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Ismael Ochoa discusses the importance of walking in the Spirit. Through easy-to-understand examples from scripture, he shows how following the Spirit leads to a better life filled with love and joy. Learn how to take steps towards a more fulfilling life with the Spirit's guidance.
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Ismael Ochoa discusses the importance of walking in the Spirit. Through easy-to-understand examples from scripture, he shows how following the Spirit leads to a better life filled with love and joy. Learn how to take steps towards a more fulfilling life with the Spirit's guidance.
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This is a podcast from CCI Fellowships. The message is about walking in the Spirit. The speaker wants to define the words of the flesh and the Spirit and discuss how Christians can walk in the Spirit. They mention the early church as an example. The Holy Spirit teaches, testifies, and convicts. The speaker emphasizes the importance of a change of direction in one's life and the need to walk in the light. They compare the Holy Spirit to a flowing pipeline and mention the importance of mindset and obedience to the Spirit's guidance. The speaker concludes by discussing the obedience required in walking in the Spirit. Welcome to CCI Fellowships podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. How are you? What an amazing moment that the Lord gave us just a few moments ago, and definitely He's speaking to us. And my prayer definitely was that through this message, there's going to be a before and after in our lives. At this point, there's a before and after in my life, a good reminding myself how to walk in the Spirit. We can go over this message, and today I want to divide this message into two parts. The title is Walking in the Spirit. In the first part of this message, I want to define the words of the flesh and the Spirit. And in the second part, I want to—what things should we do as a Christian follower to walk in the Spirit, and taking as example the early church that we can read in Acts chapter 1 and 2. So basically, that's what we're going to see over today. I'm excited, and definitely since the prayer room, since the opera room—remember this, the opera room? We were praying up there, and the manifestation of His glory down here, it's amazing. So let's pray. Permit me to pray to start this sermon. Lord, thank you because you've prepared this day, you've prepared this time, Father, to receive your word, to receive your love, to receive your mercy, God, but definitely to receive from your Holy Spirit, God, that while we read your scripture today, also the scripture can read us, Father, and we can have revelation from you, Lord. Thank you for this day, thank you for your presence in this place, in your house, and thank you for the joy of communion. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. So, open your Bible in Galatians chapter 5, verse 16 to 17. I'm going to be reading from the New King James Version. It says, I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Remember this, 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. For the first time, if you read this, and I always remember Pastor Ken speaking about scripture, that reading this, you could say, the world right now is saying to you, follow your heart, follow whatever you believe in, and that's a very dangerous place to be, because we as Christians know that our nature is to have lust of the flesh, and what this lust of the flesh means is act out of the will of God. We have a sinful nature since the day that we are born, and since that moment when we come to Christ, the good news that will come to pass to the people that doesn't receive the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, what he did in the cross, that he opened, the veil tore up, and we have access to his presence, to his love, and to his mercy. And that's the message, basically, the gospel, the good news. So we definitely, when we receive Christ, and I love this Greek word, it means metanoia, that it means a changing one's mind, a change of direction. So when people receive the gospel, there's a changing direction in their lives. If you can think of persons like an alcoholic, a drug addict, a lustful person, a gambler, or any other adjective of people having delight in sin, as we know as sin, how does that person can quit from one day to another? Some people may say they have voluntad, self-control, but definitely those things come from the Lord, and what's the answer to this? It's a work of the Spirit. It's a work of the Spirit. Even if maybe your testimony at this point in life, maybe you were not an alcoholic or a drug addict or all the things that the world right now is dealing with, or maybe you grew up in church, even if your parents, and we see a lot of kids here, nurturing from the Word of God from very little, but there's going to be a point in which they receive the gospel, and they take the decision to receive the good news, to receive the gospel, that even though there's going to be a metanoia in their lives, there's going to be a change of direction. How can we define the Spirit? Well, it's a very large topic, and speaking of the Holy Spirit, I know that Pastor John, well, even Pastor John, at one point he did a series about this, and it was amazing, but I want to read three scriptures that we can read of specific, I don't want to call it duties, but labor of the Spirit in our hearts, in our lives. Let's go to John chapter 14, verse 25 to 26. I'm going to read it. It's not on the screen. So, this is Jesus talking. So, while I was praying, I remembered this phrase, that while we read the Scripture, read our mind, our souls, our heart, how is the stage of our hearts? So, definitely the Holy Spirit will teach us. While we are there seated, nurturing from the Word of God, while the person, our pastor, comes here and preaches the Word of God, and teaches the Word of God, do we have specific moments in which we have revelation of the Spirit, of a specific Scripture, of a specific questioning in our mind? And I always say, if you have a question about your faith, the Lord is merciful, and ask Him to reveal Himself and to give an answer to a question that is over in your mind, and I know that He is going to answer. Let's go to the next chapter, John chapter 15, verse 26 and 27. He will testify of me. He testifies of Christ. