God Is Greater

Scripture: 1 John 4:4-6 (Click link for scripture in Bible Gateway) 4 Little children, you can be certain that you belong to God and have conquered them, for the One who is living in you is far greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They belong to this world and they articulate the spirit of this world, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and whoever truly knows God listens to us. Those who refuse to listen to us do not belong to God. That is how we can know the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit. (1 John 4:4-6 TPT) You can be certain that you belong to God and you have conquered them. (John is referring to the false teachers and false prophets he warned about in yesterday’s reading from 1 John 4:1-3.) We can be sure of two things: 1) We belong to God. We belong to God because when we received forgiveness of sins through simple faith in Jesus Christ, a new birth occurred and God’s Spirit came to live inside us. The Holy Spirit lives inside us, not because we’re keeping religious rules, and not because we feel “spiritual” at any given time, but because a very real thing happened at the new birth. The Spirit became as real in us as the breath we breathe in and out (about 16 breaths per minute, about 960 breaths an hour, about 23,040 breaths a day! All happening whether we’re conscious of it or not!). As new-birth, Spirit-inhabited people, we can learn to be more conscious of the Spirit within; more aware, more attentive, and more responsive. Let’s do that!
2) We have conquered the false teachers and false prophets! We don’t conquer by engaging them in debate, nor by hating and berating them, but by responding to the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth living in us. When we listen to God’s Spirit, we defeat the antichrists because their mission to deceive us has failed. Let’s do that! Dear Children, some people will listen to them and believe them. They belong to this world, they speak from the inspiration of the spirit of this world, and the people of this world listen to them. And some people will listen to the Truth. We belong to God, we speak from the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the spirit of heaven’s kingdom, and those who know God listen to us. There are two spirit sources: The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Deceit. We are of the Truth and lies and deceit have no place in us. Let’s keep it that way! Prayer:

Father, Thank you that your Spirit in us is greater than the spirit in the world. Help us to be more aware of and more responsive to your Spirit. Help us to love the Truth and reject the Lies. May we ever be followers of the Way, the Truth, and the Life! Amen.