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 Luke 14:10 Friend, go up higher.When first the life of grace begins in the soul, we do indeed draw near to God, but it is with great fear and trembling. The soul conscious of guilt, and humbled thereby, is overawed with the solemnity of its position; it is cast to the earth by a sense of the grandeur of Jehovah, in whose presence it stands. With unfeigned bashfulness it takes the lowest room. But, in after life, as the Christian grows in grace, although he will never forget the solemnity of his position, and will never lose that holy awe which must encompass a gracious man when he is in the presence of the God who can create or can destroy; yet his fear has all its terror taken out of it; it becomes a holy reverence, and no more an overshadowing dread. He is called up higher, to greater access to God in Christ Jesus. Then the man of God, walking amid the splendours of Deity, and veiling his face like the glorious cherubim, with those twin wings, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, will, reverent and bowed in spirit, approach the throne; and seeing there a God of love, of goodness, and of mercy, he will realize rather the covenant character of God than his absolute Deity. He will see in God rather his goodness than his greatness, and more of his love than of his majesty. Then will the soul, bowing still as humbly as aforetime, enjoy a more sacred liberty of intercession; for while prostrate before the glory of the Infinite God, it will be sustained by the refreshing consciousness of being in the presence of boundless mercy and infinite love, and by the realization of acceptance "in the Beloved." Thus the believer is bidden to come up higher, and is enabled to exercise the privilege of rejoicing in God, and drawing near to him in holy confidence, saying, "Abba, Father." "So may we go from strength to strength, And daily grow in grace, Till in thine image raised at length, We see thee face to face." Daily Light on the Daily Path Isaiah 27:5 "Or let him rely on My protection, Let him make peace with Me, Let him make peace with Me."Jeremiah 29:11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Isaiah 48:22 "There is no peace for the wicked," says the LORD. Ephesians 2:13,14 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. • For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, Colossians 1:19,20 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, • and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Romans 3:24-26 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; • whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; • for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Isaiah 26:4 "Trust in the LORD forever, For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock. 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. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
Click for Video Devotionals     |