Lesson 104 – How Can We Be Sure that We Have the Holy Spirit
Jesus was raised to new life because of the Holy Spirit living in Him. The Gospel tells us that anyone who accepts Jesus as Savior, confesses their sins, and turns from them also receives the Holy Spirit. His presence in us is our guarantee that we too will be raised from the dead to eternal life with God. When Jesus took on the punishment for our sins, we were made perfect in God’s sight; He allowed Jesus’ righteousness to be commuted to us and our sinfulness to Him. And, so we are positionally dead to the sin that before, separated us from God. But now God expects us in our daily lives to strive to become in practical daily living what we already are in His sight, that is sinless. This is the second part of our salvation.
The Bible tells us to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus, and that in doing this we can expect to suffer as He suffered. But our suffering is different. Jesus suffered because He was being punished for our sins. We struggle in our daily attempts to fulfill the second part of our salvation, turning from sin. The Bible tells us we need to put to death the sinful desires that are part of our earthly being. These lead to eternal separation from God, spiritual death. The pleasures of sin are short lived, and need to be indulged in over and over. Anything that brings worldly satisfaction, such as pleasure, wealth and fame, will soon end. These allurements are short lived and will separate us from God if we don’t strive to put them to death.
And so, our daily struggle and suffering involves not coddling, pandering to, or in any way stimulating or encouraging sinful desire or behavior. This is different for everyone but includes common struggles like addiction, covetousness, pride, anger and seeking wealth. Anyone who feels comfortable in their sins is in a dangerous place in terms of their salvation; because they are not fulfilling the second condition, which is trying to turn from sin. The mark of a person who has the Holy Spirit is hating their sin and struggling daily to gain victory over it, suffering as Jesus did. Every person has something they are struggling with, mentally or behaviorally. But the fact that we struggle in practical daily living is evidence of our salvation.
But God sympathizes with our struggles, and realizes we can’t do it on our own. He gives us weapons for our spiritual warfare. When we accept Jesus as Savior, He promises to be with us and walk along side us each day. We need to pray daily for His strength and grace to help us turn from our sins. We need to read the Bible each day to learn more and more about God’s will in our lives and how we can live to please Him. We need to attend a church and fellowship with other Christians for strength and support, and we need to persist in this daily.
We live in the flesh and this is a daily reality. What we have and enjoy is in the here and now and it takes time and growing in our daily relationship with God to open our minds to see that where and how we spend eternity is infinitely more important than any pleasures we enjoy now. No sinful pleasure in this life is worth it. We need to put on all of God’s weapons and take up our cross daily as we follow Jesus. Then we will have the joyful assurance that the Holy Spirit lives within us.