“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.”
John 14:16-17
From the beginning, God intended our relationship with the Holy Spirit to be an eternal partnership. A relationship, through which, each of us could become partakers of God’s everlasting life. So how is this partnership initiated?
“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession-to the praise of His glory.”
Ephesians 1:11-14
The eternal relationship is established, when, upon hearing the gospel, we put our faith in Jesus Christ! As a show of good faith in this newly established relationship, God imparts to us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit acts as a seal and a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance and God’s commitment to His promise. The seal & deposit serve as spiritual reminders of those promises.
A seal of hot wax was often placed on ancient scrolls to secure and fasten them shut. The king would then press his signet ring into the hot wax guaranteeing that the contents within the scroll belonged to him. As we look forward to the day of redemption we can have confidence in knowing that we carry the “king’s seal”- the precious Holy Spirit. We are marked by Him and recognizable, as one of His own, by the Holy Spirit we carry within us. The sealing of the Holy Spirit is beautifully described for us in Galatians 4:6: “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” God’s Spirit testifies that we are sons and daughters of the king. We are no longer slaves, but heirs!
The Holy Spirit also serves as a deposit. A deposit is a pledge of more to come.
“Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
2 Corinthians 5:5
This is why after Jesus had breathed on his disciples and said- “Receive the Holy Spirit” in John 20:22, that He then instructed them in Acts 1:4: “Do not leave Jerusalem , but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Initially, they did not get the fullness of the Spirit. A deposit was given, but there was still more to come! This deposit authorizes us, as “heirs” or “owners” , to enjoy the blessings flowing from this account. Jesus describes it this way in John 7:38-39:
“Whoever believes in me as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
In this way, God has opened up His limitless Spirit to us, so that we may enjoy the blessing flowing from Him! Have you initiated your relationship with the Holy Spirit? Are you sealed for the day of redemption? Has God placed His deposit guarantee inside of you? You can know today:
“We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.”
1 John 4:13-15
Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com
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