By: Jessica Huber

Proverbs 4:19
The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble.

A friend of mine shared a verse and commented on something she heard, “you can play the Christian but have a bad heart.” There is truth in that!
It directed my mind to my own studies! I just Love when God connects his children through sharing his word.

I recently read a story in Acts 19 and in the beginning Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

It goes on to tell about these Jewish priests who tried to go around casting demons out of people. They were saying “In the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches”
One day the evil spirits spoke back to them and said.. JESUS I know and Paul I know about, but Who are you?? Then they attacked the Jews. The scripture says they were left naked and beaten.
So what was it that had these guys wanting to perform these miracles? What drove them? Were they using the Lord’s name for a self gain? Who knows, but their hearts apparently did not really believe That JESUS was Lord, it most certainly did not contain The Holy Spirit.
They were exposed!
Goodness, the evil spirits weren’t even fooled by their declarations! These men were of no threat whatsoever and the evil spirits pounced on the fact that the priests had no connection to JESUS at all!
This became an example to others and The Name of The Lord was seen to be truly honored and not something to be thrown around.

People can claim themselves to be a Christians, they can consistently sit on a church pew, they can and do even speak The Holy Name of Jesus but who are they deceiving if even demons know better. The only one getting played is the one who stares back from the mirror.
Apart from Christ we are nothing.
Apart from Him we are left wide open for the attack!

What is it to be called a Christian? Where is the proof found?

I The Lord search The Heart and Examine the mind!

Proverbs 27:19
As in water face reflects face, So the heart of man reflects man.

Matthew 7
21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.22“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

John 3:1-21
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

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

The Holy Spirit is the revealer and the connector, He is the interpreter of The Way The Truth and The Life.

1 Corinthians 2
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”
the things God has prepared for those who love him

10these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.c14The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the spirit.
We are known by the fruit that we produce as Mathew 7:16 says
by their fruit you will recognize them.
This fruit is the Evidence. The fruit shows if we have the Holy Spirit Working and dwelling within, it also show if we do not.

Matthew 7:18
“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

John 15:5-6
5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Galatians 5:25
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

May your heart reflect The Glory of The Lord!