How do you get started? Well you can wait for circumstances. Or you could read the Word and get direction. You could also pray and get revelation.

How do you maintain it? I will tell you now you will need help. But we have help, because we have the power of the Holy Spirit.

Every fruit of the Holy Spirit gives you abilities. There is love, joy, peace and patience. Do you know what patience means? The actual Greek word there means endurance.

The power of love will help you to overcome all your fears. Joy will give you strength, because the Bible says,

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

And when you have peace in your heart you will not be moved. When you have patience you will endure and keep at it.

You need the help of the Holy Spirit, so you need to tap into the Holy Spirit if you ever hope to succeed in this.

You might feel very motivated after reading this section. You may feel very charged up and think,

"This is the day that turns my life around! From now on things will be different."

That is until tomorrow comes, because when you wake up that feeling has gone. And next week you have forgotten about everything you learned here. Hey, I even forget what I have taught.

You Can Walk in the Spirit

You will need the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to remind you. So you need to learn to tap into the Spirit daily and do what the Bible calls walking in the Spirit.

A lot of people seem to think that walking in the Spirit means to live without sin. We try so hard and we fail all the time. But actually walking in the Spirit is far simpler than that. It simply means following the voice or the leading of the Holy Spirit.

How do you move from where you are to walking in the Spirit? I'm going to give you a very simple method that you won't forget.

Right now you are breathing in and out without even thinking about it. If you stopped doing that you would die. So now, with an act of your will, breathe out. Is that difficult? Now breathe in. That is sometimes a bit more difficult but you can do it.

Now I want you to take all those bad habits and everything you want to get rid of and breathe them out. Just push them away and say,

"There you go. I don't want you anymore."

Then as you breathe in, I want you to imagine that as you are breathing in, the Holy Spirit is coming into you, filling you up just like your lungs get filled up with air. He is now inside of you and He is taking control.

All you do now is invite Him to start living through you. It is as easy as breathing and can take seconds. Just say,

"Father, in the name of Jesus, I choose to give up and let go of all the bad things. I let go of all the bad habits and the things that are stealing the blessing from me.

Holy Spirit I invite you now to come in and to take control, and I am ready to listen to you."

The next step you take you are walking in the Spirit. You can do this often during the day. As soon as you get stressed and things get tough, just stop. Breathe out those cares and fears. Then just breathe in the Holy Spirit and say,

"I am handing over to you now because I can't do this. I'm inviting you to take control."

Next ask yourself,

"What would Jesus do?"

Then let Him do it through you. You start off small and you build up to something big.

A study from the book of Ephesians reveals that there are three main words that are used.

The late great teacher Watchman Nee has a book called Sit, Walk, Stand which is based on the book of Ephesians. He shows that we have to start our spiritual lives seated. Then we begin to walk, and only then can we begin to stand against the onslaughts that come against us.

Start in the sitting position and begin by examining yourself. I have actually taught on this. Go and review all the stuff I have taught about setting your goals and all those things.

Lay it all out in your mind. Go and make that list of all your abilities and your bad habits. Get to the place where you have it fully formulated before you take a step.

As you sit there, receive the Holy Spirit. And now you begin to walk. You don't walk the way we normally walk spiritually because the sitting part remains. You walk seated.

Maybe you are in a wheelchair. I know that is a dumb illustration. But the point is you are going forward retaining your confidence and your position of knowing who you are.

Start Small

Don't ever be moved from that or you will lose it. You start slowly and you add to it. You might say to me,

"I am going to lose weight. I'm going to go on a diet. Let's see which diet I can try."

There are hundreds of diets out there. Pick one of them. But nobody has ever lost weight permanently on a diet. No you will have to change your diet. You will have to change what you eat, how you eat and when you eat.

Let me tell you how you will change it. You are not going to be foolish like so many of us have been by saying,

"I'm not going to eat this anymore. I'm not eating that or that anymore. I'm just going to eat healthy, fresh stuff from now on."

I went on the raw food diet once. I decided I was not going to eat cooked food anymore. I was quite bold, and it did me great for the plus/minus six weeks I managed it for. But I tell you that juicy steak looked so good.

No, start via the process of getting rid of old habits and adding new ones. The best way to do it is not to get rid of the old habit first. Just leave it right where it is. You are comfortable with it and you don't have to work on it.

Rather start working on the new habit first. So if your diet is bad, don't stop eating what you eat. Just start adding in some new things that are healthy for you. Over time those new things will begin to replace the others and they will fall away automatically.

If you are physically unfit, don't go out there and sign up for a gym. They always want you to commit to a 24 month contract. You will waste your money, because you are going to go for a week and then it will be over.

Start by adding one additional activity. You can park your car further away from the building and walk a longer distance every day. Just add one extra activity that will increase your physical fitness and build it up slowly. Start with the pluses, not with the minuses.

Put in one extra hour of work; maybe one extra hour of prayer. Or maybe you can put in one extra hour in the Word. Start small until it becomes a habit.

Psychologists say that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Some people say it takes 30 days to form a new habit. I think it is all baloney. It has never worked for me and I've tried. You will need the Holy Spirit to help you with this.

You will have to come to the place of feeling comfortable with this. You will have to get to the place where you do it without thinking anymore or without anybody telling you to do it.

Ask for the Lord's help or ask somebody else to help you. Ask them to remind you and do whatever it takes, but start changing your habits in the small things. Jesus said,

"He who is faithful in the small things becomes faithful in the big things."

So start where you are. Each one of you is in a different position. Each one has different gifts and abilities. So start where you are, then sit until you are ready to start walking.

Get into the Spirit and walk. Let the Holy Spirit lead you and your life will get turned around. And you will start practically experiencing all those things that you reached out and received through faith from the Lord.

Ending Prayer

"Father I thank you for your Word. I pray that it will find a resting place in the hearts of those who read it. I pray that we will be challenged and motivated, and that new desires will arise that will be fanned by the flame of your Spirit.

Holy Spirit I ask you to take these words and bring conviction to your people. Stir them up Lord. Motivate them and empower them to become all that you designed us to be.

Lord, help them to recover everything that you bought back for us on the cross of Calvary. Let them stop giving all the blessings that you have for us to the devil and his crowd.

I ask you for abundance of health, abundance of prosperity and abundance of good relationships. I ask you for true happiness and fulfillment in this life for each person who reads this teaching. And I thank you for it now in Jesus' name. Amen."