Ephesians 4:30 says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.” To be sealed is to be sealed in the Holy Spirit as the element. We were sealed in the element of the Holy Spirit. This indicates that God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit as the sealing element. Here the sealing of the Spirit may be considered synonymous to the anointing, which is the moving and working of the indwelling Spirit (1 John 2:20). From the time that we are saved, the Holy Spirit as the seal in us seals us continually with the element of God that we may be transformed in nature until our body is completely transfigured and redeemed. Hence, verse 30 says that we were sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of the redemption of our body.
To grieve the sealing Spirit is to displease Him. The sealing Spirit abides in us forever (John 14:16-17), never leaving us. Hence, He is grieved when we do not walk according to Him (Rom. 8:4), that is, when we do not live according to the principle of reality with grace in the details of our daily walk.
For the sealing Spirit to be grieved means that He is not happy with us. Often when we feel unhappy, that feeling of unhappiness is actually the feeling of the sealing Spirit. However, when He feels happy within us, we are happy also. A proper life according to reality and in grace will always make the sealing Spirit happy and give us the joy of the Spirit.
The life of God, the reality in Jesus, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit are the three sources of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Life is of God the Father. This life must become the reality in our daily living (as it was the reality in the daily living of Jesus, the Son of God), and this reality as the practical living out of the Father’s life is the essence of the sealing Spirit. The elements of the sealing Spirit are the life of God and the human living of Jesus. As the sealing Spirit saturates and permeates us with the divine life and the reality in Jesus, He is making us a duplication of Jesus in His human living, which is the practical living out of the Father’s life. As believers, we have the life of the Father in us; we have a model, the life of Jesus in His human living; and we have the sealing Spirit constituted with the divine life and the human living of Jesus. This sealing Spirit is permeating us to enable us to have a daily life that is suitable for the living of the new man.
As believers, we can experience and enjoy Christ as the reality and grace for the living of the new man through the renewing in the spirit of our mind. In Ephesians 4:23 Paul says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Our being renewed is for our transformation into the image of Christ (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). The spirit here is the regenerated spirit of the believers, which is mingled with the indwelling Spirit of God. Such a mingled spirit spreads into our mind, thus becoming the spirit of our mind. It is in such a spirit that we are renewed for our transformation. This, of course, implies a process of metabolic transformation. As this process takes place, the mingled spirit enters our mind, takes over our mind, and becomes the spirit of our mind.
When our human spirit is regenerated by and thus mingled with the Spirit of God, it becomes the mingled spirit. When our regenerated spirit is gradually enlightened, motivated, inspired, and occupied by the Spirit of God, the mingled spirit spreads into our mind and becomes the spirit of our mind. At the time of regeneration the mingled spirit is only in the realm of our spirit; through renewing, this mingled spirit progressively moves into the territory of our mind to become the spirit of our mind. It is by the spirit spreading into our mind that we are renewed in order that the new man would live on earth.
Our mind needs to be saturated with the mingled spirit and come under the control and direction of the mingled spirit. Our mind should not be the main factor that rules us; rather, the spirit of our mind should be the main factor that rules, reigns, and directs us in all things. We may walk in the vanity of our mind as the Gentiles do. As those who love Christ, we should not have vanity in our mind; instead, we should have the spirit in our mind. Our mind should no longer be full of vanity; rather, it should be saturated with the mingled spirit.
For us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, we need to pray and read the Word. It is by the teaching of the holy Word and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit that we become renewed in our mind. As we daily pray and read the Word, the Spirit will enlighten us and guide us so that we may be renewed in the spirit of our mind.
By the spirit of the mind we are renewed to fulfill in experience what was accomplished in the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man. The putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man are accomplished facts. Now we must experience and realize these facts by being renewed in the spirit of our mind. As these facts are realized in experience, we live a life that corresponds to the life of Jesus. This means that we live a life of the reality, a life in the shining of light and in the expression of God. When we are renewed in the spirit of our mind to execute the fact of having put off the old man and having put on the new man, we live a life according to the reality that is in Jesus.