Be Filled with the Holy Spirit Series

 

People often describe Christian discipleship as “walking with Jesus.” But what does it mean to walk or stay in step with the Holy Spirit? This staying in step with the Spirit is essential for a victorious Christian life, one in which we don't have to rely on our own strength but can trust God as we walk with Christ in obedience to the Spirit. It's a comforting and uplifting realization that we are not walking this path alone. Christ has promised to be with us. We can see the Holy Spirit as our ultimate guide, like a compass in our lives, pointing us in the right direction.

 

Jesus often referred to the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth,” saying, “When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). What better guide could we have?

 

Losing the Son of God

 

Over the years, I have had the privilege of organizing, leading, and teaching tours of Israel, visiting many of the holy sites in that beautiful land. Several years ago, I led a tour with twenty-six people and brought my son, who was 20 at the time. It can be challenging to keep everyone together as we navigate the crowds in Jerusalem. It's easy to lose someone in the group when they want to wander off to take a photo among thousands of other tourists.

 

While in the Old City of Jerusalem, we were about to explore the tunnels on the western side of the Temple Mount. As I was purchasing tickets for the group, my son, without my knowledge, ran to insert a written prayer into the cracks of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, a sacred site for Jewish people. He told one of the group members what he was doing, but she did not pass the message to me. Since our walkthrough through the tunnels was single-file, I didn't realize my son was missing until we came to a larger area.

 

Losing my son in a foreign city with a different language and culture is a terrifying experience. I had warned the group that if they ever got separated, they should wait at that spot so I could find them. My tour guide kept speaking as I hurried back through the tunnels, searching for my son. I saw him waiting at the entrance to the tunnel network. He was upset with himself for wandering away from the group. It was a precious moment as we hugged and thanked God that he wasn’t lost. What would I have said to his mother at home! I can’t imagine anything more horrifying for a parent than losing a child.

 

Have you ever had one of your children wander off and not be able to find them? Did you ever get lost as a child? Share what happened as well as your feelings about it.

 

Joseph and Mary Lost the Son of God

 

When Jesus was twelve, Mary and Joseph lost their son, Jesus! What must it have been like to lose the Son of God? What do you think they thought during the three days He was separated from them? Here’s the text:

 

⁴¹Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. ⁴²When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. ⁴³After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. ⁴⁴Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. ⁴⁶After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” ⁴⁹“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” ⁵⁰But they did not understand what he was saying to them. ⁵¹Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. ⁵²And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:41-52).

 

Now that Jesus was twelve (v. 42), He wanted to focus on His Father's work during the Passover in Jerusalem. Nowadays, the official Bar Mitzvah celebration for a boy becoming a man is set at 13 years old, but that age wasn’t established for many years after Christ, so this Passover could very well have marked Jesus's coming of age. Joseph and Mary assumed that after the Feast ended, He would be with others in the large caravan as they began their three- to four-day, eighty-mile walk back to Nazareth. The journey to and from Jerusalem was highly communal, strengthening bonds among communities like Nazareth.

 

The passage of Scripture says they traveled a day's journey before Joseph and Mary began to wonder where Jesus was. When He didn't return to the tent that first night, I imagine Joseph and Mary were overwhelmed with worry. They had lost Jesus, the Son of God! It took them another day to return to Jerusalem, but where would they look for Him? They spent the third day searching all over the city, wondering where He could be. Finally, they found Him in the Temple precincts with the scholars and teachers of Israel. He amazed these scholars by asking questions that sparked new insights into the Scriptures for them. Asking questions about Scripture is a powerful way to bring light and to change bad habits and thought patterns.

 

What Causes a Distance Between God and His People?

 

Have you ever felt like you went in one direction, but the Lord did not accompany you? Have you ever left the Lord and gone your own way? The truth is, He will never leave us, but we can wander from Him in disobedience. We can also go through times in our lives when we do not sense His presence and must learn to persevere in our faith.

 

If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! (Job 23:3).

 

If you are a believer in Christ, Scripture clearly states that Jesus is with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). However, what we are discussing here is wandering away from the close presence of Christ, often called the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians have faced times when God's presence has seemed to lift from their lives. Sometimes, they sense a lack of intimacy with God because of a wrong turn in their lives. People may believe the Lord was with them at the time, but He had other plans. When that happens, it’s helpful to pause and reflect on where we were when we last felt close to Him. What caused us to lose the sense of God's presence? It is a good thing occasionally to take inventory of our spiritual lives. Is there anyone that I need to forgive? Do I need to ask for forgiveness? The Puritans had a saying, “Keep short accounts with God.” This means we are quick to agree with the Holy Spirit and change our minds and direction when we stray. This keeps our hearts unburdened and free, allowing us to experience God’s peace.

