How do I know whether I have the Spirit dwelling in me?

The question of the sign of the Spirit in our lives has been a vexed question in the church. What is the teaching of Scripture on the same? The fact that different churches give different interpretations means that there is no easy answer. I have attempted to give an answer which I think does most justice to the scripture and avoid doctrinal stands.

THE SPIRIT IS POURED OUT ON ALL BELIEVERS

This pouring out of the Spirit in the prophecy of Joel 2:28-29 is unconditional, but is understood to have the condition of faith and belief in Jesus. That means a believer does not have to “merit” the Spirit but it is given to him unconditionally, just as salvation is given to him unconditionally. For this reason, we need to understand the “obedience” in Acts 5:32 to be the obedience of “baptism” or surrender of one’s life. Especially see Romans 8:9 below which makes the possession of the Spirit and salvation synonymous.

John 7:38-39 “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

John 14:17-18 “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but ye know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”

Romans 8:9 “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

Galatians 3:2-3 “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”

I Corinthians 12:13 “For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”

Before I go into the question of tongues, let me see some of the signs of the Spirit including the basic one of witnessing to Jesus.

WITNESSING AS A SIGN OF THE SPIRIT

The Old Testament reference Peter used to explain the Pentecost experience is from Joel 2:28-29. I am giving the full passage till verse 32 below:

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.”

You can see that the prophecy is on the end times, but apparently a start to the end times or a partial fulfilment occurred at Pentecost. In this outpouring of the Spirit the people will prophesy. At least that is what Peter understood in Acts 2:16-18,

“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:”

Jesus in Acts 1:8 says that you would become my witnesses after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So the prophesying is linked to the witness to Jesus. So we need to understand prophecy the way Paul interprets it in I Corinthians 14:3,

“But he that prophesies speaks unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.”

Because of this link with prophecy we see that the most important function of the Holy Spirit is to teach us and help us understand what we are to be speaking to the people.

John 14:26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

John 15:26-27 “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.”

John 16:13 “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.”

I John 2:27 “But the anointing which ye have received of him abides in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT AS A SIGN OF THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT

Paul emphasises the fruit of the Spirit as the sign of having the Spirit in all his epistles.

Romans 8:13-14 “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

Galatians 5:16-17 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

If you see the judgement passage of Matthew 25:31-46 you will find that those who were given entry into heaven were those who had the fruit of the Spirit and showed love in their lives. The basis of judgement was the fruit of the Spirit.

Also John 13:35 says, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” This means our testimony is the presence of love amongst us or the fruit of the Spirit which spring from love.

From the above passages it will be seen that the primary purpose of the outpouring of the Spirit is to enable to be witnesses to Jesus by our words and our lives and this forms an essential part of our lives and shows the presence of the Spirit with us.

GIFTS AS A SIGN OF THE SPIRIT

Paul in his epistles emphasises the fact that we all have gifts and responsibilities in the church.

I Corinthians 12:7-11 “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these work that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”

Some have seen the number of gifts as limited to what is given in the epistles, but I doubt that. Even the ability to make the Tabernacle and the furniture for it in the Old Testament was a gift from God according to Exodus 31:1-5. So the gifts of the Spirit are given to enable us to serve the people we are responsible for, especially in the church. All are gifted, (we need to see our natural abilities as gifts from God) given for the purpose of service.

Because of the gift of tongues that was seen with the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts of the Apostles many have seen this as an essential sign of the pouring out of the Spirit. This creates some problems which are listed below:-

1. The outpouring of the Spirit was an unconditional promise to all believers. But the gifts are not unconditional and depend on our calling. See especially I Corinthians 12:28-30 below,

“And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?”

2. Speaking in tongues is not mentioned as a sign in all occasions of the pouring out of the Spirit – see Acts 4:8, 31, 8:17, 9:17-20

3. People who had already received the Spirit appear to have been filled repeatedly.

4. For some people who received salvation and took baptism there is no mention of them receiving the gift of tongues – the jailor of Philippi in Acts 16:33.

