Bible
Study: 1st Corinthians 2, 10 to 16 and Luke 4, 31 to 37.
Yesterday,
St. Paul tells the Corinthians that the secret of his success as a preacher was
not due to his natural intelligence or human wisdom but by the special
intervention of the Spirit of God working in him. Today he goes further to
explain to us how this Spirit of God works in human beings. The spirit is like
a sixth sense or an extra set of eyes which enables us to penetrate deep
realities and see things far beyond the sight of ordinary people. The spirit
helps us to understand what God is thinking, different from what the world is
thinking. When we are under the influence of the Spirit, we are able to talk
with words that human wisdom cannot provide, words that no one amount of
training and university degrees can supply.
A person
who lacks the Holy Spirit cannot comprehend holy things. He simply laughs at
things we would consider serious and he seeks only rational explanation to
events which actually have deep spiritual connotations. For instance, when
Jesus was talking about having to suffer, be beaten and die on the cross, it
sounded very stupid to Peter because Peter was still in the natural, he had not
yet received the Spirit. No wonder, Jesus said: “Get Behind me Satan.” This is
a good way to speak to a person who is not spiritually inclined.
Nonetheless,
there are different kinds of spiritual possession. One can be possessed with
the Spirit of God or with the Spirit of Satan. In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus
encountered a man who was possessed by an unclean demon right inside the
Synagogue.
What has
light and darkness got to do with each other? What brought a man possessed by
the spirit of Satan into the House of God? The truth is that today, there are
many Christians who come to Church but are heavily possessed by demonic
spirits. Their mission is to direct the Children of God away from God. Their
mission is to win friends with God’s children and lure them into the satanic
trap of sinfulness. They operate by causing distraction either through their
sensual dressing or by making noise and running commentary inside the Church.
The
possessed man was in the synagogue to disturb and when he saw Jesus, he
immediately become terrible uncomfortable. The more we live above sin and grow
in our spiritual life, the greater threats we become to persons possessed by
demons. By merely seeing us alone, they begin to cringe and run for hiding. We
would be cowards if we go about being scared to death of demons. They should be
the one scared of us! But the question is: “What type of Spirit do I possess?”
Let Us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, send down your Spirit on me. Give me a deeper understanding of things
spiritual and power to overpower demonic forces. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you.
Fr. Abu
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