 

It is not always sin that causes us to feel distant from God. Sometimes, it can be a lesson that the Lord is teaching us. When I came to Christ, my joy overflowed at the closeness of the Holy Spirit. As time went on, however, the feelings faded. We will not always have a mountaintop experience. As we mature in the Lord, we learn to walk by faith, regardless of feelings.

 

When we choose to follow the Lord Jesus, we agree to have Him as the pilot, steering our boat and guiding the way with His compass. The Lord is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep. We are called to follow Him, and He will lead us into good pastures. We don’t ask Him to walk with us; God has His own way of doing things. The fullness of life Christ offers is walking with Him, but He doesn’t always go where we expect, as Jesus' parents discovered. This kind of life may not always be easy, but it is fulfilling, especially when we reach our true home. Then, we will see what God has been shaping in us and through us. This life isn’t all there is. C.S. Lewis once said,

 

When I invited Jesus into my life, I thought He would put up some

 

wallpaper and hang a few pictures. But He started knocking out

 

walls and adding on rooms. I said, “I was expecting a nice cottage.”

 

But He said, “I'm making a palace in which to live.”

 

Like Jesus with Joseph and Mary, the Lord has plans different from ours. His desire is for us to grow in faith and teach us not to rely on feelings of His closeness. Each of us reading these words is in the same position of learning to lean on Him—even if we don't feel His presence. After Jesus was resurrected and revealed Himself to the disciples in the Upper Room, the disciple Thomas wasn't there. When he found out that he had missed out on experiencing the Lord's presence, Thomas chose to stay in unbelief, saying, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). More than a week later, Jesus reappeared in the room: Christ told Thomas to see and touch for himself the evidence that He had, indeed, conquered the grave:

 

²⁷Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing." ²⁸Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" ²⁹Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed" (John 20:27-29).

 

Faith in Christ must go beyond sense evidence. Mature disciples reach a point where they no longer require proof through their senses or feelings to trust God. This type of faith pleases God. The Lord often hides from us so He can reveal the actual state of our faith walk.

 

A God Who Conceals Himself

 

On the evening of the first day of the resurrection, the two disciples on the Emmaus Road listened as the Lord explained the Scriptures to them, specifically Isaiah 53, which foretold that the Messiah would be the Suffering Servant of the Lord. The Lord's identity was hidden from them until He broke bread in their presence. As soon as they realized it was Jesus, the Lord disappeared from their view (Luke 24:30-31).

 

Why didn’t Jesus stay a while and chat with the two disciples after they realized who the Stranger was?

 

They (and we) are called to know Him not by the flesh but through the Spirit (Romans 8:1). The Spirit of God must guide us. “Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!” (Isaiah 45:15). We want the Lord to join us in our plans, but He intends to develop our reliance on Him apart from our feelings or senses. Mary and Joseph did not realize that Jesus had gone in a different direction. We may assume that God is part of our plans and actions when He is not.

 

Samson wrongly assumed that God was with him when He was not. He made the mistake of telling his girlfriend his secret to his supernatural strength. Delilah called him out on it by having the Philistines cut off the symbol of his dedication to God—his hair (Numbers 6:5). When Delilah woke him, he saw the Philistine enemy. He believed he could quickly gain the upper hand: “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not realize that the LORD had departed from him (Judges 16:20). He thought God was still with him when, in reality, God's close presence had left him. Author and pastor Dr. A. W. Tozer said, “If the Holy Spirit were withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would continue, and no one would notice.” It was not that way in the early church of the first century. Dependence on the Spirit was dominant in most of what was achieved. Somehow, we need to return to dependence on the Spirit of God.

 

I've learned from experience that when I feel far from Him, it negatively impacts me. I get upset and easily irritated, and my patience and peace slip away. Just as Samson discovered, without God's presence in our lives, we rely solely on our own strength. We must walk with God to succeed in our Christian journey. In other words, we need to abide in Him —stay connected to Him (John 15:5-8) —so that we can bear fruit and be used by God's Spirit.

 

Living Close to the Holy Spirit

 

...But the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie- just as it has taught you, abide in Him (1 John 2:27).

 

To walk in step with the Holy Spirit, we must adjust our plans to align with His. Our happiness in this life is not His primary concern. He has much more in store for us than just our happiness. There is a strength of character worth more than pure gold in us, eternal rewards, good fruit, and light amid the darkness in our lives. All of this is worth more than daily happiness, but it can be hard to keep this perspective. That's why we need to stay in fellowship with God and remain in His love and grace.

