THE GENESIS OF WALKING AFTER
THE SPIRIT
June 12, 2011
MF
Blume
Romans
8:10-14 KJV And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because
of sin;
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
(11) But if the
Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (12) Therefore,
brethren, we are
debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
(13) For if ye
live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (14)
For as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Romans 8:10-14 MSG But for you who welcome him, in whom he
dwells--even though you still experience all the limitations of
sin--you yourself experience life on God's terms.
(11) It stands to
reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus
from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that
he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and
breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are
delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body
will be as alive as Christ's! (12) So don't you see
that we don't owe
this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. (13)
There's nothing in it
for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial
and get on with your new life. (14) God's Spirit
beckons. There are
things to do and places to go!
The sons of GOD are SPIRIT-LED people.
- Being
led by the Spirit means you are going God’s way.
- Romans
6 spoke about how Christ’s death counts as our deaths.
- And
we learn this fact and proceed from there and STOP RUNNING OUR OWN
LIVES.
People as believers make the mistake of continuing a pattern of running
their own lives which is what was supposed to end with our baptism into
HIS DEATH.
- After
Paul spoke of this, and mentioned the need to start calling on the Lord
and consciously relying on his power to do good, considering our very
bodies as HIS INSTRUMENTS…
- (…to
consider your body as His instrument puts the mindset into you that YOU
CANNOT CUT IT ON YOUR OWN.)
- …Paul
speaks in Romans 7 of the mistake people make in trying THEIR BEST to
do good.
- This
is walking after the flesh.
- Walking
after the flesh is not simply murdering and lying and stealing.
- It
is SELF making SELF serve God and do good through SELF power.
Romans
7:6 KJV But now we are delivered from the law, that being
dead wherein
we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the
oldness of the letter.
People do not realize that it is not just serving God, but HOW WE SERVE
is the issue!
Serve in newness of SPIRIT and not oldness of the letter.
The oldness of the letter is reading a rule book and making yourself
obey it.
- But
we have the SPIRIT of God with us as Ro 6:13 says… present
yourself for His Spirit to use you.
- Romans
8 says the LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE makes us free.
Romans
7:22-8:2 MSG I truly delight in God's commands,
(23) but it's
pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me
covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take
charge.
(24) I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end
of my
rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real
question? (25) The answer, thank God, is that Jesus
Christ can and
does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where
I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the
influence of sin to do something totally different.
(8:1) With the
arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those
who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under
a continuous, low-lying black cloud. (2) A new
power is in operation.
The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently
cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at
the hands of sin and death.
Christ is here for us!
- We
need to remember that.
- We
live as though he is not HERE FOR US!
- So
can we see that walking after the flesh is not just sinning,
but is
running life by fleshly power and not relying upon the fact that JESUS
IS THERE FOR US!
Walking after the Spirit, or being led of the Spirit, IS LIVING LIFE BY
FAITH – faith that GOD EMPOWERS US TO EVEN SERVE HIM after we
ask and
rely upon Him for that.
Let’s literally see THE GENESIS OF SPIRIT LED LIVING.
We spoke of GENESIS 11 and 12 – Abram and the people of Babel.
- Then
we went back to Cain and Abel and Seth, showing their lines where one
people fear death and the other family learn to grow in spirituality.
Remember we said that Cain’s line started building cities,
glorifying
the name of themselves by naming cities after the children THEY
produced?
- Cain’s
line began art and inventions and music, trying to cope as best they
could with something because they lacked the presence of God.
- But
when Cain built his own city and had a child and glorified the
CHILD OF HIMSELF (what HE
brought into the world) by naming the city after him,
- Seth
had a son and called his name MORTAL MAN, ENOS, and began to call upon
the NAME OF GOD.
After all those harsh judgments seeing Abel slain and Cain judged for
it and banished from the presence of God, man was certainly HUMBLED.
- Imagine
the fear of God coming on them all.
- But
MAN MADE HIS WAY BACK IN FAITH TO GOD.
- While
we only read of GOD initiating conversations with mankind, when Enos is
born MEN mature spiritually and start INITIATING CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD!
- They
start calling on God’s name!
- Worship
and praise!
Those led of the Spirit are SONS OF GOD!
Cain’s line worsens until Lamech wreaks of vengeance 70 x 7.
- Seth’s
line matures.
- LAMECH
is seventh from Adam through CAIN, and ENOCH is seventh from Adam
through SETH.
- Both
represent the END of the pathway taken, as No. 7 implies completion and
fullness.
- ENOCH
DOES NOT EVEN SEE DEATH because God took Him!
Genesis
5:21-24 MSG When Enoch was sixty-five years old, he had
Methuselah. (22) Enoch walked steadily with God.
