Sunday Rewind: Knowing For Sure

The man to our left at Thursday night's poker game made a very perceptive comment about the Holy Spirit. "If you need to be reminded you have it, you don't really have it."

How many times have you seen someone look at their cards during a hand -- over and over again? "The cards didn't change," someone else at the table might point out.

"I can hope, can't I?" we like to say in response.

Part of that looking could be an acting job, to "sell" uncertainty about making a play. But a player also could be making sure he has the winning hand he thinks he has. Believers can't really do that with a invisible Holy Spirit -- or can they?

"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit," Paul wrote in Romans 8:5 -- not long after writing in verse 2 that the Holy Spirit "made me free from the law of sin and death"(KJV).

Paul added the Holy Spirit empowered him to perform "mighty signs and wonders" (15:19). This could range from inspired preaching (I Corinthians 2:4) to speaking in completely different languages (Acts 2:4).

If you want to be sure the Holy Spirit is in you, here are some good Biblical guideposts to use in examining yourself:

1. Do you believe Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? (I John 4:2-3)

2. Do you display fruit of the Holy Spirit? The fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23which should be growing in believers.

3. Do you show gifts of God (I Corinthians 12:8-11)? Keep in mind not all Christians have every gift (verse 4).

But don't be misled here. The Bible also indicates you do not have the Holy Spirit unless two vital things are done first: "Repent, and be baptized.... in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins...." (Acts 2:38) If you need guidance with those key steps, e-mail us and we'll be happy to assist you.

We've concluded the man at the poker table was correct in his thinking about the Holy Spirit, based on these words of the apostle Paul. "Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (I Corinthians 3:16)

(P.S. We admitted to the man that little power plug is also a way for us to spread the word about the Spirit -- not only to be reminded we have it.)