Things only God can do...

Help me find an acronym that is sticky!

Dec 17, 2025

I need some help here, but you’ll need to suffer through this post so you know why I’m asking what I’m asking.

Things Only God Can Do
God draws people to himself.
God causes people to seek after truth.
God reveals spiritual truth.
God convicts the world of guilt regarding sin.
God convicts the world of righteousness.
God convicts the world of judgment.
When you see one of these things happening you can know God is at work.1

This is from Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God. He gets this list from John 14:16-17, John 14:26, and John 16:8.

I love the premise in Experiencing God: Our job is to get to know the Father, to align our hearts as fully with Him as possible. Then, when we see him at work, we should join Him.

That could sound mystical, but as you see from the short list above, there are specific things we see named in Scripture that would show us if God is working in someone’s life. In short, if you see one of those happening in someone: Join God working as fast as possible.

Real life story: This just happened to me recently. A local friend and believer approached me and asked me for help because he was feeling convicted that even though he was a Christian, he was not living how God wanted him to. I had just been thinking about these things so that conviction jumped out to me!

I thought it would be helpful to expand this list, as well as simplify it and make it sticky. We, as disciple-makers, want to know where God is working and join him in that work. What can we look for as markers of God working?

I first expanded the list by adding notes from several Scriptures. You can fact check me in the footnotes, but here is an expanded list of things we would see if God is at work:2

Someone who is seeking God.
Someone who is being drawn to God.
Someone who is finding spiritual truth
Someone who is discussing spiritual truth
Someone who is being convicted about sin
Someone who is being convicted about righteousness
Someone who is being convicted about judgment
Someone who is recalling spiritual truth
Someone who is receiving the words of the Bible as the Word of God.
Someone who repents and believes in the Gospel
Anywhere Jesus is being glorified.
Believers who have the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Believers who are sharing the Gospel boldly.

That’s quite the list. Praise the Lord for how He works in the world. I took a couple tries at making it more succinct, and this is what I came up with:

Look for anyone who is…

Seeking God
Interested in Spiritual Truth
Remembering Spiritual Truth
Feeling Convicted (alternative: Convicted about sin, righteousness or judgment
Receiving the Bible as the Word of God
Repenting and Believing the Gospel (alternative: believing the Gospel)
Sharing boldly (believers)

I fed all of this to an AI and asked for a sticky way to remember it. The first response was the acronym SCRIBES:

S - Seeking God
C - Convicted (about sin, righteousness, or judgment)
R - Remembering Spiritual Truth
I - Interested in Spiritual Truth
B - Believing the Gospel (repenting and believing)
E - Exalting Jesus (anywhere Jesus is being glorified)
S - Sharing boldly (believers sharing the Word)

My only issue is that scribes are not usually mentioned in a positive light in the Bible, so I asked it for a few more alternatives.

Christ: C - Convicted (about sin, righteousness, or judgment)
H - Hearing the Bible as God’s Word (receiving it)
R - Remembering Spiritual Truth
I - Interested in Spiritual Truth
S - Seeking God
T - Trusting/Telling (believing the Gospel / sharing boldly)

SPIRIT: S - Seeking God
P - Perceiving Truth (interested in spiritual truth)
I - Internalizing Scripture (remembering spiritual truth)
R - Receiving the Bible as God’s Word
I - Interested/Convicted
T - Trusting and Telling (believing / sharing boldly)

GRACE: G - Glorifying Jesus
R - Remembering Spiritual Truth
A - Attracted to God (seeking)
C - Convicted
E - Embracing Truth (interested in / receiving the Bible)

So, if you made it this far, I would love some help. Which of those acronyms (SCRIBES included) do you see as most sticky and helpful? Or even better, can you beat out AI and give me a better one?

Experiencing God, by Henry Blackaby. This original list is from pages 78-79.

John 16:13- When people are guided into truth, that is the Spirit doing so.
John 16:14 - if Jesus is being glorified, that is the Spirit working
John 12:32 - Jesus will draw all men to himself. If someone is being drawn to the Lord, it is the Lord working.
Galatians 5:22-23 - If we see the fruit of the Spirit in someone’s life, that means he is working. (Caveat: most of those can be done in our own strength at some level so we need to keep an eye out for that.)
Philippians 2:13 - “It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” A believer with fruit in his/her life has God at work in him/her.
Boldness in sharing is a marker of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer (all throughout Acts)
1 Thess 2:13- receiving the word of God as the Word of God, not words of men. This is a sign of someone’s belief (or pre-belief) .. same thing happened in Berea, examining Scriptures. If people are interested in the Word of God this is a sign of God working.
Acts 17:34- Belief at hearing the gospel, obviously God at work.
Jeremiah 21 “I will give them a heart to know me”