After he had
Methuselah, he lived another 300 years, having more sons and
daughters. (23) Enoch lived a total of 365
years. (24) Enoch walked
steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him.
Hebrews
11:4-7 MSG By an act of faith, Abel brought a better
sacrifice
to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that
made the difference. That's what God noticed and approved as righteous.
After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our
notice.
(5) By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. "They
looked
all over and couldn't find him because God had taken him." We know on
the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken "he pleased
God." (6) It's impossible to please God apart from
faith. And why?
Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he
exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek
him. (7)
By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned
about something he couldn't see, and acted on what he was told. The
result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line
between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the
believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.
Hebrews
11:7 KJV By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not
seen
as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by
the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith.
Notice the MATURITY!
- From
Abel’s acceptable sacrifice to God, to Seth’s
awareness of the frailty
of life, naming his boy MORTAL MAN, and HIS FAMILY BEGINS VOCALIZING
THEIR FAITH AND expecting something to come from it from
God… AND THEY
CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD.
- They
are truly walking after the SPIRIT OF GOD!
This is significant.
Genesis
3:15 KJV And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and
between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
bruise his heel.
Genesis
3:15 MSG I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between
your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel."
Notice GOD CONSIDERED PEOPLE THE SEED OR OFFSPRING OF THE SERPENT!
- We
know they’re not literally fathered by the devil, but THEY
walk after the devil’s ways.
- WAYS
OF THE FLESH!
- Those
who walk after the flesh will die and are more like the enemy than God.
- Seed
of the serpent.
- Offspring
of vipers.
SETH IS BORN and look what Eve said:
Genesis
4:25 KJV And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son,
and
called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed
instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
She actually uses terms that indicate the idea that SETH WAS A SON OF
GOD.
- God
gave her another seed instead of Abel.
We see the concept of THOSE WHO ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD ARE THE
SONS OF GOD.
- It
means we are called SONS when we walk after his ways!
So Seth’s line finds SPIRITUAL MATURITY to see the judgments
of God and
examples of disobedience met by God, and YET CALLING ON GOD’S
NAME.
- But
the full maturity comes at the time of ENOCH.
- Seventh
from Adam and ONWARD these men are AWESOME!
Enoch fathers Methuselah, the man who lived longer than any man in
history.
- Talk
about LIFE!
- Enoch
his dad skipped death and resurrection and went straight to God IN BODY!
Enoch was PROPHETIC!
- He
names his boy "he dies and it (the flood) is sent".
- If
you take the years of their lives from Adam to Noah in Genesis 5, you
can calculate that Methuselah DIED THE SAME YEAR THE FLOOD CAME.
- SO
that is how we know HIS NAME referred to the FLOOD.
- So
the seventh from Adam on Seth’s SIDE IS PROPHETIC!
- He
knows of the flood to come and names his boy after it indicating what
will occur when the boy dies.
- No
wonder we read HE WALKED WITH GOD!
Not only that!
Speaking of certain men crept in unawares, turning the grace of God
into lasciviousness, Jude said this:
Jude
1:14-15 KJV And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied
of
these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his
saints, (15) To execute judgment upon all, and to
convince all that
are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have
ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners
have spoken against him.
ENOCH WAS A PROPHET!
He was so close to God and walked with God THAT HE IS THE FIRST HUMAN
BEING KNOWN TO START PROPHESYING!
He prophecies judgment LIKELY OF THE FLOOD!
- After
all, he named his boy with THAT JUDGMENT IN MIND!
- And
Jude said it applied to the DAYS OF THE CHURCH.
Then Methuselah , another outstanding man whose life is longer than
anyone else’s.
THEN LAMECH.
- This
man was also a PROPHET like his grandfather!
Genesis
5:28-29 KJV And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years,
and begat a son: (29) And he called his name Noah,
saying, This same
shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of
the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
He prophesied that NOAH would comfort mankind in relation to the ground
which God cursed.
Noah is a prophet and hears from God to build an ark!
- By
Noah’s day EVEN THE GODLY LINE OF SETH DETERIORATED.
Genesis
6:1-2 KJV And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on
the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
(2) That
the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they
took them wives of all which they chose.
Who did we say are the ones who are led by the Spirit, according to
Romans 8:14?
- Recall
that God told the serpent some PEOPLE would be considered HIS SEED?
- And
these were not physically fathered by the serpent, but were AFTER THE
SERPENT’S WAYS.
- Well,
THE SONS OF GOD are not angels as some assume, but, as we have been
saying all along, THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE SPIRIT.
I do not believe these are angels because Jesus said marrying is not
possible with angels.
