When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. —John 15:26
Let me ask you a question: How would you feel if after worshiping your God for so many years, you discovered that there really is one who is greater? What would you do? Maybe you would say, “Well, I wouldn’t want to give up God. I have come to know Him real well.” Yet surely you want to worship the Most High God. Would you keep on worshiping Him? Never.
If I were to discover that there is one greater than who I thought was the greatest, I would stop praying, and I would reassess my ways, my worship, my allegiance, and my confession. Why? Because I want to locate not only the name than which no greater can be conceived, but also the one who is greater and worship Him. I only want to worship Him who is the First and the Last.
Whenever we make the claim that we worship the Most High, the one than which there is no greater, someone is bound to ask us, “How can you be sure?” The answer to that is the Holy Spirit. No man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). It’s easy to get a person to repeat a prayer, but to really believe that Jesus, who was born of a virgin, lived, died on a cross, arose from the dead, and who is the One who causes to be, cannot be done unless the Holy Spirit conveys it to you.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit authenticates not only the truth but also gives an assurance by which you know you have it right. In His strength you can face a thousand worlds and a thousand devils. This is why you can stand before men. That witness of the Spirit is given so that you know the truth beyond any doubt. This is how you know that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord, the One who causes to be, even from everlasting to everlasting.
Excerpted from Meekness and Majesty (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1992, 2000).