Evidence of The Holy Spirit

How can you discern the Holy Spirit in others? This question is very relevant to our growth and spiritual well-being. Why? – Because we need to know when what we are hearing is the inpired word of the Spirit of God.  If we just accept everything we hear we will soon be led down the path of spiritual error.

• Fool-Proof Test

There is one fool-proof test you can apply to determine if what you are hearing is spiritual truth; and that is this. Consider what James says here in Chapter 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. From this we can reliably infer that we MUST have a peace about what we are hearing. If you can apply all the tests in this Bible verse to what you hear, you can be confidant that what you are hearing is from the Holy Spirit of God – it will be full of mercy, good fruits, impartial and above all pure and peaceful.

• Unquiet Spirit

There is one thing the devil CANNOT fake, and that is love. You may be hearing stuff that sounds very reasonable at the time, but if it leaves you with an unquiet spirit, then you can be assured that it is NOT from God. If what you see and hear makes you feel restless, discontented, anxious or worried, you can be confidant that it came from that other kingdom – the kingdom of darkness.  God is Love: Therefore anything from God must be pure; have an underlying theme of love, and leave you with a feeling of peace.

• Simple, Reliable Test

Jesus gave us a very reliable and simple test to apply when we are not sure what we are confronted with.  In effect, He said; “Look at the fruit to see what sort of a tree it is” [Matt 7:16  By their  fruit  you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? .......20  Thus, by their  fruit  you will recognize them]. So if the visible fruit in the life of the person you are listening to are the fruits of Love, Joy, Peace, etc, of the Spirit, described in Galations, then you can be sure that the Spirit of God is directing that person’s life.

Questions about the person of the Holy Spirit, His gifts and His fruit, are both simple and complex. Here are some simple answers -

• The Fruit of The Holy Spirit.

The [fruit of the Holy Spirit] Galations 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. are those character elements that grow in our lives after we are born again, and the Holy Spirit is enabled to work within us. As a ‘new baby’ in the spiritual world we need to develop, just as does any new baby in the temporal world. When we give our lives to Him we are filled with love,  and we become filled with joy.  After the first excitement dies down we gain the peace; and the other fruits of patience, kindness, and so on start to develop. It is not by chance that the last fruit to grow is self-control; it naturally grows after the others have matured.

• The Gifts of The Holy Spirit.

[The [9] Gifts of The Holy Spirit]1 Corinthians 12: 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines are given at will by the Holy Spirit, and may be withdrawn also at will. Do not confuse these gifts with the [7] [motivational] gifts that are listed in [Romans 12] 5 So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.. These motivational gifts [in whatever ratio we may posess them] are the God-given gifts we were born with, they govern our character and define our role in God’s kingdom.  On the other hand, you can pray for any one or more of the spiritual gifts, just as you like.

• The Voice of The Holy Spirit.

For me, the best description of the voice of [God] the Holy Spirit, is the term used by the writer of  1 Kings [19:12] when he said; “a still, small voice“; in telling about God talking to Elijah after the voice of earthquake, wind, and fire.  I have this mental picture of the Holy Spirit in the same room in my head as my conscience, and speaking to me in the same way -  I have to listen real hard to hear Him, and it certainly helps to be in a quiet place, so as not to drown out the sound of the still small voice…

• More About Hearing From God

You can read more about hearing from the Holy Spirit of God in Chapter 14 [Wisdom From God - Concience and The Holy Spirit] of my e-Book, “Good Lord, It’s Morning”!

Is it Necessary to circumcise?

We need to put this into context for today, to answer this question is circumcision really necessary. There has been worldwide practice of this for many centuries, mostly as a tribal initiation, or religious ceremony.  For the Jews being circumcised (Brit Milah) signified acceptance into the faith and it usually happened after the infant’s first week  (the 8th day) of life.

• Physical Reasons for Circumcision.

The original practical reason for being circumcised was to remove a potential lodging place for germs or disease. With the level of understanding of personal hygiene now prevalent in the developed world there is no real reason for this any more. Removing a significant number of sensory receptors from the male organ can only inhibit the full range of physical sensation. It is a needless mutilation.

• Baptism = Circumcision

For today’s Christian, circumcision is what happens when we are baptized – as the Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Romans; ” 29  No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and  circumcision  is  circumcision  of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.“  And also to the Colossians in chapter 2; “11  In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature,  not with a  circumcision  done by the hands of men but with the  circumcision  done by Christ,  12  having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”

• Circumcision Of The Heart

So the symbolic purification represented by being circumcised is therefore superseded by the sacrament of baptism. The old testament Jewish ritual of Circumcision is now fulfilled by the sacrament of baptism, and in spiritual terms equates to the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

• Conclusion

The answer to this question; “is circumcision really necessary”, is plainly no!

