DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT 03-30-2017
By Fred Trokie
Ephesians 1:13 says:
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation -having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
God has done something that is amazing and miraculous. He has placed the Holy Spirit in every believer in Jesus Christ, and has sealed them with Him. Wasn’t it enough that Christ died for us on the cross? Wasn’t it enough that after He died they buried Him in a tomb. Wasn’t it enough that on the third day He broke out of that tomb and physically rose form the dead, and by believing in that (and that alone apart from any works) we are saved (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
God has already given to us so great a salvation, but that’s not all He has done. He has given to every believer in Jesus Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit which lives in each and every one of us.
1 Corinthians 13:12 says:
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 3:16 says:
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
So why did God seal us with the Holy Spirit? Well back in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was actually very active.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TEATAMENT AS THE SOURCE OF LIFE
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:2).
The spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life (Job 33:4).
When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth (Psalm 104:30).
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A TEACHER AND GUIDE
You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst (Nehemiah 9:20)
THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME UPON MEN
Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him.
The Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. (Judges 14:5-6)
THE HOLY SPIRIT DID NOT REMAIN WITH MEN PERMANENTLY
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me (Psalm 51:11)
One of the purposes of the sealing of the Holy Spirit upon New Testament believers, is the assurance that the Holy Spirit will not depart from them. He will forever remain with those who have believed the gospel for their salvation (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). God even provides a guarantee.
Ephesians 1:14 says:
Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
The sealing of the Holy Spirit is given to us as a promise (which God can never brake), that we will not only receive our salvation, but that we will forever be God’s own possession conformed to the image of Christ.
Philippians 1:6 says:
Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
And finely Romans 8:38-39 says:
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God Bless – Fred