God's Spirit Lives IN You

Photo by Waiting For The Word

Scripture: Romans 8:9

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Insights: This week in our Believe series we learned about how our identity is in Christ.  I opened up the sermon with the telling of a story of a man who was the son of a country preacher and a prayer warrior mom.  He had many siblings and he was very intelligent.  He became well educated and even taught for a time.  Later he was sent to the America’s as a missionary in the Georgian colony.  On his return voyager to England a horrific storm blew up in the Atlantic and this man was terrified.  He was absolutely scared out of his mind that he would die.  Yet, on this ship, there were some Moravian Brethren who were calm and at ease in the midst of the storm.  They prayed and worshipped God and were content if the ship were to go down.  After the ship made port in England, this man went and spoke with one of these Moravians and a friendship was birthed.  Not long after this event, this teacher, preacher, and missionary went to a revival service.  He went reluctantly, but he did go and while there he encountered Jesus for the very first time and in his journal he wrote, “I felt my heart strangely warmed.”  He was now alive IN Christ Jesus.  His entire identity was changed.  God’s Spirit came upon him and John Wesley was not the same man from that time until his death.  Tomorrow, I will share more about John Wesley and this identity we have in Christ Jesus.

Questions:

1. Does the Holy Spirit dwell in you?

2. Do you realize you can be religious, but lost?

Prayer: Father, help me to understand that my identity is truly in Christ Jesus, and as a result, I am sealed with the Holy Spirit who lives in me.  Amen.