David Jeremiah - The Best Evidence of the Spirit
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Well, you know I have been speaking on the Holy Spirit, and today as we conclude that series, I want to ask you a question. I want you to think about this. Here’s the question: What is the greatest evidence of someone being filled with the Holy Spirit? How would you recognize a truly Spirit-controlled individual if you ran into him today and had the opportunity to talk for a while? What would tip you off?
You might say, «Well, I know that man has a powerful witness for Jesus Christ; he must be Spirit-filled.» Or some would say, «I heard that she speaks in tongues, so she must be filled with the Spirit of God.» But what does the Word of God say? How can we really determine if a person has been filled or is controlled by the Holy Spirit?
You may find what I’m going to say today rather surprising. And yet, as I began to chase this concept, it showed up again and again in the main texts of the New Testament. For me, it was one of those «aha» moments—scriptures where you sit back in your chair and say, «Yes, that makes sense, ” but I never realized it before. I believe the best evidence of a Spirit-filled life is thanksgiving and gratitude.
It was December of 1914 when Thomas Edison’s great laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, were almost entirely destroyed by fire. In one night, Edison lost $2 million worth of equipment and the record of much of his life work. Edison’s son, Charles, ran frantically about trying to find his father. He finally came upon him standing near the fire, his face red in the glow and his white hair blown by the winter winds. „My heart ached for him, ” Charles said. He was no longer young, and everything was being destroyed. Then he spotted me, and he said, „Where is your mother? Find her. Bring her here. She has never seen a fire like this in her life.“
The next morning, walking around the charred embers of so many of his hopes and dreams, 67-year-old Edison said, „There’s great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start all over again.“ What a perspective on life! What an attitude of gratitude! The Bible speaks often about having a thankful spirit. You can’t read the Bible very much without discovering it. Words like „thanks, ” „thankful, ” and „thanksgiving“ show up more than 150 times. And more than 30 times in the Bible, we are directly commanded to be thankful. But it may surprise you that the Bible often and very carefully links the spirit of gratitude with victory in the Christian life.
I’ll be honest with you; I think most of us, your pastor included, probably have thought gratitude was nice. We all should have it. But some people don’t have it, and some people do, and it’s no big deal. Try to get it if you can, but don’t worry too much if you don’t. But that is not the message of the Bible— not at all. For instance, in the Bible, we are told that when you have a grateful heart, you will have victory in your life. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says, „Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ Jesus.“ And in 1 Corinthians 15:57, there it is again: „Thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.“ Thanks and triumph. Thanks and victory. Thanks is comfortable in victorious places. Victory and triumph are in the same context as gratitude.
You show me somebody who’s experiencing spiritual victory and who exudes a sense of triumph, then I can almost promise you, dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that person is grateful and thankful, filled with a spirit of gratitude. Gratitude, you see, is the best evidence that God is in us and that He’s working in our lives. Why do I say that? Because in the world in which we live, there are so many reasons to be ungrateful. So many reasons to complain. But if the Spirit of God is in us, He will give us a heart that notices the blessings, even when we are aware of the burdens.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned, the doctrine of gratitude has been relegated by some to an optional and seasonal spirit. Gratitude, as I have watched it, is sometimes looked upon as that which good Christians do on occasion instead of that which marks the life of every believer. A spirit of thanksgiving should be true of all of us if we know Jesus Christ and if God’s Holy Spirit is in control of our lives. And I’d like to demonstrate that to you today in a very simple but unique way with five passages of scripture that build the case and lead up to the triumphant passages at the end.
Here’s the first one: A Spirit-filled Christian is controlled by the Spirit, and gratitude is the result. Ephesians 5 says, „And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus, submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord.“ Now, believe it or not, I’m sure you won’t believe it; I was an English major in college. I know a little bit about grammar, and I know that words that end in -ing like this are participles, and participles are words that convey a continuing action.
So, look at the verse again and notice how many -ing words there are: Speaking to one another, singing, making melody, and giving thanks. The words that end in -ing are words that describe what goes on in the life of a man or woman who is being filled with the Spirit. One of the evidences is that you will find yourself with joy in your heart, singing and speaking to others in psalms and hymns, making melody in your heart to the Lord not just on Sunday, but all week long. Joined together with these first three words is the expression „giving thanks.“ Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the third evidence of a Spirit-filled Christian is the gratitude in his heart—thanksgiving to God for all that He has done. Literally, the text says, „Be being filled with the Spirit, giving thanks always for all things.“ Later in the message, we will see that Paul commands us to give thanks in all things.
