Reference: Galatians 3:1-2
Do you my friend claim to be a born againchild of God that has been filled with the Spirit of Almighty God? Have youbeen given rock solid assurance that you do possess the gift of the Holy Ghostin your life, or are you in complete darkness about the truth of the baptism ofthe Holy Ghost? Are you aware of the fact that you can think you have the HolySpirit in your life when actually you may not? The Holy Ghost is a gift that isgiven to those that are true believers of the word of God. Many today don'thonestly know whether they have the Holy Ghost in their life or not. And manybelieve they have it when actually they do not. The receiving of the Holy Ghostis done very simple through and by the act of faith. There are people in theworld today that claim they have thegift of the Holy Ghost by their believing they spoke in other tongues as thedisciples did on the day of Pentecost. I must give credit to the Pentecostalpeople today based on the fact they at least believe one must be throughlyconvinced that the Holy Ghost is in their lives, but the tongues evidencedoctrine is not the evidence that one has received the gift of the Holy Ghost.The Bible very plainly reveals how one can receive that Holy Ghost and havesolid evidence to convince them, but you must have faith to receive it. Faithis something that a very precious few actually have in the day that we live in.Faith is an evidence not seen but yet you believe you do possess what you donot as of yet see. In other words you must first believe that you have what youasked for without seeing it with your natural eyes.
To receive the Holy Ghostis done by your obedience to the word of God as stated in the Bible. The Bibletells us in Acts 5:32 that the Holy Ghost is given to those that obey God. Toobey God is to obey his word revealed in the gospel. The word of God says in Acts 2:38 to "repent and be baptized every one of you in the name ofJesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of theHoly Ghost." If you are atrue believer of the word of God then you will repent and be baptized asaccording to Acts 2:38 and you will believe that you received the Holy Ghost as isstated. Your evidence is based on the fact that you believe the word of Godknowing that God cannot lie. If your earthly father told you that he will giveyou one hundred dollars if you worked for him five days would you believe himor would you have to see the money first? Do you have confidence in yourfather's word? If you do then why can't you have confidence in the HeavenlyFather's word and repent and be baptized in Christ's name and claim the promiseof the Holy Ghost? God will gladly give you the gift of the Holy Ghost if youare willing to do what he tells you to do in his word. You must believe theword as to what it states in order to receive what it states. God willpositively give you complete assurance that you did receive what was stated ifyou are obedient to his written word. People who expect to speak in tongues forthe evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost are not placing their faith in whatthe word says. I say this because the word of God absolutely does not say thatyou will or must speak in tongues when you receive the Holy Ghost. You mustbelieve what the word of God states in order to receive the Spirit and the wordsays to repent and be baptized in Christ's name and you shall receive thegift of the Holy Ghost. If you do as his word states in Acts 2:38 you will thenhave a greater desire for the truth that the Bible reveals. This love for thetruth of God's word is the Spirit in your heart leading you into all truth thatwill set you free. You can only know and experience Christ in your life by yourdoing what the word says to do. Just to hear the word will not justify you inthe very least. Your obedience to the word is what will give you assurance ofits truthfulness and its life giving power. On your job that you work at youare promised a certain amount of pay for every hour you put in. After you haveput in your weekly hours you will receive your pay that you were promised.While you were putting in the hours of work during the week, you no doubt hadto sweat a little and wait patiently for payday. When payday finally came youthen were glad that you put in the amount of hours required. If you failed towork during the week then you would not receive any pay because you did not dowhat was required in order to be able to receive any pay. Your hearing what theword of God says will not justify you because the Bible plainly says that "all scripture is inspired of God, and is profitable fordoctrine, for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousnessthat the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all goodworks." (II Timothy 3:16-17)The word of God revealed in the gospel are words of instructions that willperfect the believer of it, but we are told in Proverbs1:7 that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: butfools despise wisdom and instruction." Doyou despise to be instructed thinking that you are rich and increased withgoods and are in need of nothing when all the time you may be wretched, andmiserable, and poor, and blind, and naked not really knowing or realizing it?You may think you have the Holy Ghost upon your confession of Christ taking himas your personal Saviour, but if you fail to receive the truth of the gospelthen you my dear sincere friend do not have the Holy Ghost because the Spiritis given specifically for this very purpose. If you repent and are baptized inthe name of Jesus Christ as the Bible states then you will go on and receivethe revealed truth of the gospel because the truth will throughly convince youof salvation strengthening you spiritually.... You won't stop with repentanceand water baptism like many have done thinking that the reception of the Spiritis all there is to salvation because the Spirit will lead you into all truththat the gospel contains. Coming to the knowledge of the word of truth is whatsets you free from the power of sin etc. The truth is the convincing evidenceof having the gift of the Holy Ghost in your heart and life. The whole plan ofsalvation is a process of faith in God's word as revealed in the gospel. Thistruth is what Satan has blinded from the minds of the people today andespecially the clergy. If you have true faith then you will receive and obeyevery revealed word of God in the gospel of Christ. I certainly believe thatthe Lord Jesus Christ is soon to return to this earth again. Do you think hewill find any faith when he comes? What about you? Do you have faith in theword of God as revealed in the gospel? Are you one that is caught up with thecares of this life to really know or care about your condition as God sees you?SOME WILL, SOME WON'T: SOME CAN, SOME DON'T. Which are you my friend??