All Believers in Christ Are Sealed with the Holy Spirit

³²John testified saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. ³³"I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him.  This is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit” (John 1:32-33; emphasis added).

John the Apostle tells us that the Holy Spirit remained on the Lord Jesus (v. 33). When the Spirit came upon Christ, He could settle down and fully work through the Lord Jesus without being grieved. I wish it were so with you and me. My experience over the years has been that my character can often grieve the Spirit, something that Paul the Apostle warned us about: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" (Ephesians 4:30). What does it mean to grieve the Spirit? The Greek word (lypelte) means to “experience deep emotional pain, severe sorrow or grief.” In the context in which the term is used, the things that grieve the Holy Spirit are poor choices of words and the attitudes of the heart, such as the anger and bitterness that often go on behind closed doors between spouses, children, and youth.

²⁹Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. ³⁰Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice (Ephesians 4:29-31).

If we want the Holy Spirit’s anointing and power to remain on us, we must ask the Spirit to help us overcome the attitudes of our hearts that grieve Him and cause Him pain. It is the character of Christ, worked into us by the transformative power of the Spirit, that causes the intimate anointing of the Spirit to remain. The beautiful thing about the Spirit of God is that He does not leave us, even when we grieve Him. We are sealed for that great day when Christ comes, and we enter with Him into the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. What is a seal? It is a stamp of ownership and authority. The enemy of your soul will whisper that you are not a Christian and do not have God's Spirit. Let's examine those thoughts:

All Believers Have the Spirit of God

Let's repeat this: all believers receive the Holy Spirit when they accept Christ. "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13). When you trusted in what Christ did for you on the cross, you received God's Spirit. Paul is even clearer in his letter to the Ephesian church: "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" (Ephesians 1:13).

The enemy has lied to some, telling them they have not received the Spirit. However, Paul states you can't be a Christian without God's Spirit. Paul makes this clear again in the book of Romans: "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him" (Romans 8:9). If you have honestly and wholeheartedly given your life to Christ, you no longer live for yourself; you have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). Thoughts and doubts about our salvation and receiving the Spirit are the kinds of attacks we can expect from our adversary. If you believe in Christ, you have the Spirit of God, and that is why doubts from the devil attack you—he does not want you to grow in your knowledge of Christ and your awareness of Satan’s defeat at the cross. Keith Thomas.

This meditation is part of the series, Be Filled with the Spirit, and the study is titled “Adjusting to the Heavenly Dove.”