But, lo and behold, the excuse we have given, or the answer we have given to people who have asked us how we can be thankful for all things, is that we have sometimes said the Bible doesn’t say „be thankful for all things.“ It says „be thankful in all things.“ But, unfortunately, the Bible says, „be thankful for all things.“ Is it even possible to do that? Before we talk about giving thanks when life is hard, let me just give you a verse of scripture that might help you get started in the right direction: Psalm 103, verses 2-5: „Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; Who forgives all of your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.“ That’s a pretty good place to start with gratitude, isn’t it? We all have quite a few more things than we could add to that list. But what about the hard things? How are we supposed to be thankful for them? How am I supposed to be thankful for what happened to me on Labor Day in 2023?
Paul’s not saying that we should thank God for evil as if it were good. Rather, we thank God that He is sovereign over everything and can bring good out of evil. Martin Lloyd-Jones added it this way: He said, „We’re not thanking God for the thing itself, but for the spiritual benefit that comes through it and for His presence in it.“ I have to admit there’s still a lot of mystery in this for me. But when the Holy Spirit fills you, something happens that you can’t quite explain, but you can absolutely experience. And when adversity comes into your life, you begin to sense God’s presence in a special way, and you don’t know how to explain it. You say, „Pastor, when I went through that divorce, or when I went through that death, or when I went through that tragedy in my business, I got to tell you the Lord was so close to me; I could almost feel Him. I felt the Lord so present in my life during that time.“
Now, class, let me tell you something you need to know. God is never more present to you one time than He is another. He’s always, always with you. But when you go through hard times, you become sensitive to His presence in your life, and it becomes very special to you. So you give thanks that even in the midst of all these terrible things that are happening, you don’t thank Him for the things that are happening—you thank Him for the fact that in the middle of it, God is present. William Law, writing in the 18th century, made a good point when he said, „Would you like to know who is the greatest saint in the world? No, it isn’t the one who prays the most or fasts the most. It isn’t the one who gives the most, but it’s the one who is always thankful to God, who receives everything as an instrument of God’s goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it.“ Listen, the greatest saint in the world is the one who is always thankful. And Ephesians 5 says when you are controlled by the Spirit of God, thanksgiving will be the result of it—giving thanks in all things.
Number two: A Spirit-filled Christian is committed to the Word of God, and gratitude is the result. Here’s an interesting thing: Paul wrote these two letters, Philippians and Colossians, perhaps even on the same day. And the letters have passages that are very similar. I’m going to read this, and you’re going to think I was reading the one I just read, but I’m not. This is Colossians 3:16–17: „Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord; and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.“ This sounds similar to Ephesians, but here’s the difference. In Ephesians, we’re told that when you’re filled with the Spirit of God, one of the results will be giving thanks. In Colossians, we’re told when you’re filled with the Word of God, one of the results will be giving thanks. A Spirit-filled Christian gives thanks. But how many of you know if you’re filled with the Spirit, you’re also going to be filled with the Scripture? You can’t be filled with the Spirit without being filled with the Word of God. And the Bible is the Holy Spirit’s toolbox; it’s the instrument He uses to change and conform us. And Paul is saying that when you spend time as a Spirit-filled Christian reading the Bible, you will come out a grateful person. It is the natural result of being filled with the Word of God. Get filled with the Spirit of God, and you’ll be thankful. Get filled with the Word of God, and you’ll be thankful.
I once heard a pastor say he could often tell what kind of person a person was by how they prayed and what part of the Bible they were reading. He said that when a person prays in an anxious and worried tone, they probably have not been reading God’s promises. God’s promises remind us that He will always take care of us like a good Father. When someone sounds resentful or hard-hearted, he would say they probably skipped the Psalms because the Psalms soften our hearts and remind us to praise the Lord. But when a person prays with a warm and thankful spirit, we smile and we say, „That guy must be studying the gospel.“ The gospel shows us what Jesus did for us, and when we see that clearly, our hearts are filled with gratitude and thanksgiving.
So here’s the first three: A Spirit-filled Christian is controlled by the Spirit of God, and gratitude is the result. The Spirit-filled Christian is committed to the Word of God, and gratitude is the result. Number three: A Spirit-filled Christian is characterized by peace, and gratitude is the result. Colossians 3:15 says, „And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.“ When a person is characterized by peace, the result is exactly the same as a person who is controlled by the Spirit and a person who is committed to the Bible. Peace is one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. So, if we’re filled with the Spirit, peace will be part of the manifestation of the presence of the Spirit in our life. As everywhere Paul talks about peace, he talks in the same context about thanksgiving. I’m sure there may be passages where that’s not true, but I haven’t found them.
