Now we need to spend a little time to see these seven doings. I am so thankful to Paul for putting these seven things in a very good sequence. First, he mentions walking. Walking is all-inclusive. It means to live, to have your being, to move, to act, to walk. This is your daily life. This is your living every hour. Walk according to spirit. When I look at the situation of Christians today, my heart is broken. They know very little about all these matters in Romans 8. Most Christians simply use the Bible as a kind of religious book. They pick up some verses to give certain religious teachings and religious sermons to make people religious. God’s economy has no intention to make any of us a religious person. God’s intention is to make all His chosen people His sons. He makes them His sons so they can be members of the Body of Christ. What a difference between these two!
It is easy for Christians to pick up verses which speak of wives submitting to their husbands, of husbands loving their wives, of being patient, of being kind, of being humble. But hardly any Christians pick up the points which we are covering in Romans 8. In Romans 8, in a sense there is no humility, there is no kindness, there are no husbands loving their wives, there are no wives submitting themselves to their husbands, there is no human behavior, there are no ethics, there is no good conduct. What is there? The law of the Spirit of life. There are two spirits working, based upon three facts. We have to thank the Lord that at this end time among us He has recovered these things from Romans 8. What a blessing that we could hear such things! What a blessing to hear that we need to walk, to have our daily life, to live, to move, to act, to have our being according to the spirit. What a great thing! What a privilege! What a blessing that we can walk according to spirit.
If you talked to most Christians today about walking according to spirit, they would think you mean to behave yourself by the inspiration of the “Holy Ghost.” If you then told them that we don’t need an inspiration, that we have the indwelling, they would probably consider that you are heretical. But hallelujah! I don’t need any inspiration! The indwelling is within me! He is waiting for me. If I just walk according to the spirit the indwelling works. It is hard for us to tell what this spirit is. Of course, we have to see it is the mingled spirit. It is your spirit mingled by and with the Spirit of God. We have a wonderful spirit! The Father is in the Son, the Son is the Spirit, and the Spirit is now in our spirit. We have such a wonderful spirit. We can walk according to such a spirit.
As we walk according to the spirit, surely we would spontaneously set our mind upon the spirit. We would think about Him. We would meditate, we would muse, upon the spiritual things. We have the best help to set our mind upon the spirit, that is, the Bible. And the best means is to pray-read. Whenever you pray-read the Bible, your mind is set upon the spirit.
It will then be so spontaneous for you to put to death every practice of your body. When you walk according to spirit, and you set your mind upon the spirit, minding the spiritual things, every time the practice of the body comes up, you will spontaneously kill it. When you kill it, life comes in. When you kill, life is imparted.
Spontaneously you would be led by the Spirit. When you walk according to the spirit, set your mind upon the spirit, and put to death the practices of the body, you are led. You are under the leading of the Spirit. The Spirit’s indwelling works.