Wear Him Like a Coat: 4 Steps to Walking in the Spirit

Sermon outline

To walk in the Spirit without growing weary, throw off every hindrance, sow your time to the Spirit, present your body as a living sacrifice and pray in the Spirit daily, because God is still a God of miracles.

1. Step 1: Walking in the Spirit means throwing off hindrances

   Strip off every weight and the sin that clings, and run with endurance, looking away from all that distracts to Jesus. Distractions are everywhere and you can't remove them, but you can look away from them. Lay aside the burdens the enemy puts on you; Jesus has forgiven you. Throw them off forcefully, not gently, because people will try to talk you out of church, tithing and even believing in Christ.

   Illustration: He and his wife came from another faith, and Christianity was full of joy, but people tried to kill that joy. When family members asked if he had seen Christ, he said no, but he knows in his knower that He exists.

   “You can't remove it right now, but you can certainly look away from it.”

   • Hebrews 12:1-3
   • Galatians 5:9
   • Matthew 4:4
   • Philippians 1:6
   • Psalm 119:105

2. Step 2: Sow to the Spirit and reap everlasting life

   Whatever a man sows he reaps: sow to the flesh and reap ruin, sow to the Spirit and reap eternal life, so don't grow weary in doing good, because your harvest is coming. God is the great accountant: people may cheat you, but He brings it back with interest. You sow to the Spirit with your time, so give God a tithe of your time, read and highlight your Bible, and study to rightly divide the Word.

   Illustration: Seeing his wife's love for the Word when they were newly saved, he decided he could not let her overtake him if he was to be the priest of the home. He thinks he has worn out about 40 Bibles.

   “If you want to walk in the Spirit, you can't sow your time to the world.”

   • Galatians 6:7-10
   • Mark 11:23
   • 2 Timothy 2:15
   • Proverbs 11:1

3. God still does miracles

   They have seen physical and financial miracles, and the people in the church are themselves miracles: children healed, houses and cars they never dreamt of. If God did miracles before, He will do them today and in the future, because He never changes. Nobody can contain God, and He has given us the power of attorney: ask, seek and knock.

   Illustration: In a storm, houses around theirs were knocked down, but their house, right in the centre, was not touched.

   “Nobody can contain God.”

   • Hebrews 13:8
   • John 21:25
   • Matthew 7:7

4. Step 3: Present your body a living sacrifice

   In view of God's mercies, make a decisive dedication of your body and faculties; it is your reasonable service, which means it can be done. Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by renewing your mind, and rate yourself soberly by the faith God gave you. Lay aside what doesn't please the Lord, practise righteousness and make obeying the Spirit a daily decision.

   “If you want to walk in the Spirit, wear Him like a coat.”

   • Romans 12:1-3

5. Wear Him like a coat: the anointing of ease

   When you put on the Holy Spirit like a coat, life stops being a struggle and you have an anointing of ease. He tells you which way to go and comforts you. Knowledge gives you one alternative, but the wisdom of God operating by the anointing gives you a better one.

   “It'll be an anointing of ease.”

6. Step 4: Pray daily in the Spirit

   The Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us according to God's will. Praying in tongues builds you up, charges your spirit, helps you overcome the flesh and bad habits, makes it easier to receive, strengthens you to resist the devil and reveals things to your spirit. Make time and place to pray, and God will draw near; He is your partner and you are never alone.

   Illustration: In a hotel room he would go into the bathroom, cover himself with a towel and pray until he felt God before going to the meeting. In one country, an underground cell group stopped announcing meeting places and told members to pray in the Spirit to find out; all came except one, the spy.

   “God's my partner. I'm not alone.”

   • Romans 8:26-28
   • 1 Corinthians 14:4
   • Jude 20
   • James 4:8
   • Hebrews 13:5
   • John 10:27

7. Prayer for healing: your miracle is in motion

   Before closing he calls forward people who are deaf in one or both ears and prays, rebuking the deaf spirit; two people report hearing restored. He encourages everyone not to grow weary, because God is alive, loves them and has done it before. Get into the rhythm of your miracle: don't agree with your mouth while your mind disagrees.

   “Your miracle is always in motion.”