That people think walking after the Spirit is hard means their flesh is alive and strong.
If you are confused about what it means to walk after the Spirit, it means you are not familiar with it. This need not be so.
Think of “flesh” as yourself without God. The Spirit is God.
When you hear the gospel of your salvation and trust it, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13). Then, as you grow in right understanding of the Bible, you are learning from the Spirit’s words and strengthening your own spirit to stand in the truth (Col 1:9-10). You must learn to stand before you can walk.
Walking after the Spirit is walking by faith in what God has done for you, made you, and given you. It is not walking by what “life gives you”, what you make of yourself, or what you have done or not done.
Walking in the Spirit means you have crucified the flesh with its lusts and affections and are following Christ in you and not yourself (Gal 5:24-25).
Walking after the flesh is you living without God; walking after the Spirit is you living with the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 8:1, 9).
If you are doing something that does not require the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are probably walking after your flesh. Do you think you can live without him? If not, you are walking after the Spirit.
Do you understand you can’t do anything without him? You might be on your way to being filled with the Spirit! (Eph 5:18)
People live and walk naturally. Living and walking spiritually should be natural, but it requires having faith, the Spirit, and knowledge of the truth. You can do it, one step and one day at a time.
Keep walking,
Justin “10,000 steps a day” Johnson