The Holy Spirit today: the gift we receive and his seal

In the city of Ephesus, Paul met a group of disciples and asked them a simple question: “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” The answer was disarmingly honest: “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost” (Acts 19:2). Many believers today could say something similar. They know the Father, they love Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit they know little more than the name: something that happened at Pentecost, or a matter reserved for a certain kind of church or person. The Bible teaches otherwise. The Holy Spirit is not the Church’s past: he is her present. And what he does today can be summed up, to begin with, in two very firm statements: he is a gift we receive at salvation, and he seals us. This article starts there, and then goes through what the Spirit does every day in those who believe. At the end there is a prayer.

Who the Holy Spirit is

Before the “what does he do,” the “who is he.” The Holy Spirit is not a force, an energy or a feeling. He is Someone. Scripture says that he speaks, teaches, guides, intercedes, distributes gifts “as he will,” and that he can be grieved: none of that is said of a force. And he is God: together with the Father and the Son, the one God into whom we are baptised. That is why our relationship with him does not consist in “using” him, but in knowing him, listening to him and obeying him. Read The Trinity: one God in three persons and Holy Spirit.

He is a gift we receive at salvation

On the day of Pentecost, the crowd who heard Peter were pricked in their heart and asked: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). This was the answer:

“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. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

Acts 2:38-39

Every word deserves attention.

“The gift.” Not a wage or a prize. The Spirit is not earned by effort, by years of good behaviour or by special experiences. Paul reminded the Galatians of this sharply: “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:2). By faith: “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (3:14). What is a gift can only be received.

Joined to forgiveness. Peter puts together repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, the remission of sins and the gift of the Spirit. God does not only wipe out the past: he comes to dwell. Salvation is not merely that something is taken away from us—guilt—but that Someone is given to us.

“The promise.” It was what God had announced centuries earlier: “A new heart also will I give you… And I will put my spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Pentecost was not a surprise: it was a promise kept.

“Unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off.” Three widening circles: those present, the generations to come, and those far off, in distance and in time. We are in that third circle. The promise did not expire with the apostles: it is for “as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

From this comes a conclusion that brings great rest: everyone who is Christ’s has the Holy Spirit. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9); and conversely, whoever is his, has him. “By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body… and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13). God “shed” him “on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 3:6). There are not believers with the Spirit and believers without him.

The churches explain in different ways how faith, baptism, confirmation or chrismation, and what many call “baptism in the Spirit”—understood as a subsequent experience of power for service—relate to one another. But all confess what this text affirms: the Spirit is a gift of God, given through Jesus Christ to those who turn to him. Read How to be born again according to the Bible and What is baptism?

He seals us

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:13-14

Paul describes a path in three steps: hearing the word of truth, believing, being sealed. And he uses two images taken from the daily life of his time.

The seal. In the ancient world, a seal—the mark of a ring on wax or clay—said three things. It said whose something was: ownership. It said it was authentic: a sealed document was genuine. And it said it was protected: no one was to open what was sealed without answering to its owner. The Spirit does all three in the believer. His presence in you says that you belong to God, that your faith is real and that you are kept. And for how long: “whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).

The earnest. This was the first instalment of a payment, which guaranteed all the rest; the same word was later used for an engagement ring. The Holy Spirit is “the earnest of our inheritance”: not only the promise of what is to come, but its first advance. The peace you sometimes feel in prayer, the love that surprises you towards someone difficult, the certainty of being a child of God: all that is heaven in advance. God has “given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:22), and one who gives such a deposit does not leave the work half done.

This has a very large practical consequence: the believer’s security does not rest on their feelings, which change with the weather, but on a mark God has placed. Read God has set you apart.

He dwells in us

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you” (6:19). In the Old Testament, God’s presence dwelt in a building, behind a veil. Today he dwells in people. That gives immense dignity to every believer, and to their body too. And it means that never, anywhere, are we alone.

He makes us children and tells us so

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”

Romans 8:14-16

The Spirit does not leave us in a slave’s fear. He puts in our mouth the word with which Jesus spoke to his Father: “Abba.” And he does something more intimate still: he “beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” That quiet certainty, which holds even when we have failed, does not come from us.

