To walk with God we have to understand the difference between spirit, soul and body. We have to open our spirit to the Lord Ship of Jesus over it, taking his yoke upon us and abiding in Him.
A walk with God is a flow of the Spirit within us strengthening our spirit so that we can bring our soul and body under the control of our spirit.
We are either walking after the spirit or after the flesh. The flesh is that union of soul and body that acts independently of the Lord. If we walk in the spirit we will not fulfill the desire of the flesh. The word not is a double negative which means it is impossible to fulfill the desire of the flesh, because we are in a different realm, we are in the spirit.
To walk in the spirit we have to understand the gateways of spirit, soul and body and how the life of God flows out of the kingdom realm of God’s Spirit into our spirit, through our soul and body manifesting the divine nature in us and creating a kingdom atmosphere around us.
Our spirit is like a generator, as we learn how to join our spirit to the Lord we can get the life of God flowing into our spirit so that we are filled with the Spirit and then we can walk in the flow of that.
When our spirit becomes alive unto the Lord in the natural realm, it is like a little baby and has to grow and develop. So learning how to walk with God is a process. We are going to find ourselves in a struggle like a little child learning how to walk.
But that little child will begin to grow up, and as they grow they will find themselves being able to walk. It will become natural to them.
The amazing thing about the life of God is that we literally outgrow sin. The word sin in the Greek means- to be without a share in, not partaking of our identity and destiny.
The life we receive from our heavenly Father is divine. Our obedience to our father is a partaking of the divine nature. We receive the life of our Father, His D.N.A. But this life has to grow and develop in us. It is called divine nature assimilation. We have to learn how to drink and eat, to commune with God in order to grow up into him and become a full grown mature, male or female son of God.
Our inheritance is twofold. We inherit his divine nature-this is our identity, we are born of royalty. And we inherit his kingdom-this is our destiny, we rule with him.
Two pathways we are to walk on. We walk on the pathway of relationship or intimacy where God becomes more real to us than the natural world we live in, as we get to know him through personal encounter. And we walk on the pathway of responsibility where we are given responsibility in the kingdom of God as we grow and mature.
In order to walk consistently in the spirit, the gateways of our spirit have to be activated, and the gateways of our soul have to be cleansed and restored so that they do not block or hinder the flow of the Spirit in us.
In this series of messages I want to focus on how God communicates with us, so that we can develop and maintain a living relationship with Him so that we can begin to walk in what he is revealing to us.
God is opening up new realms of relationship with Himself so that we can begin to experience the realities of heaven while still here on earth. Jesus wants to become more real to us than we can imagine.
In order to walk with God we have to be able to hear his voice. When I say hear his voice I am talking about the way he communicates to us. When God speaks to us he imparts himself to us, so it is a deeper level of communication than one human being talking to one another.
Rev 3: 20Behold, (this is a word used to express strong emotion, calling attention to something, Look!) I stand (to position oneself)at (of place)the door( an entrance, way or passage into), and knock( occurring right now, strike loudly at the door for entrance) : if any man hear( an action subject to a condition, to listen to someone and pay attention)my voice, and open( subjective mood-conditional- involving choice, spoken of what is closed by a veil, cover, door) the door, I will come in(motion into, enter) to him, and will sup (communion, to eat or dine, a celebratory meal, something that provides a great deal of pleasure) with him, and he with me.
If anyone hears my voice-there is a sound coming out of heaven, a voice. Contained within this voice is the revelation of God’s love towards us. To hear this voice is to encounter the heart of God for us, it is to experience his love for us.
God wants a relationship with us, he wants intimacy with us. His love is stronger than death; nothing can separate us from the love of God except our choice.
To hear his voice is to experience first love. To experience the love of God which is higher and deeper than human love because it is divine, it is a fruit of his Spirit. It is the most pleasurable experience a human being can have. To experience his love is intoxicating, joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is to experience the essence of God himself; it is the quickening of our spirit where it becomes God conscious.
God’s love is a consuming fire that transforms everything in us that hinders that love. The church in Laodicea experienced that love but through the process of time it became lukewarm within them. They entered into darkness-deception and God was knocking loudly on the door of their spirit saying let me in. Revelation 3:19- As many as I love, I do rebuke (convict) and chasten; be zealous, then, and repent.
