“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25 KJV)
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25 ESV)
The King James Version, as you can see, says that we are to walk in the Spirit. But, because we are part of God's army of believers here on earth, I submit that we should march in the Spirit. Imagine, if you will, a unit of soldiers marching past, neatly organized in rows, with a sergeant marching to one side calling out cadence. Just what is the purpose of them marching in such a manner? They are not marching for exercise. They are not out there learning to just march in neat rows. The purpose is to move a unit of soldiers as efficiently and quickly as possible. They move as a unit, not individuals, to teach staying together as a fighting body.
As a soldier of Christ in God’s army today, you are part of the fighting body of Christ. You will experience battles, and in between those battles, you’ll find out that there’s a whole lot of marching to be done. And if we are to stay together, we had better learn how to march in the Spirit. And this is for all of us in the spiritual warriorhood of brothers. It is not just for a select group of super-spiritual people. Walking in victory, and marching in the power of the Spirit, is for every blood-washed child of God. You can march triumphantly forward because the Spirit will empower you to do so.
In order to march in the Spirit, I want to give to you three key steps to follow in order to effectively follow the Spirit’s cadence for your life.
First, don’t worry about where He’s leading you, just follow His leading. Philippians 4:6 says, “Be anxious for nothing.” Translate that into our modern terminology and essentially you would have “Don’t worry about anything.” We must make the decision, that while we are following the Holy Spirit’s leading, that we don’t get into our own heads, daydreaming about things other than what He is leading us into.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you won’t have any problems. Jesus said, that “in this world you will have tribulation.” The world is full of problems and some of it will eventually affect your life, but you don't have to worry. Why? Because my God will supply all of your needs and take care of you to the end. If we are to walk victoriously in the Spirit, then we must realize that our God is able to sustain us and cast all of our cares on Him.
Don't get me wrong, worry is a natural first reaction when we experience trouble. Our human instinct is to get nervous and start worrying about the situation. But I believe the first thing we should do is get a grip on ourselves and say, “I am not going to worry. I am going to march in the Spirit.” That may sound like simply denying the reality of the situation, but it's not. I'm not saying the problem doesn't exist, or that the trouble isn't real trouble. What I'm saying to you is that if you want to march in the Spirit, then don't just give up and start wallowing in self pity. Call upon the Name of the Lord. Trust in Him. Rely on Him. Then you'll see your problems fade away.
The next step in effectively following the leading of the Spirit is pray about everything. After Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6 to “be anxious for nothing,” He then went on and wrote, “but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God.” Prayer means asking God for something, while supplication means really getting down to business with God. That's what we need today in Church, people who will get down to business with God. We've got entirely too many people sitting in our services who are only playing games. Game time is over. It is time to get down to business with God.
When you are marching as a unit, you must keep in step with the cadence of that Sergeant who was calling the cadence. You must learn to march as a unit–together. If everyone is not staying in step, and someone gets out of sequence, you will start stepping on the heels of the person in front of you because you're out of sequence. We must stay in sequence with the Holy Ghost.
One of the biblical names for God is Jehovah-Jireh, which means Jehovah, the one who sees and provides. In this spiritual warfare that we are in, I want you to know that God already sees every trouble and trial that you're ever going to go through. You may be facing a need right now, but let me assure you, God is the One who sees that need and also sees a solution for that need. He is Jehovah-Jireh, the one who sees and provides. Just as you're right in the middle of your struggle, He's already preparing victory for you. If he is Jehovah-Jireh and He already sees your needs even before they happen, then don't you think we need to start praying more than ever? He already knows about it. He's ready to do something about it. He's just waiting on us to talk to Him in prayer about it.
We've now seen that we’re not supposed to worry while we're marching in the Spirit. We've also discovered that we must pray about our situations and our problems. Now, we are ready for the third step in marching in the Spirit. This step is critical because it truly releases the hand of God to move in your circumstances. If we are to march effectively in the Spirit, we must learn to praise.
The book of Philippians says to “let your request be made known to God by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.” This means that when you're in the middle of a bad situation, you must start praising and giving thanks to God for the victory, even if you can't see the victory right then. Praise is the language of faith. Praise is your way of saying, “God, You are the victor over this and over every situation and circumstance within my life. You are my Lord. You are my King. You are my Savior. You are my Healer. You are my Deliverer.” Praise is taking your eyes off of situations around you and focusing your attention where it belongs, on God. Praise is lifting your voice to God and saying, “Lord, I just want to praise You. I just want to magnify You. I just want to adore You.”
As soon as you declare the praises of God, God activates the solution to your problem, the answer for your dilemma. All of heaven gets to work on the problem the minute you start praising God. When you begin to praise God, the windows of heaven are open to pour out its blessings on you. You have a choice to make when you're in the midst of your troubles, you can choose to worry or not to worry–so choose not to worry. You can choose to pray or not to pray–so choose to pray. You can choose to praise God or not to praise Him–so choose to praise God.
No matter what you need from God, just start praising Him. If you need healing, then you must praise Him. If you need deliverance, then you must praise Him, because God rides in on the wings of praise. He loves to hear your praises unto Him. It is a sweet fragrance unto Him.