Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Let’s examine how God affirms His classification of us with the Holy Spirit.

Today’s scripture, Ephesians 1:13-14 (NLT) declares…
[13] And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. [14] The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

Consider…
I have a confession, for the past couple of days I have wanted to write about grace, but the Holy Spirit has redirected me. Yesterday, He not only guided me to write about a ressurection reclassification, He told me today’s writing would be about His role in God’s classifications.

He led me to Romans 8:11 (NLT) as an affirming transition from yesterday’s encouragement. It says…
[11] The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

The first affirmation of the Holy Spirit is that He and His ressurection power lives in us. This means, we may get knocked down but because of Him we’re never knocked out.

Continuing with that affirmation, the Holy Spirit led me to 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (NLT), where the Apostle Paul testified…
[21] It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, [22] and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.

The Holy Spirit says that He was placed in our hearts by God, as His confirmation that we belong to Him, and are privy to all of His promises. It reminds me of new employees who receive a security badge on their first day, which identifies them as part of the company, with access to everything assigned to them to produce what the company wants. For my Hi-Tech folks, instead of a badge it might be a retina scan. I like that because I see the Holy Spirit as our heart scan that confirms we belong to God and have access to all that we need to produce what He desires.

2 Peter 1:3-4 (NLT) affirms…
[3] By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. [4] And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

The Holy Spirit is emphasizing, that having Him empowers us to live godly lives!

Now God knows the frailty of our humanity, which means although our Spirit may be willing to live godly, our flesh is weak. However, God reminds us that He has given us the Spirit to help. Galatians 5:16 (NLT) encourages us…
[16] So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

If we listen to and follow the Holy Spirit we can be who God wants us to be.

However, if we don’t Ephesians 4:30 (NLT) cautions…
[30] And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

This tells me that we can belong to God and have His Holy Spirit and still live ungodly. Said another way, we can be saved but still live like a heathen. This is important to understand, because it underscores the gospel that says we’re saved by grace. That means God saves us based on His love extended through Jesus Christ and our acceptance and belief of Him. But just because we accept Jesus as our Savior doesn’t mean we have submitted to Him as our Lord.

I believe this way because Paul pleaded with believers in Romans 6:1-12 (NLT)…
[1] Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? [2] Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? [3] Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? [4] For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. [5] Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. [6] We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. [7] For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. [8] And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. [9] We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. [10] When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. [11] So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. [12] Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.

The Holy Spirit is telling us, that while He has been placed in us by God to help us live holy, He can’t make us do anything. Which by the way is also true of the sinful nature in us, it’s powerless over us. This means we have control over our thoughts and actions. Thus why Paul wrote Ephesians 4:21-24 (NLT) which exhorts…
[21] Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, [22] throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. [23] Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. [24] Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Notice the words Paul uses…

• Heard
• Learned
• Throw off your old
• Let the Spirit renew
• Put on

This means living godly is our responsibility, with the help of the Holy Spirit. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

Now I must admit, it can be tiring trying to live holy in this unholy world. But the Holy Spirit led me to 2 Corinthians 5:2-5 (NLT) for encouragement. It says…
[2] We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. [3] For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. [4] While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. [5] God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is affirming our godly living will not be in vain.

Another thing the Holy Spirit affirms is we have the highest clearance with God. I enjoy watching law enforcement shows, and I am fascinated with the ones that highlight the elite teams. Part of what defines an elite team is the level of access it has to sensitive confidential information. Well, according to 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 (NLT), we have the highest access to God’s classified information. It says…
[10] But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. [11] No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. [12] And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

The Holy Spirit says that He affirms we have full access to the secrets of God.

Not only that, we can confidently and directly go to God. Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)
encourages us…
[16] So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

I could go on and on, but the Holy Spirit is telling me to end with a final perfect affirmation.

Hebrews 10:14-18 (NLT) says…
[14] For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. [15] And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says, [16] “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” [17] Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” [18] And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

The Holy Spirit affirms that we imperfect people are classified as perfect, and are becoming holy by God. That’s because our sins were forgiven by Jesus’ atoning blood sacrifice.

The Holy Spirit provided 1 John 3:1-3 (NLT) as affirmation. It says…
[1] See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. [2] Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. [3] And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.

As well as Romans 8:29-30 (NLT), which says…
[29] For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. [30] And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

Rather focusing on this world’s identifications, focus on the Holy Spirit’s and live accordingly.

Today’s Song is…
Holy Spirit

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)