 

I have walked with the Lord since 1977. Over the years, I believe He has shown me that His main concern is for those separated from God's love and grace. How do people manage without Jesus? By God's grace, I have never walked away, but I have experienced times when I felt distant from His presence. Time and again, when I reflect on how I lost the Lord’s closeness and what brought me back, I realize it was God's grace. He wouldn’t let me go. He has a plan for my life and yours. We all have different roles in God's kingdom, but I reached a point where I no longer wanted to be a commercial fisherman. In those early days of my walk with Christ, I made many mistakes and wrong turns when I realized the Lord was on a different path than mine, but God’s Holy Spirit softened my heart and guided me back on track.

 

King David once found himself in a dark place where he felt disconnected from the Lord’s presence. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and then went on to deception, trying to cover it up by murdering Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. God would not allow him to carry on leading Israel without confessing his sin. Later on, when he reflected on his inner turmoil, he wrote about his feelings and the impact of his sin on his physical health in this way:

 

³When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. ⁴For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. ⁵Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin (Psalm 32:3-5).

 

King David’s physical body experienced weakness and stress because he was not responding to the Holy Spirit's conviction of sin. God sent the prophet Nathan out of mercy to confront King David about his sin (2 Samuel 12). When we have thoughts that dishonor our Lord, we should make things right with Him right away. Our adversary, Satan, tries to outwit us with his accusations, for he is called the "accuser of the brothers" (Revelation 12:10). When he accuses us, we should go to the Lord and clear our hearts before God as well as everyone else we have hurt.

 

If we want to live close to the Spirit of God, we must be swift to admit our faults and avoid making excuses. Just like I told my son on tour not to wander off if he got lost, we should return to the last place where we sensed God's presence and repent for moving away from Him. Mary and Joseph went back to the last place they saw Him—probably in the Temple courts. Our stubbornness in resisting the Holy Spirit's conviction blocks His ability to lead us. Conversely, our humility in accepting the Spirit's correction and conviction will lead us into more grace: “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6). Whenever you find yourself justifying something the Spirit is showing you is wrong, remember that the enemy is working to steer you away from the Lord Jesus and His presence.

 

How Does a Child of God Achieve Victory Over Self, Sin, and Satan?

 

In his letter to the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul aimed to help believers with challenges similar to those we face. He taught them that there is something we need to know, something we need to consider, and something we need to present.

 

1) Something We Must Know

 

³Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?... ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin… ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him (Romans 6:3, 6, 9).

 

Do you understand and believe in what Christ achieved for you when He died and rose again? This belief is essential for living a life aligned with the Spirit and empowered for ministry. If you are not confident in this knowledge, the enemy will quickly condemn you and take away your authority in Christ. When Scripture says that we are baptized into Christ’s death (v. 3), it refers to a spiritual transformation that has occurred in the heavenly realms.

 

The word baptism comes from the Greek word baptizo, which refers to identification—a term used for dyeing cloth. When the fabric is dipped into a bath of dye, it undergoes a transformation. Similarly, we are changed through this baptism into Christ and His Body, the Church (1 Corinthians 12:13). Christ's victory over sin is our victory. You might not feel victorious, but by faith, regardless of your feelings, it’s essential to understand what Christ has achieved for you and to realize that He obtained this victory so you can walk in it—not just to understand it mentally, but to live in the power of this truth.

 

If you are aware of sin in your life, confess your sins to God and to one another, and seek to repair any damage if needed. Sins like unforgiveness, bitterness, jealousy, pride, doubt, unbelief, and broken relationships are all things we need to confess and leave behind if we want to continue growing in this life of walking in step with the Holy Spirit.

 

2) Something We Must Consider or Count on

 

¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus ¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires (Romans 6:11-12).

 

The word "consider or count," depending on your English translation, is an accounting term that means to calculate or count on. I relied on knowing that my son would wait there for me when I found out he wasn't with us. I didn't look anywhere else for him; I was confident in his obedience to what I had told him. To count yourself dead is a deliberate phrase used here, meaning we are dead to sin's mastery over us. We are no longer enslaved to sin, since we have been bought with a price —the precious redeeming blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:20).

 

After people begin walking with Christ and in step with the Holy Spirit, they still face a battle—a struggle between their lower nature, which the Scriptures call the flesh, and the renewed inner life of their spirit, which now prioritizes Christ and His Word. The more we obey the Holy Spirit's guidance, the more we will put to death our lower nature. The spiritual truth in the Scripture above is that God has called us to live an empowered life in step with the Spirit. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25 NIV). The ESV translation renders the same Scripture as “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” The imagery is of an army marching or fighting in unison.

 

To maintain rank, each person stays in step with the one on the right, and each person on the right stays in step with the one in front. In this way, the entire regiment marches or fights in unison without breaking ranks. We are to be in harmony with the Holy Spirit and align ourselves with the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will remind us and bring to our memory what the Lord Jesus has spoken. In this way, His power will flow through the body of Christ as we preserve the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:3). We no longer yield obedience to our fleshly desires.

