PSALM 136:1 – Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

Here is a quick one-question test – “How do Christians know they are filled with God’s Spirit and living under His control?” Yes, there are multiple scriptural answers and multiple wrong answers. One correct answer is found in today’s scripture. Before we identify it, let’s identify a few incorrect answers.

First, evidence of being filled and controlled by God’s Spirit is not affirmed using spiritual gifts. Granted, the Holy Spirit empowers spiritual gifts in the believer, but Scripture doesn’t recognize the use of gifts as being under His control or filling. Yes, study spiritual gifts. We each are responsible for the stewardship of the gift or gifts God gave us. However, the use of a gift is never recognized in scripture as the means to affirm the Spirit’s control of us.

Next, being filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit does not mean we speak in tongues or a strange language that doesn’t make sense. The pouring out of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost is history, not a repeated event in the church or Christian. And the languages spoken were recognized languages (Acts 1:1-11).

Now the positive. What would be the indicators in our lives that we are being filled, controlled, and led by the Holy Spirit? There are quite a few. Read Romans six and eight. Those chapters give us a detailed look at the ministries in the believer by the Spirit of God. But there is one that is simple to define. It is found in today’s scripture.

It is living a life of thanksgiving. In this two-word command is one of the strongest qualities in a Spirit-filled and controlled person. And the Apostle Paul states this in the fifth chapter of his letter to the Ephesians – And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:18-20).

PRAYER: “Lord, forgive me for not living all of my life in the spirit of thanksgiving.”

QUOTE: “Giving thanks is not only a command to obey but the key to a life of joy.”