"14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. 15 For you have not received the spirit of slavery to be in fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry: Abba, Father! 16 The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit, that we are children of God. 17 And if children, also heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we suffer together with him, so that together with him we may be glorified. "Romans 8: 14-17
The Holy Spirit bears witness that you are a child of God. There is a relationship between the person of the Holy Spirit and the conscience that the believer comes to have about his position with God, to become a child of God.
Jesus never prayed to God, he always prayed to the Father; He said: Father, thank you, because you always listen to me. What bothered the Pharisees was the relationship he claimed to have with the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not pray to a distant God; the only time he prayed to God was on the cross; he felt so separated from the Father that he said: My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?
Through all the Gospels, Jesus tried to lead people to understand the relationship we have with the heavenly Father; Therefore, when he teaches them to pray, the first thing he says to them is that when they go to pray, they would say: Our Father who is in heaven. That was a different prayer; they used to pray to Jehovah, but Jesus cries that, when we pray, we will do it to our Father.
On one occasion, Jesus tells his disciples: I will no longer call you servants, but friends. Under the law, man served the law; but Jesus told them he would call them children. I could not call them brothers or children of God yet because he had not yet died and risen or appeared before God. So the disciples reached the highest level of relationship that could be reached at that time, which was to be called a friend. Abraham became a friend, long before, by faith. And now there is a bigger level, which is to become children of God, and the way we are children of God is through salvation, the recognition of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit is the one who He testifies to us of that relationship.
In these verses, Paul speaks in several places. He says that those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God; that is, those who are not led by the Spirit of God, are not children of God. Jesus said: Blessed are the peacemakers because they will be called children of God; that is, that those who are not will not be called children of God either.
These verses that we are seeing in Romans 8, are preceded by writing after writing that what they do is to increase the revelation until bringing us to these verses in particular; The previous verses what they do is to prepare the platform to take you to understand that the highest status you can have in relation to God is to become a child of God. Paul uses the title of son of God in several places; and, on this occasion, he says that those who are led by the Spirit, those are children of God. That is, if you are not led by the Spirit, you are not a child of God.
When you become aware of your child, one of the greatest things you will have in your life is a sense of security. Why is it so important to have the relationship of children to walk safely in this life? Many Christians walk insecure, without knowing where they are going, they are unsure of tomorrow, of their salvation, of God's dealings with them. But, when you are a child of God, the first things that happen in your life is that you walk safely.
Jesus, before beginning his ministry, when he went to the waters, the first thing he heard was his Father saying: You are my beloved son, in whom I am pleased. Jesus had not healed anyone, he had not freed or saved anyone, and already the Father says: You bring me pleasure. The Father was saying to him: You do not bring me pleasure for what you are going to do; You bring me pleasure for what you are. Everyone, in some way or another, always seeks the approval of our father. In our mind, we seek that admiration, that respect; and the sad thing is that, in the times we are living, we do not have the best parents, who give affirmation, so many do not have that experience of being affirmed. David, when he went to fight Goliath, offered 3 things to defeat the giant: The daughter of the king, the chair next to the king, and that his father's house was tax free; and the reason why David faced Goliath was for his father to be tax free. David was going to marry someone, he did not have to kill Goliath to get married; the king's chair was going to touch him anyway because God had already anointed him. What he did, at that moment, he could not have otherwise, was that his father was tax free. And David went there seeking the approval of his father, which he never had; The only time that David was approved by another man was when Saul, from one side of the river to another, David showed him a piece of his clothes and told him that he could have killed him and he did not, and Saul shouted: Son, You are a better man than me. Everyone wants to hear from their father, someday, what a good man or good woman he is. Glory to God that, when your earthly father is missing or not doing what he has to do, the Holy Spirit gives you testimony that you are a child of God, and you can have a relationship with your heavenly Father, who tells you: It is not that you do what makes me love you; it is who you are; you bring me pleasure.
You bring pleasure to God, not for what you do, but for who you are and for who you are, and from heaven you can hear the voice of God who tells you: You are my beloved son, you bring me pleasure.