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. Let's go also to John 16, the next chapter, if you're near John 15, let's go to John 16, chapter 16, verse 8 says, And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. So these are some works of the Spirit when you come to the Lord, when you receive the Gospel. One of the most amazing things is in my life, when He convicted me that I was living a sinful life. And instead of me saying, oh, I'm not good enough, because before coming to Christ, before coming to this revelation, I thought that I was not good enough to come to church, but when He convicted me, He took me to the cross. He didn't take me, oh, you're not worthy, He took me to the cross, and He convicted me of sin and of righteousness. So if we go to also in John chapter 8, we're going to be reading about John, the scripture of John. Jesus is asking a woman caught in adultery while she was accused. In verse 11 says, He asked the woman, where are you accusers? And the woman, in verse 11 says, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. Here Jesus said, go and sin no more. She was caught in adultery, she was caught in sin. And He was preparing the way in which He told her, go and sin no more, your sins are forgiven. But there's a metanoia in her life, a change of direction, sin no more. In verse 12 says, then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. And while I read this, the light of life, and why did I brought this scripture, is definitely when we as followers shall not walk in darkness, but we have the light of life. We do not walk in darkness, but we walk in the light. And how can we walk in the light? Walking only in the Spirit. And I have like this image in my head about this big, like a pipeline, where water is going through with high pressure in that pipeline. And we can think of that pipeline, the flowing of the powerful power of the Holy Spirit flowing in the whole world, in the existence right now. And we are like a branch connected to the pipeline, and also Jesus approaches this, that we are the branches in His, I forgot the word in English, but, divine, sorry, sorry, yeah. But thinking of this pipeline, and we connected to this pipeline, there's a connector, there's a valve that opens and closes. So the Spirit is always flowing. Once we receive Christ the Holy, we don't have any doubt that the Spirit is in you. But there's a valve in our lives, and I'm not saying that the power of the Spirit is limited because of that valve, but when we open that valve, the Spirit will flow, and the same pressure, and the same power, and the same presence will flow. And what's that valve in our lives? This is something that I came to this example, and definitely that valve starts in our mind, in the mindset that we have, and I have some scripture that I want to read in order for us to understand. And I'm not saying also that the Holy Spirit is limited because of us, but our decisions and mindset will impact the way that He's going to flow through us. I'm not talking about manifestations of the Spirit. I'm talking about the Spirit working through us as a vessel. For example, how can the Spirit work through you? For example, presenting the Gospels to places you never imagined. Or also talking to a family member with power and authority about what the Lord has done. Or praying for a strange person in the street as the Spirit guides you. And also we can think of Philip and Eunuch, like the Spirit told him, go near that chariot and then we can read something amazing in Acts chapter 8. So, here it is. Walking in the Spirit is not doing what you want or when you want. It's obedience to what the Holy Spirit dictates. And here's an example. Right now, my little son, you saw him jumping all around here. But I imagine myself asking him when he is almost 12 or 10 years, like, Aismar, can you take out that trash can, please? The trash outside. And maybe he'll tell me, yeah, Dad, but not right now. Give me a second. I'm doing something more important right now. So my perception of that order given to him, even though I love him, I will take it as disobedience. And maybe this sounds very hard and I don't want to take a burden over you, but this was hard on me because a lot of times the Holy Spirit has told me, pray over that person. Give this word to that person. Maybe not right now, maybe if there's a manifestation or something, if you confirm this, I will move. And man, that's disobedience. That broke my heart today while I was thinking about this. And also, let's go to Romans, and I love that Analu brought this scripture while worshiping. Let's go to Romans chapter 8, in verse 6. It says, For the carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. I didn't say what I was trying to tell when I remembered about Pastor Ken. For the first time, persons outside may think, or persons that haven't had this realization of who God is, have this image that God is waiting to punish you every time you fail. And that's the veil that the enemy puts on everyone, and that's the veil of sin in the human being before coming to Christ. But we can read that if we follow the Spirit, if we're obedient to Him, we'll find life and peace. And Pastor Ken says that the scripture, more than correction, is protection for our lives and souls, and I love that. And the mind is where sin is revealed. Let's go to Matthew chapter 15, verse 18 to 19. Here in Matthew 15, Jesus is explaining to the elders at church about eating the bread without washing their hands. It meant ceremonially unclean. In verse 18 it