WALK BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
Jesus said to His disciples “The Word that I have spoken to you, are Spirit and they are Life” (John 6:63). This scripture reveals that the Word of God, the Holy Spirit and Life are inseparable.
The scripture states that “those that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). Therefore, we must acknowledge that without the Holy Spirit we cannot function as Christians and walk with God on earth.
Since the begining of creation, the Spirit of God has been operating through mankind on earth, which is revealed in Genesis 1:26 AMP, when God said “Let us (Father, Son and the Holy Spirit) make man in our image”. The first man on earth, Adam, had perfect fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden before man disobeyed God (Genesis 2:19), because God was functioning through Adam.
When man disobeyed God, man was unable to fellowship with God due to sin and God could no longer operate through man on earth. However, God heard and responded to the cry of the children of Israel to rescue them from bondage (Exodus 3:7-8).
The Spirit of God operated through Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt (Numbers 11:16-17) and build the Temple of God (The Ark of Covenant) for God’s presence to dwell among man again (Exodus 25:8-9). God used the Temple of God to show the Israelites the things to come in the future, which was Christ (Hebrew 10:1).
In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God operated through all the prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and many others; to remind the Israelites of the ways of God and the things to come (Jeremiah 35:15).
In the New Testament, scripture reveals that the Spirit of God functioned as God the Son on earth (Genesis 1:26, Col 1:19 NLT), and operated through Jesus Christ by providing a body for himself to dwell among men and bring salvation to mankind (Hebrew 10:5).
It is important to understand that Jesus was God (John 14:8-9) but he came to earth to function as God the Son to shed his blood for the atonement of sin (Lev 17:11), which was only possible by the blood of Jesus. Scripture reveals that Jesus was perfect as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by human conception through sexual intercourse (Luke 1:35)
Jesus walked in perfect fellowship with the Spirit of God while on earth, and was obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:8). Jesus lived a life of submission and was guided by the Spirit of God on earth. When the blood of Jesus was shed, we were given a new life in Christ (John 6:53).
From the beginning of creation, God’s purpose is to manifest his will on earth, so after the ascension of Jesus, God functioned as God the Holy Spirit on earth (Genesis 1:26 AMP, Romans 8:16), and operated through the Apostles.The Apostles lived a life of submission to the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:4), and was guided by the Holy Spirit throughout their time on earth (Acts 16:6).
It is important to understand that God has magnified His Word above His name (Psalm 138:2) and wants to operate through mankind to manifest his will on earth. Therefore, to live an effective Christian life on earth, we must surrender to God to allow the Spirit of God to operate through us. This can only be achieved when we submit to the Holy Spirit and allow the Him to guide us.