Paul says in Galatians 5, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” The flesh and Spirit desire contrary things. This is obvious as Paul first lists the “acts of the flesh” followed by the “fruit of the Spirit.” Also obvious is that nothing in the list of the acts of the flesh would ever be attributed to Jesus, while everything in the list of the fruit of the Spirit would. So anyone who apprentices themselves to Jesus — learning from him how to be like him — must learn to walk by the Spirit.

For many years as a Christian, I envisioned walking by the Spirit similar to riding a lazy river at a water park. I would passively sit in my inner tube and slowly drift, carried by the steady current of the lazy river. I would ask the Spirit to fill me and empower me to accomplish what he wanted. However, I learned the hard way that a passive approach to spiritual formation does not work. 

No one drifts into Christ’s likeness. 

Drifting does not address the patterns of brokenness, self-centeredness, and corruption habituated in our thoughts, feelings, bodies and relationships.

During the past several years, I have experienced far greater traction in my apprenticeship to Jesus when I started reading “walk by the Spirit” as “practice daily life in interactive cooperation with the Spirit”.

And the secret to interactive cooperation with the Spirit is an active, yet indirect approach to spiritual formation.

Just like a passive approach to spiritual formation does not work, neither does a direct approach. We’re not capable in our own resources and brokenness to naturally embody and exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. As I mentioned before, brokenness, self-centeredness, and corruption are infused into our thoughts, feelings, bodies and relationships. We don’t possess the will or strength to change this on our own. So the worst thing we can do is try to act lovingly, act joyfully, act peacefully, act patiently, etc. It’s just acting. That’s the direct approach. While it may give us a sense of success, it actually doesn’t go very far because it has only modified external behavior at best and hasn’t touched the real person on the inside.

The fruit of the Spirit, which is divine love, must come from a transformed inward life so that it naturally, easily, and routinely expresses itself through our body and relationships. In other words, we must be transformed. We must become the kind of person inwardly possessed by divine love so that it easily expresses itself outwardly. But transformation is not in our control. It is in God’s control and power. We can’t directly affect this. We cannot will love, joy, peace, or any of the other aspects of divine love into our lives. The Spirit of God must grow his fruit in us, in his power and time.

What is in our control is intentionally placing ourselves before God all of the time in every activity during every day. We do this through spiritual practices and relationships with humility and surrender to God. This is the active, yet indirect approach. It is interactive cooperation with the Spirit by opening up and surrendering ourselves and every aspect of our daily life to God. As we make space for God in everything we do, the moments of our daily lives become the soil for spiritual transformation.

Over time, these practices and relationships performed with humility and surrender build new habits throughout our daily lives. God uses these new habits to transform us from the inside-out. With time and the Spirit’s power, our entire person undergoes transformation: mind (our thoughts and feelings), heart (our will), body (our embodied habits and readiness to act), relationships (our family, friends, strangers, and even enemies), and soul (the untouchable integrating aspect of an entire flow of life that forms a whole person). Then our transformed character and experiences become embodied and naturally act through our body and relationships.