says, But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. De la abundancia del corazón abra la boca. Verse 19 says, But for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies. Also, if we keep in Galatians chapter 5, in verse 19 to 21, I'm not going to read it, but we can talk about the works of the flesh, and there's a quick checklist where we can see the works of the flesh. But in the mind is where it all starts. I love when we read the book of Job. We read that at one point he was trying to understand what was happening all this, why everything was happening this to his life, and he said at one point, I've made a pact, I've made a commitment with my eyes. This revealed to him that he was not a lustful man, and he made a pact in his mind. He decided, he made a promise to God not to sin with his eyes while looking to women, being lustful. So, why am I saying this? Because in the mind is where the spiritual warfare is fought. Let's go to Romans 8.5. It says, For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So, for those who live according to the flesh, here it is, set their minds on things of the flesh. The battle starts in the mind, and there's a second battle. The second battle is in the behavior. If you win the first battle, the battle of the mind, you will win the second battle. So, you can say to yourself, if you're getting some notes, if you're struggling this day with something, you can say and write into your cell phone or to your notes or into your heart, I choose to obey God. That should be our mindset. And with this, I'm not saying that our sinful nature while we're here on earth, we're always going to be struggling with something. And Paul approaches about this, and there are different theories about it, but we're going to be struggling with our sinful nature, our flesh. And we need to set our mindset. We need to set these struggles and simply just say, Holy Spirit, please help me with this. Holy Spirit, please free me. And I'm going to approach this topic. It's very sensitive nowadays. But if I'm talking about the mind, there's a lot of people, millions of people at this point, fighting with depression. And the enemy is bringing these thoughts that you're not good enough, you're never going out of this situation in which you're caught in. This is so hard. And I've heard around there that being Christian is tough. Yeah, it's tough when we're doing it in our own flesh. It's tough when we're not permitting the Holy Spirit to guide us. It's tough when we're doing it in our own strength. So, and I'm not saying that maybe it's easy if you're struggling at this point with depression. With my wife, we have approached this and have a testimony about this. But the first thing is, you need to bring it to the Lord first. Open your mouth with persons that will guide you to getting out of depression and will pray over you. And there will be a metanoia in your mind, a change of direction. Yes. In Romans 8.11, there's good news. By submitting our mind, we humble ourselves to God, and we can start walking in the Spirit. What's the good news? Romans 8.11 says, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Did you hear this? Did you read this? That the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. The same Spirit. So I've approached depression a few seconds ago. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. How amazing is that? There's life in you. There's life where the presence of the Holy Spirit is. So well, this is the first part and we can continue. There's a lot of good material about getting to know more the Holy Spirit. But the main question for you today is, Holy Spirit, I want to know you more. I want to get into deeper waters. That valve that is maybe, the valve is open under the 20% in your life. Maybe the last 10, 20 years, it's good to be in your presence. I know that you hear me when you pray. It's time to open it to 100%. That there will be manifestation of the Spirit through your life, in your family, in your workplace, in your ministry, in a nation. And I'm going to say this always. Pastor John permits me to bring the word. Through this church, through this ministry, the Lord is going to impact Honduras. And God has placed a heart for me, a burden in my heart for Honduras. And we're going to be here worshipping, praying, and serving to him. So what we see in social media, and sometimes we can get caught up in trying to answer some comments or something in social media about what's the real church that Jesus founded. Simply, just don't get caught up in those conversations. Let's go to Scripture, let's go to Acts chapter 1 and Acts chapter 2. And I just want to make a point right here, that Jesus, in John chapter 21, Jesus takes his disciples. They were all started. They were fishing. In Matthew chapter 4, when Jesus called Peter, and Jesus said to Peter, follow me, they were fishing. And in John chapter 21, Jesus appears to his disciples after resurrecting. He appeared for the third time to his disciples. And in John chapter 21, verse 3 says, Simon Peter said to them, to all the other disciples, I am going fishing, they said to him. We're going with you also. They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. Do you remember this? A similar situation when we read in Matthew chapter 4. And in John chapter 21, when you go to verse 5 to 7, it says, then Jesus said to them, children, have you any food? They answered to him, no. And he said to them, cast the net to the right side, to the right side of the boat, and you will find some. Do you remember this? Something similar happened. So they cast a net. They were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved, I love reading John, and John always says, that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had removed it and plunged it into the sea. So I want to, and I'm going to be closing with this. There's a before and after when we read through the Gospels, in the disciples and the apostles, when they had the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father, and