Ephesians 1:13-14 (ESV)
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
The importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer cannot be strained enough. He, the Bible tells us, is our seal and guarantor of the inheritance we are to receive in accordance with the new covenant. In other words, because we have the Holy Spirit, then we are assured of receiving every single blessing that comes with the new life. So crucial is this truth such that no one can claim to be a Christian who does not have the Holy Spirit. For in the words of the apostle Paul, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.” Romans 8:9.
Despite how important the Holy Spirit is in the life of the believer, there is great misunderstanding of who He really is. Some consider Him to be a force or energy and this is revealed in our ascribing to Him the pronoun ‘it’. Yet to be sure, the Holy Spirit is a person meaning that He has personhood qualities – He teaches, He speaks, He feels (can be grieved), etc. He is the third person of the Godhead, or if you prefer, the Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He possesses every single attribute of God and is fully God. He was involved in the creation of the world (Genesis 1:2) and in the regeneration of believers (John 6:63).
The Holy Spirit, though a spirit, has embodiment – He embodies the life of believers. This therefore means that His activities are primarily through the hands and feet, and everything else, of Christians. It also means that we who belong to Christ cannot live any kind of life because in us dwells the Spirit who is holy. As the Bible puts it, “…_Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”_ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, let us choose to live lives that glorify God, let our bodies be instruments of righteousness and not of evil.
Reflections
1. Who do you understand the Holy Spirit to be?
2. Are you a Christian? How does the truth about the Holy Spirit influence how you live your life moving forward?
3. What in your life hinders you from experiencing the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14)?
