Anyone who has read the New Testament knows Christians are supposed to walk in the spirit, not the flesh. We’re to be spiritually minded, not carnally minded. But what is a spiritual mind, and how do you get one, and just how does one go about walking in the spirit?

The good news is that the Spirit, life, nature, and character of God are already in the New Testament believer. What we have to do is learn to let what’s on the inside flow to the outside and walk in it.

OUTLINE

Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Walking in the spirit does not mean being ethereal, spooky, or hearing voices. Simply abstaining from the lusts of the flesh doesn’t make you spiritual either, nor does memorizing scripture or practicing religious rituals.

To know how to walk in the spirit, we first need to understand the makeup of man.

Spirit, Soul, Body

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Body: With the body, we contact the three-dimensional physical realm through the five physical senses.
• Soul: With the soul, we contact the soulish realm of intellect, emotion, and conscious awareness – knowing, thinking, and feeling.
• Spirit: With the spirit we contact the spirit realm where God is a spirit and where His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that He is, that He is good, that He is holy, and that we need to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus.

FALLEN MAN – At the fall of man, the Spirit, life, and nature of God departed from man’s spirit. Man was left without light to know right from wrong, or truth from error.

Satan became the “god of this world,” the spirit that has since ministered to men his twisted ways of knowing, seeing, and thinking called sin.

BORN AGAIN MAN – The new testament believer is born again (John 3:3) and made a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) in his spirit. The body remains the progeny of Adam and is just as inclined toward sin. The new testament believer’s soul is what must be retrained to follow the spirit instead of the flesh.

Spiritually Minded vs Carnally Minded

Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

The crux of being spiritual instead of carnal consists of being mindful of, aware of, discerning of, and yielded to what is coming from God into your spirit. The alternative is to continue to be led by the appetites at work in our Adam-born flesh and the twisted wisdom of this world.

THE ORDER – Notice that in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 the order is spirit first, then soul, then body. God designed all things to flow from spirit, into soul, then out into physical expression. The inversion of that order is spiritual perversion.

THE MASTER REALM – The spirit realm is the master realm that all reality flows from.

THE INNER REALM – The spirit realm is the inner realm, and the spirit of man is in the core of man. We associate flesh with the senses, and intellect with the head, but the bible associates spirit with the belly, heart, or core of the inner man.

Luke 17:20-21 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation;

21) nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

John 7:38 (KJV) He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (Thayer: belly = the whole belly / womb / innermost part of a man)

To walk in the spirit, we need to become inside-out-minded.

Becoming Spirit Minded

To develop a spirit awareness, we need to engage in spiritual activities that feed, nourish, and exercise the inner man.

PRAYER – Prayer – communicating with God, who is a spirit – is a spiritual activity that directs your mind toward God.

THE WORD – Spend time studying God’s word and listening to anointed, inspired teaching and preaching of God’s word. God’s words are spirit and life. Don’t just read the book, but pray and seek to find the spirit-life realities being communicated in the words. Pray and claim Ephesians 1:15-23, Ephesians 3:14-21, and the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit in John 16:13.

The more we know God’s word, the more we can recognize His voice vs the voice of the flesh.

WORSHIP – Songs of true worship help facilitate reaching down into our innermost being and releasing love, adoration, and devotion outward toward God. This helps establish us in flowing from the inside out.

TONGUES – Prayer in other tongues yields the body (tongue) to the spirit and gives the spirit ascendancy over mind and body. (1 Corinthians 14:14)

Practice

Hebrews 5:14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

By practicing and developing a habitual lifestyle of detecting, discerning, and following every prompting, illuminating, and leading coming from the spirit, we can actually retrain the soul and senses to discern good from evil, truth from error, and spirit from flesh.

Love, peace, joy, faith, and more flow from God into and through our inner spirit man. The more you practice yielding to and giving the spirit ascendancy, the more these things will flow out through you.

To walk in the spirit is to practice a lifestyle of being mindful of what is on the inside, in the spirit, then thinking, saying, and doing that.

Examples of Carnal vs Spiritual

Galatians 5:19-23 lists the works produced by following the flesh vs the fruit produced by yielding to the Spirit. This is not a definitive list of all things spiritual vs carnal. Rather, it is a sample list intended to serve as a guide for distinguishing spirit from flesh.

WORKS

Galatians 2:16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Carnal-mindedness looks to outward works to create an inward state of righteousness.

FACTION

1 Corinthians 3:4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

The carnal mind sees difference (denomination, political party, ethnic group) as a basis for division.

EXPERTISM

Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.

When we look to the priest, professor, politician, or other “expert” before or instead of looking inward to be led by God, we are trusting in man, and that’s carnal.

SIGN SEEKING

Matthew 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign…

Seeking a sign is looking to the outward, the external, or physical instead of looking inward to the Holy Spirit, who has been sent to guide us into all truth and tell us things to come. (John 16:13)