Just as you were saved by faith you must live by faith;
that is what is meant in Romans 1:17 when Paul says
Romans 1:1617
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.
Be obedient to God
The concept is found in the Bible in the following kind of verse:
Ephesians 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
When you are full of wine the wine controls you. When you are filled with the Spirit the Spirit controls you.
Ephesians 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
Dissipation means: to spend or use wastefully or to indulge in extravagant or intemperate pleasure. Intemperate means: showing a lack of self-control.
Romans 6:1113
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Romans 8:24
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:1213
12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Galatians 5:1623
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Ephesians 4:2224
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Colossians 2:110
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of Gods mystery, that is, Christ Himself,
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.
5 For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.
6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;
1 Peter 1:1416
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
16 because it is written, YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.
1 John 1:47
4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 3:59
5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Major Ian Thomas (13 September 1914 1 August 2007) was a Christian evangelical
writer, theological teacher, and founder of the Torchbearers Bible schools. He gave us the Three-Fold Interlock of Faith as follows:
Merriam-Webster defines dependent as: “determined or conditioned by another”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dependent
Some critics of Christianity say people use Christianity as a crutch. Well, Christianity is not a crutch. I would like to correct them. True Christianity is not a crutch, it is a total body cast. If you are truly born-again then you need to strive for a 24-hour complete dependence upon Jesus Christ.
I found the three-fold interlock of faith helpful, but I wondered what starts the process and is there anything I can do to help it start or progress in my life? Then the Holy Spirit impressed upon me more meaning regarding Ephesians 3:19
Ephesians 3:19
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
That is when I added a box to the three-fold interlock of faith to get the four-fold interlock of faith.
The Four-Fold Interlock of a Life of Faith addresses the issue of: How to walk in the Spirit.
If you want to walk in the Spirit to be obedient to God then please understand that the first step is to realize God's unconditional love for you, in Jesus Christ.
If you keep in mind that God is love (1 John 4:8) and read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 you will learn a great deal about how God loves you if you are a born-again Christian:
1 John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 Corinthians 13:48
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness
The Law doesnt teach us to say no to ungodliness, Grace does:
Titus 2:1112
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
Galatians 5:2224
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
2 Peter 1:34
3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
What is the power of sin?
The Law is the power of sin.
1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
Number one thing to do to walk in the Spirit
The more you learn about the love of Christ which is Gods grace the more you will walk in the Spirit.
Ephesians 3:1619
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
You need to learn more and more about Christs love for you. In doing so you will be filled with the Spirit and as a result you will be controlled by the Spirit; you will therefore walk in the Spirit.