The Spirit of God Comes With Evidence

"It is easier to see what is before your eyes than to believe what is not."¹ This is a statement most people would agree with. We understand that there are limitations to what we can see with our eyes. There are things that can trick the eye and cause us to believe what we see isn't always what it is. However, most things we know to be true are something we have perceived with one of our senses. When we try to apply this to God it becomes difficult. We can't see God. "No man hath seen God at any time."² There is no sense that can perceive God. So what causes us to believe in something we can't see or perceive?

We know that it's hard to believe in something we can't see. God understands this too. Since we can't see Him we need Him to show Himself to us. This paper will revolve around one premise. Whatever is real will show evidence of itself and its presence. If it doesn't show evidence of itself then it can't be proven to be real.

What we will not do is try to prove the existence of God. Nor are we going to say that all who believe will show all the signs listed in scripture. We will simply show how this premise can be applied to the physical world. And that scripture applies the same logic to the presence of God's Spirit in a believer's life. We will do this in three parts.

As humans we know that we believe in things based on evidence or we know something to be true because we perceive it to be true. There is a difference between these two. Something can cause us to perceive something incorrectly. Or we can correctly perceive something but not believe it. Either way we believe in things because something outside of us causes us to believe. We believe that when it comes to God he has provided us with something to believe in.

Paul states that God has made himself known through what he created. This is known as general revelation. By studying what God has created we can see that there is something greater than us. Some who don't believe in the God of the Bible still believe that something greater than us created everything. Paul takes this one step further and says that we should know that God exists. Because we can see his power and greatness. Which leads us to the next point: we should worship Him.³

Once we believe we know that God can do things that we can't explain. Then we have to ask what is he incapable of doing? We shouldn't believe that because God has allowed us to see that he is real we know why he does everything he does. We just have to believe that he will tell us the truth about who he is and what he will do. We believe in God just like we believe in everything else we know to be true. That is faith.

When something is hard to believe we usually don't. If it doesn't make sense to us or we don't want to believe it we won't. People who say that everything came from an accident believe this. Because there is no evidence to show that creation came from an accident. God has shown us that he is real. Now we can apply our premise to the physical world.

God made man from dust and gave him life. He created us to be physical beings with a physical body that could travel in this physical world. Our physical body allows us to perceive our environment through our five senses. We can see, hear, smell, taste and touch things that are around us. Everything that is physical shows evidence that it is there and that it's real. There is nothing that we know of in the physical world that doesn't show evidence that it's real. If someone could show us something that didn't we would have to reconsider our premise.

There are some things that are physical that we can't perceive with our senses. Do these go against our premise? No, they show themselves through other physical objects. An example of this would be carbon monoxide. You can't see it, smell it, hear it, feel it or taste it. But if you breathe it in it will prevent your blood from absorbing oxygen and you will pass out and eventually die. We know that it's there because of what it does to your body. Another example is the magnetism that surrounds the earth. We can't perceive it with any of our senses and it doesn't harm us. But we can see it when a compass points north and south. And the northern lights are a result of the earth's magnetic field.

One more example that people may think goes against our premise is a shadow. A shadow isn't physical. It's caused by two physical objects: light and an object blocking the light. A shadow only has meaning when you have light to show it. So we know that a shadow isn't going to go against our premise. Because it's only visible when something physical is causing it.

Now we come to the point of this paper. If the physical shows itself to be physical. Then we should expect the supernatural to show itself to be supernatural. God is real and he is supernatural. So he should show evidence that he is real and that he is there. That evidence should also be supernatural.

There are two things we notice about these signs. One, they will follow those that believe. They are caused by the Holy Ghost when a person believes and is born again. Two, they are not caused by man. Man is not capable of doing these things.⁴ Man is not supernatural and man isn't holy. Only God is supernatural and holy. So when someone shows these signs we can tell that God is working through that person.⁵

Many Christians don't believe that these signs should happen today. They believe that the signs in Mark 16 only happened during the apostles' time and stopped after that. Or they believe that the only sign that someone is filled with the Holy Ghost is that they have a changed life. We know that when someone is filled with God's Spirit they will have a changed life. But are we saying that they are the only signs? Jesus told us that he did these works and that whoever believed on him would do the same works that he did.

We have to understand that only those who are born of the Holy Ghost can do these works.⁶ Jesus tells us in John 3:5 that we have to be born of water and the Spirit.

When the Holy Ghost fell on the disciples at Pentecost. They were able to do things that no man could do.

Just like the disciples, when Jesus was on earth the Holy Ghost lived in him. The works that Jesus did were done by the Holy Ghost. There are three scriptures that tell us this.

We know from Romans 8:11 that the Holy Ghost actually lives in us. It isn't something that we assume we have but we receive it. When someone is born again they speak in tongues.⁷ This is a sign that God has accepted you⁸ and you have been born into the body of Christ.⁹ The new birth is an experience with God.¹⁰ Not just a state of mind or a way of life. You must receive the Holy Ghost.¹¹

So what about the changed life we talked about earlier? Of course when someone is born again they will think differently and live differently. If they don't there is something wrong. We are just saying that having a changed life isn't a sign that someone is born again. Someone can change their life by using willpower. But they can't do what the Holy Ghost can do.

Scripture tells us that God has always showed his power through men. Samson killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey.¹² People would lay the sick in the streets so that Peter's shadow could fall on them and they would be healed.¹³ We believe that God is still doing this today. Here is what Paul says about God's power working through the people of God.

Notice verses 7 and 13. Verse 7 says that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man. Verse 13 tells us who every man is. Those who have been baptized by one Spirit into one body.

You may ask, what about the gifts listed in this chapter? "Divers kinds of tongues" is one of the gifts. Not everyone will receive every gift. Paul even asks, "do all speak with tongues?" No. We believe that the gifts Paul is talking about in this chapter are meant for the profit of others and aren't for every believer. Speaking in tongues when you are born again is a sign that you have received the Holy Ghost.⁷ And everyone who is baptized by one Spirit into one body will receive this sign.

We started this paper by stating that whatever is real will show evidence of itself and its presence. We can see that the physical world shows evidence that it's there. And that scripture shows that the supernatural should show evidence that it's real too. God is real and he is supernatural. So the evidence should show that he is working in our lives through supernatural ways. We should all ask ourselves: if God isn't showing us that he is real through supernatural ways, what is he showing us?