Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
1 John 4:1-6 NIV
On Denying the Incarnation
4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
What difference does it make that Jesus was truly human and truly divine?
It is so important to realize that Jesus was truly human and truly divine because He can identify with the shortcomings we humans have and yet His divinity allowed him to not be taken down by them. It is reassuring to know that He has felt our pain.
Dear God, I thank you for your great love for me and I am so grateful for your precious Holy Spirit so available to me all the time. How blessed I am that you know at the deepest level the struggles I go through because you humbled yourself to become human and endured pain and suffering. You had family and friends so you understand that dynamic, you worked alongside other people and you understand relationships. You were both scorned and loved. You could have had everything but you chose poverty, showing me how to be okay in all circumstances because you are my strength, my protector, my shield, and my redeemer. Lord, I pray to always lean on you and Your Spirit working in me to test all things that might try to take me away from you and your truth. I want to always lean not on my own understanding but to trust in You with my whole heart and You will make my path straight. You are the great waymaker!!
Today’s prayer submitted by Jo Schneider