In the last message we pointed out that the matter of the leading by the Spirit is not mainly for certain matters, for business, for activities, or even for actions. It is altogether for a living of a life with God and for God and before God. We Christians should firstly pay our full attention to our living. This means to our being, to what we are. As believers who are in Christ, we must firstly pay our full attention to what we are. Our activities and actions are secondary. As long as your being is right, your activities will also be right. In other words, as long as your living is under the leading by the Spirit, then whatever you do as a kind of activity would spontaneously and simultaneously also be under the leading by the Spirit.
If you are a person living a life absolutely under the leading by the Spirit, where you go to school will also be under the leading by the Spirit. But if you are not a person living under the leading by the Spirit of life, it would be hard for you to decide where God wants you to study. It would be hard for you to get clear about God’s leading. The leading you receive at that time may not be so accurate. You should not pay so much attention to your activities, to what school you should attend, to what job you have to take, to what house you have to rent or to buy. As long as you pay your full attention to your living and live a life daily, moment by moment, under the leading by the Spirit you will be clear. This is basic.
If you are right with such a living under the leading by the Spirit, whatever you say is under the leading by the Spirit. Wherever you go, that is the leading by the Spirit. And whatever you do is under the leading by the Spirit because your entire living is under the leading by the Spirit. If you laugh, that is under the leading by the Spirit. If you weep, that is under the leading by the Spirit. Even when you are angry, it is under the leading by the Spirit. You might ask how we could be angry under the leading by the Spirit. But the Lord Jesus became angry at least two or three times (John 2:14-16; Matt. 23:13-36; Mark 3:1-5). And He was angry under the leading by the Spirit.
Again I say, the leading by the Spirit is not a matter, strictly speaking, for activities. It is a matter for our daily living. What God wants of us is not a certain kind of business done by us. It is not a certain kind of work accomplished by us. No! what God wants of us is a life, that is, a living as a testimony of Jesus. We have to live a life that is a testimony of Jesus. In other words, we live a life that expresses Christ. Such a life that lives Christ is surely under the leading by the Spirit. So the New Testament says to walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4). To walk according to the spirit is just to live under the leading by the Spirit. In Greek the word walk means to live, to walk, even to have our being. We should walk and live and have our being according to the spirit. This is to be under the leading by the Spirit. As long as we walk this way, and we live such a life under the leading by the Spirit, whatever we do will be also under the leading. Whatever we say will be under the leading.
All of these twenty-two items do not refer to an activity or to a business. They refer to the daily living or to the daily life. The law of sin and of death is not related to a business or an activity. It is related to your being. It is related to your daily walk and your daily life. Sin also is a matter in life; it is not a matter in business. You may consider that many people sin in business, but you have to realize that they sin in business because they are sinful in their living. If they were not sinful in their living, they would never sin in business. To sin in business is not the root or the basic problem. The basic problem, the root for sinning in business, is the daily life and the daily living. If you are just a sinful person, living in a sinful way, when you do business you will surely sin.
Death also is a matter of living. You do not live a life full of life; you live a life full of death. Your daily living is a constitution of death. Death here in Romans 8 is not related to activity, business, school, and so forth. Strictly speaking, it is related to your daily living.
Flesh also refers to your being. You are just a fallen person. You are just a person abominable in the eyes of God. You are a person reprobate before God because you are so fleshly. You even become flesh. This is your living, your being. A person does business in the flesh because he lives in the flesh. If he lived in the spirit, could he do business in the flesh? It is impossible! Whether a professor teaches in the flesh or in the spirit depends upon where he lives. If he lives in the flesh, he will be a professor in the flesh. If he lives in the spirit, he will be a professor in the spirit. So the problem always is not with what you do. It is always wrapped up with what you are, with your being, with your living.