In the foothills near my house, is a creek side trail.  I’ve hiked the trail dozens of times. One day while taking this familiar path, I noticed a sign I hadn’t seen before. The sign read: “No Trespassing”.

There I was on the wrong side of the fence, a law-breaker, a trespasser! I quickly turned around and have not been back since.

Lately, I have been thinking a bit about bad behavior.

Everyone behaves badly from time to time. We sin against one another. We speak rudely. We behave selfishly. We lie to one another. These are the “trespasses” Jesus commanded us to forgive one another of in Matthew 6:14-15.

Often times, these trespasses are occasional, isolated incidents. Maybe it wasn’t our intention to behave badly, we just reacted. We spoke without thinking. We failed to take our thoughts captive to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It’s wrong, it’s sin, but it’s not the regular pattern of our life. If we are spiritually mature, we will repent and move forward when the Holy Spirit brings our offense to light. This is a normative part of our sanctification.

There is a difference between trespassing once or twice and setting up a permanent home. 

In July 2012,  a man was arrested for building a home inside the Tujunga Ponds Wildlife Sanctuary near Los Angeles. This is extreme trespassing. The man had built a small camouflaged structure complete with a patio and barbecue and was living there for over a year before being discovered.

The frightening thing is that we can do the same thing spiritually. Our sin against others and against God can be protracted and prolonged rather than incidental. We’re not just trespassing, we’re camping out, moving in, building our home on the wrong side of the fence.

How can a Christian walk with God for many years, yet be marked by things like bitterness, pride, gossip, or pornography? The puzzling thing is when this same Christian (who in many ways appears and acts godly), seems genuinely oblivious to their sin.

Why do Christians behave like this? Why don’t they see what they are doing is wrong?

The simple answer is this: It’s a failure to walk by the Spirit.

In Galatians 5:16, it says: “…walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh…” .

There is this internal struggle going on in every Christian.
It’s in you.
It’s in me.
We want to please God but our flesh, our old nature wants to rule.

God doesn’t condemn us for this struggle. It’s just a reality that we will deal with this side of heaven. And so we are encouraged, exhorted and reminded to walk by the Spirit so we don’t walk in sin.

Whether I trespass once or have built my home on the wrong side of the fence –whether I sin for a moment or for a decade, it’s a failure to walk by the Spirit.

When I sin, I am operating out of my old nature. I’m living like my pre-Christian self.

So how do we walk by the Spirit anyways?

Colossians 3 captures this idea brilliantly.

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God… (Col 3:2-3)

The concept is simple: The day you first trusted in Christ was the day of your death. Don’t focus on the things of earth — you now belong to heaven. Have a funeral for your old life, and live in the new.

Walking in the Spirit is to live in our new reality. The reality of heaven.

It’s to have a mind focused on knowing Jesus, loving Him, obeying Him.

Colossians 3 goes on to say this:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord…(Col 3:16)

Where is your focus?
Where is your mind?
Are you spending time meditating on God’s word?
Is the word of God living inside your thoughts and actions?
Do you spend time each day, praising God and thanking Him and singing with grace in your heart to the Lord?

As we do these things — the word of Christ dwells richly in us.
And we find ourselves walking by the Spirit.

Yes we fail sometimes, yes we falter. But when we walk by the Spirit, we don’t remain there. We may go through life and realize we have been trespassing and quickly repent. But won’t be camping out in that place. We are sinners, but we won’t be characterized by it.

What if you are one who has camped out on the wrong side of the fence?

Repent, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out your fleshly desires.

It’s not a word of condemnation. It’s a word of liberation.

Set your mind on things above, on Christ. As you do, you will find yourself walking in victory and you will also find that the graveyard of your old life becomes less and less attractive.

Be free in Christ as you walk by the Spirit!