He pours the love of God into us

“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:5). It does not say he informs us of God’s love: it says he pours it out. There is a great difference between knowing that God loves us and knowing ourselves loved. The second is his work.

He guides and teaches us

Jesus promised: “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). He does so, above all, by opening to us the Scripture he himself inspired: a text read many times lights up and speaks. He does so too in the conscience, with peace or with unease; through the counsel of brothers and sisters; by closing and opening doors. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

He transforms us

The Spirit’s slowest and surest work is to change what we are. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). It is fruit: it is not manufactured, it grows. We “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). And he gives us strength in the daily struggle: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Read How to overcome the temptations of the flesh.

He prays in us

“The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). When there are no words, he prays. Whoever thinks they do not know how to pray has the best teacher within. Read How to learn to pray.

He distributes gifts and gives power to be witnesses

“The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1 Corinthians 12:7). No one is left without a gift for serving. And Jesus joined the Spirit to the mission: “ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me” (Acts 1:8). The Spirit is not given to be kept. Read The nine gifts of the Holy Spirit and The gift of service.

He fills us again and again

“Be not drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). The command is addressed to people who already had the Spirit and were already sealed, and in the original it indicates something continuous: “keep on being filled.” There is one sealing and there are many fillings. The seal is God’s work, once for all; the filling is sought each day, as one returns to a spring. Read Set apart by the Holy Spirit: the filling of our lives.

He comforts us and gives us hope

Of the first churches it is said that “walking… in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, [they] were multiplied” (Acts 9:31). And Paul prays: “the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13). In a weary and fearful age, this is perhaps his most needed work: a hope that does not depend on the news. Read “It is expedient for you that I go away”.

How to live with the Holy Spirit today

1. Believe the promise. If you have put your faith in Christ, the Spirit dwells in you, whether you feel it or not. Begin by thanking him.
2. Speak to him. He is a person. “Come, Holy Spirit” is a prayer that can open every morning.
3. Ask to be filled each day. “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13).
4. Walk with him. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25): step by step, in the small decisions.
5. Do not grieve or quench him. Lying, resentment and wounding words grieve him (Ephesians 4:30); always telling him no quenches him (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
6. Live in the Word. The Spirit and Scripture always go together.
7. Walk with the Church. The Spirit was given to a people, not to isolated individuals.
8. Serve. His gifts appear when one sets about helping.

Three common mistakes

Ignoring him, like the disciples at Ephesus: a faith with Father and Son but without the Spirit becomes effort and morality, and ends in exhaustion.

Reducing him to emotion or spectacle. The Spirit can move us deeply, but his sign is not volume or intensity; it is Christ glorified and fruit in the life.

Thinking him reserved for an elite. The promise is for “as many as the Lord our God shall call.” The simplest believer, the one who has only just begun, the old person in their bed, have the same Spirit as the apostles.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know I have the Holy Spirit? “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 12:3). If you trust in Christ, love him even feebly, are grieved by sin, and something in you calls God “Father,” that is his work. “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13).

Are receiving the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit the same thing? Not exactly. Every believer has received him; being filled is letting him occupy the whole house, and it is something that is renewed.

Do I have to feel something special? No. Some experience him with great emotion, others with a quiet peace. The promise is received by faith.

Can the seal be broken? Christian traditions have answered the question of perseverance with different emphases. The text puts the emphasis on God: it is he who seals and who “is able to keep you from falling” (Jude 24). That faithfulness is no excuse for carelessness: it is the reason to trust and keep walking.

Does the Holy Spirit act today as in the book of Acts? He is the same Spirit, with the same purpose: to glorify Jesus and form his people. Christians differ about certain gifts; all confess that he still gives life, sanctifies and sends.

Prayer

Father, thank you that you were not content with forgiving me: you wanted to come and live in me. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that by your blood you opened this promise to me. And you, Holy Spirit, forgive me: you have been in my house so long, and I have treated you as a stranger. Come. Here is the whole house, including the rooms I have kept shut. Tell me again that I am your child, because I forget. Remind me that I bear your seal when I feel lost, and that I hold the earnest of heaven when earth weighs on me. Pour the love of God into me, for mine runs out quickly. Guide me today, in small things. Pray in me when I do not know how. Make me like Jesus, even if slowly. And fill me, not so that I may keep you, but so that I may give you. Amen.