"Fruit from the Vine" Weekly Devotional
“How To Develop Sensitivity To God’s Spirit” – Lesson 5
Psalms 27:7-8 - “Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.” KJV
Last week we left off talking about Matthew 13:15 which tells us that the people’s heart “waxed gross” which means to be “calloused”. The NLT calls the people’s heart “hardened”. We don’t need that to happen, we need to have an ear to hear and be responsive to it and be stimulated by it so that we don’t get hardened and waxed gross.
One of the things that is so very important is a principle that is shared with us here:
Romans 8:4-8 - “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” KJV
Paul talks about the carnal mind, and enmity against God. In verse 8 he talks about “being in the flesh”.
Notice verse 4 -“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” KJV
If you’ve printed this out, circle the word “walk”-“walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Walking after the flesh is literally listening to the call of the carnal mind and following the impressions and the leadings of our carnal spirit, rather than, listening to the leading and the impressions from God’s Holy Spirit.
Verse 6 tells us the disastrous results of that. Paul refers to it as being carnally minded, and that it leads to death. But, if we listen to the Spirit and develop an ear to hear and we follow after the Spirit we’re going to have life and peace.
Verse 5 also talks about “but they that are after the Spirit”. What does that mean? It’s those that listen to the Spirit and follow the Spirit rather than their fleshly inclinations. This is how we develop an ear to hear, by walking in the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16 - “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” KJV
How do we not fulfill the lust of the flesh? By walking in the Spirit. How do we walk in the Spirit? By listening to the leading and the urges of the Spirit that keep us in a right attitude.
Walking in the Spirit becomes our escape route out of this world. By walking in the Spirit we won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh and we won’t fall into carnality and sin. The Spirit will never lead us into sin, it will always lead us away from sin. So, we’ve got to develop an ear to hear: hearing the voice of God.
If you go to our website (www.clceast.org) in the last few weeks I have preached 4 sermons about “Learning To Hear God’s Voice.” We have free pod-casting, or you can listen to it on the website. Please feel free to avail yourself of these benefits, there is no charge for it.
Let’s continue to develop sensitivity to God’s Spirit.
God bless you. I look forward to talking with you next week.
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Pastor Ron Libby
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