The reality of our identitySample

We have received a spirit of adoption, not a spirit of slavery

We have received a spirit of adoption, not a spirit of slavery. The Spirit bears witness to our spirit. Some people think they have to listen to a voice that says, “You are a child of God.” Others think that the Spirit will make them feel something beautiful, and then they will feel that they are a child of God. Or that they will experience something supernatural to know they are a child of God. But that is not what the Scripture says. When you don’t feel anything, when nothing happens, it doesn’t mean that you are not a child of God. It is not by feeling, but by faith. Faith precedes feelings; it has to do with the spirit. It is what happens in the reality of our spirit, which has touched the reality of the Spirit of God. 

John, in his Gospel, says that Jesus told the people around Him to examine the Scriptures. This is something that all the children of God must do. They are the ones that give testimony of Jesus, so we must examine them, read them, and allow Christ to reveal Himself through them. The Bible is not a book to keep in the living room as a good luck charm. It is not to be left open on the bedside table so that it will give us protection. No. The Scriptures are to be searched, so that Christ is revealed to us through them, and we can understand that we are children of God. The Scriptures say that you were predestined to be a child of God, that you were not begotten by flesh and blood. You are not the result of your parents’ sexual relationship. You were predestined to be made a child of God.

There are two types of people on Earth: those who know they were predestined to be God's children and those who are lost. The iPhone 6 Plus cell phone was created to fulfill specific functions. Its creators designed it to be a phone, to communicate, to handle the internet, and to do everything the engineers desired. It was predestined to be an iPhone. I can use it in many ways—really, for whatever I want if it belongs to me. I could even use it to clean the tires on my car, because it's mine and I can do whatever I want with it. If I use it like that, what's going to happen to my iPhone? It will be destroyed. The engineers who designed the phone did not predestine it to wash tires, but for a very different purpose. I was predestined to be a child of God. However, when I live for what I was not predestined for, my life does not work.