Spirit Words

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

SPIRIT WORDS

Luke 1:39-45

39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"

NIV

This is just the beginning of the world reacting to the presence of the Lord. We do not know exactly how soon Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea after her visit from Gabriel. Although Luke does not give us any details about this trip Mary took, we would believe she did not travel alone, after all, she is a young woman, perhaps no older than a teen, and is pregnant. Again, Luke does not tell us exactly how pregnant Mary was at the time she arrived at Zechariah’s house, however, we know that Jesus was in Mary’s womb, because of the response of John within the womb of Elizabeth and the presence of the Holy Spirit as he filled Elizabeth. What is interesting is what Elizabeth said because of being filled with the Spirit. We know the Spirit only speaks the truth, and in this case, the Spirit knows full well who was present in the room, for from before time began, there was the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, who decided to make man in their image. The Spirit was there, as it had been decided before the foundation of the earth when Jesus left heaven to be born of a woman in the form of man. We know the words of Elizabeth were prophetic, but the point is the Spirit gave her those words. Here is where we pick up our story, some thousand years later with the Spirit still being the presence of God within us, prompted our words regarding the truth of God. Without the prompting of the Spirit, we would believe our words would be useless chatter without meaning or substance. Of course, we must engage in our daily activities and conversations needed to accomplish the business at hand, but should we not be always walking with the Spirit, keeping in step with the cadence of the Spirit? Would that not mean all our words would have some evidence of the Holy Spirit within us? Yet, it seems we still engage in useless and meaningless, mundane chatter about the things of this world. Would it not be better, especially when we are in the presence of fellow believers to speak to each other in hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs, as Paul warns the Ephesians to be careful how they live, which was not being filled with wine, the meaningless things of the world, but be filled with the Spirit, the meaningful things of God, marking music in our hearts, always giving thanks to God for everything in the name of our Lord, Jesus  Christ. Does this mean we should not enjoy some fun, or entertainment in life? We think not, but at the same time, we should always be aware of the Spirit among us, and within us, so that we would not want to be offensive to Him, ignoring His prompting of our words. Again, when we speak from our own selfish thoughts, things can go very badly, but when we speak from our hearts filled with the Spirit, then we build each other up, encouraging each other in every aspect of life, our walk with the Spirit, because we would be speaking Spirit words.