Working out is hard, but rewarding. Your body responds with more energy as you expend energy. In the same way working out your spirit yields spiritual results.
Jesus inhabits the lives of His disciples. How does that happen? It happens by becoming familiar with the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit. All Christians are given the Holy Spirit as guide and counselor. The presence of the Holy Spirit puts us in touch with the living Lord Jesus and our Father God. All three persons of the trinity live within the Christian through the Holy Spirit.
I like to think of the Holy Spirit sort of like RAM on a computer. Your brain is the hard drive where all the data is stored. Your conscious mind is like the monitor screen to your computer. In order for you to access data on your hard drive, it require RAM (Random Access Memory) to gather the data, present the data to the program application, so that you can work with the data on your screen.
In the same way the Spirit presents to you that which you have stored in your brain from the word of God, something you need to be reminded of. Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit would remind the church of everything Jesus had taught and said. As counselor, the Spirit is an inner guide to the Christian, leading them in the way of Christ.
We cultivate our ability to listen to the Spirit through prayer and meditation. We study the scriptures to input the word of God into our minds. The Spirit helps the word come alive in our hearts to guide us.
Beyond guidance from the scriptures as the Spirit enable us to understand and remember, is the emotions of the heart of God. Because God live in us, through the Spirit, we have the mind and heart of God in us.
My head holds other voices besides the Lord's. There's my own voice. There's the voice of my parents. There's voices from past friends. There's voices from musicians I listen to. There's tons of movie quotes. There's all kinds of commercial jingles and slogans running around in my head. How can I discern the true voice of God?
Working out our salvation is growing in our ability to allow Christ to inhabit our lives and give Him full compliance. We are not puppets or robots controlled by an alien spirit. We are united with Christ and each other and we willingly cooperate with His leadership.
Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)
Disciples obey. Obeying the voice of Jesus begins by learning to discern His voice over all others. Your knowledge of scripture is crucial. The Spirit will never contradict what God has already revealed in His word. Instead the Spirit will always lead you in ways consistent with the will of God revealed in scripture.
Working out your salvation is hard work, but it leads to Christlike lives. We often would rather not follow Jesus or obey His commands. We'd much rather enjoy His forgiveness and keep living however we want. The good news is that God works in us to change our hearts. God's grace at work in us will bring us to want to do God's will. His grace in us will lead us to want to please God. And God's grace at work in us gives us the power to do God's will.
May you work up a sweat as you work out your salvation through study and prayer and listening and learning.
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