After the Holy Spirit regenerates us, He indwells us. He does not regenerate us and then leave. Rather, He lives within us as the indwelling Holy Spirit. After finishing the work of regeneration, the regenerating Holy Spirit immediately becomes the indwelling Holy Spirit.
1. “I will put My Spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:27).
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, God not only imparts His life into us through the Holy Spirit, but also gives us His Spirit, putting the Spirit within us.
2. “The Spirit...shall be in you” (John 14:17).
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, God gives us the Holy Spirit to live in us and to be present with us.
3. “In Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13; see also Gal. 3:14).
When we believe in Christ, God gives us the Holy Spirit of the promise. Therefore, when we believe in Christ and receive Him as our personal Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit.
4. “You are the temple of God, and...the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1 Cor. 3:16; see also 6:19).
Since the believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they are the temple and habitation of God.
5. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him” (Rom. 8:9).
Romans 8:9 says that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. Conversely, if any man belongs to Christ, he must have the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God. One who belongs to Christ is a saved person; as such, he definitely has the Spirit of God. One who does not have the Spirit of God is not of Christ and is not saved. The highest grace a saved person can obtain is the Holy Spirit indwelling him. The Holy Spirit’s indwelling is Christ’s indwelling, and Christ’s indwelling is God’s indwelling. This is because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God. God is in Christ, and Christ became the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The Spirit indwelling us is Christ and God indwelling us, causing us to be joined to Christ and God and to belong to Christ and God. Therefore, one who is saved and belongs to Christ and God must have the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit dwells in the believers not only to be present with them but also to do many things and to manifest many functions in them. The Holy Spirit reveals all matters related to life that have been given by God in Christ to the believers, which will be carried out in the believers, and all matters of the truth of God so that the believers may enter into them and experience them.
1. “Were sealed with the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13; see also 4:30).
The first function of the Holy Spirit in the believer is to seal the believer. Once we are saved, God seals us with the Holy Spirit, marking us out as those who belong to God and are God’s inheritance. Such a sealing separates us from the world. For example, there may be a few thousand hymnals in a room, but only the one that I have put my seal on belongs to me and is separated from the others. We know that we are persons who belong to God because once we believed, God placed His Spirit upon us as a seal (2 Tim. 2:19). After I put my seal on a hymnal, anyone who sees it will know that it belongs to me. The Holy Spirit in us and on us is the sign that we belong to God. This causes our thoughts, intentions, opinions, outlook, speech, attitude, actions, living, dealings with situations and matters, behavior, habits, and attire to be different from the world. Once others look at us, they know that we are Christians who belong to God.
As the seal on the believer, the Holy Spirit causes the believer not only to belong to God but also to be like God; He not only designates the believer as belonging to God but also shows that he is like God. For instance, the seal on my hymnal has the same appearance as the one in my pocket because I applied that very seal to the hymnal. The Holy Spirit cannot be separated from God and Christ. When He is imprinted into us, God and Christ are imprinted into us. The Holy Spirit is a seal on us so that we may look like God and Christ. He makes our thoughts, motives, conversation, actions, and all things like God and Christ and different from the world. When people see us, they not only realize that we belong to God and Christ, but they also sense that we are like God and Christ.
2. “Who is the pledge of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:14; see also 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5).
The Holy Spirit is not only a seal on the believers, proving that we belong to God and are God’s inheritance; He is also the pledge, guaranteeing that God’s inheritance in the heavens belongs to the believers and is the inheritance of the believers. The Bible tells us that God has kept an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance in the heavens for us, which will not fade away (1 Pet. 1:4). Before we inherit this inheritance, God gives His Spirit to us as a pledge, as a guarantee and earnest, guaranteeing that the heavenly inheritance belongs to us.
In the original language, pledge also has the meaning of a “sample.” This is like looking at a display or a sample of an item before we buy it in order to know its quality. It is also like a cook tasting a small portion of the food he has prepared in order to know the taste. The Bible says that eye has not seen and ear has not heard the things which God has prepared for us, nor have they come up in the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9). Nevertheless, God, using the Holy Spirit as a sample, gives us a foretaste of these things. What the Holy Spirit gives us within—the presence of the Lord, the peace, joy, and sweetness of the Lord—is irreplaceable. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit seals us and makes us look like God and have a heavenly appearance, He also is a sample so that we may have a foretaste of God and of the heavenlies.
3. “The Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2).