 

3) Something We Must Present

 

¹³and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:13-14).

 

Paul makes a conscious effort to explain what we should do and what we should avoid to live an empowered life in the Spirit. We are not to present our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness, but to present ourselves to God.

 

Reflect on these words in Romans 6:13: “Present yourselves to God.” What might this look like in daily life?

 

Our mind is the battlefield where the enemy confronts us. It is there that he chooses to wage his war first, and it is there that we must be prepared. We offer to God all that we are, including our minds, wills, emotions, and bodies. However, the battle is won or lost in the mind. Everything else is influenced by what we allow our thoughts to dwell on and the decisions we make. That is why we must first understand, then consider, and finally present. When we obey the Spirit, God works powerfully through His people. Let me conclude these thoughts by sharing a story about a young man’s obedience to God and how a simple act of kindness led to a meaningful outcome.

 

A young man listened as his pastor discussed hearing and obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit. He wondered, “Does God really still speak to people like that today?” It was around ten o’clock p.m. when the young man was driving home. He prayed, “God, if you will speak to me, I will listen. I will do my best to obey.” During his drive home, he had a thought: stop and buy a gallon of milk. He wasn't sure if this impulse was from God, but just in case, he thought it would be best to stop and buy the milk. It didn’t seem too hard for a test of obedience. On his way home, he suddenly felt the urge to turn down a particular street. He ignored the urge and continued to the intersection, but then felt it again. He turned around and headed down that street as he felt prompted. Half-joking, he said out loud, “Okay God, I will.”

 

He drove several blocks when suddenly he felt like stopping. He pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in a semi-commercial part of town. It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst neighborhood either. The businesses were closed, and most of the houses looked dark. Again, he sensed something—a prompting to go and give the milk to someone in the house across the street. The man looked at the house, and it was dark. It seemed like they had either gone out for the night or they were already asleep. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he prayed. “Lord, this is insane. Those people are asleep, and if I wake them up, they’re going to be mad, and I will look stupid.”

 

Again, he felt a strong urge to go and deliver the gallon of milk to that house. Finally, he opened his car door, saying, “Ok, God, if this is you, I will go and give them this milk. If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess that will count for something. But if they don’t answer right away, I am leaving!” He walked across the street and rang the doorbell. He could hear voices inside, and a man’s voice called out, “Who is it, and what do you want?’ Then the door opened before the young man could back away. A man stood at the door in jeans and a T-shirt. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and didn’t seem happy about having a stranger at his doorstep. “What is it?” the man asked. The young man thrust out the gallon of milk. “Here, I brought you this,” he said. The man took the milk and hurried down the hallway, speaking loudly in Spanish.

 

Then, a woman carrying milk walked from the hallway toward the kitchen. The man followed her, holding a baby. The baby was crying. Tears ran down the man's face. He started to speak and cry at the same time. He said, “We were just praying! We had some big bills to pay this month, and we ran out of money. We didn’t have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk.” His wife in the kitchen yelled out, “I asked him to send an angel. Are you an angel?”

 

The young man reached into his wallet, pulled out all the money he had, and placed it in the man’s hand. He turned and walked back to his car, tears streaming down his face. He knew that God answered prayers.

 

I love this story for several reasons. First, it’s a simple story of how a single act of kindness met a pressing need and also taught everyone involved a profound lesson they will never forget. It offers a glimpse into the Father’s heart, showing that He cares for the little ones and cares enough to send His servant—someone who simply opened his heart and asked God to speak to him and guide him. Yes, God could have sent an angel, since an angel is a heavenly messenger, but in a way, He did. The love of God was shown through a small act of faith and obedience to the Spirit. Being led by the Spirit can be as simple as a thought that we need to recognize and obey. Obedience builds faith, and our experience of listening to the Holy Spirit grows. It is God’s will that we learn to keep in step with the Spirit, not only so that we may be used of God as His instruments, but also to have fellowship with Him day by day.

 

Prayer: Father, will You teach us to stay in step with Your Spirit and serve You humbly and faithfully? Thank You for what You are doing worldwide to reach those hungry for a relationship with You. Help us listen to You and obey. Teach us to walk with You daily. Amen.

 

Continue Your Journey…

 

This devotional is part of our Be Filled With the Spirit series. Here’s the link to the YouTube video of the study: In Step With the Holy Spirit

 

Keith Thomas

 

Website: groupbiblestudy.com
Facebook: keith.thomas.549
Email: keiththomas@groupbiblestudy.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@keiththomas7/videos