Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. -Jesus, Matthew 6:33
Walk by the Spirit. -Paul, Galatians 5:16
What does it mean to walk by the Spirit?
This is a most important question. How else could we "seek the Kingdom" except by the Spirit?
What role does the Spirit have in my life?
The Father wants us to listen to His Son, Jesus, and Jesus wants us to follow Him by being guided by the Holy Spirit (John 16:7, 13). The work of the Spirit is, therefore, essential to seeking God's Kingdom, and to seeing it.
So may all moves you make, all thoughts you think, all words you speak, all reactions, be altered by the presence of the Spirit. So may we be guided into the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
WALK
Now let's pause and consider this: we are told to walk by the Spirit.
Notice: we are told to walk. Walk.
Walk, not run. Walk, not drive. Walk, not fly. Walk, not ride.
Walking is slow. Walking is dumb. Walking wastes time. Walking is inefficient. Walking is old. Walking is slow. So slow!
But then, perhaps there are some things for which walking is the most efficient way. Like for seeing things. Like for not missing things. Like for finding things.
And if you're seeking something, if the most important thing in your life is this quest, this seeking, then maybe walking is the right speed.
RUN
We pray that the Word of the Lord might run and be glorified. (2Thes 3:1)
How does the Word run in this way? Our faith walks. We walk by the Spirit so the Gospel can run.
Prayer and love and patience with Scripture, with God, and with each other, and all the other things that cannot be hurried, cannot be rushed, and always take longer than they should: the Christian life is like a walk.
But this is the way it is: that majesty oak is but the slow explosion of an acorn. "Fast is slow; slow is smooth; smooth is fast." ("The one who hurries delays the things of God." -Vincent de Paul) This is the way the Spirit works. But will we notice?
THE SPIRIT AND WALKING
"Keep in step with the Spirit," Paul says. "The Spirit will guide you," Jesus says. Perhaps they didn't have the appropriate locomotive-metaphors at hand to describe a more efficient and effective way to access the life of God on earth. Or, perhaps, we were created as bipeds, bound to two legs, limited by design, and that this is the best metaphor for life in the Spirit.
Walk by the Spirit, friend, and you will not cave in to your sinful desires. (Gal 5:16) Keep in step with the Spirit and the Spirit will lead you into places you'd never see otherwise. (Gal 5:25, 18) The Spirit will guide you into all truth, into the very glory of Jesus, into all the Father has, on to where we will lay eyes on Christ, even in this life. (John 16:7, 13-15)
We talk about the Spirit being involved in our lives. But I wonder if the problem with us "getting the Spirit involved" has to do less with our earnest interest in the Spirit's presence, than with the haste with which we go about our lives. We're trying to pull the Spirit in through the open hatch of a moving train. The Spirit is outside, calling us to come walk.
We're not talking about forgoing mechanical propulsion. We're talking about living attentive to the Spirit and receptive to the Kingdom.
What would it mean for "walking" to be an appropriate metaphor for the kind of life I lead, the spirit with which I live, the way I go from thing to thing?
This seems like a good thing to consider at the junction between years. May 2021 be filled with noticing the Spirit's handiwork.
