Bulletin Notes: The Indwelling Spirit (2/6/22)

 

The Holy Spirit: His Indwelling

By Pastor Terry L. Reese, Valley GBC of Armagh; Feb. 6, AD 2022

 

 

The permanent and universal indwelling of Christian Believers is a uniquely post-Pentecostal (Acts 2) ministry of the Spirit. A key passage that anticipates and describes this mystical union is John 14:16-20:

 

"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” 

 

The Spirit’s abiding Presence within New Testament Era believers is unlike the Spirit’s temporary “coming upon” certain select individuals in Old Testament Times on various special occasions for the purpose of empowering them for specific, temporal ministries (cf. Judges 14:6, 1 Sam. 11:6, Ex. 31:1-5). In marked contrast, New Testament Era Spirit-indwelling is universal unto all members of the Household of God, and is permanent in nature (John 14:16, Eph. 4:30). Thus, both individually and corporately, Church Age believers literally become living Temples, or Houses of God (1 Cor 3:16-17, I Cor. 6:19, 2 Cor. 6:16) when the Holy Spirit permanently tabernacles with them.

 

Again, this indwelling is a gift unto all who believe (John 7:37-39)—even the less-than-mature believers of Corinth (I Cor. 6:19). Indeed, not to possess the Spirit is the certain mark of an unsaved person (Rom. 8:9).

 

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”