Does God’s Spirit Live In You, Really?

“Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.”

–Romans 8:8-9 (NIV).

There are two ways to answer the question asked in the title to this article. First is how reactively we live in this world; how we respond to people and situations, and whether we do so in a ‘Christian’ way or not. The second is how we proactively live in the world; how we go into the world initiating caring action or Christ’s love where it is required--which is everywhere. Some people are gifted to be exclusively proactive but every Christian should be geared reactively, responding to what they see.

I would argue that if God’s Spirit lives in us we have to respond with love to what we see; it is tenuous as to when responding becomes initiating, so for the purposes of this discussion let’s assume that initiating is responding only to the macro-call of God--life missions and so forth. Not everyone is called thus. Everything else could be what is meant by reactive or responding to what we see. In other words, not everyone is specifically geared to initiate creatively but all might contribute to the work. All can respond.

What links Christ as Saviour to Christ as Lord? I believe the following words, from the song “The Wonderful Cross,” go close to succinctly explaining our response to salvation:

“O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross

Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.”

We might have lived the salvation experience, but is Christ really our Lord? In other words is the presence of the Holy Spirit in us dormant? Is it there at all??

What should people see in those of us who house God’s Spirit?--where his Spirit resides in us. How do we respond? Well, we would not ignore the needs of others; we would consider giving whatever we could give--we would at least seriously consider their needs and how we could meet them. We would seek peaceable relations with all people as far as it depends on us, and we would freely forgive on a daily basis--we’d never let the sun go down without dealing with the corrosion in our hearts. We’d pray for those less off than ourselves as far as our awareness reaches--and we’d seek to widen our awareness and the depth of our compassion. We’d deal with our bad habits and long-standing sins. We’d watch carefully what we say and what we eat. We would seek to learn and grow every day, reflecting on our every day experiences. We’d say sorry, often. This list is inexhaustible.

How does the Spirit of God exist in me? How does his presence set me apart as different to those in the world who refuse to acknowledge Christ as their personal Lord?

Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.