It's hard

[cedric1200]

You know what? It's hard for me to abide in Christ everyday. I don't know how you Christians do it. I get very lazy with my thoughts, therefore I think of things that are corruptible and bad. It's out of habit. I don't know how to think of things that are of good report.

Also how does one walk in the Spirit? Do I need to make a list of things I can and can not do?

 

[DiscipleHeLovesToo]

You know what? It's hard for me to abide in Christ everyday. I don't know you Christians do it. I get very lazy in my thoughts, therefore I think of things that are corruptible and bad. It's out of habit. I don't know how to think on things that are of good report.

And also how does one walk in the Spirit? Do I need to start making a list of things I can and can not do?

it's a gradual process; while you can't reach absolute Christ-likeness in this life, what you can do is leave where you are each day as you practice perceiving and following God's leading rather than your own - this is what walking in the spirit means; to strive to be led by God rather rather than to strive to be perfect in your performance according to the leading of your own limited intellect and understanding - we aren't smart enough to apply the multitude of God's laws correctly in any given situation according to our own limited intellect and understanding; it's when you strive to yield to His leading that you sin less, as He will never lead you to sin, and His leading will always line up with His revealed written word. this is why we call Him 'Lord'

 

[cedric1200]

it's a gradual process; while you can't reach absolute Christ-likeness in this life, what you can do is leave where you are each day as you practice perceiving and following God's leading rather than your own - this is what walking in the spirit means; to strive to be led by God rather rather than to strive to be perfect in your performance according to the leading of your own limited intellect and understanding - we aren't smart enough to apply the multitude of God's laws correctly in any given situation according to our own limited intellect and understanding; it's when you strive to yield to His leading that you sin less, as He will never lead you to sin, and His leading will always line up with His revealed written word. this is why we call Him 'Lord'

Thank you

 

[LoricaLady]

I think it is possible for one to totally walk in the Spirit day by day without sin. In the Bible we are told "Be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." I suspect that, for example, Elijah was perfected before he was carried away to Heaven. But, on the other hand I would guess that less than 1 in a million believers ever does live life moment to moment walking with Messiah.

The stories of the great saints in the Bible tell of their sins, often. Even Moses, at the end of his very long life, fell into sin when he struck the rock resentfully for the Israelites, and did his own thing, so to speak, instead of following Abba's orders:

In Numbers 20:8, the Lord told Moses, "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink." Numbers 20:9-11 records Moses' response: "So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as He commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, ‘Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?’ Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank." The Lord was displeased with Moses’ actions: “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:12).

When the Israelites went into the Promised Land they were told that "little by little" they would be enabled to drive out the giants. I believe it is little by little, humble heart felt prayer by humble heart felt prayer that we are enabled to win over the giants of sin in our lives.

I also think it is typical for us, after we get some victories, to be shown more sins in our hearts and minds, sins we didn't even think of as sin at all, maybe things like resentment, grudges, pride, whatever.

We are told to be "overcomers." Life is a battle all our lives.

Praying for you to be a great overcomer.

 

[bluegreysky]

You know what? It's hard for me to abide in Christ everyday. I don't know how you Christians do it. I get very lazy with my thoughts, therefore I think of things that are corruptible and bad. It's out of habit. I don't know how to think of things that are of good report.

Also how does one walk in the Spirit? Do I need to make a list of things I can and can not do?

for starters, everything thinks about bad things. This is a human tendency and is normal. It's not "righteous" but it is normal. We are all sinful.
The idea is to turn to God really in all situations but especially when you are stumbling.

Walking with God is in my opinion kind of a metaphor. He IS in you, so yes, if you're out walking around he is literally WITH you. But... that phrase means speaking to him and praying every step of the way through your life.
I guess "a day in the life" would look like this:
1) wake up. praise God for another day.
2) get ready to start your day. Ask God to guide you, stand by you and protect you.
3) Go to work. Try to glorify God with your actions. Like doing what is ethically correct instead of what is convenient. Or being Christ-like with your coworkers in the sense that you forgive their mistakes, pray for them, put them first....
4) After work, if God has placed an opportunity to serve the community before you, take it if you can. Maybe someone told you a soup kitchen needed help or a friend is upset and needs a shoulder.
5) Dinner time. Praise God for providing the meals and the roof.
6) Time with your spouse (if you have one). Read the bible together, pray together, do other married people things that glorify god. you know.
7) Bed time. Pray for protection through the night. rest up for another day of seeking Him.

This is just an estimation.

 

[Quasicentennial]

Socially, as church members in a congregation, we can be so focused on the pastor's teachings that it is almost impossible to get to know everyone because our earth-born minds are not as supernatural as our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, who has the ability to know everyone in every location of the world, as he exists spiritually in our hearts for permanent protection against crime, disease, tragic circumstances such as an airliner crash - because nobody really dies if God the Father is the Creator of all life on Earth, we just simply leave our old body and enter a new one that definitely gives permanent health, youth, a genius-intelligent mind and a measure-perfect body where nobody will suffer obesity, gigantism, dwarfism -
in other words, the correct male or female adult height as in Adam and Eve:.
I also believe that we will receive a supernatural up-grade where everyone will be no younger or older than 25 years old, being the optimum age for maximum health, high memory intelligence to get to know everyone supernaturally just like Jesus with "internet minds", and just like visiting anyone on Facebook or any social website without the need for computer hardware such as tablets, when actually using our new supernatural minds of Christ without making any visits to the person's pest-free mansion home on a new paradise Earth.;'*';.

