Luke 12:8-12 Listen to the Spirit
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: September 10, 2018 Luke 12:8-12
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
“And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
(Understanding the Text) There seem to be three different, not very related, messages in this part. First, Jesus says that if we claim Him as our Savior before others, He will claim us as His before the heavenly congregation, but that if we deny Him as our Savior before others on earth, He will deny that He knows us before the angels. This seems to refer to the judgment. I used to worry about a one-time compromise, but this is more than that.
Now I see how these two ideas are related. There will be people in heaven that Jesus claims as His who rejected Him on earth, but did not reject the leading of the Holy Spirit. In other words, they heard a missionary or a TV preacher talk about Jesus and did not listen, or they read some verses of the Bible once and did not make the direct connection of saying that they accepted Jesus, but they did listen to the Spirit as He led them through life and connected to God through the Spirit.
(Revelation of God) The Spirit has not revealed all the light of God equally to all people, so it is possible that the Spirit did not lead someone to make a public profession of Jesus. If that person is still following the Spirit’s leading, then the other issues will be forgiven. I’m not sure how this all works out in reality because there are the verses before this about being denied when we have already denied Jesus.
I also see a different relationship between these two verses. Jesus says that we will be denied in heaven if we deny Him on earth, but then He says that if we do deny Him before men, it can be forgiven as long as we listen to the Spirit. We are not lost unless we reject the Spirit who has come to live within us. If He leaves us, then there is no hope. However, if we follow His leading, we will do and say the correct thing when the time comes. The last verse is related to the first verse because it is talking about claiming Jesus before rulers and authorities. Jesus is saying that when the time comes to claim Him before men, He will give us the words to say through the Spirit living within us.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that I should stop stressing over getting things done and saying the right thing and not messing things up, and trust God to work through me. I should focus on living daily with Jesus and listening to the Spirit. Everything else will come. Open my ears so that I can hear the Spirit speaking to me. Open my eyes so that I can see You clearly. Too often, I am distracted by problems and cares so that I do not listen. I want to hear You. Do not let me grow deaf to Your voice.