Who has the Spirit of God?
A lady in her early thirties, covered with tattoos, developed an aggressive breast cancer. She had a wide excision of the tumour, clearance of some involved axillary nodes and had subsequently chemotherapy and radiotherapy. During her treatment I asked her if she had any faith to help her cope with all this or whether she wasn’t sure about such things. She gave an interesting reply.
“I wish I still had. During my early twenties I started to go to a Pentecostal church and got carried away with all they did. One day I asked an elder of the church how I could know if God had accepted me, whether I really was a Christian. He asked to hear me speak in tongues, which I was able to do for him as I had heard others in the church do this. He reassured me that if I can speak in tongues I must have the Spirit of God in me. However I short time later I stopped going to any church and have not been back for many years.”
She then determined to discover what life was for and whether God could forgive her for the life she had led and the way she had treated him. She joined us at a ‘Christianity Explored’ Group and for the first time understood the gospel. She understood who Jesus was and what he had done by dying for her on the cross. She did commit her life to Christ and her life changed markedly. She came to love him, was thrilled at being forgiven by God and started to live for him, joining a church.
This gives rise to two important questions,
When does a person receive the Holy Spirit?
What is the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence?
1. When does a person receive the Holy Spirit?
I committed my life to Christ in my first year at university and became involved in the Christian Union, attended an excellent Bible teaching church and began to grow as a Christian. I then decided to formalise my commitment to Christ by getting confirmed. During the confirmation service the Bishop of Ely told us that he was about to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit. I was aghast and nearly walked out as I knew that the Spirit of God was already changing me. It was only that I did want to be formally confirmed that kept me in my seat! This issue led me back to the Bible to see what it teaches about when people receive the Holy Spirit.
“And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." Romans 8:9-10
Clearly the apostles taught that to have the Spirit was the same as being a Christian. This is not just a doctrinal belief. Surely it is eminently practical. If a person does not demonstrate something of the character and love of Christ, showing his Spirit, then we should question whether we really have faith in Him.
In his letter to the Galatians Paul is concerned that the church is compromising with Jewish practices, even to the point of suggesting that they are essential for Christians. He reminds them that they now belong to Christ and now everything in the church should centre on living for and obeying him.
“Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort.” Galatians 3:2-3
Paul is here emphasising that we begin the Christian life when we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives. That happens when we first put our trust in him.
There has been some confusion over the names given to this third person of the Trinity. Should he be called ’Holy Spirit’ or ‘Holy Ghost’? In Old English the word used for ‘spirit’ was ‘gast’, which became ‘ghost’. The equivalent word in German is ‘geist’ where it still has the broader sense of the word. Thus they speak of ‘zeitgeist’, which means ‘spirit of the times’. Nearly all modern translations use the modern English word, ‘Spirit’.
When we become Christians we receive the full privileges of being Sons of God, a title previously reserved for the Jewish people, and Paul repeats that this includes the gift of His Holy Spirit.
“God sent his Son . . . that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’” Galatians 4:4-6
The letter to the Ephesians teaches the same message.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3
It is clear that because we are in Christ we have everything God wants to give us and this includes the Spirit of Christ. So lack nothing in the spiritual world.
“Having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, . . .” Ephesians 1:13-14
This is written to all Christians – we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of God in us that assures us of our future with God in heaven.
Being saved and being given the gift of the Holy Spirit are the same in apostolic thought.
“He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” Titus 3:5-6
Yet the presence of the Holy Spirit in us does not mean that we are the finished article! How we need to grow in wisdom and in the knowledge of God.
“I keep asking that the God of our lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better.” Ephesians 1:17
Paul brings these two ideas, of having everything in the spiritual realm yet being incomplete, together.
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Ephesians 3:16-17
2. What is the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence?
Quite soon after I had committed my life to Christ, fellow Christians in my college suggested to me that now I needed a second blessing from God which would be associated with the gift of power, and evidenced by ‘speaking in tongues’. How I longed to experience such power. I was told that some are given the power to heal, others to raise the dead, others will be given supernatural gifts of knowledge. Although |I longed to be a more effective powerful Christian and would love to have one of those supernatural gifts, something worried me about this teaching. I noticed that many of my friends who talked in this way were not warmer Christians than those who didn’t. I did not notice that they demonstrated any gifts that differed from other Christian friends. Their emphasis seemed on this ‘gift of speaking in tongues’. However even this was problematic. When God first baptized his church with the Holy Spirit at the beginning of Acts, this was not just an emotional experience, it was associated with a strong wind and the appearance of fire that divided and rested on all the Christians. They then spoke the gospel to visitors in Jerusalem in their own languages, which they had not learned. This was clearly a miracle indeed. It seemed so different to what I was told to expect. And when I heard their ‘speaking in tongues’ it appeared to me to be just meaningful gibberish and not a real language at all.
When I started to get to know the New Testament, I noticed that the gift of tongues and miracles is not mentioned in any of the epistles other than the one to the very troubled church at Corinth. Even here Paul emphasized that the Corinthians were lacking the real evidence of the Spirit, a practical love for others.
“If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move all mountains, but have not love, I have nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-2
Jesus himself taught that the exhibition of spiritual gifts guarantees nothing. At the last judgment some religious leaders will find themselves excluded from heaven even though they demonstrated spiritual gifts.
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you, depart from me, you evil doers.’” Matthew 7:22-23
If our spiritual gifts or activities are no guarantee of salvation, what is? I love to ask people, ‘What is the evidence that a person has the Holy Spirit?’ This is not a difficult question. If we have the Spirit of Jesus we are beginning to turn from thinking and behaving as the world does to exhibit aspects of Jesus’ character.
“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21
The presence of the Holy Spirit is demonstrated by very different features; he is especially seen in our relationships with other people.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. . . Those who belong to Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:22-24
This list is not a complete list of the effect the Spirit has on people but emphasises that a person with god’s spirit will be warm to other people.
The prophet Isaiah knew that when the Messiah came to this earth he would give his people the Spirit of God.
“ . . . till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest. Justice will dwell in the desert and righteousness live in the fertile field.
The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence fro ever.” Isaiah 32:15-17
What a shame it is when Christians do not live in this ‘peace of God.’ Many are stressed and anxious about so many things. When we have been forgiven and know that we are loved by the creator of the universe because we belong to his Son, we should be thrilled. How we also need this Spirit to change our lands that are too often like spiritual deserts, into a vibrant forest of justice and righteousness.
BVP
