Bible Reading: Ephesians 3:14-19
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. Ephesians 3:16
Do you think of yourself as a disciple? “Not me,” you might answer. “It’s too cold where I live to wear sandals. I gag at the smell of fish. And wearing bathrobes all day long is really out of style where we live.”
Know it or not, if you have chosen to follow Christ, you already are a modern-day disciple. It has nothing to do with wearing flip-flops or a bathrobe. It’s all about letting God work in and through you just like he’s worked in and through his disciples for the past two thousand years.
There’s a lot to learn about being a disciple. What is lesson number one? It’s discovering exactly how God works in you by his Spirit.
When you became a Christian, God’s Spirit entered your life (check that out in Romans 8:9 and 1 Corinthians 3:16). How? Because the Holy Spirit is God, he is omnipresent. That means he can be everywhere at once. But being all-present isn’t merely like having a McDonald’s on every corner. God comes and lives inside you and every other Christian around the world at the same time.
And the Holy Spirit living in us is how God remakes our life.
• He teaches us how to understand the Bible (see John 14:26).
• He makes us courageous and puts the words in our mouth that we need in order to share Christ with others (see Acts 1:8).
• He builds in us the qualities that make each of us a winner in our relationship with God and others. Those qualities—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—are so much a sign of the Spirit’s work that the Bible calls them “the fruit of the Spirit” (see Galatians 5:22-23).
So will you feel different when you’re overflowing with God’s Spirit? Not necessarily. Being filled with the Spirit isn’t so much about feelings as it is about facts. God fills you because he promised in his Word that he would. That’s a fact! Feelings come and go. The biggest signs of God’s control in your life are the power and fruit of the Spirit you experience.
And count on this: As God strengthens you through his Spirit in your inner being, you’ll get the power you need to live your Christian faith from God’s Spirit.
TALK: How do you feel about the fact that God wants to come and fill you up with his Spirit? Is that a cool power source or what?
PRAY: Pray today for the Spirit’s power in your life.
ACT: Ask a mature Christian how the Holy Spirit can work in your daily life and faith.
