When I was a wiccan, walking in the spirit would mean doing some cool astral travel.  I would tune out the world and hit the skies for a romp in a place of pure energy and peace.  I’d commune with my gods on a sort of non-verbal, sensual level.  It was immediately rewarding and fun, very empowering but left a rather empty, lonely space in the end.

There was no real fulfillment in such metaphysical activity.  I certainly never allowed the sheer peril in which I placed myself to come into my conscious thought, though I knew very well just what kind of trouble I was getting into.

But what I sought was a real pairing, a community, a relationship with deity.  Something I’d been raised with in my Christian home was missing.  I didn’t have access to God and never would in my failed condition.  Sin had always ruled my life, though I was just. so. close. to salvation as a kid in church that I knew something of what it should be like to be right with God.  I spent 10 years as a wiccan trying to reach that rightness.

And here it is in simplicity, the real Walking In The Spirit:

Galatians 5:12

“I say then:  Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

I knew all along that I was in sin.  I knew what the result of sin was.  And I knew what was required to escape the result.  I just refused to accept it.  Not going into the long discussion of how it all worked or what the sordid details entail, I essentially was involved in the literal interpretation of nearly every item listed in verses 19-22 of Galatians 5.

Here I am now, still a sinner, still wishing it could all be packed up tight and taken from my pockets, but I’m stuck with the remnant of a sin nature that won’t go away until Jesus comes to get me.  I have, though, the means to suppress it, and that is the communion with the Spirit I have through prayer, fellowship and the Word.  That’s walking in the Spirit.  God is right here with me and He’s going to keep me straight on course just so long as I submit to the commands He’s given in the Bible.

I can’t do it without staying in the Bible and praying and keeping the relationships with my fellows.

I know this little post isn’t really as deep or wordy as most others, but this issue is simple to me, though hardest to keep on my table.  It needs to get displayed and studied and pursued.  So here’s my little reminder to me.  Pray, bud.  Pray and pray and study and pray.  Pray the Psalms, pray the prayers throughout the whole Bible, pray some more.  And finally, pal, act on it without fear or reservation.  Make integrity a synonym of Walking In The Spirit.