Knowing The Spirit (ii)
SCRIPTURE: The Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive, for it seeth Him not,
neither knoweth Him: Ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.\’- John 14: 17.
\’Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’ – 1 Cor. 3:16.
But now comes the important question, how do we know when it is the Spirit that is teaching
us? If our knowledge of Divine things is to be to us a certainty and a comfort, we must know
the Teacher Himself. It is only knowing Him that will be to us the full evidence that what we
count our spiritual knowledge is no deception. Our blessed Lord meets this question, with all
the solemn issues depending upon it, by assuring us that we shall know the Spirit. When a
messenger comes to tell of a king, when a witness gives a testimony for his friend, neither
speaks of himself. And yet, without doing so, both the messenger and the witness, in the very
fact of giving their evidence, draw our attention to themselves, and claim our recognition of
their presence and trustworthiness. And just so the Holy Spirit, when He testifies of Christ
and glorifies Him, must be known and acknowledged in His Divine commission and
presence. It is only thus that we can have the assurance that the knowledge we receive is
indeed of God, and not what our human reason has gathered from the Word of God. To know
the King\’s seal is the only safeguard against a counterfeit image. To know the Spirit is the
Divine foundation of certainty. And how now can the Spirit thus be known ?
- Jesus says: \’Ye know Him, for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.\’ The abiding
indwelling of the Spirit is the condition of knowing Him. His presence will be self-
evidencing. - As we allow Him to dwell in us, as we give Him full possession in faith and obedience,
and allow Him to testify of Jesus as Lord, - He will bring His credentials: He will prove Himself to be the Spirit of God. \’It is the Spirit
beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.\’ - It is because the presence of the Spirit as the indwelling teacher of every believer is so
little known and recognised in the Church, and because, as the result of this, the workings of
the Spirit are few and feeble, that there is so much difficulty and doubt, so much fear and
hesitation about the recognition of the witness of the Spirit. - As the truth and experience of the indwelling of the Spirit is restored among God\’s people,
and the Spirit is free again to work in power among us, His blessed presence will be its own
sufficient proof: we shall indeed know Him. Ye know Him, for He shall be in you.\”
Prayer: Please cry out for your household to know Him. All the shouting in our pulpits will
not do the job of impacting nations. Lord, do a quick work. Amen.