Exercising Faith
That faith is the first step toward confirming our sonship was expressed by the Apostle Paul when he wrote:
“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
– Romans 8:16
The “spirit himself” is, we believe, the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13), and “our spirit” is the Spirit of God that dwells within us. (1 Corinthians 3:16) These are the two witnesses that confirm our sonship. Notice that the ‘spirit itself’ is a confirming witness. In other words, it seconds the witness of ‘our spirit.’ So first, we must exercise faith that we are sons of God, then the Spirit of Truth can manifest and add its confirmation of our sonship as a further witness.
Understanding this sequence of events helps us understand why a person who is waiting for a witness from the Spirit before he has faith in his own sonship will be waiting a long time, even forever. We will find ourselves famished while in the very presence of the bread of life. (John 6:40), searching for the very God who lives within us. We will seek for the treasures of the kingdom with yearning hearts and weary feet when all these things are within our immediate grasp if only we could exercise a living faith.
The first leap of faith instantly puts us into a different mental paradigm. Since we are no longer waiting for manifestations that can be perceived by the body, we become spiritual men and women who are led by faith. And then we begin to examine our reality from a spiritual perspective, with the mind of Christ:
“The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
– 1 Corinthians 2:15-16
When we have accepted within ourselves that we are sons of God, then we can expect the Spirit of Truth to bear witness.
