For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

— Romans 8:6

3 For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.

4 The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the flesh. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

5 overthrowing arguments, and every high thing lifting itself up against the knowledge of God, and taking captive every thought into the obedience of Christ

— 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him.

18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,

19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might

20 that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places

— Ephesians 1:17-20

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

If we allow fear to push the Spirit out of our faith, we reduce Him to a theory or a theology when He is supposed to be our daily breath. If we have chased manifestations and missed the Man Jesus, the One the Spirit always points to, because the Spirit isn’t here to entertain us. The Spirit is here to empower us, not to puff us up. He is here to send us out to minister Christ. He is not to build platforms, but to build alters.

If we are going to be the kind of church, the body of Christ, that reflects Jesus to a dying world, we can’t do it without the Spirit. If we’re going to love like Him, live like Him, give like Him, and resist sin like Him, we need the Holy Spirit not just a fill of service but to fill our lives. That means pausing to listen, obeying inconvenient nudges, making space for Him to speak and not rushing past Him, worshiping when we don’t feel like it, praying when no one‘s watching, and opening our Bible to expect Him to breeze on it.