IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT

Each of us is told in the Scriptures to walk in step with the Holy Spirit. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25) The command is to be in step with the Spirit. It does not tell us to be in step with one another.

Because the Lord leads His children by the same Word and by the same Spirit, much of the time our individual paths will converge. At other times our paths will only be parallel. Sometimes, as the Lord takes each of us through our different lives with different sets of experiences, our paths will differ greatly. Yet, through all of it, His motive is the same. It is not to conform each of us to each other but to conform each of us to Christ. We do not become more like Christ by becoming like each other. Just as a hand and a foot are not the same and cannot best complete the body by becoming alike. Each part in its difference is equally important in form and function and each best serves the well-being and wholeness of the body because of those differences.

When believers in Christ hold in common conviction the same core foundational beliefs, conduct their individual lives by the same Scriptures, and walk in step with the same Spirit, they are part of the Body. They are part then, too, of one another whether or not they attend the same church fellowship. 

-- Susan Kemenyas

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