Stages Discipleship for Disciples

Walk in the Spirit Red – Answer Questions | Blue – Read Scripture Our new life now is a spiritual journey with a companion, the Holy Spirit. He’s our Disciple Maker, the Guide assigned to make us like Jesus. Walking in the Spirit describes how we move forward spiritually. (Personalize this with experiences you’ve had, learning to keep in step with the Spirit.)

Connecting to the Spirit There’s a spectrum of ways we interact with the Spirit.

• Be birthed in the Spirit. Jesus told the scholar Nicodemus he needed to be born of the Spirit. (John 3:5) When we’re born physically, we became a flesh person. In spiritual birth we became “a brand-new kind of person.

Jesus didn’t say being born again equals getting the Holy Spirit. He said it equaled becoming spirit.” (David Needham) (Discuss the implications, being spirit now as well as flesh.)

• Don’t resist the Spirit (Acts 7:51). Stephen accused his enemies of this before they killed him. It happens when people blockade themselves against the truth about Jesus.

• Don’t grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). Grief is an emotion rooted in love.

The Spirit grieves when we go rogue on God, indulging the lust of the flesh… eyes… boastful pride of life (1 John 2:16).

• Don’t quench the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). The Spirit generates passion for God, setting us on fire spiritually. Water dampens a fire; sins do the same to the Spirit. (Give examples) • Be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). We’re leaky containers; we constantly need refilling.

• Walk in/by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-18). Walking is a series of controlled falls; we catch ourselves in time. It’s risky. Same with our walk in the Spirit.

(Ever watch preschoolers learn to walk? They hang on someone, take a tentative step, fall down and cry. Then they try again. And again. How does it pertain to learning to walk in the Spirit? It should encourage us! Share your experience.)

Being Filled with/Walking in the Spirit Being filled with the Spirit compares to drinking alcohol. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit … (Ephesians 5:18) Alcohol influence is a matter of degrees. At some point it takes control if we indulge. Same with the Spirit, there’s degrees of saturation. (Don’t be uncomfortable with an alcohol analogy; it’s biblical. Compare someone mildly 97