I have to laugh when I think back to my early years as a pastor. I would be studying my way through one of the epistles, caught up in Paul’s argument, clear, orderly, logical teacher that he was. Then all of a sudden, he would seem to launch himself into an idea that was off the topic. And I would say to myself, „I know a rabbit trail when I see one, and that is a rabbit trail! That’s not the subject you were talking about.“ I finally realized something about these rabbit trails of Paul. Whenever Paul did those quick turns in the text and seemed to head down a different track, it was because he was overcome with a sense of gratitude for what God had done for him in his life. He would come to a place in his teaching and his reasoning where the reality of what the Spirit of God was leading him to say would suddenly overwhelm him. He couldn’t go on to the next point until he had a little praise party. So he had a little worship service in his own heart and snuck into his letters and confused a young pastor named David Jeremiah. But logic, I learned, isn’t everything. Logic has to leave room for praise—praise to God for all that He has done. And the Bible says when you are governed by peace, gratitude will be a part of the package.
Here’s number four: A Spirit-filled Christian is constantly in prayer, and gratitude is the result. Philippians 4:6 says, „Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.“ Now, many people read this verse a little differently. They don’t read it correctly. They read it like this: „Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving.“ But the word before „thanksgiving“ is not „and“; the word is „with.“ You say, „Well, what difference does that make?“ Well, it makes a lot of difference because the „with“ in this verse means that whether it is prayer or supplication or any other kind of praying to God, it is always to be mixed with thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving belongs to all the properties of prayer. Paul says, „When you pray with supplication, make sure thanksgiving is a part of it. When you pray with adoration, make sure thanksgiving is a part of it. Don’t ever pray without thanksgiving.“ When you are interceding for someone, praying for someone—your kids, your family, your parents—it’s always with thanksgiving. When you’re a watchman on the wall for your church or your family or your nation, don’t forget that all these requests— all of them—should be mixed and blended generously with thanksgiving to God for all He has done. „In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.“
Ruth Graham once wrote about waking at 3:00 in the morning while she was overseas. She said she was exhausted when all of a sudden the name of a loved one who was running from God hit her with fear. She began to pray, but her mind kept circling the problems. Then she sensed the Lord say to her, „Ruth, quit studying the problems; start studying the promises.“ So she turned on the light. She opened her Bible. And the first verse she saw was Philippians 4:6: „with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.“ She realized that she’d been pleading without thanking. So she began to thank God for His faithfulness, His wisdom, and for the person she loved so much. She said, „You know what happened? It was as if suddenly someone turned on the lights in my mind, heart, and soul, and the little fears and worries, which like mice and cockroaches had been nibbling away in the darkness, suddenly scuttled for cover.“
In Philippians 4:6, Paul seems to be mentioning several kinds of prayer, but he focuses in on one kind of response, and that is the response of gratitude. It is to be present in all of our prayers, no matter what the content might be: „in everything by prayer and supplication with”—underline that little word in your Bible—“with thanksgiving.“
So we have discovered that a Spirit-filled Christian is controlled by the Spirit and gratitude is the result. A Word-filled or Bible-filled Christian is committed to the Word of God and gratitude is the result. A Spirit-filled Christian is characterized by peace and gratitude is the result. A Spirit-filled Christian is constantly in prayer and gratitude is the result.
And here’s the final point, and I got to tell you this point is so clear that if I ever preached anything that I knew for sure was absolutely what God would want me to say—every single word of it—I’m going to do that right now. Many of you have questioned what the will of God for your life is. Maybe you’ve come to me and asked me, „How do I know the will of God?“ I’ve answered that question for a lot of people, and sometimes we don’t know the exact parameters of God’s perfect will. We know the general will of God. But I want to tell you something: In the Bible, several places we are told exactly what the will of God is without any possibility of us understanding it in any other way than in the plain and simple words in which it is written. Are you ready for this? A Spirit-filled Christian is concerned with the will of God, and gratitude is the result. 1 Thessalonians 5:18: „In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.“ What part of that don’t we understand? The will of God for all of us is gratitude. One of the undeniable parts of God’s will for every single Christian is found in this verse. Could the will of God be any clearer than this? Do you have to pray about this? No, you don’t have to pray about whether you should be thankful, because God already told you what the answer is.
And the controversy of this, the contrary aspect of this, is just as clear. If you are not grateful, what is true? You’re not in the will of God. You say, „Pastor, that’s pretty harsh.“ No, that’s just true. That means complaining, grumbling, pessimism, despair—all of these things are not in the will of God. If it’s the will of God to give thanks, then we’re out of the will of God if we don’t give thanks.