ARE GIFTS IMPORTANT

Obviously they are, otherwise the Bible would not spend so much time and teaching on them. Also, since every believer was meant to be a witness for Jesus all had to have gifts for witnessing, and also for ministering in the church.

The problems arose, even in the early church, when your level of spirituality was linked to the gifts you have. This flew against the very basic principles of Christianity which Jesus espoused in Matthew 18:1-4. The very concept of who is greater is an anathema. We just faithfully follow Jesus and let Him gift us and use us and we do not worry about who is greater and who is lesser.

On the other hand Matthew 7:21-23 makes it clear that the possession of gifts does not ensure your salvation.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Jacob the visionary or Jacob the schemer?

Many commentators and writers present Jacob in a very negative light. To quote the TAFTEE Genesis Course it says in Week 8 Day 2 Frame 4 “Jacob knows very little about the LORD”. As another commentator says on Genesis 28 “Jacob, the bargainer, stoops so low that he bargains with the Almighty.”
 
I have another perspective of Jacob’s spiritual growth which goes as follows:-

Jacob was 15 when Abraham died. (Gen 21:5, 25:7 & 25:26) Abraham, knowing that the promise was through Isaac, would have spent as much time as he could with the grandchildren and would have shared with them the promise of God to him.

There was a prophecy given to Rebekah that Jacob would take precedence over Esau (Gen 25:23). If Abraham had believed in the prophecy, he would have paid special attention to Jacob.

So the first spiritual experience of Jacob would have been the testimony of Abraham and the promise given to Abraham.

Esau did not want the birthright as it carried two responsibilities neither of which interested him. The first was the responsibility of looking after the parents for which he was given a double portion. His wives could not get along with Rebekah and so this was something he did not look forward to (Gen 26:35). The second was the fulfilment of the promise given to Abraham. To Esau these stories of Abraham did not appear real. Abraham was an old man, 160 years older than them, and did not seem to be relevant to the world. 45 years had passed since his death and no fresh revelation from God was there. So he sold his birthright to Jacob.

Jacob believed in the words of Abraham and desired the birthright. Because of his faith he found favour in the sight of God. He saw the 45 years passing without a word from God, but held on to the vision.

Jacob was forced by Rebekah to carry out the plot to steal the blessing. This created problems for everyone, but we need to recognise that Jacob was an unwilling accomplice in this episode. Because of this error he has to flee to Syria.

Jacob is not adventurous like Esau (Gen 25:27). For him the journey to Syria would have been a fearful and uncertain experience. On the first night out, at Bethel Yahweh appears to him and repeats to him the promise given to Abraham and he is told that Yahweh would bring him back to Palestine. To Jacob this is something new and his response is probably not the best, but is essentially, if all you say is true, you will be my God and I will build you an altar.

Jacob reaches Syria and is his usual manipulative self trying to best Laban in his business deals. He however does recognise that the wealth that he has obtained is God’s blessing (Gen 31:5-9). He is too young in his experience of Yahweh to be able to accept Laban switching Leah for Rachel and bring a lot of woe into his life by insisting on marrying Rachel also. But he sees God is with him and when God tells him to go home he does.

On the way home he begins to face his fear of Esau and panics, making all kind of arrangements to protect himself and especially Rachel. At this time, when he is at a breaking point, at Peniel he has an experience of God which enables him to commit his situation into the hand of God and this becomes the turning point in his life.

 Bethel and Peniel were key events in Jacob’s spiritual journey, but there was last step required. He had permitted Rachel to worship her gods which she had brought with her, stolen from Laban. At Shechem his sons commit a crime of wantonly killing a tribe and Jacob is horrified. He realises that his spirituality is not of any use if his family does not carry on the blessing of Abraham and so he calls for them to clear out all the idols from amongst them.

 Jacob’s own evaluation of his life is found in Gen 47:9 where there is none of his arrogance or confidence in self but trust in Yahweh.

 What lessons do we learn from Jacob for ourselves? Learn to trust in Yahweh rather in self if you do not want to be brought to a point of breakdown in your life. Keep the faith in the vision even though we go through spiritually barren times in our life.