NASHVILLE (BP) – This weekly Bible study appears in Baptist Press in a partnership with Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Through its Leadership and Adult Publishing team, Lifeway publishes Sunday School curricula and additional resources for all age groups.
This week’s Bible study is adapted from the MasterWork curriculum.
Bible Passages: Galatians 5:16
Discussion Questions:
- What practical advice would you give someone who wants to be led by the Holy Spirit?
- What habits or practices have helped you become more sensitive to His guidance?
- How important is it to walk in the Spirit? How do you do this?
Food for thought:
Paul urged, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Like marriage, when you live daily in harmony with each other, the fullness of each life is shared and experienced by the other.
This is true in the entire family as well. When you walk in harmony, love and complete sacrifice of yourself to your family, each person experiences all you are and have to offer, day after day. Each life is enriched. The expressions, in Christ and in the Spirit, signify complete union.
Jesus spoke of being in the Father and the Father in Him (John 17:20-26). Jesus expressed this in a wonderful way, indicating His walk with the Father was the pattern for our walk with Him (John 15:7-12). So it is with the Holy Spirit. We are to walk in the Spirit. If we do, the fullness of the Spirit will be real and active in us. Jesus expressed the magnitude of this relationship in John 16:13-15.
First, the Spirit will make you aware of the enormous riches God has at your disposal (Romans 8:16-17). God loves you and desires to share with you the resources of heaven. The Spirit’s role is to make you fully aware of the enormous resources available to you from the Father.
Second, the Spirit qualifies you to receive what the Father wants to give you. Psalm 84:11 promises, “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” This being so, the Spirit is determined to help you “walk uprightly” so that you can receive God’s best for your life. (Galatians 5:16). The Spirit will guide and convict you, preparing you to receive all that your Father has to give.
When the Spirit of God enters the life of a new Christian, that Christian has the assignment to produce spiritual fruit in this lifetime. The more fruit that is produced, the more like Christ that person becomes. Galatians 5:22-23 describes the kind of fruit the Spirit is seeking to produce in every believer. Read those verses. The Spirit of God is absolutely committed to producing fruit in your life.
Masterwork
MasterWork is an ongoing Bible study curriculum based on works from a variety of renowned authors and offers pertinent, practical messages that adults will find uplifting and enriching. The list of authors and their books to be studied in upcoming months can be found at Lifeway.com/masterwork.
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