The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. 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. 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, 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. 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.

1 John 3: 24-4:4

“Big things come in small packages”; someone probably invented that saying to sell jewelry but it has a Biblical parallel. Paul calls the ministry of Christ a treasure in a clay jar, that is, a valuable thing in an ordinary container. Maybe we would say a shoebox full of hundred dollar bills!

So when we go looking for what God has given us, the thing we treasure, we look within us to find it. We are that ordinary vessel. And what is the proof of this? We have a spirit that enthusiastically proclaims Jesus has come in the flesh and died for our sins!

This realization is powerful. Why? Because once we identify that treasure we contain we know that we have the greater Spirit within, and that Spirit has already overcome!

Ethan Kirl