Sealed with the Holy Spirit

By Alexandra Copeland

When we think about the sin that started the spiritual war, waged longer than any of us know and that is still happening all around us, most of us think it began with Adam and Eve. We think of their sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. In truth, we need to go back much further than this, perhaps so far that no human can enumerate the years. Isaiah 14 tells us about satan, and when his attempt to overthrow the Kingdom of God began. The scriptures inform us that he wanted to set his throne above God’s stars. Isaiah 14:14 says that he, an angel that God created and named Lucifer, wanted to be the “Most High.” You and I have to ask ourselves, “What was his motivation for wanting to overthrow God’s Kingdom of Love and Light?” The answer to this question is arrogance. Pride motivates every move of the enemy because he wants to be worshiped, and to have all power to himself. So, before the sin of Adam and Eve, there was the sin of the devil’s arrogance. This spirit of pride and arrogance has gripped many and is still at work in people today, including many Christians.

1John 4:4(NLT) says, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” The spirit that lives in the world is the spirit of all that is of darkness, arrogance, evil, fear, and death. It is the spirit of satan. Through Jesus Christ, we have victory over this spirit, because the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit that indwells us, is greater than the spirit that lives in the world. This is an amazingly awesome piece of truth, but the first part of this verse is even more so. It tells us that we belong to God! There isn’t anything greater in all the world than to have the assurance that we belong to Heavenly Father, and He belongs to us.

To understand that we belong to God is to also comprehend that He has a purpose for us. Ephesians 1:11(NLT) says, “Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.” God has called us to be who He desires us to be. He knows our destiny. He knows what we should be doing, when we should be doing it, and how we should get it done. And to make sure that we move with the greatest amount of love, faith, grace, and power, God has given us the gift of His Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

1Corinthians 6:19(NLT) says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself.” There are many Christians living today that know very little about the Holy Spirit. They don’t understand that He makes His home inside of us, where he empowers us to live a holy life and to do what God has called us to do. Some of us are miserable because we’re trying to walk in the victory of Christ, but we continue to indulge addictions and negative habit patterns that we can’t seem to break. We tell ourselves that we’re not going to commit the sin again, and then we do it anyway.

God knows our weaknesses. He knows that we’re going to sin, even before we commit the sinful act. He’s not in heaven waiting to condemn us for the wrong we do. He wants to help us to be better than we ever thought we could. He forgives us for our sin over and over again, but He also expects us to wake up and begin to walk in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is the only way to overcome and outsmart the evil one that seeks to pull us down through deception and temptation.

The Holy Spirit is a person. He’s God’s gift to us, and he will comfort, guide, and teach us. Jesus Christ said in John 16:13 that the Spirit will not speak on his own, but will tell us what he hears from Jesus Christ. He tells us about the future and gives us direction that will lead us along the path God has destined us to walk. Jesus Christ was baptized in the Holy Spirit. He walked by the Spirit’s leadership and guidance, and it is very arrogant to think that we can be all God wants us to be without the Spirit’s help.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ taught the disciples in such a way as to prepare them for the difficult days ahead. He would be going away, but told them in John 14:16-17(NLT), “16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.”  Those who know Jesus Christ know the Spirit. We recognize him because we know the love of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ asked Heavenly Father to send us a Helper, the Holy Spirit, and because of God’s unyielding, never-ending mercy and grace, He has made it possible for the Spirit to abide within us, where he can help us most. The inside—in our souls—is where our struggles begin and cause the most harm, and the Spirit of God has a front-row seat. God didn’t intend us to live this Christian life by ourselves, without the help of His Spirit. We need Him desperately.

Ephesians 1:13(NKJV) tells us, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who love Him and have given their lives to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. He seals us with the Spirit, and when God seals something, you can best believe that nothing within the span of all the universe can unseal it.

We are sealed with God’s Spirit, and this is more awesome than any of us can fathom. It’s also why satan has blinded the eyes of so many, so that they will continue to operate in arrogance and ignorance regarding the Holy Spirit. They don’t think they need Holy Spirit. Please don’t be in that number. Do yourself the greatest favor of your life and get better acquainted with the person of the Holy Spirit. Through him, you will experience the power and love of the Lord Jesus Christ in a way that is more wonderful than you can imagine! ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.