- And
God never made any creature mix with another kind of creature
altogether.
- Notice
it says this distinctly happened WHEN MEN MULTIPLIED ACROSS THE FACE OF
THE EARTH.
- Seth’s
people and Cain’s people were separated.
- Populations
increased and they finally met.
NOTICE THE SELF-DECISION attitude we saw in Cain building his own city,
like Babel where men decided where to dwell and build themselves a city
and make selves a great name.
- So
opposite to Abram who comes from that very people and God makes him a
great name and a city!
- “they
took them wives of all which they chose.”
I often tell this to young people, God’s will for Christian
single people is to marry CHRISTIAN SINGLE PEOPLE.
1
Corinthians 7:39 CEV A wife should stay married to her
husband until he dies. Then she is free to marry again, but
only to a man who is a follower of the Lord.
1
Corinthians 7:39 KJV The wife is bound by the law as long as
her
husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be
married to whom she will; only
in the Lord.
These people abandoned SPIRIT LEADING and started marrying whomever
they wanted without any regard if the people were following God or not,
which meant they themselves were not following God.
SONS OF GOD – followers of God.
- Term
SON is used many times to indicate AFTER THE WAY OF.
- Noah
was literally called a SON OF 500 years in Gen 5:32.
- Abram
called Eliezer his servant a SON OF MY HOUSE Gen 15:3.
- And
we already noted that SEED OF THE SERPENT are people following the
enemy’s ways.
- But
amidst all that wholesale backsliding and departing from
GOD’S WAYS…
Genesis
6:5-8 MSG GOD saw that human evil was out of control. People
thought evil, imagined evil--evil, evil, evil from morning to
night.
(6) GOD was sorry that he had made the human race in the
first place;
it broke his heart. (7) GOD said, "I'll get rid of
my ruined
creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs,
birds--the works. I'm sorry I made them." (8) But
Noah was different.
GOD liked what he saw in Noah.
And the flood comes and Noah saves the human race in his ark.
And after the ark rested and the waters began abating,
LAMECH’S PROPHECY COMES TO PASS.
Genesis
5:29 KJV And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall
comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the
ground which the LORD hath cursed.
Recall God cursed the ground when Adam sinned so that thorns and
thistles came forth.
Genesis
8:20-21 KJV And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took
of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt
offerings on the altar. (21) And the LORD smelled a
sweet savour; and
the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more
for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I
have done.
Verse 21 actually says THE FLOOD WAS A CONTINUATION OF CURSING THE
GROUND IN ADAM’S DAY!
Gen 8:21 says the same thing Gen 6:5 said as the reason for the flood.
Genesis
6:5 KJV And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in
the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually.
So he takes that and connects it with CURSING THE EARTH that he started
in Adam’s day.
Noah acted like a PRIEST OF THE HUMAN RACE, and MOVED GOD TO STOP THIS
PROGRESSIVE CURSING OF THE GROUND!
- Some
even feel the ground was BLESSED to be more fertile.
And the literal HEBREW says that GOD SMELLED “A SAVOR OF
REST!”
- In
other words a soothing restful response from God to seeing NOAH reach
out like he did in his first act after getting out of the ark.
The dove that came to the window had an OLIVE LEAF.
- Indications
of A WORLD OF OLIVE TREES.
- ANOINTING
OIL came from olive trees.
- A
WORLD OF ANOINTING.
A REST!
Like Canaan.
Deuteronomy
8:7-8 KJV For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good
land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring
out of valleys and hills; (8) A land of wheat, and
barley, and vines,
and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land
of oil olive, and honey;
NOAH MEANS REST!
- There
remaineth a REST to the people of God.
- CANAAN
depicts the rest.
- The
Sabbath day foreshadowed this REST.
From an altar to God (WAY OF THE CROSS).
- To
calling on God’s name
- To
WALKING WITH GOD.
- PROPHESYING.
- FINDING
GRACE IN EYES OF GOD!
- BUILDING
AN ARK,
- THE
DOVE LEADING OUT OF THE ARK
- TO
ENTERING A REST!
What happened to Cain’s line…?
Romans
8:13 KJV For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if
ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
And who are those who walk after the SPIRIT?
Romans
8:14 KJV For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God.
While
the world gets further away from God, let’s carry the cross,
call on
His name, walk with Him, PROPHESY, build arks, ENTER A REST!
Noah is so much like Jesus.
- His
sacrifice REMOVED THE CURSE!
All this involves the need to see our purpose in never running hour
lives in our own power.
- Walking
after the Spirit is relying on His power to serve God successfully.
The more you include GOD, the more you walk by FAITH and are SPIRIT-LED.
