The Path of Belief

Ephesians 1:13-14 NLT says, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

I wanted to follow up with the prompt from Tuesday about our inheritance with Christ. Ephesians 1 is full of promises we can anchor ourselves to no matter where we are in our faith journey.

Today we are talking about the Holy Spirit. According to Ephesians, the Spirit is a seal. It guarantees our inheritance and testifies to our coming glory.

I don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves and start to fear our salvation because we do not have radical encounters with God every morning. I will be the first to say that there are many seasons we go through as believers, and just one of those seasons is a season of frequent encounters.

Here at People of Freedom, we deeply value and welcome encounters with God. We even have an entire portion of our ministry dedicated to facilitating such moments for people. Still, we are careful not to build our faith around these moments. We do our best to respond to these encounters with the truth of Ephesians 1:13-14. Those moments, and the many others that come in our lives, are deposits that guarantee our future hope and glorification.

When we experience his glory in worship or the secret place, it serves (among other things) as a reminder that we are his special possession and that he is coming back for us.

There are mountaintop moments and valleys, but part of our daily discipline is learning to see God in all of those moments. He is there—even when we do not feel him.

That the seal of the Holy Spirit comes when we believe, but sometimes we hide from the Spirit out of fear or uncertainty. I want to present you with an invitation to open yourself up to recognizing that seal from the Holy Spirit. It comes through the path of belief. And belief comes through hearing the message of truth.

That truth is that Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby boy, putting on flesh, to suffer and die on a cross in our place. He overcame death and the grave and is seated at the right hand of God the Father! He lives to intercede, and his blood purifies you of all sin and shame. The Father has sent his Holy Spirit to live in you and prepare you for eternal glory in heaven!

If you believe this, you can lean into that faith. Ask God to lead you through belief into an awareness of his Spirit in you and around you today.

Amen.

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