Are you living...or are you walking?

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pfr94 Feb 3, 2004

Galatians 5:25 says "If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit." Paul is very careful with every word he penned in each of his epistles. Paul uses two distinct and different words here to describe our Christian life. He says the words live and walk. These meanings are vast, but I just want to focus on this for a second. To live is one things and to walk is another. Both are vital. But, one of these things is much more glorious than the other. We can be lieing in a hospital bed with tubes in our mouth and nose and machines running our bodily functions. In these cases, medical science calls us alive. We are living. But we can't walk. Walking requires effort. Walking involves an act of your own volition. God doesn't want us to just live and do nothing. He is pleases if we walk. The God who flung the stars into space maked Joshua a great promise in Joshua 1:5. He said, "As I was with Moses, I will be with you also." Not so huge unless you realize the ramifications of this. Look at Numbers chapter 12 and you will see that God says He speaks "mouth to mouth," with Moses. Other translations say "face to face." The God who is giving you the breath you are inhaleing right now wants, no, desires and yearns for that same kind of relationship with you! God wants to 'tabernacle' with you daily. So I have to ask you all the question, are you living, or are you walking?

sermonindex Feb 3, 2004

But we can't walk. Walking requires effort. Walking involves an act of your own volition. God doesn't want us to just live and do nothing. He is pleases if we walk.yes the quote from ravenhill is ringing in my ears: 'you are as spiritual as you want to be'. Ephesians 5:10 - and find out what pleases the Lord.To 'find' something requires effort and movement. 1 John 2:6 - Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.Not just know about Him and talk about Him but be active in His service and alive in Christ, moving and having our being in Christ.So I have to ask you all the question, are you living, or are you walking?I am walking brother, and I thank you for sharing this and welcome to the site, please do share more of the burden on your heart, it is refreshing. so how about you who are reading this.. are you just living, or are you walking?

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crsschk Feb 3, 2004

Just recieved this;Only when a man tries to live the divine life can the divine Christ manifest Himself to him. Therefore, the true way for you to find Christ is not to go groping in a thousand books. It is not for you to try evidences about a thousand things that people have believed of Him, but it is for you to undertake so great a life, so devoted a life, so pure a life, so serviceable a life, that you cannot do it except by Christ, and then see whether Christ helps you. See then whether there comes to you the certainty that you are a child of God, and the manifestation of the child of God becomes the most credible, the most certain thing to you in all of history. ... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The Law of Growth [1902] http://www.cqod.org/cqodlist.htm

sermonindex Feb 3, 2004

that you cannot do it except by Christ, and then see whether Christ helps you. I just watched a video of Richard Wumbrand:Tortured for Christ (video) 74.64 MB Where it shows him talking about being a prison for 2 years and having no light, no noise, barly any food, the guards wore pillow socks over there boots so they wouldn't make noise. and in that deafening silence he forgot all knoweldge of the bible and theology. But as they continued to torture them Christ manifested himself to them in such a powerful way and by faith they entered into a realm of the divine with angels and other wonderful sites that made the reality of Christianity something they could say with the apostle:1 John 1:1 - That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. Christianity became tangable and real to him as he needed Christ and relyed on him in this extreme situation of persecution.See then whether there comes to you the certainty that you are a child of God, and the manifestation of the child of God becomes the most credible, the most certain thing to you in all of history.This is awesome and thanks for sharing mike (crsschk). We do need to move out in faith and live for God. If God is with us then it will manifest, its as with the gospel message that signs and wonders manifested themselves to valify the message. But the message had to be preached first in faith before the latter signs would confirm it.

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pfr94 Feb 3, 2004

so how about you who are reading this.. are you just living, or are you walking?am i living or just walking? i thank you for your question and response to my very first post on this awesome site. i dont think that is a question that i can answer. i think that is a question that others have to answer for me. people who see my daily life and see the fruit that i produce can speak much better for me than i can. i could tell you that i have daily quiet times and spend time marinating on God's word. i could tell you that i am a worship leader and a sunday school teacher. i could tell you that i am planning on going to seminary and that God has called me to be a pastor. but those things are my words. do i make a conscious effort to live my life every moment of every day for the Lord? the answer is a resounding yes. but my friends can speak better for me. i have a friend. we'll call her kim. after i read the book 'tender warrior' by stu webber, i let her borrow and read it as well. she now has a new nickname for me, and has ever since called me 'tw', as in tender warrior. if that helps answer your question then so be it. but for me, i believe that i am walking, not just living.