The Holy Spirit takes up His abode in the one who is born of the Spirit.
The Apostle Paul says to the believers in Corinth in 1 Cor. iii. 16, R.
V., “Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you?” This passage refers, not so much to the individual
believer, as to the whole body of believers, the Church. The Church as a
body is indwelt by the Spirit of God. But in 1 Cor. vi. 19, R. V., we
read, “Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is
in you, which ye have from God?” It is evident in this passage that Paul
is not speaking of the body of believers, of the Church as a whole, but of
the individual believer. In a similar way, the Lord Jesus said to His
disciples on the night before His crucifixion, “And I will pray the
Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with
you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive,
because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He
dwelleth with you and _shall be in you_” (John xiv. 16, 17). The Holy
Spirit dwells in every one who is born again. We read in Rom. viii. 9, “If
any man have not the Spirit of Christ (the Spirit of Christ in this verse,
as we have already seen, does not mean merely a Christlike spirit, but is
a name of the Holy Spirit) he is none of His.” One may be a very imperfect
believer but if he really is a believer in Jesus Christ, if he has really
been born again, the Spirit of God dwells in him. It is very evident from
the First Epistle to the Corinthians that the believers in Corinth were
very imperfect believers; they were full of imperfection and there was
gross sin among them. But nevertheless Paul tells them that they are
temples of the Holy Spirit, even when dealing with them concerning gross
immoralities. (See 1 Cor. vi. 15-19.) _The Holy Spirit dwells in every
child of God._ In some, however, He dwells way back of consciousness in
the hidden sanctuary of their spirit. He is not allowed to take possession
as He desires of the whole man, spirit, soul and body. Some therefore are
not distinctly conscious of His indwelling, but He is there none the less.
What a solemn, and yet what a glorious thought, that in me dwells this
august Person, the Holy Spirit. If we are children of God, we are not so
much to pray that the Spirit may come and dwell in us, for He does that
already, we are rather to recognize His presence, His gracious and
glorious indwelling, and give to Him complete control of the house He
already inhabits, and strive to so live as not to grieve this holy One,
this Divine Guest. We shall see later, however, that it is right to pray
for the filling or baptism with the Spirit. What a thought it gives of the
hallowedness and sacredness of the body, to think of the Holy Spirit
dwelling within us. How considerately we ought to treat these bodies and
how sensitively we ought to shun everything that will defile them. How
carefully we ought to walk in all things so as not to grieve Him who
dwells within us.
This indwelling Spirit is a source of full and everlasting satisfaction
and life. Jesus says in John iv. 14, R. V., “Whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall
give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto (better
‘into’ as in A. V.) eternal life.” Jesus was talking to the woman of
Samaria by the well at Sychar. She had said to Him, “Art Thou greater than
our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank thereof himself, and his
children and his cattle?” Then Jesus answered and said unto her,
“Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” How true that is of
every earthly fountain. No matter how deeply we drink we shall thirst
again. No earthly spring of satisfaction ever fully satisfies. We may
drink of the fountain of wealth as deeply as we may, it will not satisfy
long. We shall thirst again. We may drink of the fountain of fame as
deeply as any man ever drank, the satisfaction is but for an hour. We may
drink of the fountain of worldly pleasure, of human science and philosophy
and of earthly learning, we may even drink of the fountain of human love,
none will satisfy long; we shall thirst again. But then Jesus went on to
say, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well
of water springing up into everlasting life.” The water that Jesus Christ
gives is the Holy Spirit. This John tells us in the most explicit language
in John vii. 37-39, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and
drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of _living water_. (But this _spake He of the
Spirit_, which they that believe on Him should receive.)” The Holy Spirit
fully and forever satisfies the one who receives Him. He becomes within
him a well of water springing up, ever springing up, into everlasting
life. It is a great thing to have a well that you can carry with you; to
have a well that is within you; to have your source of satisfaction, not
in the things outside yourself, but in a well within and that is always
within, and that is always springing up in freshness and power; to have
our well of satisfaction and joy within us. We are then independent of our
environment. It matters little whether we have health or sickness,
prosperity or adversity, our source of joy is within and is ever springing
up. It matters comparatively little even whether we have our friends with
us or are separated from them, separated even by what men call death, this
fountain within is always gushing up and our souls are satisfied.
Sometimes this fountain within gushes up with greatest power and fullness
in the days of deepest bereavement. At such a time all earthly
satisfactions fail. What satisfaction is there in money, or worldly
pleasure, in the theatre or the opera or the dance, in fame or power or
human learning, when some loved one is taken from us? But in the hours
when those that we loved dearest upon earth are taken from us, then it is
that the spring of joy of the indwelling Spirit of God bursts forth with
fullest flow, sorrow and sighing flee away and our own spirits are filled
with peace and ecstasy. We have beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isa. lxi. 3).
If the experience were not too sacred to put in print, I could tell of a
moment of sudden and overwhelming bereavement and sorrow, when it seemed
as if I would be crushed, when I cried aloud in an agony that seemed
unendurable, when suddenly and instantly this fountain of the Holy Spirit
within burst forth and I knew such a rest and joy as I had rarely known
before, and my whole being was suffused with the oil of gladness.
The one who has the Spirit of God dwelling within as a well springing up
into everlasting life is independent of the world’s pleasures. He does not
need to run after the theatre and the opera and the dance and the cards
and the other pleasures without which life does not seem worth living to
those who have not received the Holy Spirit. He gives these things up, not
so much because he thinks they are wrong, as because he has something so
much better. He loses all taste for them.
A lady once came to Mr. Moody and said, “Mr. Moody, I do not like you.” He
asked, “Why not?” She said, “Because you are too narrow.” “Narrow! I did
not know that I was narrow.” “Yes, you are too narrow. You don’t believe
in the theatre; you don’t believe in cards; you don’t believe in dancing.”
“How do you know I don’t believe in the theatre?” he asked. “Oh,” she
said, “I know you don’t.” Mr. Moody replied, “I go to the theatre whenever
I want to.” “What,” cried the woman, “you go to the theatre whenever you
want to?” “Yes, I go to the theatre whenever I want to.” “Oh,” she said,
“Mr. Moody, you are a much broader man than I thought you were. I am so
glad to hear you say it, that you go to the theatre whenever you want to.”
“Yes, I go to the theatre whenever I want to. I don’t want to.” Any one
who has really received the Holy Spirit, and in whom the Holy Spirit
dwells and is unhindered in His working will not want to. Why is it then
that so many professed Christians do go after these worldly amusements?
For one of two reasons; either because they have never definitely received
the Holy Spirit, or else because the fountain is choked. It is quite
possible for a fountain to become choked. The best well in one of our
inland cities was choked and dry for many months because an old rag carpet
had been thrust into the opening from which the water flowed. When the rag
was pulled out, the water flowed again pure and cool and invigorating.
There are many in the Church to-day who once knew the matchless joy of the
Holy Spirit, but some sin or worldly conformity, some act of disobedience,
more or less conscious disobedience, to God has come in and the fountain
is choked. Let us pull out the old rags to-day that this wondrous fountain
may burst forth again, springing up every day and hour into everlasting
life.