 

[The Fire Rises]

If I may, I would like to recommend to you a series of sermons by the great Dr. RC Sproul, which are entitled "Keeping in Step with the Spirit". If you have an iPhone or any other device of that nature, download the "Ligonier Ministries" app, and it will be on there. You can also find it online. He is an excellent speaker and a brilliant theologian who clearly outlines what it means to walk with God.

Here is one big take-away from his lessons: We are to serve God out of love and gratitude, NOT out of fear. It is so easy to fall into a works-based salvation mindset, always wondering if we've read enough chapters, prayed for enough people, or donated enough money to be loved by God. In reality, God already loved us enough to send His Son to suffer on our behalf. We cannot do anything to make God love us more than He already does.

Remember, Christ said: "If you love me, keep my commands" (John 14:15), not "If you keep my commands, I will love you".

I would also recommend looking up the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5, which is also examined in Dr. Sproul's series.

 

[DreyDay]

You know what? It's hard for me to abide in Christ everyday. I don't know how you Christians do it. I get very lazy with my thoughts, therefore I think of things that are corruptible and bad. It's out of habit. I don't know how to think of things that are of good report.

Also how does one walk in the Spirit? Do I need to make a list of things I can and can not do?

You don't need to make a list, unless it really helps clarify things for you. No need for legalism. Walking with the spirit can mean different things for people. Some people like to spend time reading the Bible and praying. Others like to listen to sermons. But, here's the thing: we are not all called to be pastors or missionaries.

 

[cedric1200]

thanks everyone

 

[bottledwater]

You know what? It's hard for me to abide in Christ everyday. I don't know how you Christians do it. I get very lazy with my thoughts, therefore I think of things that are corruptible and bad. It's out of habit. I don't know how to think of things that are of good report.

Also how does one walk in the Spirit? Do I need to make a list of things I can and can not do?

Actually, the only thing you need to concentrate on is the Lord. After all he is the standard for what a christian ought to be, and He is the one that called you to election. You really do only need to follow Christ and leave all of the heavy lifting up to Him. he assures us in scripture that he will see us thru to the end.
So trust that.
I do wanna add here that the majority of christians don't ever get that. They continue to try and do it all on their own, while saying that they have faith.
Here is the lesson that the Lord taught me. Because I am a sinner, it is impossible for me to know what righteousness is. So why bother trying to change myself into something that I have no idea about. Jesus says that He will do the good work in us, and that the Holy Spirit is working out our salvation in us. So why not just trust the One that is righteous and Knows what needs to be done to change us. Why not just focus on Him?
God bless you

 

[BFine]

You know what? It's hard for me to abide in Christ everyday. I don't know how you Christians do it. I get very lazy with my thoughts, therefore I think of things that are corruptible and bad. It's out of habit. I don't know how to think of things that are of good report.

Also how does one walk in the Spirit? Do I need to make a list of things I can and can not do?

*We don't, we fail at it too.
Thankfully the Lord, doesn't let go of us when we "miss the mark".
We repent, get back to walking with the Lord, relying upon Him and
His Word.. it's important to regularly spend time reading God's Word,
praying and being in fellowship with other believers as the Word instructs
us to do so.

Except for Christ, I don't know any Christian who has abided in the Lord
24/7 yet, one day, us believers will though...glory be to God!
>> He would began a good work in you will carry it through
to completion...ref.: Philippians 1:6.

 

[cedric1200]

*We don't, we fail at it too.
Thankfully the Lord, doesn't let go of us when we "miss the mark".
We repent, get back to walking with the Lord, relying upon Him and
His Word.. it's important to regularly spend time reading God's Word,
praying and being in fellowship with other believers as the Word instructs
us to do so.

Except for Christ, I don't know any Christian who has abided in the Lord
24/7 yet, one day, us believers will though...glory be to God!
>> He would began a good work in you will carry it through
to completion...ref.: Philippians 1:6.

You are not wrong. I need to be in church. I am just in a situation where I can't go to church.

 

[anewman1993]

Its very hard. But what helped me is to surround myself by "christian" stuff. No, I don't mean only listening to christian music, wearing christian clothing, or putting a cross on everything. But I use to drive for work and I would put on sermons while driving, I got VERY close to god during that time because my thoughts were on him so much. I would highly suggest you read the book "the practice of the presence of God" by brother Lawrence, though the name sounds a little pretentious its a very old yet suprisingly easy to read book written by a monk. Its not even really a book, its a collection of letters and recounts of conversations had with the monk, one let he even says that he doesn't want this shared with other people as he is just writting to help that person. He died and the guy made it into a book, and GOOD THING HE DID lol.

Spending more time in prayer is VERY helpful as well, and just praising him, which can be as simple as saying "I love you god" as you go about your day.read the word, get in it, and think about it, and god will start to show you cool stuff that will have you thinking about it even more.

