When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

                                                                                                            John 15:26-27 

Today: Read John 15

The Holy Spirit always proclaims Jesus

We have already seen that the Holy Spirit resides in the life of every born again believer. He acts as our Teacher, illuminating the very words of scripture and those of Christ so that we can build our lives around those truths. Today’s passage reveals yet another aspect of the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives. The Spirit of God will always testify about Jesus. Consider the words of John:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 

                                                                                                                   1 John 4:1-3

We are instructed to test the spirits. John makes it perfectly clear that the defining point to authenticity is that the Holy Spirit will always confess Jesus Christ. Said another way, if someone is denying that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God then we know that declaration is not from God. Not only is this the litmus test for testing the spirits, it also serves as a way of recognizing Christian authenticity among people. Consider the following: 

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 

                                                                                                                       1 John 4:15 

This passage has been a tremendous help to me as I see the simplicity in identifying fellow believers. There seems to be a trend in Christianity in which criticism of other believers is presented as not only appropriate but justified. John is saying quite the opposite. In other words, we know that we are in the presence of a fellow believer when they confess that Jesus is the Son of God.

It is important here to recognize the possibility of an insincere confession. There are those who will say something but it is done for the purposes of deception. Do you remember those apologies that we had to make when we were kids? You know, the ones we had to make because our parents were making us apologize (usually to a sibling). We would oblige our parents by saying, “I’m sorry” but it wasn’t a heart-felt apology. The same is true for the confession of Jesus. Of course there are insincere confessions made but John is speaking of the genuine confession of Christ that flows from a grateful, transformed heart. These confessions indicate that the person is an authentic believer. They may be early in their maturation process. They may struggle with sin or other issues but the confession of Jesus as the Son of God points to their authenticity. Jesus makes a tremendous promise regarding confession: 

Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

                                                                                                            Matthew 10:32-33 

We can be assured that as we openly confess the name of Jesus to the world that Jesus will confess us before the Father. Remember when Peter made that very same confession, Jesus declared him as blessed by pointing out that the knowledge required for such a confession did not come from mankind rather it had to have come from God (Matthew 16:16-17).

As believers, we have the Holy Spirit of God residing in us. He takes on the role as Teacher, Helper, and Guide. But it is the testimony that Jesus is the Christ that gives us assurance that we are listening to God’s Spirit and that we belong to Him. Share the good news with someone today and confess the powerful name of Jesus!