Romans 6, 7 & 8 part 11

"5For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." Romans 8:5

Imagine you want to get fit. And set before you are two choices you can either get a book on exercise or hire a personal trainer. If we have our mind on the spirit, we will be like one who has a personal trainer, rather than one who has a fitness rulebook. The Law is like a fitness book.
The mistake we make is to say that we live in obedience to God’s word, rather than to His spirit.
That doesn’t diminish the word.

It is like our personal trainer tells us something and we check it out in the fitness rulebook because we are not confident that we heard right. The difference is that the personal trainer establishes our program and not us. Instead of us reading the rule book and saying, "Today I will do press ups." Having the book doesn't make us an expert. Jesus said about the blind leading the blind and about removing the plank from our own eye before removing the speck from someone else's. We can have the book and we can study it, but that still doesn't make us the expert. In the same way that you can join a climbing club, listen to all the lectures and buy all the kit but never have been on a mountain. You could study the city sewage system and know it backwards, but have never been there. Simply having the book doesn't make us the expert. The Holy Spirit is the expert. If we claim to have experienced what the word says without experiencing the leading of the Spirit, then we are deceiving ourselves because the word talks about the leading of the Holy Spirit!

Now, we listen to the trainer and when he says, "Do press-ups," we look in the book and make sure press-ups are a good exercise and that we are doing them right. In exercise, we know that things that used to be thought of as good now aren’t! So it is useful to make sure that we are hearing the Spirit and not just our wishful thinking or even the devil trying to trick us.

There are lots of people who have gone astray through following the spirit, and not making sure they are grounded in the word. However, I have seen some of these brought back. God is able to look after his own. The protection against this is not to ignore the spirit because there is equal danger in thinking we understand God’s word! I have heard several great bible teachers all expound on the same verses and say completely different things.

Personally, I find that a lot of arrogance and "know it all"ness creeps in. But, for me, I would rather reject the idea that “I know” and trust in my ignorance depending on God to guide me and instruct me. By ignorance, I mean that if I have an exercise book and a personal trainer, I will not try and work out an exercise routine for myself!