“I feel like I’m constantly going back and forth between walking in the spirit and walking in the flesh. How do you continuously walk in the spirit all the time?”
How Are You Able To Walk in The Spirit All The Time?
It can be so disheartening when you’re walking in the spirit and all of a sudden be catapulted into walking in the flesh.
All of a sudden, your thoughts, your mind, and even your actions become so different. You no longer have that deep down peace, security, and joy of feeling like everything is okay and you’re right where you’re supposed to be.
It doesn’t feel good to walk in the flesh when you desire so much to flip a switch and be back, walking in the spirit.
Unfortunately, there’s no switch we can flip, so we’re left feeling bad, guilty that we’re NOT walking in the spirit, wishing so badly that we could get back to where we were before we fell down.
It’s like that for everyone.
No one walks in the spirit all the time.
We all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We all fall down. No one is immune to this. No one has it all together all the time. No one is perfect.
The thing to recognize is that you understand WHEN you’re walking in the flesh and when you’re walking in the spirit. The distinction between the classes really can help you to stay walking in the spirit because when you’re not in the spirit, you know it. You feel it. You understand, and so it’s easier and faster to get back on track because you understand you’ve fallen, and that’s great that you recognize it.
Whenever you realize you’re not walking in the spirit anymore, it’s a great time to try to figure out HOW to get back in, and that’s different for everyone.
One good thing to start with is to pray.
Tell God that you’ve fallen and that you want to get back to walking in the spirit but don’t know how. Ask Him to help you get on track again.
Your prayer could look something like this…
Lord, I realize that I’ve fallen, and I’m not walking in the spirit at the moment. I desire so much to please you, to be everything that you want me to be, to live my life to the fullest capability of being your child in Christ. I desperately want to live every second of my life walking in the spirit, but I don’t know how to get back on track. I need your help. Can you stretch out your hand to me and help me get back on the right road so that I may please you in my life and be used by you more? Please lead and guide me, helping me return to your path quickly so I don’t waste time letting my flesh win this spiritual battle. I will patiently and eagerly wait for you to help me.
Another great thing to do is to start looking for tricks to get yourself back in the spirit. Start paying attention to what makes you fall out of walking in the spirit. Maybe keep a journal so that you can start seeing patterns. What triggers it? How can you prevent it in the future?
Things that generally get us to walk in the flesh are:
- Fear – are you afraid of something happening in your life?
- Lack of trust – are you not trusting that God will take care of what you need Him to take care of?
- Not casting your burdens upon the Lord – are you holding onto your problems, not giving them completely over to Him?
- Wanting your will over His – do you want your will, your way, and not wanting to do things His way?
- Lack of obedience – is there an area in your life where you’re not obeying Him? Here’s how to get back on track.
- Not submitting to Him – are you being prideful right now, thinking your way is better?
- Lack of spending time with God – are you spending each day in the Word of God, immersing yourself in Scripture?
- Not looking at things from God’s point of view – are you looking at the world and everything in it from a humanistic point of view?
- Lack of purity – are you doing things that are stealing your purity? Whether it be physically or in your mind, that will affect your ability to walk in the spirit.
Also, write down what gets you back in the spirit. What are you doing? What happens? Did you pray? Did you do something else? Did something happen? What happened?
For me, by keeping a record (mentally) of what gets me back to walking in the spirit, I’ve found that writing blog posts helps me.
Since God has promised to speak through me on this blog as is His agenda for me and my life, whenever I’m not walking in the spirit, I will try to write a blog post.
This doesn’t work 100% of the time. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but most of the time, it does.
It helps me to see things from God’s vantage point, and so I’m able to then walk in the spirit again, and it feels so GREAT to walk in the spirit! I’m back on track, I feel happy and free.
What can you do?
Start making a note of HOW you’re able to get back in the spirit and do those things that cause you to walk in the spirit again. Decrease the activities or thought patterns that make you walk in the flesh, and you’ll start walking in the spirit more.
The goal here is to walk in the spirit as much as humanly possible while understanding that no one is perfect and no one will ever walk in the spirit 100% of the time. Don’t let that become an excuse to you to walk in the flesh, but don’t let your desire to walk in the spirit 100% of the time beat you up because you fail from time to time.
God knows our hearts. He knows our desires. He knows you want to walk in the spirit as much as possible and that it’s a pattern of your life that you do!
Also note that when you ARE walking in the flesh, don’t make important decisions that could alter major things. Little decisions are fine, but leave the big decisions to when you know you are walking in the spirit!
