If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Galatians 5:25.
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. Ezekiel 36:27.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16. If you walk by the flesh, you will have an enslaved life and it will end in death, but if you walk according to the Spirit, you will have freedom and life and peace. Choose life that you and your descendants may live days of Heaven upon the earth.
And this all has to do with whom and what you worship. And today’s life lesson on living the beautiful life of worship is: “Walking in the Spirit.” For if you are worshipping Me in Spirit and in truth, you must also be walking by the Spirit and not according to the flesh. Those two must go together. If you are worshipping and yet walking according to the flesh, and the works and deeds of the flesh are evident, then you are serving two masters and you will end up loving the one and hating the other. This is what happened with Solomon, he began in the Spirit and ended in the flesh and completely rejected Me and My ways. But this did not happen overnight, it happened gradually. It began with acts of disobedience to My Word, such as yoking himself up in marriage with unbelievers and tolerating their worship of other gods before him. 1 Kings 11:1-6. Seeing that nothing happened to him from that, he pushed farther into disobedience until he finally set up altars to other gods and worshipped them. 1 Kings 11:7-8. And little by little he stopped praying, stopped worshipping Me, stopped the singing of praise David had set up, and attributed all his wisdom, wealth, success and many amazing building projects (done for himself and his recreation and glory, not for the good of the people he governed) to his own intellect and creativity. Ecclesiastes 2:4-11. He no longer cared about My temple but only about his own pleasure and spent the wealth I gave him on himself alone. And it left him enslaved, unhappy, and jaded. He said all was vanity. He lost his purpose and so did the nation, as they too followed their leader and forsook Me to worship other gods on the mountains as Solomon did. And it all happened because he stopped praying and worshipping. This hardened his heart to Me. He no longer had a hearing heart.
And you may think that was just Solomon, but it was not. His son did the same in his reign as king and the people followed suit. They spurned My house of worship and built for themselves high places and sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and beneath every luxuriant tree, following the example of Solomon and his son. 1 Kings 14:21-23. There were also male cult prostitutes in the land. 1 Kings 14:24. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which I dispossessed before the sons of Israel to give them a wondrous place to worship and live days of Heaven on earth. 1 Kings 14:24. But it all went down when Solomon stopped praying, worshipping Me, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and honoring My Word. Do you see the importance of worship? It is the highest form of prayer because it is the place of honor, purity, blessing, grace, wisdom and answers.
For you who believe in and receive My Son as Lord, I give you a living heart and put My Spirit in you, and My Spirit in you will lead you, teach you, guide you to all truth, remind you of all I said, and tell you things to come. You are now My house and a temple of the Holy Spirit, do not be setting up pagan altars in My temple as most of the kings after Solomon did. Keep My house holy. And it ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Listen to My Spirit’s Word to the churches so your lamp does not become a sputtering wick ready to die out. Revelation 2:5. Fan it back into flame! And there is only one way to do that, worshipping in Spirit and in truth. This will result in spontaneous combustion! For the more you pray in the Spirit, sing spiritual songs, and fill yourself with My Word, the more you will hear and see and know. And as you continue to remain in My Word and let it remain in you as make melody to Me in your heart, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!
Living by emotions and according to the flesh has never blessed anyone. Do you think someone who exploded in anger and railed upon their spouse or child would say that was a good day? No, giving free reign to your emotions drains you of strength and puts you into exhaustion and darkness. It ruins your peace. And for that matter, have you ever heard a person who has been addicted to alcohol for many years say that alcohol blessed his life? No, giving in to the flesh ruined his relationships, work, and ultimately his health and life. Or a drug addict say drugs were a blessing in his life? Or someone involved in adultery say it blessed their family and their relationships with their spouse and children? Or a glutton say overeating had blessed their body and their life? Or a person trapped in pornography and a perverted lifestyle look at you radiantly glowing with health and joy saying that they are blessed in that life? Never. The wages of sin is death and that is where living according to the flesh will take you.
It is not a blessed life to be trapped in anger, hatred, strife, fear, bitterness, anxiety, doubt, greed, pride, selfish ambition, jealousy, sexual immorality, addictions, poverty, confusion, and depression. This is a horrible life and I never intended for any of you live such a life. If you are walking in any of these you are out of My plan for your life. Those things are all of the flesh. And yet it is simple to avoid such a life if you will be careful how you live, not as foolish people but wise, making the most of every moment of your time. Awake sleeper, be watchful, and Christ will give you light! The revelation of My Word gives light and makes the simple wise.
Your spirit must lead, for a strong spirit will get you victoriously through anything. And for your spirit to be strong and able to take charge of your mind, will, emotions, and flesh, your spirit must be fed on My Word and filled with My Spirit. You must be led, guided, directed, and anointed by My Spirit to succeed. You must hear what I am speaking to you in the Spirit, for that is how I share My thoughts, which are higher than your intellect can attain, with you. It is by My Spirit so that your mind is renewed to higher realities than what you see with the five senses only. My Words are Spirit-breathed and My Words are Spirit and life.
And even if you are currently experiencing the curse in your life due to bad choices you or others with whom you are joined made, the good news is that you can easily turn that all around. How? Be led by My Holy Spirit.
And how do you hear from and follow the lead of My Spirit? Worship in Spirit and truth. If you live in the atmosphere of Heaven you will walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh for, as Jesus told His disciples, My Word cleanses your mind. Jesus cares for His body the church, sanctifying her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:26-27. And if you walk in the Light, which is walking in a constant connection to My throne of grace by continual worship, My Son’s blood continually cleanses you of all sin.
