THE HOLY SPIRIT — CHRIST’S GIFT TO THE BELIEVER

We are left in no doubt as to what this gift was, for the Lord Jesus states most explicitly that it was the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 7:39

“But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Please note that in this verse the Lord Jesus tells us three things:

1. What the gift was — “This spoke he of the Spirit.”
2. To whom it was to be given — “Which they that believe on him were to receive.”
3. When the gift was to be bestowed — “Jesus was not yet glorified.”

It is evident from these words that His finished work as Sin-bearer must first be accomplished, and then, as the glorified Lord in heaven, He would bestow this wondrous gift upon every believer, which would make real within him that abiding and abounding life which Christ had made possible for him.

Still further light was thrown upon the nature of this gift in Christ’s last conversation with the disciples on the eve of His exodus. He told them He was to live in them as an abiding spiritual Presence; that there would be a divine inflow of life supernatural in quality, and a divine outflow of life supernatural in power. They were to live as He lived and to work as He worked. To provide power for such a life, He promised that “another Comforter” would come to take up His permanent abode in them.

John 14:16-18

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. 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. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

“Another Comforter” — these words are descriptive, defining, and very significant. The “Comforter” (Paraclete) means “one who is called alongside of another to help.” “Another” means one just like Himself. Someone was to come to dwell in each of them in perpetual presence, and through His indwelling, Christ Himself would be brought back to live within them. The One who was to abide in them was the Spirit who had indwelt, infilled and empowered the God-man when He was upon earth. Christ promised that upon His return to glory, He would send back this same Spirit to indwell, to infill, and to empower them. This He did on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down to form the Church, the mystic Body of Christ, and to dwell in it on earth. On that day, the disciples who tarried in the upper room were baptized in the Spirit.

From that day, as the divine record shows, everyone who, through faith in Christ as Savior, has been organically and vitally united with the living Lord as a member of His Body, has received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Acts 11:15, 17

“And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?”

The moment one receives the Sin-bearer as his Savior, he is “in the Spirit,” and the Spirit is in him. Whatever his spiritual condition, every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit as an abiding, perpetual Presence. It is impossible to accept the Son and to refuse the Spirit.

Romans 8:9

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

1 Corinthians 3:16

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?“

In the divine plan, there is as definite a purpose in the gift of the Spirit as in the gift of the Son. Through the Son, the sinner has life; through the Spirit, the believer has life more abundant. Through the Son, the sinner leaves the sphere of the natural and enters the sphere of the spiritual. Through the Spirit, the believer is lifted to the highest heights of life on the spiritual plane. God has a purpose for every Christian — a life of true, deep, vital, growing spirituality — and the Holy Spirit lives within every believer as God’s gracious provision for the accomplishment of this very purpose.

But do not let us think for a moment that the Spirit works apart from the Son. Life more abundant is by the Spirit. He shares with Christ the Head of the Body, His intense desire that the fullness of life in the Head in heaven shall be manifested in the Body on earth. But the believer must know that the fullness is for him, he must desire to have it, and there must be a means of communicating it to him. All this is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is His task to reveal Christ in all the perfection of His heavenly, holy life to the believer; to unfold to him the unsearchable riches which are his as an heir of God in Christ; to create within him a desire to possess his possessions; and then, to act as the channel through which the abundant life of the glorified Lord in heaven is communicated to him.

John 16:14-15

“He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.“

Romans 8:16-17

“The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.”

It is the Holy Spirit who works within the believer to bring him to make the choice between self and Christ. But as He works, He is opposed, thwarted, challenged, and resisted every step of the way by that bitter opponent. “The flesh” works as diligently to keep the believer fleshly as the Spirit works to make him spiritual.

Galatians 5:17

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: for these are contrary the one to the other.”

Romans 7 records the victory of “the flesh” and we see the Holy Spirit ignored, silenced, thwarted and quenched. Romans 8 records the victory of the Holy Spirit, and we see Him victorious, active, regnant, and supreme.

We are compelled to believe that some advance in relationship to the Holy Spirit has taken place, which has given Him this wonderful victory, and we are constrained to ask God to show us what it is.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Lord, You did not leave us alone. We praise You for the abiding Spirit within us. Hallelujah!