Let me show you how powerfully this is illustrated in the rest of the Bible. In the book of Romans, chapter 1, there’s a profound passage of scripture that describes the devolution of culture. In other words, what happens when culture is left to itself and God is not present? Here, the writer of Romans, the Apostle Paul, describes what happens in verses 21 and 22 of the first chapter. He says, „Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.“ Paul told the Romans, „Let me tell you what happens to a culture that rejects God: They will go down, down, down. And one of the evidences of their decadence is they will be lacking in gratitude.“ They will not.
Now, let me ask you a question. Think of the culture. What television programs did you watch this week? What news programs? What did you read on the internet? Is there any gratitude for God left? Is there, here and there, a little bit of the Charlie Kirk influence, maybe? But God is being pushed out of everything. God is being isolated from culture. You mention God, and you might lose your job. You talk about it in school, and you could be put on leave for a while. The Bible says that one of the characteristics of a culture that’s gone south is there’s no gratitude to God. And we are there, whether we like to believe it or not—not here in this place, but in our culture.
But here’s one more thing. Later on, Paul talks to us about what it will be like when Jesus comes back. I read this, and I think we might be getting close to that too as well in 2 Timothy 3. Here’s what he said: „But know this: that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.“ And gratitude travels in some pretty bad company, does it not? And gratitude is comfortable with all of the sins listed in these verses. When you are controlled by the Spirit of God, gratitude will start to exude from your life. It may catch you by surprise. It will certainly catch others by surprise when they notice your change in attitude. And you will know what is coming forth from your life is not something that’s natural for you.
Let me say it: Pure gratitude, no matter what time you’re living in, is not natural. It’s supernatural. It takes the Spirit of God within you to be able to do that. It’s the supernatural evidence of the Spirit of God at work in your life. Gratitude is the will of God for everyone, and it’s the will of God for everything: 1 Thessalonians 5:18: „In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.“ In everything give thanks.
Dr. Lee Salk was a child psychologist and professor of pediatrics at New York’s Cornell University. He often referred to his mother’s experience growing up in Russia. As a girl, she was driven from her home by the Cossacks. They burned the village to the ground, and she fled for her life, hiding in hay wagons and huddling in ditches. Eventually, she crowded into a ship’s hold and crossed to America. He said, „Even after my mother married and her sons were born, it was still a struggle to keep food on the table. But my mother would always urge us to think about what we had and not what we didn’t have. She taught us that in hardship, you develop a capacity to appreciate the beauty that exists in the simplest things of life.“ Paul was the same way. He was the kind of man who practiced what he preached. In everything, he was grateful. We know that because he talks about it in his letters. His letters abound with the evidence of his grateful heart. In fact, I’m pretty convinced that one of the reasons he was such a great man is because he was a grateful man.
While the expressions of gratitude are found in all of his letters, the mention of thanksgiving itself exerts itself into the four letters that Paul wrote while he was in prison. Perhaps you’ve heard of the prison epistles. The prison epistles are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. All four of those letters Paul wrote while he was in prison, and gratitude is mentioned in those letters 20 times. 20 times from prison, Paul talked about how thankful he was. We would expect the expression of gratitude from the palace, but not from the prison. The fact is Paul was far more acquainted with prisons than he was with palaces. He didn’t know much about palaces; he was pretty acquainted with prisons. Someone once told me that when Paul went to town, he either ended up in the synagogue for a little bit, but usually he ended up in the prison for preaching.
Here he is under arrest by the Roman government, and the Bible tells us he’s giving thanks. Some people say to me sometimes, „You know, Pastor Jeremiah, I hear what you’re saying, and I know I should be more thankful, but you don’t know what’s going on in my life. If you knew what was going on in my life right now, you wouldn’t be saying this stuff. I have been through a killer of a year, and I am not grateful.“ Well, I’m going to tell you something: The man who wrote these letters with thanksgiving in the center had a killer of a life. He was stoned in Lystra, driven out of Thessalonica, rejected by the Athenians, jailed by the Philippians, apprehended by the Caesareans, taken to Rome as a prisoner, and shipwrecked on the way. He was released from prison, sent back to prison, placed in a dungeon in Rome, and finally martyred for his faith. But he was a thankful man. How can you have a spirit like that? How do you explain that? Only by the Spirit of God who lives within you. That’s the only explanation I have. If you commit your life to the Holy Spirit’s control, He’s the one who can help you be thankful, even when things don’t seem to be going right.
