Indwelling Holy Spirit
INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT If you do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit, then are you saved? Some thought so. People who professed to “believe”, but were never really saved. The story of Simon the sorcerer who never had salvation “in his heart” as told in Acts 8:9-24. People who lost their way to the material things of this world like, Ananias and Sapphira found in Acts 5:1-11.
Other biblical persons who thought they were saved, but were not. References Acts 16:14, where Lydia worshiped God, but had not received the Holy Spirit, was she saved? No. Crispus the chief ruler of the synagogue in Acts18:8, did he feel as though he was saved? Certainly, but was he saved? No. The 12 men of Acts 19:1-7, where Paul asked these men if they had received the Holy Spirit, since they believed? No.
Why were these people not saved? They had no indwelling Holy Spirit. After the time of Pentecost the Holy Spirit became an indwelling Spirit. Before this the Holy Spirit was what we might refer to as a clothing Spirit. That is, He would come upon an individual and be around that individual for a period of time and then would leave and perhaps come back later or perhaps not. Before Pentecost the Holy Spirit did not stay with the individuals, nor was He indwelling. After Pentecost the Holy Spirit is indwelling. Today we are in a dispensation that we call the Age of Grace or the Gospel of Grace. This is the time period between Pentecost and the Rapture. The former way of salvation was though the Gospel of the Kingdom, which was started with John the Baptist. The Gospel of the Kingdom has been put on hold starting at 70 AD with the destruction of the Temple and will resume with the start of the tribulation.
Now back to the topic of the “indwelling” Holy Spirit. John 14:16-17, 26 says “And I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” V. 26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name. . .” 2 Cor. 1:22 “who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” Eph. 4:30 “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by who ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Another example can be found in Acts 15:8.
The indwelling Holy Spirit is the true mark of a Christian today. It does not matter what we say or even what we do if we do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit, then we are lost, unsaved, destined to the lake of fire.
Even Saul/Paul was saved under the Gospel of the Kingdom, trusting and having faith that Christ was the Messiah. Believing this alone did not save Saul and it did not wash away his sins. The steps were 1. Realizing that he was a lost sinner in need of salvation. 2. Have faith that Christ was the Messiah, believing in His Name. 3. Repent. 4. Be baptized. Then you were to: 5. Receive the indwelling Holy Spirit. (Remember this was after Pentecost). Afterwards he was to 6. Keep the Law of Moses. (Remember this was SAUL, not Paul). The Gospel of Grace, which is Paul’s gospel, had not yet been revealed to Paul. You can read what happened to Paul in Gal. 1:12-19, but specifically verse 17.
Now lets return to the indwelling Holy Spirit. Now remember that under the Gospel of the Kingdom, believing in the Name of Christ, that He was the Messiah did not relieve you of sins. (That did not happen until after the repentance and baptism) without the washing away of sins through baptism your vessel/Temple or heart was still unclean. An “unclean” spirit, a demon, can only inhabit an unclean vessel. The Holy Spirit will not become an indwelling Spirit until the vessel has been cleansed. Under the Gospel of the Kingdom the remission, or cleansing of sins happened after baptism. Now under the Gospel of Grace this occurs at the time of belief and acceptance of Christ as the one who paid the price for our sins thorough His sacrificial death on the cross and this is before baptism.
Are the differences between the order of steps to salvation in the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of Grace splitting hairs? Perhaps, but be assured that believing in Christ’s Name and acknowledging that He is the Messiah will not get you to heaven today. Nor will repenting and being baptized a dozen times get you to heaven. We must rightly divide the word (2 Tim. 2:15) to know which Gospel will save us.
Under the Gospel of the Kingdom, one was saved by recognizing who the Messiah was and following the required steps. Salvation under the Gospel of Grace is believing what Jesus did. So what do we have to believe for salvation today? We have to believe in what is called Paul’s Gospel. Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles and his gospel can be found in 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Rom. 10:9-10.
1. One must recognize that they are a sinner, lost and want to be saved. The Philippian jailer Acts 16:30, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”. Did Paul and Silas tell them to believe and repent and also to be baptized in order to be saved? No, just believe and then to follow up after they were baptized. They had salvation before being baptized. They had salvation when the Holy Spirit became and indwelling Spirit. Search out the story of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 and you will find that Peter and the Jews were amazed, dumfounded because the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit before repentance and baptism. Here Gentiles receives the Holy Spirit after hearing and believing about the death, burial and resurrection, but before repentance and baptism.
2. Realize that the only power that can save comes through Jesus Christ. Jesus was perfect and the only one worthy to pay the price for all sin at the cross (Rev. 5:1-9, the only one worthy to be the redeemer).
3. Jesus did this because He loved us and if we’ll just accept and believe that He did this for us, trust and follow Him, then He will give us the gift of eternal life. Then the Holy Spirit will become indwelling at this instance of belief. One is now an “heir”, a son of God.
4. After this, we should make a public notification of our accepting to follow Jesus Christ first by mouth (Rom. 10:9-10) and second by water baptism.
5. We are also to follow Christ by putting on the “new man” 2 Cor. 5:17 and put away the former ways of sin (repent).
From the time of Pentecost a saved person will have the “indwelling” Holy Spirit and the unsaved will not.