The Indwelling Spirit Fully And Forever Satisfying

The Holy Spirit dwells within every believer, bringing lasting satisfaction and joy. Unlike worldly pleasures that quickly fade, the Spirit becomes an inner fountain of life, sustaining the soul in every situation. Some believers lose awareness of His presence due to sin or disobedience, which blocks His work. When we remove these barriers, the Spirit flows freely again, filling us with joy and strength.

The Holy Spirit takes up His abode in the one who is born of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul says to the believers in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you[a] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” Th is passage refers, not so much to the individual believer, as to the whole body of believers, the Church. The Spirit of God indwells the Church as a body. But in 1 Corinthians 6:19, we read, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” It is evident in this passage that Paul is not speaking of the body of believers, of the Church as a whole, but of the individual believer.

Similarly, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples on the night before His cruci fixion, “ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you ” ( John 14:16-17). The Holy Spirit dwells in every one who is born again. We read in Romans 8:9, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ (the Spirit of Christ in this verse, as we have already seen, does not mean merely a Christ-like spirit, but is a name of the Holy Spirit) does not belong to him.” One may be a very imperfect believer, but if he is a believer in Jesus Christ, born again, the Spirit of God dwells in him. It is evident from the First Epistle to the Corinthians that the believers in Corinth were very imperfect; they were full of imperfection, and there was gross sin among them.

Nevertheless, Paul tells them that they are temples of the Holy Spirit, even when dealing with them concerning gross immoralities.

(See 1 Corinthians 6:15-19.) The Holy Spirit dwells in every child of God. In some, however, He dwells way back in consciousness in the hidden sanctuary of their spirit. He is not allowed to take possession as He desires of the whole man, spirit, soul, and body. Some, therefore, are not distinctly conscious of His indwelling, but He is there nonetheless. What a solemn, and yet what a glorious thought, that in me dwells this august Person, the Holy Spirit. If we are children of God, we are not so much to pray that the Spirit may come and dwell in us, for He does that already, we are rather to recognize His presence, His gracious and glorious indwelling, and give to Him complete control of the house He already inhabits, and strive to so live as not to grieve this holy One, this Divine Guest.

However, it is right to pray for the filling or baptism with the Spirit. What a thought it gives of the hallowedness and sacredness of the body, to think of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. How considerately we ought to treat these bodies and how sensitively we ought to avoid everything that will defile them. How carefully we ought to walk in all things so as not to grieve Him who dwells within us.

This indwelling Spirit is a source of full and everlasting satisfaction and life. Jesus says in John 4:14, “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus was talking to the woman of Samaria by the well at Sychar.

She had s aid to Him, “Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Then Jesus said unto her, “Whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.” How true that is o f every earthly fountain. No matter how deeply we drink, we shall thirst again. No earthly spring of satisfaction ever fully satisfies. We may drink from the fountain of wealth as deeply as we may, but it will not satisfy long. We shall thirst again.

We may drink of the fountain of fame as deeply as any man ever drank, but the satisfaction is but for an hour. We may drink of the fountain of worldly pleasure, of human science and philosophy, and earthly learning; we may even drink of the fountain of human love, none will satisfy long; we shall thirst again.

But then Jesus said , “ But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. ” The water that Jesus Christ gives is the Holy Spirit. John 7:37- 39 says, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of h is heart will flow rivers of living water. (Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive .)”

The Holy Spirit fully and forever satisfies the one who receives Him. He becomes within him a well of water springing up, ever springing up, into everlasting life. It is a great thing to have a well that you can carry with you; to have a well that is within you; to have your source of satisfaction, not in the things outside yourself, but in a well within and that is always within, and that is always springing up in freshness and power; to have our well of satisfaction and joy within us.

We are then independent of our environment. It matters little whether we have health or sickness, prosperity or adversity; our source of joy is within and is ever springing up. It matters comparatively little even whether we have our friends with us or are separated from them, separated even by death; this fountain within is always gushing up, and our souls are satisfied. Sometimes this fountain gushes up with greatest power and fullness in the days of deepest sorrow. At such a time, all earthly satisfactions fail. What satisfaction is there in money, worldly pleasure, in the theatre, opera, dance, fame, power, or human learning when some loved one is taken from us? But in the hours when those that we loved dearest upon earth are taken from us, then it is that the spring of joy of the indwelling Spirit of God bursts forth with fullest flow, sorrow and sighing flee away, and our spirits are filled with peace and ecstasy.

We have beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:3). If the experience were not too sacred to put in writing, I could tell of a moment of sudden and overwhelming sorrow, when it seemed as if I would be crushed, when I cried aloud in an agony that seemed unendurable, when suddenly and instantly this fountain of the Holy Spirit within burst forth and I knew such a rest and joy as I had rarely known before, and my whole being was filled with the oil of gladness. The one who has the Spirit of God dwelling within as a wellspringing up into everlasting life is independent of the world's pleasures. He does not need to run after the theatre, the opera, the dance, the cards, and the other pleasures without which life does not seem worth living to those who have not received the Holy Spirit. He gives these things up, not so much because he thinks they are wrong, as because he has something so much better. He loses all taste for them.

A lady once came to Mr. Moody and said, “Mr. Moody, I do not like you.” He asked, “Why not?” She said, “Because you are too narrow.” “Narrow! I did not know that I was narrow.” “Yes, you are too narrow. You don't believe in the theatre; you don't believe in cards; you don't believe in dancing.” “How do you know I don't believe in the theatre?” he asked. “Oh,” she said, “I know you don't.” Mr. Moody replied, “I go to the theatre whenever I want to.” “What,” cried the woman, “you go to the theatre whenever you want to?” “Yes, I go to the theatre whenever I want to.” “Oh,” she said, “Mr. Moody, you are a much broader man than I thought you were. I am so glad to hear you say it, that you go to the theatre whenever you want to.” “Yes, I go to t he theatre whenever I want to. I don't want to.”

Anyone who has received the Holy Spirit, and in whom the Holy Spirit dwells and is unhindered in His working, will not want to. Why is it that so many Christians go after these worldly amusements?

For one of two reasons, either because they have never definitely received the Holy Spirit, or else because the fountain is blocked. A fountain can become blocked. The best well in one of our inland cities was blocked and dry for many months because an old rag carpet had been thrust into the opening from which the water flowed. When the rag was pulled out, the water flowed again, pure and cool.

Many in the Church today once knew the matchless joy of the Holy Spirit, but some sin or worldly conformity, some act of disobedience, more or less conscious disobedience to God, has come in, and the fountain is blocked. Let us pull out the old rags today that this wonderful fountain may burst forth again, springing up every day and hour into everlasting life.