Walk by the Spirit
Winning the spiritual battles
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But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want.
Galatians 5:16-17 (NET)
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Have you ever struggled to do the spiritual things you wanted to do but found it all too easy to do the fleshly things you didn’t want to do?
Paul struggled with this.
I struggle with it too.
Our flesh wars against our newly revived spirit.
Paul’s solution here is to live (some translations say walk) by the Holy Spirit.
And if I’m going to live according to the precepts and desires of the Holy Spirit — and He is a person, not just an ethereal thing — then I need to spend time getting to know Him.
Doing that is simple enough: pray and spend time in Scripture.
I like to think of prayer as me talking to God and reading the Scripture as Him talking back to me. Though, of course, God sometimes talks to me through prayer and through His Church. But, for the most part, it’s when I’m reading Scripture that I hear from God.
So, if I become a person who fills his life with Scripture and prayer, then I have a fighting chance at living by the Spirit.
After all, this is war, and I need the best weapons possible.
No better weapon of spiritual war than the Word of God.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.