Jonathan Edwards goes on to write about the things that we can expect from a true move of God. Savour this stuff – it’s an awesome testimony of what we can expect!
1/ Jesus is exalted. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God dwells in him and he in God” Edwards points out that confess means more than acknowledge – it is the establishing and confirming of a thing by testimony. “So if the Spirit that is at work is seen to convince them of Christ and lead them to him, confirming their minds that he appeared in the flesh, that his is the Son of God, and was sent to save sinners; that he is the only Saviour, and that they stand in great need of him; and if he seems to beget in them higher and more honourable thoughts of him than they used to have and to incline their affections more to him, it is a sure sign that it is a true and right spirit.
2/Operates against the interests of Satans kingdom. 1 John 4:4 “you have overcome them because greater is he that is in you that he that is in the world”. “So we see that if the spirit that is at work lessens men’s esteem of pleasures, profits and honours of the world and takes their heart off the eager pursuit of these things and engages them in a deep concern about a future state and eternal happiness which the gospel reveals and puts them upon earnestly seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and the spirit that convinces them of the dreadfulness of sin, the guilt it brings and the misery to which it exposes must indeed by the Spirit of God”
3/ Causes a greater regard and love for scripture. 1 John 4:6 “Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know hthe Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” “Every text is a dart to torment the old serpent. He has felt the stinging smart thousands of times; therefore he is engaged against the Bible, and hates every word in it: and we may be sure that he never will attempt to raise persons’ esteem of it, or affection to it”
4/ Spirit of truth leads men to truth. “If a spirit leads men to truth and convinces them of those things that are true, we may safely determine that it is a right and true spirit. For instance if we observe that the spirit convinces men that there is a God, and that he is a great and sin-hating God: that life is short and very uncertain; that there is another world; that they have immortal souls, and must give account of themselves to God, that they are exceedingly sinful in nature and practice and desperately in need of help – the spirit that works thus operates as a Spirit of truth”
5/Spirit of love increases love to God and man. 1 john 4:16 ‘So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.’ “Therefore when a spirit brings many to high and exalting thoughts of the Divine being, and his glorious perfections; and works in them an admiring, delightful sense of the excellency of Jesus Christ; representing him as the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely, and makes him precious to the soul, and convinces us of the wonderful free love of God in giving his only-beggoten Son to die for us and the wonderful dying love of Christ to us who had no love to him but were his enemies, it must indeed be the Spirit of God”
I don’t know about you but just basking in these words excites me about what God is doing and planning to do amongst us! Let’s cry out and press in for the true move of God!
