We have received the Spirit of God

"Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God." (1 Corinthians 2:12)

As ambassadors of God our Lord and King, we have a uniquely new perspective on things. And we must take care to speak from that perspective and not the old perspective. We have received the Spirit of God. That Spirit gives us the unique capacity to understand God's revelation to us from his word, the Scriptures. That Spirit also enables us to understand all of life in a new and unique way. But we were, like all other people, formerly led only by the spirit of this world. We can easily fall back on that.

All day long we are surrounded by conversation and actions that are driven by the spirit of this world. We need to remind ourselves that we have the Spirit who is from God and strive to understand our unique circumstances in light of that Spirit. We need to speak and act according to the Spirit, not as people led by the spirit of the world.

1. Think of a conversation or situation in the past day or two where you simply acted the way those around you expected. How could the Spirit of God have influenced you differently?

2. How does the Spirit of God help you to understand things differently? Think of an example.

3. Think of a likely conversation or situation coming up today. What can you do to act under the influence of the Spirit of God?

-- Charlie