This is why Paul comes to the conclusion that we need to walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4). To walk is to have our being and our living with all that we say and do. Our living and our being with all that we say and do must be according to the spirit. We have to walk according to the spirit, according to the One who lives in us. This is the Christian walk. We have no more liberty. The Christian walk is not a matter of right or wrong and of loving or hating. It is a matter of walking according to the spirit. Only this life, this kind of walk, can be recorded in the heavens. Nothing else counts in the heavenly account. This is why the Lord said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing." What we do apart from Christ can never be recorded in the heavenly account. All the good things we do apart from Christ, regardless of how good they would be, are not a help to the church life.
The walk according to the spirit is for the church life. Only the persons who walk according to the spirit can be the proper members for the building up of a local church. If we do not have such a walk, sooner or later we will be a trouble to our local church. You may say, "I am for the church; I love the church so much." But you have to walk according to the spirit. If you do not walk according to the spirit, either you will go away or you will be a trouble in the church. No other life can build up the church life, but the life that walks according to the spirit. This walk saves us from all kinds of bugs, germs, troubles, dissensions, opinions, and concepts. This walk according to the spirit saves us to the uttermost, making us a profit to the building up of the church, not a trouble. There is only one life with one walk which fits in the building up of the local church. That life is Christ with the walk according to Him.
No doubt, we have an enemy in our flesh, but we do not need to fight against him. We have the Lord within us. We do not need to strive to fight against the enemy; nor do we need to strive to serve the Lord. We should do only one thing. Paul tells us clearly that this one thing is to walk according to the spirit. If we walk according to the spirit, the enemy can do nothing. The enemy is right in your flesh, so close to you, yet he can do nothing to touch you, because you are walking according to the spirit. This walking, spontaneously, is your worshipping, your serving, and your working for the Lord. The Christian life plus the church life is a life of walking according to the spirit. We have the flesh and in addition to this we have such a wonderful human spirit. Today our human spirit is regenerated, indwelt by Christ, by the Holy Spirit, and by God’s grace. We have such a wonderful human spirit for our application.
(The Flesh and the Spirit, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)