"DEPENDENCE UPON HIM"

        

How We Treat the Holy Spirit Within

 

 

From The Sword & Trowel 2009, issue 2 by Dr Peter Masters

     

The Holy Spirit indwells every Christian from the moment of conversion. Do we resist it or are we sensitive to its promptings? All believers should consider how they treat the Holy Spirit within.

‘What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?’ (1 Corinthians 6.19).
 
THE PERSONAL indwelling of the infinite, eternal Holy Spirit in the believer is such an amazing blessing and privilege that the mind never wholly grasps it. A daily succession of joys, sorrows, temptations and trials produces various reactions in us, often without stirring our awareness that God is in residence, and will be pleased or grieved by what we think, say or do, or that he is ready to help if asked.
 
The body of every true believer is the property of God, and if it is defiled, either by the entry of worldliness, or by other sinful tastes and desires, the indwelling Spirit is said to be grieved. Writes Paul – ‘Grieve not the holy Spirit of God’ (Ephesians 4.30), or according to the solemn word order of the Greek, ‘Grieve not the Spirit, the Holy One of God.’

How can we so easily lose touch with this awesome, immense fact of spiritual life – that the incomprehensible God takes a place in every redeemed heart, declaring, ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee’?

The Holy Spirit indwells every Christian from the moment of conversion, so that the inspired Word may say, ‘If any man have not the Holy Spirit of Christ, he is none of his’ (Romans 8.9). The same passage immediately speaks of Christ being in us, showing that it is on the Saviour’s behalf that the Spirit dwells within. Christ indwells, by his Holy Spirit.
 
Three terms stand out in the New Testament to describe ill-treatment of the Holy Spirit. He may be resisted, or quenched, or grieved, each word describing a level of offence inflicted on our Divine Resident. How easily we forget that he is within, becoming detached from gratitude to him, consideration for him, and dependence upon him!