Pentecostal Assurance
Exhortation | Lord's Day—June 8, AD 2025
As we praise God for His Spirit sent forth upon the church at Pentecost, it is good to meditate upon the Spirit’s benefits to us as believers. For before our Lord Jesus departed, He told the disciples that His departure was actually for their good, as He would send the Helper and Comforter to them (Jn. 14).
One work of the Spirit in your life is the assurance of salvation—the knowledge and certain comfort that through faith you truly belong to Christ. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (vv. 14–17).
Do you hear that? The Spirit speaks to our own spirits, to our inner man, that we are indeed God’s children. That we forever belong in His family. Think about this. Do your children ever look up at you, while sitting in your lap or holding your hand in a store, and wonder to themselves, “Is he really my dad?” No, of course not! And if they were to do that, it would break your hearts, for in a godly home, they are so surrounded by love, they feel so protected and cared for, that they have full assurance that you are their father. That is how God desires for you to relate to Him. By the gracious work of the Holy Spirit, you can have full assurance that you are a child of God.
When the Spirit was poured out upon our Lord Jesus at His baptism, His Father in heaven declared over Him, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17). You have received that same Spirit who descended upon Christ. And one way He is conforming you into the image of Christ is by increasing your understanding and assurance that God is your good Father, so that you, just like Christ, may hear these same words in your hearts, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”