As we end this, I want to remind you that gratitude is not just a feeling. Gratitude is a choice. We can decide to be thankful. We make the choice with the power of the Spirit of God. We don’t have to wait for life to be perfect to start being thankful. You can start today. I read about a woman named Barbara Anne Kiper who, as a very shy teenager, decided to make a list of all her favorite things. And before long, adding to the list became second nature. She jotted entries while she was riding the bus, while eating breakfast. Even in the middle of the night, she would get up to add one more thing. 20 years and dozens of spiral notebooks later, this became a major book called „14,000 Things to Be Happy About.“
Senator Richard Newberger once wrote about his experience with cancer and how it changed him. He said, „A change came over me which I believe is irreversible. Questions about prestige or political success or financial status all at once became totally unimportant to me. Instead, has come a new appreciation of things that I once took for granted: eating lunch with a friend, scratching Muffet’s ears, and listening for his purr; the company of my wife, reading a book or a magazine in the quiet cone of my bedside light at night; raiding the refrigerator for a glass of orange juice or a slice of coffee cake. For the first time, I think I am actually savoring life. I shudder when I remember all the occasions that I spoiled for myself, even when I was in the best of health, by false pride, synthetic values, and fancied slights.“
Henry Nouwen adds to the story when he says, „Where there is a reason for gratitude, there can always be found a reason for bitterness.“ It is here that we are faced with the freedom to make a decision. We can decide to be grateful, or we can decide to be bitter. Dale Carnegie used to tell people who came to his seminars to take out a pencil and a piece of paper and make a list of every good thing in their life. Then, in the midst of all of this, they were told to imagine that each one of those things had been taken away and then to imagine what life would be like without them. When they had fully realized the emptiness, they were to gradually give these things back to themselves one by one, counting their blessings and being thankful. What an exercise! Make a list of everything that is good in your life, and then one by one take them away, and then give them back to yourself with a spirit of gratitude.
The psalmist wrote it this way: „It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness every night.“ Over these last months, so many people have been so kind to me and so caring for me that if I had tried to say thank you individually to every one of them, I would never be able to do it because sometimes they didn’t even sign the note. But I am so grateful—so grateful for the things people have done in my life and continue to do. I know you feel the same way about those in your family, the people that are in your community, your children, for whatever reason.
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s start being thankful like never before this year! Let’s change the sense of what’s going on. We may not find much gratitude happening in the national media, but gratitude can happen in the heart of a believer who makes the choice to let the Holy Spirit control his life and be thankful. Father, fill me with Your Holy Spirit, I pray. Fill me with Spirit-filled gratitude for everything and in everything, that I might be a good representative of the gracious, wonderful Father who loves me and gave His Son for me.
And let me just say this: If you’re not a Christian, if you’ve never asked Jesus Christ to come into your life, here’s the truth: God Almighty has done something for you you may not be aware of. He has sent His Son to this earth to pay the penalty for all your sin so that you could be forgiven and go to heaven. And He wants you to accept that gift. He wants you to— You can’t get the gift if you don’t accept it. Just because He gives it doesn’t mean you get it. You have to reach out by faith and accept that gift. You do that by prayer as you ask the Lord Jesus Christ to come and be your Savior. And when you pray that prayer in your heart, you become a Christian, and you become eligible for this whole thing about gratitude in your heart.
So I’m going to ask you to do that. I’m going to ask you to pray that prayer if you’ve never done it. Pray it in your heart. You don’t have to move your lips or make a sound. In the sanctuary of your heart, invite Jesus Christ to be your Savior. Let’s pray. Father, thank You for the privilege of offering this gift to all who hear me, whether here in this room or along the way in our churches or on the internet, wherever people are watching and listening. I pray that You will help them to have the faith to believe and to pray this prayer in their hearts, meaning it with every fiber of their being. Simply pray:
Dear God, I know I am a sinner. I know I can’t save myself. I can’t do enough good things to merit Your favor. I want You to come and forgive me of all my sin. I believe, Jesus, that You are the Son of the living God who came to this earth, died on the cross, went to the tomb, and came out victorious over the grave. I am asking You to be my Savior today. Lord Jesus Christ, come and forgive me and save me and take up Your residence in my heart and life, and I will seek to follow You and do Your will going forward as a way of my gratitude for Your wonderful gift. Lord Jesus, thank You for the gift of eternal life which I receive today by faith in this prayer.
Lord, wherever that prayer has been prayed, wherever anyone has voiced that prayer in the language of their heart, we ask You to give them assurance and give them the faith to believe that what has happened is a true thing that will go with them throughout eternity. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.