Compelling Love

The promise of God’s spirit dwelling in the hearts of His people is a central recurring theme in the Bible.  For example, David, a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), exhorts God’s people in Psalm 24:

⁹ Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory. Selah

David’s prayer of sincere repentance in Psalm 51 includes a request that God will bring transforming changes by the presence of His Holy Spirit.

Psalm 51 (NKJV)
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

Jesus encourages believers to ask, seek and knock, and especially promises that our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him:

Luke 11 (NKJV)
⁹ “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹ If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

In John 14, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son of God will make their home in those who love Him and keep His word:

John 14 (NKJV)
Jesus Promises Another Helper
¹⁵ “If you love Me, keep My commandments. ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Indwelling of the Father and the Son
¹⁹ “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. ²⁰ At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. ²¹ He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

²³ … “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Paul writes often of God’s Spirit dwelling in believers, and the hope and promise that He brings.  For example, he writes in Romans 8:11:

“… if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

The mystery that was hidden for ages is now revealed: “Christ in you, the hope of glory”, as Paul declares in Colossians 1:

²⁶ … the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. ²⁷ To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The indwelling Holy Spirit enlivens hope for eternal life and empowers us to live here and now for God’s glory, as  Paul describes in Romans 5:

Romans 5 (NKJV)
¹ Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

In Romans 12, Paul speaks further about being transformed by the renewing of our minds when we give ourselves as “a living sacrifice” to God:

¹ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

In Ephesians 4, Paul describes this transformation as both being “renewed in the spirit of your mind” and putting on “the new man which was created according to God”:

²² … put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

John 3:16 declares God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, His Son.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Paul describes the problem of sin and its solution in Romans 3:23 and 6:23:

“ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus declares in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

This is a personal invitation for an ever increasing depth of love relationship with the Son of God, who is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”.

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/
8/14/2016