Do You Have The Holy Spirit?

In the 9th chapter of the book of Romans, Paul makes it very clear that the idea of whether or not we have the Holy Spirit is a big deal.

"You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ."

I just finished reading the 10th chapter of J.C. Ryle's "Old Paths," which is entitled "Holy Ghost." It was a good read, so good in fact, that I dare to make my second post in three days concerning it. I'm not going to quote the book directly, but instead, I'm going to elaborate in my own words and thoughts on Ryle's five points that he claims proves whether or not one has the Spirit of God. Ryle calls these the 'marks and evidences by which the presence of the Holy Ghost in a man's heart may be known.' This is extremely important for people everywhere to consider (see Romans 9:8 above). Note that by no means do I think that these five points can serve as a fail-proof test to see whether or not one has the Spirit. I think that would be putting God in a box, and he's not a God that fits in any box we can imagine. It's a good test nonetheless.

1.) Where the Holy Ghost is, there will always be deep conviction of sin and repentance for it.

If I could pick a "favorite" evidence, I'd pick this one. I honestly think that all growing Christians will be at war daily with the sin in their lives. The Holy Spirit will convict us of our sins, and there will be true repentance. When I look back at my life before Christ, the main difference I see is the lack of conviction before and the overflow of conviction after. Though I am a much better person now than I was ten years ago, I consider myself scum today and thought very highly of myself back then. This is the work of Holy Spirit in my life. God abhors sin, and the Holy Spirit will not let us walk comfortably in it if we are truly his.

2.) Where the Holy Ghost is, there will always be lively faith in Jesus Christ, as the only Savior.

The Holy Spirit had a lot to do with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The Scriptures make this clear. The Holy Trinity coexist is a beautiful harmony. There is no way one could have the Holy Spirit without a lively faith in Christ. What I want to dismiss is a flippant irreverent "faith" in a god or a deity or a higher power or a "man upstairs. " I'd also like to dismiss one who claims to know God but never acknowledges the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. If you look closely, you'll see this in the movies. While it isn't too uncommon for a character to acknowledge God in the movies (though this is becoming more rare), the mentioning of Jesus Christ in a reverent way is very uncommon, and I'm afraid it may be like that more and more with professing Christians. The Holy Spirit will not allow one of of his to get by without a lively faith in Christ.

3.) Where the Holy Ghost is, there will always be holiness of life and conversation.

The Holy Spirit is certainly in the business of sanctifying. He is also called the Spirit of holiness. One of the biggest misconceptions of Christianity in my opinion is this idea that Christ simply saved us of our past sins. By no means! Christ died not only to save us from sin but to free us from sin! The Holy Spirit has a tough job to do -- he is to make us more and more like Christ and work in us the power to be free from sin. Those who have the Spirit have this power, and it should be evident, though from my own experience, I can say that this part is pretty hard sometimes. Sanctification is one of those ideas that require a lot of effort on our part (but is really grace all along). The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Your soul would do well to measure yourself daily with the fruit of the Spirit to help determine his influence on your life. The Holy Spirit will leave no man untouched and unchanged.

4.) Where the Holy Ghost is, there will always be the habit of earnest private prayer.

Wow, Ryle must have had me and my struggling prayer life in mind when he wrote that one. He doesn't just mention that those who have the Spirit will be praying. Check out the words "habit" and "earnest" and "private." This one is tough...at least for me. I struggle here, and I'll admit it, but Ryle is in no way wrong on this one. The Holy Spirit has a lot more to do with prayer than we may think. He surely yearns for us to communicate with the Father, and he knows we need help. All the things that the Scriptures tell us to pray about add up fast. We have several examples of Christ in prayer as well. I am convinced that he who knows nothing of us this earnest private prayer knows not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit "makes it as natural to a man to pray as it is to an infant to breathe; with the one difference, -- that the infant breathes without an effort, and the new-born soul prays with much conflict and strife."

5.) Where the Holy Ghost is, there will always be love and reverence for God's Word.

Ryle fifth point is a good one. The Word of God is certainly living and active. We also know that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. So obviously, since the Holy Spirit was there in the beginning, the Word is also important to him. The Holy Spirit causes a yearning for the Word -- whether it be reading your Bible, hearing the Word preached, understanding what we've heard, or recalling a memorized passage. If one doesn't have any desire for the Word of God, then he can be assured there is no Spirit abiding within.

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Again, I don't think there are the only five things to look for, and nor do I think all five will continuously be evident in each believer. But I thought the Ryle chapter was really well written and deserved a little more of my time. Perhaps someone out there on the world wide web will find it useful too.

Finally Back for Easter

Well, I really took a lot of time off since my last post. I've probably lost all the readers I had by now - oh well, that's not that important to me (as this blog started as a private one). This fatherhood stuff is proving to be much more difficult that I imagined it would be. It's hard to find time to do anything, let alone time to sit down for 30-60 minutes for a blog post. But, this weekend went pretty well, and I'm going to try and carve out some time for a little post.

This may not come as a surprise, but I think I'm going to choose to elaborate on some song lyrics again, which is probably my favorite thing to do on here. I've been plodding through J.C. Ryle's "Old Paths" for the last few months, and it's a really good book, but it's one that's hard to write about without making very lengthy posts. So...let's get to the songs.

What I want to look at tonight is two small excerpts from two totally different songs, "Windows Of Thy Grace" (Red Mountain Music) and "I Know The Plans" (Waterdeep).

From "Windows of Thy Grace" ---

Haste my Beloved and remove,
These interposing days, interposing days;
Then shall my passions all be love,
And all my powers be praise, all my powers be praise.

From "I Know The Plans" ---

I know the plans I have for you
I know the things that I want for you to do
I know the plans I have for you
And it hurts sometimes to see you blind

The first excerpt gets me every time I hear it - no wonder the song finished #17 on my top 50 hymns list. I'm often not sure how well I know myself, but one thing I know for sure is that I'm a very passionate person, and it shows. I get fired up for sports like few in this world do and like few should. And there are plenty of other examples. But what I want to do as I write tonight (and if there are any readers, perhaps you could do the same) is to imagine what we would be like if all our passions all became love. What a beautiful line by Isaac Watts here... the same guy who wrote "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," which we sang today in Easter service. The stanza cries out for God to remove the interposing days and that all passions be love and all powers be praise in our lives. This is a fallen world we live in; I see it every day in my own life unfortunately. But the thought of all my passions being love and all my powers being praise gets me excited. It should be like that some day! And I certainly should see more of that now. This song gets me not only yearning for the day that I'll be with Christ and out of my sinful body, but it gets me thinking about all the things I use my passions and powers on today that I shouldn't. Of course, then that gets me to thinking that God probably had a design for each and every unique thing about my person and personality, and he means for me to use them for the glory of God. And I often don't... bringing me to the next song excerpt, this one from a Waterdeep song way back in the day.

Of course this chorus comes from Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." And I fully believe that. But this song puts a light on that verse that I haven't always heard. Link to the full song lyrics This song brings up a few examples of people not using their passions for love and powers for praise and reminds me that God does have a plan for us and does have things he wants us to do, yet it probably hurts him to see us blind and disappointed when things don't turn out the way we want them to. When I hear this song (and I have a lot lately), I am reminded that there are a lot of things God wants me to be doing that I'm not and a lot of things that I am doing that he probably wouldn't want me to. It convicts me. God has a plan for all of us, myself included, and I think we miss out on great and glorious moments in this life when we choose the wide and easy path rather than the narrow one. It's something to think about anyway. And that's why I write. Hopefully I'll get myself thinking and changing and hopefully I can help get you thinking. Until next time...Happy Easter!