Where Did my Inner Prompting Go?
ByIt is too frequent of an occurrence. Our lack of understanding the Bible is ever widening and opening the door for the enemy to toy with our minds and affections, to produce worry and anxiety, and to distract and divert us from the business of Gospel Truth Proclamation. Our lack of understanding is killing our joy.
By this point I’m sure you’re asking, “What is he talking about?” I’m talking about eternal security, and a personal assurance that we are truly the children of God. “Am I going to heaven? Am I truly saved? I know that I’ve sinned several hundred times since I accepted Christ earlier this morning, so I just want to make sure that I have not lost my salvation.” These are good concerns to have, but they should not be perpetual irritations about which we go on ever fretting ourselves to death. I believe we can safely and correctly answer the question of a man’s salvation, and move on confidently to other items of pressing concern such as our neighbor’s salvation, or the salvation of the guy who works in the office cubicle down the hall.
There is too much Christian literature which compels us to consistently revisit this question. In a recent book Edmund McDavid asked, “Does God’s Spirit testify to me that I am a Christian?” In response to his own question, he answered with a scripture recitation: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,” (Romans 8:16). Without further explanation and moving on to some other point, McDavid leaves his readers thinking that the Holy Spirit must speak to us in the dark of night as we drift off to sleep, whispering to us, “Hey Josh, this is the Holy Spirit talking, not your imagination. I just wanted you to know that you are in fact going to heaven. I just wanted to share that with you. Have a good night’s sleep. See ya in the morning, buddy.”
So many Christians worry about their salvation because they receive no similar whisperings or inner promptings from the Holy Spirit. The question frequently arises, “Where did my inner prompting go? Did I ever have an inner prompting? I know something happened… but now I’m not so sure what it was that happened. Am I really saved?” The problem is in the fact that you are not reading the verse correctly, and guys like McDavid are twisting it to make it say something that it is not saying. The verse says that the Holy Spirit testifies with your spirit that you are a child of God. The verse is NOT saying that the Holy Spirit is testifying to you. There is a huge difference between “with” and “to.” A correct reading should be, “The Spirit himself testifies WITH our spirit that we are children of God.”
Since this verse is so frequently twisted to suggest that the Holy Spirit is talking to us, we probably need to ask the question, “If the Holy Spirit is NOT talking to us, then who is He talking to?” In the Old Testament, and in Rabbinical law -the rule was that you could not accept the testimony of only one witness. Nothing could be accepted in a court of law that did not have at least two witnesses. Therefore, what this passage of scripture is saying is that when we show up at the Pearly White Gates and God asks us, “Why should I let you into my Heaven,” we can respond to His question, but we will not be the only one responding. As we testify to God that we are His children, there is another One who will add His voice to our own individual testimony: the Holy Spirit. God may not accept our testimony, but He must accept the testimony of the Holy Spirit. The best understanding of this verse is, “The Spirit himself testifies WITH our spirit [TO God] that we are children of God.”
So it’s okay if you don’t have inner promptings from the Holy Spirit every night before you drift off to sleep. I don’t have those mystical experiences, and so I don’t expect you to either. However, this does bring me to an interesting second question. The verse says that “the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit…” Do you know for a fact with your understanding of God and the Scriptures that you have satisfied His requirments for holiness and righteousness? Do you know for a fact that you will go to Heaven when you die? Let’s forget for a second about all this stuff concerning the Holy Spirit. Let us imagine that we are face to face with God, and there’s no worry about anyone else testifying or not testifying on our behalf. Let’s just imagine for a second that as we stand before God He asks the famous question, “Why should I let you into this most glorious and most wonderful place?” What do you say to Him? There is an exclusively correct answer, and if you dont know what it is, then you are in trouble. If you can’t answer that question correctly, then you should not assume that the Holy Spirit is going to testify on your behalf. If you have trouble answering that question, then maybe you should chat with either me or Donnie about it this Sunday morning. We’d love to talk to you about it. We can give you the correct answer to that question. We can help you figure out for sure if the Holy Spirit is on your side or not.
See you Sunday.
In Christ,
Josh