In the Spirit

Romans 8:9
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (NLT)

Jesus told His followers to gather together and wait. He promised to have the Father send the Holy Spirit to live in all believers from then on. As such, we who believe have been sent the Holy Spirit as well.

Wow! We have the spirit of the living God living in us. That is hard to wrap our human minds around. And yet we still sin. We have been brought up listening to man, learning from man, and doing what man does. Unless we give way to the Holy Spirit and let Him speak to us and guide us daily, it is easy to keep on keeping on just as we have always done.

How do we get the Holy Spirit and how do we know we have Him? I believe it happens as soon as we truly accept Jesus into our heart. The only reasons the first followers had to wait was because Jesus had not gone to the Father yet. Since then, He has continued to sit at the right hand of the Father.

In the Great Commission Jesus tells us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Those who believe will be saved and will be baptized. Jesus baptized by fire-the fire of the Holy Ghost. It is then that the Holy Spirit is activated in each believer with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

Later in verses 26-27 Paul speaks about praying in the Spirit, the tongues He has given us. I believe this opens a direct line between our spirit and the Father's spirit. This is how we receive whatever we need from God. This is how we receive power to do the miraculous.

Paul tells us to pray without ceasing and I believe this is about praying in our prayer language. The more we do the stronger in the Spirit we get. Try it!