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. And wearing bathrobes all day long is really out of style this year. Besides, I can’t drop out of school to follow Christ full-time.”

Know it or not, if you have chosen to follow Christ, you are a modern-day disci­ple. And the way God wants to work in and through you is just like how he has worked in and through his disciples for the past two thousand years.

Still, there’s a lot to learn about being a disciple. Lesson number one? Dis­covering exactly how God works in you by his Spirit.

The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit isn’t a thing or an it or a ghost but a living being and one of the members of the Trinity-God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit.

When you became a Christian, God’s Spirit entered your life (see Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16). How? Because the Holy Spirit is God, he is omnipresent. That means he can be everywhere at once. He can live in you and in other Christians around the world at the same time.

And it’s through the Holy Spirit living in you that God remakes your life. The Holy Spirit, for example, enables you to understand the Bible (see John 14:26). He gives you courage and the words you need to share Christ with others (see Acts 1:8). And he develops in you the qualities that make you a winner in your relationship with God and others. Those qualities-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control-are what the Bible calls “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23, NASB).

There’s another great thing the Holy Spirit does. When you trusted Christ, the Holy Spirit claimed and sealed you for God (see Ephesians 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:21­, 22). You belong to God now, and Satan has lost you forever. But while Satan no lon­ger owns you, he doesn’t stop trying to neutralize you as a Christian. He wants to de­molish your faith to the point that you are ineffective in serving God (see Ephesians 6:10-12).

How do you deal with Satan’s clever tactics to take you out? You can spot the answer in Paul’s prayer for young Christians. He asked God to strengthen each of them with power through his Spirit in their inner being (see Ephesians 3:16). The point is simple but radically deep: You get the strength to live your Christian faith from God’s Spirit.

REFLECT: What does the Holy Spirit have to do with your daily life and faith?

PRAY: Pray today to receive the Spirit’s strength.

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