In Romans 8:2 the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of life. This shows that the Holy Spirit is of life; God’s life is in and from the Holy Spirit. He is not only the giver of God’s life but also the reality of God’s life. He and God’s life are inseparable; if we were to separate these two, there would not be the life of God. The Holy Spirit manifests the power of God’s life in us, leading us into the reality of God’s life and enabling us to enjoy the riches of His life. We experience all that pertains to God’s life through Him. Without Him we cannot experience life; apart from Him we also cannot have the reality of life.
4. “Comforter” (John 14:16).
The Holy Spirit in the believer is not only a seal, a pledge, and the Spirit of life but also a comforter. The word Comforter in the original language is parakletos, which means “advocate” or “aide.” In the New Testament this title is applied only to the Holy Spirit and to the Lord Jesus in 1 John 2:1 as our Advocate, which in the original language is also parakletos. As the Lord Jesus is our parakletos, so the Holy Spirit also is our parakletos. The Lord Jesus in the heavens is our Advocate before God; the Holy Spirit within us is our Aide before us. The two are also joined and connected. Through the Aide within us, the Holy Spirit, our Advocate in the heavens, the Lord Jesus, always transfers to us what He has done for us before God in the heavens that we may obtain comfort and joy. Similarly, the Aide within us, the Holy Spirit, always conveys our different situations and needs to God through our heavenly Advocate, the Lord Jesus, for us to receive God’s care and supply. As the Lord Jesus represents us before God in the heavens regarding our blessing and profit, so the Holy Spirit is also in us and before us, representing the Lord Jesus, to minister to us and take care of us. When the Lord Jesus prays for us in the heavens, the Holy Spirit comforts and cares for us within according to the prayer of the Lord Jesus. Although the Lord Jesus ascended to the heavens, the Holy Spirit represents the Lord Jesus and enables the Lord Jesus to live in us as our parakletos that He may be with us. At all times and in all places the Holy Spirit serves us and takes care of us, comforts us and guides us.
5. “Led by the Spirit of God” (Rom. 8:14).
The Holy Spirit continually leads the believers. He leads us in all things that we may live before God and walk in the light of God.
6. “The Spirit of reality...will guide you into all the reality” (John 16:13).
The Lord Jesus called the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of reality.” Only the Spirit can enable the believer to understand God’s truth according to God. He reveals all the mysteries and the meaning of the truths in the Bible so that the believer can understand them and enter into them.
The indwelling Holy Spirit not only leads us to understand the meaning of the truth but also guides us into the reality. He is the “truth” of all the truths. A truth without Him is but doctrine without reality. With Him, truth possesses reality. He is the reality of the truth.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of reality and the Spirit of life. Therefore, He gives life to the truth, making it alive. A truth without Him is but dead letters. He causes all truths to be full of life and to be living in all the believers, causing the believers to enter into the reality of life and truth.
7. “The anointing...teaches you concerning all things” (1 John 2:27; see also John 14:26; Acts 16:6-7).
The anointing refers to the moving of the Holy Spirit in the believer (Phil. 2:13). The Holy Spirit is the ointment, and His moving in us is the anointing. As an anointing causes a soothing and refreshing sensation, the Holy Spirit’s moving within us also gives the same kind of feeling. By His moving and anointing, the Holy Spirit teaches us to know God’s heart and will in all things. If something is according to God’s heart and is one with God’s will, the Spirit’s anointing will give us a comfortable, joyful, peaceful, settled, flowing, and refreshing feeling. Otherwise, we will feel restless, uneasy, suppressed, stagnant, grievous, and dry. If what we think, say, and do pleases God and is what God desires, His anointing will seal and approve it; otherwise, the anointing will cause us to feel uneasy and without rest until we are controlled and led by Him.
8. “The Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness” (Rom. 8:26).
The Holy Spirit not only teaches us but also helps us. His teaching reveals our weakness, whereas His help cares for our weakness. He will help us in all the weaknesses that He exposes. In whatever matters we feel weak, He will help us. Our weaknesses are suited for His help. His help is manifested in our weakness.
9. “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26; see also Jude 20).
The help that the Holy Spirit gives is subjective within us. He is within us, bearing us to do what we cannot do. The deepest and most subjective aspect of His help is that He Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He is not only teaching us and leading us to pray but He is even praying for us. His prayer in us and for us is not with utterable words but with groanings which cannot be uttered. These groanings are unutterable to us because “we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting,” but they are not unutterable to Him (Rom. 8:26). We do not know how to utter the burden within us; therefore, we are short of utterable words to express our inner feelings. Although this is our case, the Holy Spirit uses groanings that cannot be uttered to pray for us so that we may discharge the burden within us before God by groanings, groaning out our inner feelings before God. We groan in this way because it is the Spirit within us who causes us to groan and who groans for us.