they were, when we read chapter 21, at this point, they haven't received any specific instructions. They were like, yeah, Jesus resurrected, but what happened? And even Peter denied him three times, even though Jesus told him, you're going to deny me three times. His heart was broken. Imagine this, in the heart of Peter, when knowing that he resurrected from the grave, and knowing that he denied him. What have I done to the person that I love the most? What have I done to my rabbi? What have I done to him? And when we read John chapter 21, he plunged into the sea, and knowing that it was his Lord, his friend. And we read later, in John chapter 21, that Jesus restores Peter, that he questions Peter, do you love me? And we can read that, it's amazing. So this is an example, when we are not filled with the Spirit, we're tempted to go back, to start doing things in our own strength. But God is great in mercy and love for his children, that he sent us his presence to guide us. So what happened then? If we go, and that's going to be a little homework, please go to read Acts chapter 1 and 2. And we can have the basic process in which how can we do church, but also how can we walk in the Spirit. The process to walk in the Spirit, you must first receive the gospel, receive the goodness of Jesus Christ. Has everyone received the good news? If not, we can do it at the end, we can share the good news and pray over you. But also getting baptized. Why getting baptized? It's obedience and testimony. In the early church we can read, they were choosing Matthias, who was the replacement of Judas, and Peter, I got the scripture set, and Peter was saying, who are we choosing? And Peter said, beginning from the baptism of John, so that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become witness with us for his resurrection. Jesus got baptized before starting his public ministry, and there's a great significance of obedience and the testimony of who God is in your life through the baptism. I remember before getting nurtured in a body of believers in the church, I was praying in my room, and I was receiving God and having this transformation in my life, and I received the word from the Holy Spirit. I was praying to Him, Lord, I want to get into deeper waters, I want to get into deeper waters. And at that moment, I didn't have the realization or the revelation of why should I get baptized. And He told me, get baptized. And the next day, we were serving with a group of friends, and someone, hey, we're going to be baptizing in CCI, and he didn't want, he wasn't inviting me, and I told him, please, check me then, I need to get baptized. And he went, okay, that's great, that's good news. So, number three, connect to a body of believers. And at one point, I shared this years ago, God is not going to choose lone rangers. You need to connect to a body of believers, this meaning that you need discipleship and accountability in your life. And the last step, the last point that I could get to think of, and God brought in is worship and wait for the promise. When we read in Acts chapter 2, they were in the upper room, a prayer room. And I'm going to close with this, no, one more scripture to close, I'm going to read this. And in Acts chapter 2, verse 1 and 2, it says, When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. They were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly, there came a sound from heaven and a thrashing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Just simply worship and wait for the promise. As the worship team comes, and I'm going to close with this scripture, we know that once we are filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit, we're available to walk in the Spirit and we have our helper. And the Lord brought this warning that even if we're serving, even if we're bringing a message, even if we're working or everything that we're doing in our lives, if the Holy Spirit is not guiding us, we're working in vain. If Jesus doesn't build the house, in vain we're working. A tree is known by its fruits. A person filled with the Spirit will show the fruits that are in him. And if you think of a tree, the fruits of that tree are not for that tree to consume themselves, it's to others to multiply. So in that same way, in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22 to 25, it says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, lung suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for revealing this Word to us this day, Lord. Father, at this point, if there's something in our lives that is not permitting us to go into deeper waters or to walk in the Spirit, Lord, we bring all this to you, God. Father, you're taking us to a new level every time. Father, we don't want to stay in the same place always with you in your... while we serve you, while we come to church, Lord. We don't want to stay, the first word that comes to mind, frozen and not moving and not walking, Lord. Father, I pray that this day, through this message, through your Word, Father, that every person in this auditorium, Father, may start walking in the Spirit, Father, and you will bring growth, you will bring multiplication, Lord. You will take out any, Father, condemnation in their lives, Lord, but we're going to start walking in the Spirit, God. Thank you, Lord, for this day. Thank you for your Word. Thank you for your love. And thank you for your presence. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. If you are ever in the Tegucigalpa area and looking for an English-speaking congregation, please join us on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. in the main auditorium of Iglesia CCI in Colonial Trevichi, just off Boulevard Suyama, near Puna. If you'd like prayer or more information about our church, contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com. That's fellowship.cci at gmail.com. Or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings. Amen.
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