HE GAVE YOU THE HOLY SPIRIT. “And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to them that obey Him.” (Acts 5:32).

When you were baptized into Christ, you body became a temple of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 1 Cor. 6:19). You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1;13). You must now by faith take hold of this truth and allow the Holy Spirit to have possession of your life. He does not force His way in or act contrary to your will. Hence the Lord exhorts us to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) and warns us to “quench not the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19). The Spirit will give you victory over lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:160, enable you to understand the word of God (1 Cor 2:14), and give you the power to serve Christ, to witness for Him and to bear fruit to the glory of God.

 

HE ADDED YOU TO HIS CHURCH. “And the Lord added to them day by day those who were saved.” (Acts 2:47b). The same act of faith which brought you into Christ made you a member of His church which is His body (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:22-23). You are now a part of Christ’s body (1 Cor. 6:15). This is not a figure of speech but a fact just as literal as the fact your hand is a member of your body.  You are not then a member of some man0-made denomination but simply a Christian-one who belongs to Christ. It is not necessary for you to be more than this. If there is a group of Christians in your community who wear the name of Christ, who subscribe to no man’s creed, written or unwritten, but receive the whole counsel of God as the only sole rule for faith and practice and recognize no other authority than that, with them you should take your stand. The Lord wants us to glorify Him in the Church (Eph. 3:21). If there is not such a group with whom you can work and worship, it is still not necessary to join some man-made organization, for the Lord has promised: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). No group or denomination has any truth which you cannot receive and hold by being simply a member of the body of Christ, for in Him “are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.” (Col. 2:3).