The Invitation/ Prepared/ Holy Spirit as Personal Guide

Intro: The Path to Walking in the Spirit

Jn 2:6 October 1, 2015

We are abjured by the Scriptures that if we live in the Spirit we ought also to walk in the Spirit. When we follow His instructions on a daily basis, it is called walking in the Spirit. This should be the daily goal of every disciple of Christ, that is, to be a reverent follower of the Holy Ghost. We must shake off any and all temptation to enjoy the advantage of the gifts and benefits of the Holy Ghost, living and basking in their glory and effervescence of life, while refusing to follow after the Spirit and not living in the wake of His action, or speaking and doing His will.

The path to living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit is one of gain and growth in one’s relationship with the Spirit of God. Our relationship with the Holy Ghost is one which needs nurturing if it is to grow into the full flower of maturity. Mere introduction does not constitute the fullness of purpose for any relationship. A relationship with the Holy Ghost is no different. It must grow by experience and knowledge if it is to blossom into full and loving fruition.

The things necessitated for growth in our relationship with the Holy Ghost might well be described in many different ways, using appropriate teachings, similes and examples. There have been those who have admirably explained the path to growth and closeness with the Holy Ghost but the Bible does it best. The Bible speaks of man’s relationship with the Spirit as being bonded together by spiritual revelation, by belief and faith generated by the wisdom of God, by learning to trust the Holy Ghost through actual life experience, by education and teaching, in Jesus’ words at the ‘Last Supper’ for instance, and by gaining in knowledge, understanding and having the wisdom for daily living imparted to us by the grace of Jesus Christ during life’s spiritual experiences.

Some of the ways and processes in which man’s relationship with the Spirit is enhanced are universal, by that I mean, common to all those faithful people who wish to have a personal relationship with the Spirit. Other ways in which this holy relationship is built vary from individual to individual because a relationship with the Spirit is highly personal also. It is personally and introspectively understood and received by the sober individual exclusively within a mano-a-mano, heart to heart, wholly personal way.

When all’s said and done every relationship with the Spirit is a prized diamond of exquisite beauty, and at the same time every relationship with the Holy Ghost is as unique and differs as one diamond differs from another in beauty and scale and clarity. The Holy Ghost is that personal. His relationship with me is both universal and entirely unique, known only to me, at the same time. No one has the kind of relationship with the Holy Ghost as I do. He wants to get to know me in a fashion that no living creation will ever know or understand me. He wants me to come to know him perfectly as well. This is how wonderfully personal He wants to be with anyone who will accept it.

In the end, when all individual truths and nuances are factored in and established in His love affair with a person one thing is certain and inarguably universal: it always comes down to the same thing: hearing His voice, whether it be by reading the Bible, by way of a charismatic gift, while in pray, in fastings or by some random experience, a conversation with someone, a TV show, an article or some voice used by God to get our attention. We must hear His voice and be subject to it. For this to happen we must learn to deny ourself. Then we can be obedient to its direction.

The Spirit can and may speak to us from almost anywhere using anything. While being negotiated our way through this earthly temporary present life we must listen and do. He is the only perfectly honest guide we shall ever meet in this life. We at The EOE tried to explain this relationship and the method of the pattern of growth in the following sub-section of Purified Perfect titled: Perfected in the Spirit. As with any of God’s spiritual truths there could be more than just a single way to express this grand relationship of all realities. The following is an attempt to describe how the Spirit has worked a relationship with us, how the Holy Ghost has befriended us and encouraged people because of the active grace of Jesus Christ in a believer’s soul, to be Christians who walk closely with Him. The following articles are little more than introductions to each of the phases of the growth pattern of a relationship that a person can have with the Holy Ghost. When one has a holy and reverential respect and admiration for the ‘third’ person of the Trinity we will have a friend for all time and beyond into eternity.

First, he will teach us to believe that He exists and that he wants a relationship with those who know Christ. Then we must acquire a spirit of yieldedness to Him and a thirst to hear His voice. We must then be willingly schooled and disciplined so we can have the courage to obey His voice. We must then abide by His ruling, His decisions. This means we will learn to trust in those decisions regardless of how they may affect us personally or how they appear in regards to the world. Finally, when we have been taught these aforementioned things, we are expected to stand in the repercussions of those decisions; living and breathing regularly, day by day, in those decisions – ultimately walking without argument, hesitation or doubt, in full confidence of His love.

Obviously not every born-again, spirit-filled person will achieve this kind of worshipful and close walk with the Holy Spirit. Yet this does not change the fact that it is God’s will for every disciple of Christ to walk in this fashion. The apostle John in his first letter (chapter 2 vs 6) simply put it this way; ‘We ought also to walk, even as He walked.’ Our relationship does not begin with walking with Him. It must grow into a walk with Him. For the most part people are not capable of such a thing as walking with Him right from the get go. We cannot readily see Him or hear His voice well. We must have a spiritual single eagle-eye sharpened and developed by experience. We must acquire an acute sense of spiritual hearing so that it is honed like radar to follow. In the handful of articles in this place of our website we have charted the pattern of development of the relationship with the Spirit phase by phase beginning with: Believing, Yielding, Obeying, Trusting, Standing, Living and finally, Walking with Him.

Take some time to consider these things. It can only do you good.

EOE’s Seven Part Series:

Walking With The Spirit