*DR ABEL DAMINA*
*THE INDWELLING SPIRIT: RESIDENCE AND PERMANENCE*
*John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;*
*Vs 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.*
We have seen that the promise of the spirit in the four gospels pointed to “residence” and “permanence.”
Thus in the epistles, “the spirit within” was the focal point from which the giving of the spirit and our reception of the same is explained:
1st Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1st Corinthians 6:19 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?
The word “temple” is used to describe where one dwells or stays permanently.
Paul also referred to believers collectively as the habitation of God through the spirit, ie where the spirit is and this is based on the fact that individually the spirit lives in each of us (as he had written in Ephesians 1:13)
Ephesians 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
The fact of the indwelling spirit was emphatically taught all through the epistles, thus establishing it as an important fact that the believer ought to acquainted with.
1st John 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
1st John 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
John in his epistle explained the fact that God dwells, abides in us by the spirit which he has given us.
Jude 1:19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
Vs 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
Jude made a distinction between those who are sensual, having not the spirit from believers whom he calls beloved. He then instructs to build up ourselves on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
Thus the indwelling of the spirit is a reality of the man in Christ. The spirit has been given, and by faith in the gospel, he has received the spirit. He has the spirit today and forever!
The indwelling of the spirit implies that the spirit lives in you, not as a temporary place of abode, but as a permanent residence. Thus, it will be a misnomer for him to assume that he is without the spirit at any given time.
The indwelling is not a temporary or conditional one, rather the believer has the spirit, is in the spirit, and the spirit lives in him forever.
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