It is through him that we live and function and have our identity. Acts 17:8

I was saying last time that I’m excited that theologians who have dedicated their lives to opposing groups who are embracing the Holy Spirit are publicly saying, maybe we’ve been a little bit wrong. Unless you lose your life you won’t find it but if you lose your life for His sake you will you’ll find his life (Lk 9:24) …and that’s life and life more abundant. This life that we have in Jesus … “as He is so are we in this world”.

And I’m looking forward to the day when those precious believers coming out of their cessationist backgrounds—people who the power of God has broken the chains of unbelief—that those set-free believers actually overtake the zeal and passion of the ones who have for decades and decades enjoyed the reputation of walking in the Spirit but who have grown a little dull and have lost their fire even while they sit week after week in historically ‘Spirit-filled’ churches. 

But you know what? We who are already into the Holy Spirit don’t have to wait for this…we don’t have to wait for our historically cessationist brothers and sisters to lead the way or the historically ‘Spirit-filled’ churches to rediscover what they have allowed to wane. We can recover right now all that’s been lost and reignite the fire of the Holy Spirit in our own lives.

Now I ought to remind you that what I’m talking about isn’t always so terribly mystical. It can be and that’s great. It can also be pretty cerebral. That’s great, too. But in all instances it has to be the Holy Spirit who’s at work.

Someday I’m going to write a series on meditations on ‘The Lies Christians Believe’ because there are a lot of them out there and we do well to acknowledge them in a way that we challenge ourselves to banish them from our thinking. But until I write that series, just let me say that most if not all of those lies will crumble in the presence of the Holy Spirit…because He presents the raw and real, non-GMO Jesus to us—and Jesus is the Truth (Jn 14:6).

Revealing Jesus in us, to us, through us…It’s all the Holy Spirit’s job to bring the power of truth to bear in our lives. If we’re feeling temptation and the evil one is saying that some sin or other is our identity… that you or I must be this or must be that… it’s the Spirit’s job to reveal Jesus… reveal the Truth. ‘Actually no. It’s no longer I who live, It’s Christ who lives in me’ (Gal 2:20).

We’re not that lie. Our identity is not that sin. The Spirit of God in us is alive and we are fully powered by the Spirit of the God. When we feel the condemnation come against us instead of buying it, “let the weak say I am strong” (Jl 3:10). Agree with the Spirit who reminds us that we are in Him. And we can actually say ‘No, I’ve been born again by the Spirit of God and now in Him I live and move and have my being.’