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QUESTION: 81
Did the Holy Spirit possess believers in the Old Testament (as He does today) or was He just near to them?

ANSWER: Jesus made a promise to the disciples that was entirely new in John 14:17  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.  (The word ‘dwelleth’ means ‘to remain’) This was never a promise to the saints of old. God put His Spirit ‘in’ and ‘upon’ some of them, but it was always for a special work. He worked upon them and in them, but we are never told that the Spirit dwelled in all of them.
What we have in John 14:17 is twofold. (1) The words ‘dwelleth  with you’  means He will always be with us as our Helper in our Christian walk and in the service and work of the Lord.  This was well proven by the Book of Acts as God endued them with the power of the Spirit and they preached the gospel and did mighty things.
 In the second place, “shall be in you’ is our relationship and salvation and more than just a work to do.  For example, the indwelling Spirit is the seal of redemption Eph. 1:13,14  Here it is the stamp of ownership of a believer until He comes. It is our security that we belong to Him forever.  This is true of every person that has been born of the Spirit.  We are in a relationship that is as eternal as the God who formed it.
Carnally can grieve the Spirit so we can lose the consciousness of His presence, but He is still there. The carnal Corinthians had to be told, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, . . . “ 1 Corinthians 6:19
The Bible speaks clearly that if you do not have the Spirit you are not saved..  Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.  Romans 8:9
Dear reader, you must be born of the Spirit in order to have the Spirit within. This is what Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”  John 3:5 The “water” mentioned here is the word of God. 1 Peter 1:23, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Have you been born again? Have you repented of your sins and trusted Christ who died for them?  If we can help write.

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Updated July 2009, by Shelly Allen