1 John 2:20
“But you have an anointing from the Holy One and all of you know the truth.”
When we become Christians the Holy Spirit lives within us. He brings us into a personal relationship with God. We have new natures. Now with the new nature come new instincts. The presence of the Holy Spirit makes us alive and sensitive to spiritual issues. We are given a new awareness and an intuitive ability to discern between what is right and what is wrong. This does not mean that we do not make mistakes and wrong judgements from time to time, but rather that a new spirit is given to us with a new radar that instinctively seeks out truth.
How many of you reading this have not had the experience of hearing someone preach or comment on the bible and you instinctively know that what the person is saying is not true. You cannot explain it but you know it. You have been given a new nature and this nature makes you instinctively wary when it is presented with certain spiritual issues. John says you have an anointing from the Holy One. That is a way of talking about the new birth and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. One of the main reasons for confusion is that some Christians live with false teaching. Wrong teaching only needs to be a little bit wrong at first, but it sends you off on a wrong track. Therefore our new instincts and discernment is important.
The way to feed this new instinct is to feed it with God’s Word. A true Christian will find a new delight in reading God’s Word and also in hearing it properly proclaimed. People who say they are Christians but never go to Church are only declaring that there is something wrong with their understanding about Christianity. God’s word will feed your new nature and sharpen up your new spiritual instincts and discernment.
Do you have a right spiritual instinct? Do you have a hunger for the Word of God? Then thank God for the anointing He has given you.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I praise you for saving me and for giving me your Holy Spirit. Please help me to keep growing spiritually and please keep me sharp to detect truth from error. Amen