And many times you do not know how to pray as you ought and you need one by your side to pull the helm with you, and I have provided you with the Helper, the Paraclete, to do just that so that all can work together for your good. Romans 8:26-28. And you can pray out mysteries and edify yourself by praying in tongues, your spirit language.
But watch yourself and stay in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And that is how you hold yourself in the spirit and not in the flesh, and you only do it by praise and My Word.
Look at the lives of those who walked with Me to the finish line and those who did not and you will find it is based on keeping themselves in praise and My Word, which is worship in spirit and in truth. Look at the difference between Samson and David. Samson followed his flesh. He did not praise Me but took his gift of strength for granted as if it were his own. He did not thank Me for the great deliverance I had begun working through him but used his strength to further his own desires. He never denied his flesh anything, from revenge to sexual immorality. He entered sexually immoral relationships with the women of the enemy nation to Israel and relied on his strength to deliver him. But then he gave his heart to a harlot of the enemy nation and revealed to her the secret of his strength in the Nazarite vow. He was so casual about My presence that he was not even aware that My Spirit had departed from upon him and that he had become just as other men, just as the nonbelievers. Judges 16:18-22. And he did not repent. But at the end, he called out to Me for help and I did just as he asked.
David, on the other hand, kept himself in praise and in the Word. He loved My Word and longed to keep it completely. He called My Word better than heaps of fine gold and sweeter than honey dripping from the comb. He panted for it with open mouth and sought ways to sing it and hold it up to Me constantly. He longed with all his heart to obey it and to teach others to do the same. His attention was on Me, he kept Me continually before him and was extravagant in his praise and worship. And when he sinned from the weakness of his flesh (and when he did he was being idle and not praying or worshipping but looking at what he should not have looked at), he repented and composed a psalm of worship and praise, Psalm 51, in which he asks for Me to cleanse him from his sin, but his main plea is for Me not to take My Holy Spirit away from him. And I did not, for I tell you that My Holy Spirit rushed upon David when Samuel anointed him king and did not leave him. He held to praise and the Word. He did that in the caves as Saul sought to take his life and he did that after the baby died that was born to Bathsheba in adultery. He worshipped. And the result? She had another baby that was a champion. Solomon. And David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, was never defeated and stayed close to Me.
Elijah, Elisha, and Daniel were worshippers and never departed from My Word and they kept themselves from walking in the flesh. Consequently I could entrust them with great revelations and works of power.
And now look at My handmaid Mary, the mother of My Son in the flesh. She never waivered from walking in the spirit. How? She was a worshipper and she used My Word to worship. Just read her song of worship and praise when she visited Elizabeth, it is filled with scripture telling of My promises fulfilled. She treasured and pondered things about My Word made flesh in her heart. She advised all to do His Word and nothing else. She was at the foot of the Cross worshipping when almost all of His disciples fled. And you see her in the upper room on Pentecost Sunday receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. For everyone in that room was filled and gave utterance. She kept to her first word, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your Word.”
Judas Iscariot gave in totally to the greed and pride of the flesh. He stole from the common purse held by My Son and His disciples, rebuked the woman who anointed Jesus, betrayed Jesus for money, and at the Last Supper called My Son “teacher” when all the other disciples called Him “Lord.” He had no praise for My Son, only criticism.
And look at Paul. Once he believed in Jesus he walked in the spirit and held himself in that place of worship all the way to his death without wavering. He kept his mind on things above and took every thought captive for Christ. How? He became a man of praise and worship. Just read the way he writes about Jesus—he extols the love and grace that is in Jesus and declares that nothing can ever separate you from that love, he counts everything rubbish compared to knowing Jesus, he praises His Name and holds it above every other name, he is awed and grateful for the great privilege and honor I bestowed upon him to preach the unfathomable riches of Christ, which often landed him in jail and subjected him to beatings, but he called it all joy. He was overflowing with joy and had learned how to be content in any circumstance. He was singing praise to Me at midnight though he had been beaten with rods and chained to the floor in the innermost and darkest room in the prison for preaching Jesus and casting out demons. And how did he manage to count it all joy? He tells you, “ I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all.” 1 Corinthians 14:18. And “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.” 1 Corinthians 14:15. And he is the one that told you to continually speak to yourself and others in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as well as that My will for you in Christ Jesus is to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give constant thanks. He told you to imitate him as he imitated Christ.
Learn and practice living a lifestyle of worship in spirit and in truth, that is, of praise filled with My Word, and this will keep you walking in the Spirit and you will not be defeated by your flesh. Feed on My Word and grow thereby. And sing, in the valley of trouble I open a door of hope when you sing there as you did in your youth. In your first love. When all looks lost and you see nothing but the storm, as Paul did in that terrible storm on the sea that ended in shipwreck at the island of Malta, or nothing but chains and a dark prison of pain, as Paul did when he lay beaten and chained to the prison floor, remember to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs of praise filled with My Word, that is, to worship in Spirit and in truth, and the result? With Paul you will sing, “the Lord delivered me out of them all!” If you keep yourself in My love this way, you will get all the way to the finish line running with joy. The Highway of Holiness. Isaiah 35:8-10.
I love you and that is why I tell you to rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give constant thanks. I am seeking those who worship in Spirit and in truth for I know that they will walk in the Spirit with Me and not in the flesh with the devil. I can trust true worshippers.
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:20-25.