'm not saying this as a bragging way, but I pray in the spirit every day. Like there's not a day, and I can unequivocally say there's not a day in my life that goes by that I don't pray in the spirit every day. It's like breathing to me.

It's like eating breakfast. I don't miss a meal. Like I'm not a good faster, but I'm really good at praying in the spirit. And I make it part of my life.

It's part of my day. Like I couldn't go about my day without doing it. And the last one is this is fellowship or partnership with the Holy Spirit, number seven. And the verse I put up there is from 2 Corinthians chapter, it's the very last verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14.

Paul ends the book of 2 Corinthians with this. He says it's kind of like a benediction. He says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always. Amen.

The word fellowship is the Greek word coin ania. It means partnership. It means intimacy. It means communion.

It means fellowship, partnership. All those type of things. See what happens is we have to recognize that the Holy Spirit is a person. That he's the third person of the Godhead.

Paul says that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the communion, the fellowship, the partnership of the Holy Spirit, be with like it should be part of every day. You should spend time with the Holy Spirit. See what happens is he's not an it. He's not a fire.

He's not a dove. He's not water. He's not wind. Those are expressions of maybe how he comes, but it's not who he is.

He is God. He's identical to Jesus. Jesus says, I pray the Father and he'll send another comforter, just one just like me, the Holy Spirit's a person. And we have to, we engage him like that.

We spend time with him. We interact with him. We develop an intimacy with the Holy Spirit. I've given you a lot of things there today, seven things that you need to be induelped by the Holy Spirit.

He needs to live in you. If you're not saved today, you can accept Jesus and the Holy Spirit will come live in you. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You need Jesus and to receive the baptism, the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Number three, you need to set your mind on things according to the Spirit. It starts with this. Your life's going the direction of your thought life. We've got to get that straight.

We need to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I need to trust him. I need to submit to him. I need to obey.

I need to let him lead me. I need to arm myself with God's Word, the sort of the Spirit. I need to spend time every day, not only in the Word, but praying in the Spirit. In the midst of all that, I need to develop an intimacy, a partnership, and a fellowship with the Holy Spirit as a person.

I'm sure there's more. And I encourage you to take these scriptures today and say, God, what is it in my life that I need to stop doing? And don't try to stop doing it. Don't, like if you got something in your life, you can't get a victory, but don't try to stop doing it.

That sounds terrible to say that. But don't worry about it. What you need to focus on is how do I walk in the Spirit? How do I tap into the victory that I can find in Christ?

See, it's walking in the Spirit that allows those things to fall off your life. It's not trying to do better. It's not trying to stop doing something, start doing it. Forget all that.

Remember, I told you, it's simple. It's just not easy. See, it seems too easy. It seems too simple.

But literally, if you'll do this, if you'll focus on walking in the Spirit, living from that place, making this part of your life, those things will just naturally start, actually, not naturally, supernaturally start to fall off. And you'll wake up on day and like, wow, it's gone. It's gone. Let's pray.