Knowing how to find spiritual excellence is a great comfort, because there is a reassurance therin that gives us the confidence to keep on. We need some form of reassurance to bolster our faith, else we feel we are just whistling in the dark, and sometimes lack the courage to go on along our chosen path.

• How to Define a Job Well Done

I had considerable dialog with a friend about what constitutes spiritual excellence, starting from the point that we well knew what constituted excellence in our daily round of work. The ‘Job Well Done’;  the ‘satisfied client’; the feeling of accomplishment at the end of each task.  The challenge was to transfer those criteria across to the spiritual realm and come up with a blue-print for ‘spiritual excellence’.

• We Need to know BEFORE Judgment Day

Of course, we could just wait till the ‘end of the film’, then read the ‘credits’, but somehow that didn’t satisfy us, we needed to define some standard that we could apply to our everyday spiritual walk.  We need  to KNOW that we are in His will and that what we are doing is meeting approval within the ‘throne room’.

• OK Lord, I Did It Your Way

So the answer we devised was this: Spiritual Excellence consists in being able to go to bed each night, and at ‘sign-off’ time, to be able to say; “OK Lord, today I did everything you asked!“  What more is to say? You can’t do better than that!

How to Recognize The Spirit.

This is How to Know Preaching is from the Spirit – when you hear conviction ringing out from the words of the preacher, and when you are riveted to the edge of your seat by the RELEVANCE and FRESHNESS of what you are hearing you know you are hearing from God.

• God is Never Boring

The eternal, one true God who created the universe and everything in it, is capable of infinite variety.  Consider the magnificent sky-scapes, freshly painted minute by minute while you gaze in awe! With every resource of creation at His fingertips, He doesn’t need to repeat himself. So it follows, that if a preacher is led by the Spirit of God he will be given suitably fresh material to use. A spirit led preacher will be talking about things that have happened to him, or are happening in the NOW; not using anecdotes from the life of some other missionary to the middle of darkest Africa last century.

• The Kingdom of Heaven is HERE AND NOW.

When you are ‘born again’ you are birthed as a brand new spiritual being into the the Kingdom of Heaven – therefore you must be living in that place RIGHT NOW. It follows therefore, that a spirit led preacher MUST be preaching from conviction gained from his present and past experience, and must be sharing from that. So, such a preacher has to be basing his testimony on what he believes right now – testimony gained from living the Christian life and interacting with God and his fellows. A rule of thumb – any preacher who starts off like this; “A funny [or interesting, or significant,] thing happened to me this week…….”; is most likely to be led by The Holy Spirit, simply because the  Spirit of God will have purposefully put such an experience into that preachers week, just for this purpose; and if he goes on to share a ‘Kingdom’ experience, you may then be quite sure. Any preacher who builds his narrative around someone Else’s experience is selling you second hand goods!

• This is How You Recognize The Spirit

John said, in his [1 John 4:2-3]2 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, 3 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.. first epistle, “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;” so it follows that a spirit led preacher must be preaching about the ‘crucified’, ‘resurrected’, ‘ascended’ Christ.

• God Knew You Were Going to Go to Church

- and for that reason, some part of the address will speak to you! There will be parts of the message that will minister directly to you. We are each in a different ‘place’ and various words will react differently on each of us, but a spirit led message will contain something especially for you. This is part of the ‘daily bread’ that God provides and it is part of the assurance we have that He loves us and provides for ALL our needs.

• The Compelling Word of God

God is totally consistent, so any Holy Spirit led preaching must accord with what He has already said in His recorded Word – the Bible - Ergo,  preaching must be based on and agree with the Bible – so the authority for what a preacher is testifying must rest in God’s Word; and because it is Bible based it is both authoritative and credible – and that is how to know preaching is from the Spirit!

The only reliable evidence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person is evidence of the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’. The 9 fruits of the Spirit are as described here in [Galations 5:22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…………

• By Their Fruit You Will Recognize Them

Jesus said everything must bear fruit of its own kind [Luke 14:43] 43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”. And in Matthew 7:20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

The Nine Fruits of the Spirit

• The Fruit is the Proof.

So to see the evidence of the Holy Spirit in the life of someone, you look for the fruit of their life. If they love their fellows; if they have joy in the Lord;  if there is peace in their life; if they are patient, kind, gentle, faithful, and so on, then you can believe that they indeed are led by the Holy Spirit of God.

• Words are Not Enough

It doesn’t matter what a person says about themselves, how plausible they may sound, what documents or certificates they might show, or what others may tell you or believe about them,  the only real evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit of God is the way they behave!

• Prayerful Consideration

If you need to discern the evidence of the Holy Spirit in someone, then use the same methods as described in How To Preach, take it to the Lord in prayer!