Walking in a Plastic Bag

I remember setting in a youth camp chapel service and heard the preacher talking about the Holy Spirit and how we should walk in the Spirit. It was a great lesson, but what really stuck out in my mind was his illustration. He grabbed a 30 gallon trash bag, unrolled it, opened it up, and got in it. He then pulled it up to his waist and made the statement that if he were to walk around in a trash bag everyone would notice. I thought, "O.k., interesting illustration, but how will you apply this?" Then he said that if we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh everyone would notice! Great application!

You see, if he were to really walk down town with that trash bag on and he inside it, it would affect everything about him. It would change the way he walked, the way he looked, how everyone looked at him, even the way he talked - it would become a topic of conversation. He would be able to testify about how walking in the trash bag changed his life.

Now, what if we, Christians, would walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, like everyone else? We too would walk different, look different, talk differently, have a different outlook on life, everything would be different in our lives and people would notice that we are different. We would be able to share with people how the Lord has changed our lives and Jesus would become a topic of conversation.

I am reminded of the passage: Galatians 5:16-25: "¹⁶ This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. ¹⁸ But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰ Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, ²¹ Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. ²⁴ And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

The world today is in desperate need of Christians to be walking in the Spirit and be as distinctively different as someone walking down the street in a trash bag.