Can you explain what it means for us in reality to be in the Spirit?
This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘God’s Glorious Plan for Creation’ (2007).
In reality, to be in the Spirit, first of all we have to believe what Christ says. The thing that distinguished Christ from John the Baptist, well, let John the Baptist tell you.
I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I . . . He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matthew 3:11)
That is the unique function of Jesus Christ our Lord. No other prophet, not Moses himself, nor the Apostle John or anybody like that, could baptize you in the Holy Spirit. Only Christ could do that, for the Holy Spirit is not so much stuff like electricity, that you flick a switch and it comes on. The Holy Spirit is a divine person, and when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, Peter pointed out to them that this is what this is. This is the explanation:
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing . . . Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Acts 2:32–33, 36)
It's Christ who does it: he puts us in the Spirit. We are in the Spirit in Christ. And the famous verse to be read in this connection is found in Romans 8.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Romans 8:9)
You can't be a true believer without having the Holy Spirit and if the Spirit of God dwells in you, says Paul, you are in the Spirit. That satisfies me as the plain statement of holy Scripture. We have different spiritual gifts, but that's another matter. If the Holy Spirit is in us, we are in the Spirit. We have to learn to believe what God says. By faith we believe it and, if we do, we shall find it works. And if the Holy Spirit is within us we must be open to his leadings and not grieve him by our misbehaviour; and to submit our plans to the direction of the Holy Spirit in our daily life and in our evangelism.
But we start by believing what God has said, not trusting our emotions nor trying to work up our emotions, but by trusting what God has said. He has given us his Spirit and it says in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, that upon believing (that is what the Greek means) 'you . . . were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit' (Ephesians 1:13). God marked you by giving you the Spirit that you belonged to God, and then the Spirit acts as the down payment and the guarantee of our full and final salvation.
