This is a topic that I must confess I know nothing about however, this kept showing in my bible reading this week and it caught my attention. What does it mean to be dependent on the Holy Spirit? Why be dependent on the Holy Spirit? What is the expectation of Christians vis-à-vis the Holy Spirit? I may not have answers myself but my goal today will be to point you to scriptures that can provide answers or at least beginning to provide answers as I am convinced this will look differently for each one of us and the more we learn about what this means, the more it will seem like we don’t know just like it is in general with knowing God.
In the fifth chapter of Galatians Paul instructed the Galatians to “walk by the Spirit” and by so doing they “will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). This same sentence is rendered as “be dependent on the Spirit” in the French version Bible du semeur and in the Good News Bible it says “…let the Spirit direct your lives…”. The idea is pretty simple, walking by the Spirit means being dependent on the Spirit, it means letting the Spirit guide you, it means being submitted to the Spirit. The reason Paul exhorts us to do that is so that we would not gratify the desires of the flesh. To be dependent on anything is to wait on that thing, it means to not be in control anymore but let the thing have control. In the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit first came upon the apostles, and they started speaking in other languages, proclaiming the mighty works of God, many people wondered what was wrong with them and the conclusion of some was that the apostles were on some wine. Peter responded to that by telling them that they were not drunk, on the contrary they were simply filled with the Spirit as was prophesied by the Old Testament prophet Joel (Acts 2:5-16). From that encounter, the lives of the disciples never remained the same, they were completely sold for Christ. I believe this is what being dependent on the Spirit means, it is to be controlled by the Spirit, to live a life of obedience that is no longer your own and to relinquish whatever power or authority you think you have to the Spirit of the living God. One thing that is true is that, if we are not submitting to the Spirit of God, we are certainly submitting to our flesh. It is always one or the other, never both. Since these two natures are in fierce opposition, once you submit to one, the other leaves the scene. Just like Jesus said we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), I believe the reverse is also true for the Jealous God: He will not share his servants with anyone. What is His, is His. The glory He gets is His to enjoy and no one else. When Paul is speaking here, he is speaking to an audience that has believed in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on their behalf; he is speaking to Christians who have forsaken everything to follow Christ; he is speaking to people who know that in Christ, they are a new creatures and they have been given the power to fight against the works of the flesh. So, when he instructs them to walk by the Spirit, it is because he knows this is possible and achievable. So, the same goes for you today, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, know that it is possible for you to walk by the Spirit. Does not the word of God say that “God’s divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3)? So then, be confident in the knowledge that all things that pertain to life and godliness is already yours in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit is your guarantee, your helper to aid you in tapping into “all things” that pertain to life and godliness.
Why be dependent on the Holy Spirit? The simple answer is because without him, we can do nothing. We need the Holy Spirit to help us live a godly life; we need the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth; we need the Holy Spirit to grant us wisdom; we need the Holy Spirit to help us fight the flesh and its desires; we need the Holy Spirit to help us remind ourselves of the things above where Christ is seated otherwise our focus is in the here and now; we need the Holy Spirit to guard us in Christ and help us stand firm in a world that is completely opposed to the ways of God; we need the Holy Spirit to give us courage to speak truth and be light in a dark world; we need the Holy Spirit to live the victorious life that Christ has already secured for us; we need the Holy Spirit to teach us about the Lover of our soul; we need the Holy Spirit to change our affections of the things of this world for Christ alone. We cannot do anything on our own in this life without the very Spirit of God. We are in a battlefield. The moment we have decided to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we declared war on sin and our flesh; we vowed to live righteously, hating the sin that the Lord hates, that is the deeds of the flesh as pointed in Galatians: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, etc.” (Galatians 5:20); we need the Holy Spirit to reveal to us our faults, where we are walking according to the flesh and its desires. Indeed, the Holy Spirit’s help is vital for our survival otherwise, we will find ourselves trapped by the enemy who roams like a lion seeking whom he may devour, that awful one who is only here to kill steal and destroy. The expectation that God has of Christ’s followers is that they will walk by the Spirit. In His goodness, the Lord gave us the Holy Spirit and so it is only right that we make use of him.
So then, what does that look like practically? Again, this will look different from person to person but the idea will remain the same: submission. Instead of having your way, you will seek to submit your way to the Lord, doing what you know He would have you do. This is a daily habit and sometimes an hour by hour thing. We have to lay our “crowns” at the feet of the Father every day; we have to be willing to accept His way of doing things. For example, in the way your portray yourself or in the way you act whether at work or in the supermarket or wherever you may be are you displaying the fruits of the spirit? Are you charitable? In your conversations, is Christ exalted? Is God honoured? Are you saying things that He would not agree with? In an argument, when you are wrong, are you trying to vindicate yourself or are you quick to apologize for your actions? How do you react when you have been wronged? When life gets difficult and you only seem to pile sorrow after sorrow, how do you react? Is joy still your portion then? In every situation listed above, you should choose the path of obedience, you should choose the path of righteousness which is truth in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I am finding the book of Proverbs to be a very practical book, packed with instructions on how to live righteously. What is particularly interesting is that it lays clearly what the path of the righteous is which is following after wisdom, that is truth seeking, pursuing the things that honour the Lord and not walking the path of the mockers and evildoers. I am convinced the only way we can truly walk by the Spirit is by humbling ourselves first and being able to see ourselves as we truly are, not in a way to elevate ourselves but simply as people who have nothing in and of themselves but have everything in Christ who empowers them to do anything! May this be our way of life. Amen!
A Word Aptly Spoken 