Straight Thinking 121067 How You Do Know

Straight Thinking

121067

HOW YOU DO KNOW

Sunday. One significant question is, “How do people know they have the Holy Spirit?” Some believers think we can just “feel it in hour bones.” But we cannot just rely on “feelings.” The Spirit of the Lord, who gave Samson his extraordinary strength, left him because he told Delilah that the secret of his great strength lay in his long hair. But “he didn’t know the Lord had left him.” (Read Judges 13:2-5, 24-25; 14:5-6, 19; 16:15-17, 20.)

Monday. Everything good includes what a Christian should be and do. If what characterizes our lives is not good, we cannot claim to be Christians or to have the Holy Spirit. If there’s no love in the heart, no joy in the spirit, or no peace in the mind, God’s Spirit does not dwell in us. (Read Galatians 5:22-24.)

Tuesday. Some Christians associate speaking in other languages, working miracles, or prophesying with the presence of the Holy Spirit. But we do not necessarily lack the Spirit if we are not able to do these things. We don’t anticipate God demonstrating his presence through miracles today as prominently as he did in New Testament times. At that time the power to work miracles came only by a special gift of Christ or by the laying on of the apostles’ hands. But there is a way in which a Christian has the gift of the Spirit: committing themselves to Jesus Christ. (Read Acts 8:12-18; 2:38.)

Wednesday. God never breaks a promise. We cannot see the reward, but we know whether heaven awaits us. God promises it in the Bible, and we know if we are going what he tells us to do to go there. We also know whether we have the Holy Spirit because God promises that in his word, and we know if we are doing what he tells us to do to receive the Spirit. (Read 2 Peter 3:9a; 2 Corinthians 1:20a; Ephesians 1:13-14.)

Thursday. The first time the gospel was preached, Peter promised the Spirit to his hearers and their descendants and to everyone who would answer the call. We were not there that Pentecost Sunday, nor have we probably descended from those who were. But we are among those “afar off” that can know we have God’s Spirit if we follow God’s plan of salvation. (Read Acts 2:38-39.)

Friday. “Well begun, half done” is sadly true. People receive the Spirit when they become members of Christ’s body. But people may backslide; and though they once had the Holy Spirit, they may be like Samson who lost that presence of the Spirit. We know we have God’s Spirit if we are continuing in the commandments he has set forth. (Read 1 John 3:24.)

Saturday. The Spirit’s presence in our life might be seen more easily by others than by ourselves; they can see more by standing away than we can see up close. The good influence of our life on other people will give us assurance that we do know him. (Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-4.)

Virgil Warren, Straight, December 10, 1967, p13                                                                          christsir.org