There is a door in our spirit that we have to open for God to come into it for our spirit to become conscious of His presence. As our spirit is filled with the life of God, the fruit of his Spirit, it flows into our soul so that our mind and emotions experience it, strengthening our will to choose to abide and walk in it.
The word repent in the Greek is metanoéō from meta- with- implying close association with, companionship, fellowship and noeo-To perceive with thought coming into consciousness as distinct from the perception of the physical senses of things outside of us.
To repent means to think with God, to open our spirit to God so that we are hearing his voice and walking in accordance with it.
Through repentance we enter into a continual process of overcoming all the things within our heart that hinder love so that we can sit with him upon His throne-Rev 3:21
In order to hear the voice of God we have to lay the right foundation. We have to be willing to follow his direction, to be led by His Spirit.
Learning to hear the voice of God is a quest, it is a journey and it becomes a pathway. It’s not something that we learn quickly. But with perseverance we can learn to hear the voice of God.
Everything is relational, so what does the lord require of us?
Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Micah 6:8 what does the Lord require of us? Three things
1 to do justly
2 to love mercy
3 to walk humbly with God.
To do justly: Refers to who we are! It is part of our character, the appropriation of the divine nature. The word becomes written upon our heart and we have to do the right thing, it is who we are, a part of our identity.
To Love mercy: Is an attitude that determines how we relate to others. God is love and God is light. We experience what it means to be the beloved of God, but his light reveals those areas of our life that are out of character with who we are in him. So we go through a process of healing to become a whole person and we are enabled to show mercy to others because they also are spiritually sick.
To walk humbly with God: Is the quest, the journey we are on, the adventure, we are following on to know the Lord.
Adam had a walk with God; that made his world a paradise. But when he partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he lost contact with God so that God seemed now to be a million miles away and he found himself on a pathway trying to make it on his own.
The Bible from beginning to end shows us that God seeks to walk with us, to communicate with us, to relate to us, and he is revealing to us the pathway back into intimacy with him.
In order to develop, to build a relationship with God we have to lay some foundations, we have to become a bond-servant of the Lord in order to hear the voice of the Lord clearly.
In order to hear the voice of God, we need to have a lifestyle that is compatible with God.
The Bible speaks about different kinds of relationship with the Lord. There are two kinds of servant relationships with God.
To hear the voice of the Lord we cannot just be a servant, there are many servants of God who do not hear his voice, and they walk in dead works.
There are many ministries that operate in the gifts of the Spirit, but they do not have a walk with God, they really do not know the Lord. And spiritual babies look up to these people, trying to get a word from God, because they have not learned how to hear the voice of God.
It’s important to recognize that in hearing the voice of God we not talking about spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are not an indicator of spiritual maturity.
You can move in the gifts of the spirit, you can move in the gifts of healing and prophesy and cast out devils, and Jesus said I never knew you, I really didn’t know who you were because there was no oneness of spirit, no intimacy with the Lord.
We are talking about an inner quality of life, which is an inner hearing. It is learning to hear the voice of God.
God requires certain things of us. Our understanding of these requirements is absolutely essential to come into oneness with Him.
If we want to hear the voice of the Lord clearly, the Lord requires that we get our ear pierced, to become a bondservant of the lord.
The bondservant had his ear pierced. This was a symbolic act and it signified from that moment on this bondservant had ears only for his Masters voice. He didn’t listen to anyone else. He didn’t obey anyone else. He only listened to his master.
That hole in his ear for the rest of his life signified that he was no longer just a servant (the hired servant) he was a bondservant and he had a hearing relationship with the Lord.
A bondservant has a hearing relationship with the lord.
The Bible tells us in the book of Leviticus chapter 4 and verse eight that the priest was consecrated by putting oil and blood on his ear. He was consecrated. That ear was consecrated to the Masters voice.
If we are going to be able to clearly hear the Lord’s voice at all times, we have to settle this commitment first.
There is a cost to hearing the voice of God. There is a cost of being able to really know the voice of the Lord. It doesn’t come cheaply and it’s important that we understand this.