How People KNOW You are God's Child

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.  Romans 8:14

 

Did you know that you can control whether people know you are God's child?  There is a way for you to do it.  Two ways to be exact.

 

I learned these ways from a book called "The Power of Presence," by Kristi Hedges.  The point of the book is that your presence is a powerful source of your success in life, and that you have direct control over it. 

I applied this to scriptural truth, and saw how God's presence is the essence of His Kingdom, salvation, eternal life, reality.  His presence in His children is the distinction between true and false religion.  Kristi Hedges speaks of presence in ways that agree with the word of God.  (Where she doesn't, or if she doesn't, I ignore it.)  But where she does, she speaks two significant truths, or gives two types of presence that we determine in our relationships:

 

1. Our Personal Presence
2. Our Situational Presence.

 

You determine by deliberate intention your personal and situational presences.  This is how people know that you are God's child.

 

Your personal presence is how you want to be defined, or known.  What words you want to come to mind when people think of you.  For example, let's say you want to be known as intelligent.  When people think of you, they think, "He's very intelligent."  You want intelligence to define you.  That would be your personal presence, and everything you think, say, and do would need to be congruent with intelligence.  You first intend this deliberately, then you do nothing to contradict it.  This actually fits scripture by the way.  Let's substitute "intelligence" with "wisdom."  If you wanted your personal presence to be one of wisdom, meaning you wanted to be known as a wise man or woman, the scriptures give specific ways to "come across" as wise.

 

• Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent. Proverbs 17:28
• When there are many words transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.  Proverbs 10:19

So according to Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, second only to Christ in wisdom, if you wanted  your personal presence to be wisdom, one way to make that happen is restrain your lips.  We all know this intuitively.  Those who are careful with their words "come across" as wise, or intelligent.  How you want to come across is your personal presence.  And how you want people to feel in different situations when they experience you is your situational presence, the second deliberate choice you make about how you want to be known.

 

If you want people to feel excited when you come around, you should be "exciting."  If you want them feel encouraged, you should be encouraging.  Depending on the situation, and the needs of the situation, your "situational presence" may change, but it will never contradict your personal presence, who you are at your core.  Again this agrees with scripture:

 

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Romans 12:15

 

Even God has "situational presences":
To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd. Psalms 18:25:26

 

Now that you know what personal and situational presence is, and how to bring them about, you can apply them to being known as a child of God.  What better personal or situational presence can you and I have?  Paul tells us how to be known as children of God, so that when people think of you, the word that comes to mind is "child of God."  When people are around you, no matter the situation, they feel like they are in the presence of a child of God.

 

It is by the Spirit of God in you that gives you the personal presence of a child of God; the presence of the Spirit, in  you and with you, as you follow Him, gives you the situational presence of God's children.

 

You were born of the Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus.  This is who you are.  This never changes.
You are led by the Spirit in every situation; you walk in the Spirit; you are led by the Spirit. 

 

Remember, this is intentional and deliberate, and Paul shows us how in very practical words, words that define my life:

• "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that ones slave, whom you obey?"
• "Those who live in accordance with the Spirit set their minds on what the Spirit desires

I am a slave of the Spirit; I've presented myself to the Spirit as His slave to obey Him; therefore I am His slave because I obey Him. This is my personal presence.  It is also my situational presence, because there is never a situation where I am not His slave of obedience.  I want to be known as a slave of the Spirit, as one who obeys the Spirit. I want people to feel that I have only one master, only one will that I submit to, that I am under orders.  Now the beauty of this identity is liberty for me and all who are around me.  In other words, I no longer live according to my will, but only the will of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.  As it is written, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 

If I'm only focused on the Spirit's will, then not only am I not controlled by any other will, but I don't want any body else to be controlled by my will!  As it is also written,

"Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand." Romans 14:4

All I want for me, and for you, is to follow the Holy Spirit. He alone is my master.  And He alone is your master.  This is my personal and situational presence.

What is yours?