 

[cedric1200]

Its very hard. But what helped me is to surround myself by "christian" stuff. No, I don't mean only listening to christian music, wearing christian clothing, or putting a cross on everything. But I use to drive for work and I would put on sermons while driving, I got VERY close to god during that time because my thoughts were on him so much. I would highly suggest you read the book "the practice of the presence of God" by brother Lawrence, though the name sounds a little pretentious its a very old yet suprisingly easy to read book written by a monk. Its not even really a book, its a collection of letters and recounts of conversations had with the monk, one let he even says that he doesn't want this shared with other people as he is just writting to help that person. He died and the guy made it into a book, and GOOD THING HE DID lol.

Spending more time in prayer is VERY helpful as well, and just praising him, which can be as simple as saying "I love you god" as you go about your day.read the word, get in it, and think about it, and god will start to show you cool stuff that will have you thinking about it even more.

Thank you

I can do that. I can read Christian books and listen to sermons.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

I'm so sad to hear your not a perfect christian yet! *sigh*

Just kidding friend. No one is perfect and sometimes its not easy at all. We live in a world surrounded by bad things. You can't even watch tv, listen to a song or over hear someone talking without hearing something bad. Good news is Jesus washed away your sins and when we mess up we can ask for forgiveness and more His strength to help us since we cannot avoid sin on our own.

Does this mean we will be perfect? Nope. I met a woman who was in her late 80s long ago at church and when she asked if she was spiritually mature enough that her life was perfect as a christian she said "Nope, you can never achieve perfection. But I know God loves me, forgives me and He knows I did my best!". Its so true. And we are going to have our trials where sometimes things may get bad on our end.

Think about it like this, Jesus himself was tempted to sin while on earth. So if He was then we certainly cannot achieve perfection. Just keep on praying and trusting in God. Try hard and fight the good fight (as the saying goes). Even though people around you every day may not look it, they all have their own struggles too. So your not the only one.

 

[DiscipleHeLovesToo]

Thank you

I can do that. I can read Christian books and listen to sermons.

Like Keith more says, it would be great if the content of every Christian message was revealed by a label as it is for food; percent truth, percent error, percent fluff, percent faith, percent unbelief, etc.

Focusing on Christian messages about spiritual rebirth will help you to receive spiritual rebirth, but it won't do much for you in the area of walking with the spirit. Focusing on Christian messages about end times won't do much for you in the area of walking with the spirit. Focus on messages that are focused on walking in the spirit, and your ability to hear God's leading in each situation will increase. This is where so many Christians stray from the path; they fail to focus on perceiving the leading of the Lord. As you become more effective at "hearing God's voice", he will bring your focus to the area that he knows is most important to you right now - if your difficulty in focusing on God is related to a health problem, he will lead you to focus on his word about healing through the Christian messages he directs you to choose; if your difficulty in focusing on God is related to want and lack, he will lead you to focus on his word about prosperity through the Christian messages he directs you to choose. As you consider what messages you should listen to, look for the power of God in the life of the speaker; look for the signs that follow the word of God spoken in faith; look for the supernatural power of God to heal save deliver and prosper in a ministry before you decide to listen to that ministry's message.

Here's a good start:

Spirit Led Life | Moore Life Ministries - Branson, MO

Spirit Led Life 2 | Moore Life Ministries - Branson, MO

How To Hear God's Voice - Audio Teaching - Andrew Wommack Ministries

 

[parsley]

If you look at what God chides people for in OT prophecy, it's much more harmful things than smoking and selfishness. It's cheating widows out of their inheritance, leading people into religious deception and oppression... trickery, trampling, and brutality in the name of God.

The collective advice above should help.

I encourage you to think about salvation by grace, not by our own perfection. We can never be completely righteous in God's sight, without His help -- which He provided through a one-time redemptive act (it's Easter season -- celebrate it!).

I was fortunate to come to Christianity at a time when uniqueness, simple living, and asceticism was looked up to -- it was a fun challenge to live sacrificially, so we erred in the other direction (pride, demanding more of ourselves than God expected). People thought they could live like Ghandi.

Also how does one walk in the Spirit? Do I need to make a list of things I can and can not do?

Heh, isn't that irony?
Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to be with us when He left. He was a guide, friend, adviser, teacher-rabbi when He walked the earth. He walked beside people, and reasoned to challenge our ethics and intents.

God's Holy Spirit stays with us in a similar way -- challenging, nudging, giving insight, guiding. He is our help.

If we strive so hard to impress God that we push aside this help, then we're not really connecting with God -- we're trying to prove ourselves God-worthy. Relax a little. Sit and listen. Follow the hints or test them to see which are worth listening to. Listen to the convictions too, but not the bruising condemnations within yourself. The Spirit is life.

There is a trick that parents and teachers do to keep a child from doing something bad: they distract them. If kids are fighting over one toy, they bring over two toys and suddenly there's something new to look at. Find some devices that you know will be worthwhile distractions for yourself. A glass of juice. A walk outside. A song. Make it easier on yourself by breaking up old brain patterns.

 

[cedric1200]

Thanks everyone.