Often when we face a certain situation or difficulty, we do not know how to pray, but we sense a heavy burden. Although we sense a heavy burden, we do not have the words to express the burden and do not know how we should pray. It is then that the Holy Spirit prays for us according to God’s intention with groanings which cannot be uttered so that we may discharge the burden and feeling within us before God with groanings. The more we groan like this, the more we feel soothed and relieved. If we groan until the burden is gone, we will utter praises, and our groaning will be changed to praise.
The Holy Spirit not only prays within us and for us with groanings that cannot be uttered but also leads us to pray in Him with utterable words, according to the sensation He gives us, not by our mind or our thoughts but by Him. He not only prays for us, but He also inspires us and leads us to pray.
10. “The comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:31).
The Holy Spirit not only teaches us and helps us but He also comforts us. When we encounter sufferings and grievous situations, He causes us to have the inward comfort of God. Whenever we are sad and grieving yet sense the comfort of God or a mysterious comfort within, this comfort is from the Holy Spirit.
11. “Abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13).
The Holy Spirit also causes us to have hope. Often the outward environment and all its situations cause us to be discouraged and sad. But there is a certain power within that causes us to abound in hope and joy because of God. The power of the Holy Spirit in us makes us hopeful.
12. “Sanctification of the Spirit” (1 Pet. 1:2; see also 2 Thes. 2:13; Rom. 15:16).
A believer is also sanctified by the working of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in the believer causes the believer to partake of God’s holy nature and to be separated from the world according to the demand of God’s holy nature. He causes us to sense what is contrary to God’s holy nature so that we may be delivered from it, and He causes us to sense all that agrees with God’s holy nature so that we may partake of this nature. He also causes us to have the sense of what is holy and to live a holy life.
13. “By the Spirit...put to death the practices of the body” (Rom. 8:13).
The practices of the body cause the believer the most frustration. The practices of the body can be put to death only by the Spirit. A believer’s putting to death the practices of the body is also a work done by the Holy Spirit within him.
14. “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2).
The Holy Spirit in the believer also causes the believer to be released and freed from sin and all kinds of bondage. Our deliverance from the law of sin and its bondage is not by our determination and struggle but through the operation of the Holy Spirit within us.
15. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23; see also Rom. 14:17; 15:30).
These nine spiritual fruits are all borne by the Holy Spirit in the believers. As He causes us to live a spiritual life, He also causes us to bear spiritual fruit. A real spiritual living is the expression of the Holy Spirit in us.
16. “The fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14; see also Phil. 2:1).
All spiritual fellowship, whether between the believer and God or between believers themselves, is a function of the Holy Spirit in the believers. We are able to fellowship with God and with the believers only when the Holy Spirit has a way in us. The moment the Holy Spirit loses His place in us, our fellowship with God and with the believers is lost.
17. “The oneness of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3).
The oneness of the believers, or the oneness of the church, is the oneness of the Body of Christ. This oneness is a function of the Holy Spirit in the believers. It is the Holy Spirit in the believers who makes us one with one another. He not only causes us to be one with one another, but He Himself is the oneness of the believers and the oneness of the church. Without Him there is no oneness of the believers or oneness of the church.
18. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17).
The freedom within a believer also comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit. Once the Holy Spirit occupies His rightful place in us, He causes us to put off all bondage within and without, and thus we are freed.
19. “Filled with...the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52).
The Holy Spirit lives within us not only to do many things in us but also to fill us. He desires to completely occupy us inwardly. He desires to eliminate everything that is apart from Him and to occupy all the room in us and fill us. He is not separate from Christ and God. Therefore, His filling us is equal to Christ’s and God’s filling us. He fills us with Christ and God, causing us to be full of the life and person of Christ and God.
20. “Shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-39).
When the Holy Spirit fills us, He flows the Lord’s life out from us as rivers of living water to quench others’ thirst.
21. “Transformed...from the Lord Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
The working of the Holy Spirit in the believers is for a glorious purpose, which is to cause the believers to be transformed into the Lord’s image so that they may be like the Lord. Daily He is changing us within and transforming our inward parts, thus mingling the Lord’s element into us and giving us the Lord’s image until we are like Him in every way. He desires to inwardly transform us until the Lord’s life matures in us, causing us to be full of the image of Christ, according to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).