CAN THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELL IN AN UNCLEAN VESSEL?

CAN THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELL IN AN UNCLEAN VESSEL? I usually get asked.. Can a sinner lose the Holy Spirit? Here’s the truth. The Holy Spirit doesn’t dwell in a believer because that believer is clean enough. He dwells in a believer because Jesus Christ washed him. Big difference. If the Holy Spirit only lived inside perfectly clean people, He wouldn’t live inside anybody. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16 KJV Read Corinthians sometime. Those people were a mess. Division. Carnality. Lawsuits. Sexual sin. Pride. Drunkenness at the Lord’s supper. Confusion in worship. And Paul still said the Spirit of God dwelt in them. He didn’t say they were walking right. Didn’t say their sin was okay. He didn’t say God was pleased with their behavior. He said they were the temple of God. Why? Because salvation is based on Christ’s work, not our performance. The believer can grieve the Spirit. “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30 KJV That verse is huge..and deserves its own study. The same verse that says you can grieve Him also says you’re sealed unto the day of redemption. A Christian can grieve the Spirit. A Christian can quench the Spirit. “Quench not the Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19 KJV A Christian can walk in the flesh, ignore conviction, lose joy, lose peace, wreck his testimony, and bring chastening into his life. But losing fellowship isn’t the same as losing the Holy Spirit. David prayed: “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” Psalm 51:11 KJV People use that verse a lot, but David lived before the finished cross, before Pentecost, before the Church was sealed by the Spirit the way Paul explains it. The New Testament believer is sealed. “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.” Ephesians 1:13 KJV Sealed when? After you believed. Sealed with who? The Holy Spirit of promise. Sealed how long? “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30 KJV Unto the day of redemption. That’s not until your next failure. Not until your next weak moment. It’s unto the day of redemption. Paul also said: “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” 2 Corinthians 1:22 KJV The Holy Spirit is called the earnest. That means the down payment. The guarantee. The proof that God finishes what He starts. So can an unbeliever have the Holy Spirit? No. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Romans 8:9 KJV If a man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Christ. But if a man is born again, the Spirit of God lives in him. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you…?” 1 Corinthians 6:19 KJV That doesn’t give anybody permission to sin. Paul already killed that idea. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” Romans 6:1-2 KJV Grace isn’t a license to sin. Grace is the reason sin doesn’t own you anymore. A saved man can fall. A saved man can be corrected hard by God. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth…” Hebrews 12:6 KJV But if a man can live in sin with no conviction, no correction, no grief, no repentance, no desire for Christ, and no war inside him at all, the question may not be whether he lost the Holy Spirit. The question may be whether he ever had Him. The Holy Spirit doesn’t move into people who cleaned themselves up. He moves into people washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified…” 1 Corinthians 6:11 KJV The sinner doesn’t keep the Holy Spirit by being perfect. The believer has the Holy Spirit because he belongs to Christ. #MoreJoyMinistries