Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” Ephesians 4:30. 

You can be upset and so can be the Holy Spirit. Certain things make you sad and there are things that make the Spirit of God sad. They are mentioned in the last verses of the fourth chapter to Ephesians. Our relationship with God is not some legal stuff. It is alive! There are emotions involved. You can rejoice in Him and He can rejoice about you. Both you and He can feel every positive emotion in your relationship. Negative emotions can also creep in if sin creeps in. Let’s us choose to make our Lord glad every single day. Amen.

Controlling What You Speak

“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” Ephesians 4:29. 

Words carry power. If they are charged with energy: good or bad. If your heart is full of hatred, contempt, envy and etc. your words will have destroying influence on those to whom you speak. Therefore, the Word of God teaches us to carefully choose what comes out of our mouths. We are also taught to protect our hearts because the source of life is there. We are to speak things that bring blessing, joy, love, peace and everything that is Christ like. Speaking that way will not only produce those good things in lives of listeners, but also ours as we reap what we sow in others.

Do Not Give Place to the Devil

“…nor give place to the devil…” Ephesians 4:27. 

For some Satan is a mystical character from fables, fairy tales or legends. He maybe, but he is surely more than that. He is a real fallen spirit that is fighting anything that is Godlike, opposes those that follow Christ and has evil purposes for humanity intending to drag all of us with him to hell. That might sound scary, but it should not. God gave us power of the rebellious spirit and if we command him to flee, he must flee. He has no choice. There is power in the name of Jesus. Use it, to defeat the enemy of our souls.

Put on the New Man

“…and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” Ephesians 4:23-24. 

When you put off the old man you have to do one more thing: to put on the new one. You cannot just do one without the other. Both actions have to take place. We are not rejecting evil, we also do good. Transformation into a completely different personality (in terms of your nature, character, and habits) has to take place. It happens when we change the way we think. Then other changes follow automatically: way of speaking, habits, actions and lifestyle. But we have to do it. We cannot leave an empty place in our lives after we cast out evil. We have to inhabit good! Christ and the values of His Kingdom is that new man. That person has to start living inside of us.

Putting Off Old Man

“…that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts...“ Ephesians 4:22.

Bible talks about two natures: carnal and spiritual, old and new. All of us have both. Any Christian should start his journey with Christ by putting off his/her old nature. That includes rejecting old way of thinking, habits, way of speaking and behavior. Your attitude should also change. There has to come an understanding that the way you were was not good. Our lifestyles separated us from God. The first step to undo this (after you receive Jesus as your Savior) is to throw away things that are foreign in the kingdom of God.

We will talk about second step tomorrow.

Do Not Live Like Gentiles

„This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind...“ Ephesians 4:17. 

When we convert to Christ our lifestyle has to change. How? By the change of our way of thinking! Bible clearly states here that Gentiles live the way they live, because of they think in a certain way. Absence of God in life and mind causes one to chase futile things that do not have everlasting value. We have eternity in our hearts and therefore, should not be motivated by things that will not have any significance in the kingdom of Heaven when it comes.