We Have the Spirit - Evidence of our Assurance - 1 John 4-5

1 John 4:13 (ESV Strong's)
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

We Have the Spirit

John is going through a series of “proofs” for the church to assure them that God is indeed with them and on their side.  He starts chapter four by telling them that the elitist believers around them were teaching false doctrine.  These were “believers” (at least they would claim as such) that thought sin in the life didn’t matter as long as you elevated to a greater knowledge of God apart from a relationship with Christ (known as “Gnosticism.”) The pursuit was cognitive knowledge of God and not the indwelling holiness only Jesus could produce.  But, because of this gnostic teaching was impacting the local believers.  John was attempting in this book to help the true believers (those who believed that Jesus was the Son of God) have the confidence and assurance that they were indeed His Children.   He has just finished telling them that assurance is seen in the love they have for their brothers (the theme of the book).  In the above passage John gives them another “assurance” marker:  They can “know” that they are children of God because the Spirit indwells them.    He said something earlier to end the last chapter:

1 John 3:24 (ESV Strong's)
Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Jesus had told them that He would not leave them as “orphans” when He ascended to the Father; but would leave them a “Comforter.”

John 16:7 (ESV Strong's)
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

But what does that look like?  What does the Spirit of God “indwelling” believers, look like?   Jesus told us that the Spirit of God is like the wind; we don’t see it, we only see the effects of the Spirit:

John 3:8 (ESV Strong's)
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

They only way you know you have the Spirit of God in your life is to see the impact in your life that the Spirit of God is producing.   Having the Spirit of God is not a feeling.  The “Fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5;22-24), is NOT “feeling and/or emotions.”  The Fruit of the Spirit begins with Love.  That is the main theme of John’s writing.  John is saying that we can have assurance that we are a child of God because we have the indwelling ministry of the Spirit of God, WHO IS PRODUCING unnatural love for the believers around us.  That is the evidence of the ministry of the Spirit ... that we love others.  That gives us the assurance we have the Spirit of God indwelling because He produces His fruit.   That fruit, being produced, gives us the assurance we need to know we are child of God.