Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Let me ask a pointed question: "Have you received the Holy Spirit?" The question is sensible, for Romans 8:9 bluntly says that if the answer is "No," you are still in the state in verse 7 of "enmity against God." Even if you are an "elder," a "pastor," or a high-placed church leader.
How can one know if he or she has received the Holy Spirit? In the words of Jesus, the evidence is not an emotional flight of feeling, shouting, rolling on the floor, or talking "unknown" gibberish, or the nice-sounding compliments of fellow church members or clergy.
Have you ever sat in a position for a time that your leg has "gone to sleep," the nerves become numb so you couldn't feel anything in it? When sensation returned, you felt a prickling almost like needles sticking you. Welcome news! You knew the leg was "alive."
According to Jesus, the first and clearest evidence that one has received the Holy Spirit is a painful conviction of spiritual need: "If I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict ... of sin" (John 16:7, 8).
The presence of the Holy Spirit in the life makes you very aware of the difference between your character and that of Christ. Such awareness is impossible apart from receiving the Holy Spirit--for the natural everyday heart-attitude (which psychology and the world encourage) is to be self-satisfied with oneself, "I am [spiritually] rich and ... have need of nothing."
But the presence of the Holy Spirit brings a deep conviction of need: "You are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked" (Rev. 3:17). Bad News? No way! Painful truth is always Good News, for it means there is still hope for you. The final sin against the Holy Spirit is a spiritual lobotomy, a severing of the soul's vagus nerve, leaving you pathetically (eternally) unaware of your true condition in the sight of Heaven.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 30, 1999.
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