Daily Devotion with Pastor Tong Liu: Today's Passage

2 Corinthians 2:12-16

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

This passage says that "we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God." By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit revealed the wisdom of God to us; therefore, a truly spiritual person can never be proud of himself since he would know that the revelation and wisdom he received is completely from God's grace and mercy. Today, as you and us receive God's wisdom, we must keep in mind that we don't truly deserve it, for we are simply given God's grace; we have nothing to boast about and we just need to receive the revelation from the Holy Spirit by faith.

Holy Spirit can reveal God's wisdom to us so that we would have the heart of Christ, and only the Holy Spirit can give us such revelation. Church often wants to figure out a way to be more like Christ and to better understand His will. We end up with lots of good will and positive intentions, but neither can accomplish the will of God and they might even lead us to spiritual death because of the absence of the compassion of Jesus Christ. Church needs the revelation of the Holy Spirit in order to become alive again before God; therefore, we must understand what God wants to do in any given minute so that we may accomplish His will with the compassion of Jesus Christ.

"The spiritual man makes judgments about all things," and he can foresee that the world and all things of the world will come to an end. Without such vision, we'd only be busy everyday going about our own business and pursuing things of the world. Only those who entered into light can understand the miserable circumstance of those who are still in the darkness. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes and reveal to us, and let us see that the world and all things of the world will come to an end, and our hearts need to focus solely on the Jesus Christ.

Pray with Pastor Tong

Lord, we thank you because we can only have compassion of Jesus Christ and understand all things when the Holy Spirit enlighten us and reveals to us. May the Spirit of the Lord enlighten us and come into our hearts today, so that we may be filled with the wisdom of God in our daily lives. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!