Bible League: Living His Word "The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."Since we have been given the power of rational thought by the Lord, we try to understand things. We try to grasp and comprehend things rationally. Since we are mere creatures, however, there are limits to our rational capabilities. There are things that are beyond what we can understand. The comings and goings of the Spirit of God is one of the things that are beyond human comprehension. God is the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth who "lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen him, nor ever will" (I Timothy 6:16). You can't, therefore, get close enough to the Lord to rationally analyze and comprehend Him or His Spirit. From within that brilliant light the Lord makes His decisions to send forth the Spirit in accordance with His sovereign will, not in accordance with any rational expectations or predictions we may come up with. And that's why you can't rationally predict who will be born of the Spirit and who will not. It's a sovereign decision made by the Lord God. And that's also why you can't predict where the Spirit of God will take a person in life. That's also a sovereign decision of the Lord God. The Spirit of God enters and directs a person's life and no one can rationally explain it. None of this, however, means that we can't see and understand the effects of the Spirit's work in our lives. Jesus' analogy between the wind and the Spirit in our verse for today is helpful here. The movement of the Spirit is like the wind in that you can't tell where it comes from and where it is going, but you can certainly see and understand the Spirit's effects just as you can see the wind's effects. Spiritually discerning people will know this. That is, people whose rational capabilities have been enlightened by faith born of the Spirit of God will recognize the effects of the Spirit. They will see and understand that the Spirit has been at work. The Spirit is at work in us. We can't explain it or control it. But we can spiritually discern it and respond accordingly. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingHabakkuk Habakkuk 1 -- The Oracle to Habakkuk: Habakkuk's Complaints, Chaldeans Used to Punish Judah NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Habakkuk 2 -- God Answers that Habakkuk Must Wait by Faith; The Judgment upon the Chaldeans NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Habakkuk 3 -- Habakkuk, in his prayer, trembles at God's majesty; God's Deliverance NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Revelation 14 Revelation 14 -- The Lamb and the 144,000; The Three Angels; The Reapers NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.Insight Some people, well aware of their abilities, believe that they have the right to use their abilities as they please. Others feel that they have no special talents at all. Peter addresses both groups in these verses. Challenge Everyone has some gifts; find yours and use them. All our abilities should be used in serving others; none are for our own exclusive enjoyment. Peter mentions speaking and serving. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Psalm 74:16 The night also is thine.Yes, Lord, thou dost not abdicate thy throne when the sun goeth down, nor dost thou leave the world all through these long wintry nights to be the prey of evil; thine eyes watch us as the stars, and thine arms surround us as the zodiac belts the sky. The dews of kindly sleep and all the influences of the moon are in thy hand, and the alarms and solemnities of night are equally with thee. This is very sweet to me when watching through the midnight hours, or tossing to and fro in anguish. There are precious fruits put forth by the moon as well as by the sun: may my Lord make me to be a favored partaker in them. The night of affliction is as much under the arrangement and control of the Lord of Love as the bright summer days when all is bliss. Jesus is in the tempest. His love wraps the night about itself as a mantle, but to the eye of faith the sable robe is scarce a disguise. From the first watch of the night even unto the break of day the eternal Watcher observes his saints, and overrules the shades and dews of midnight for his people's highest good. We believe in no rival deities of good and evil contending for the mastery, but we hear the voice of Jehovah saying, "I create light and I create darkness; I, the Lord, do all these things." Gloomy seasons of religious indifference and social sin are not exempted from the divine purpose. When the altars of truth are defiled, and the ways of God forsaken, the Lord's servants weep with bitter sorrow, but they may not despair, for the darkest eras are governed by the Lord, and shall come to their end at his bidding. What may seem defeat to us may be victory to him. "Though enwrapt in gloomy night, We perceive no ray of light; Since the Lord himself is here, 'Tis not meet that we should fear." Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 John 5:11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.John 5:26,21 "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; • "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. John 11:25,26 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, • and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 10:11,17,18 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. • "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. • "No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. Colossians 3:3,4 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. • When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. 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