Checking in..

Hello, Hello Gals!! How are you? I pray that you are getting as much out of our 2nd Chapter as I am! It has been ROUGH and TOUGH at times but I have came out of this week with such a knowledge of the Holy Spirit and how that the Spirit functions within the "temple of God", I can't wait to hear from you and hear your insights as to what we've been studying together! Let's get started..
We opened this week with a verse in:
 I Corinthians 3:16- Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
I had no idea the impact that verse would have on me over the last week...Before I went any further I went to my Inductive Study Bible to get some history on what was going on during that time. Back in Paul's days, the Corinthians were intriqued with Greek philosophy, disciplined training and held athletic events. Thousands of prostitutes would gather and hold ceremonies to try and connect with the goddess Aphrodite (goddess of love). If you practiced sexual immorality then you were known as being "Corinthianized". Without condemnation they would eat well and satisfy their sexual urges. When I read this, I thought, "Not much different today..". We too are living in a time of sexual immorality and we are intriqued with philosophies and we are a culture of fitness and eating clean or no carbs or no meats (the list gets longer). Just last night I couldn't sleep and while flipping through our channels all that I saw were infomercials advertising, "Brazillian Butt Lift", "Insanity", "Turbo Cookers", "Juicing Machines" and I could go on and on and on..We are obsessed with our bodies and the foods we put in them so that we are sexier and slimmer...I am guilty of this in certain areas of my life as well. All of us make those resolutions to cut back and start exercising more. Nothing wrong with all of this as long as it is kept within the bounds of reason though. It's when we begin to put these things above Christ, and we begin to step outside those laws of God's Word and then sin begins to overrun and take control. Remember, the enemy starts out with the 'little' things and works his way up to the big things in our lives.
What if we turned this around? What if we were more concerned with the temple of God and what we are feeding our spirit, our human spirit?
As we read the opening of the Second Chapter, Priscilla gives us a warning, one that by going further, we would walk away with the capacity to begin hearing God, and that we had better be prepared to do what He tells us to. This chapter is all about the Holy Spirit and how that the Spirit functions within us. The Holy Spirit sees what we cannot and communicates information to us based on His knowledge. Listening for God to speak, discerning His voice and determining His will- the Holy Spirit is who we are listening for! As a child of God we have all of the Spirit, all His Power, all His wisdom, all His counsel, all His encouragement, all available to us, all the time. The question is, will we yield to His leadership in our lives? What would that look like you ask? Listening to Him is an exercise in hearing from within, not being directed by external stimuli that diverts your attention away from His direction. (P. Shirer)
So how are you doing with this chapter ladies? Let's talk..

IN Him,
Shana